Accordingly Miriam was led from the marble stand into an office annexed to the receiving-house, whither she was followed by the auctioneer and by Nehushta and her servant, whose backs, it was now observed, bent beneath the weight of the baskets that were strapped upon them. Here the door was locked, and with the help of her attendant Nehushta loosened her basket, letting it fall upon the table with a sigh of relief.
“Take it and count,” he said to the auctioneer, untying the lid.
He lifted it and there met his eye a layer of lettuces neatly packed.
“By Venus!” he began in a fury.
“Softly, friend, softly,” said Nehushta, “these lettuces are of a kind which only grow in yellow soil. Look,” and lifting the vegetables she revealed beneath row upon row of gold coin. “Examine it before you count,” she said.
He did so by biting pieces at hazard with his teeth and causing them to ring upon the marble table.
“It is good,” he said.
“Quite so. Then count.”
So he and the clerk counted, even to the bottom of the basket, which was found to contain gold to the value of over eleven hundred sestertia.
“So far well,” he said, “but that is not enough.”