"Certainly you have suffered, lady," he said finally in a subdued tone. "But please God you will not suffer alone hereafter."
Amaryllis' non-committal front changed.
"You are gentler of speech than is common among the Maccabees," she said.
"Nevertheless the Maccabees are the more touched by devotion," he maintained.
He led her to the exedra, unslung his wallet and laid it on the lectern before them.
"When thou hast leisure, perchance thou wilt find interest in these papers here."
She thanked him and there was a moment's silence. Under his lashes the impostor saw that he had not filled her fancied picture of the Maccabee made from long years of correspondence. She was disappointed; her intuition was perplexed. He would complete his work and get away in time.
"My wife is here?" he asked.
"She came yesterday," Amaryllis responded, clapping her hands in summons. A female servant of such prepossessing appearance that Philadelphus looked at her again, bowed in the archway.
"Send hither the princess," Amaryllis said.