"That is the worst thing I have heard about Judas' victory," laughed Glaucon. "But the Princess has plenty of credit, I take it, even if she can't transport through the air the gold plates on the roofs of her many palaces."
"Gold plates or thatch, she's rich enough," rejoined the Priest. "And, by Aphrodite's ankle! what a woman she is! Glaucon, if it were not that I have already at least one wife, I would cut your throat for jealousy, for Helena evidently takes to you. She has an eye for manly beauty. And you, Glaucon, have a face which, but for the twist in your nose that the alipta has not yet mollified enough to straighten out, would be the face of a god. You are an Adonis in figure. If I had your shoulders and calves I would forswear priest's robes. What a couple you and the Princess would make!"
The click of a brass mirror was heard as Glaucon replied, "'By Aphrodite's ankle!' A good oath that. I will remember it. 'By Aphrodite's ankle!' Ha! ha! A good saying! a good saying! The Princess is a beauty, I swear! Her lips are always red."
"Not from over-use either, I take it," interjected his coacher.
"And her skin so fair!"
"Never saw anything fairer outside the shop of Demos, the cosmetic seller in Antioch," replied Menelaos. "And, by Jove, you are a fool, Glaucon, if you don't get her. Listen! With all of her distant possessions I happen to know that the loss of Apollonius' box left her in need of ready money; ready money, you understand, for she has plenty that isn't ready. I proposed to advance her a few shekels, but my wife Lydia, the chaste—please tell her I called her that—objects on the ground that as High Priest I should not lend money. But really, my wife is as jealous of Helena as a hen is of a duck. A gift from your strong-box, Glaucon, would not be a bad investment. 'Cast thy bread upon the waters,' says Solomon, 'and thou shalt find it after many days.' I commend the precept to your piety, son of Elkiah the provident."
"Perhaps I could spare something," said Glaucon, musingly.
"I do not doubt it," replied the Priest, "else you have not used well the office I have secured for you. And how goes farming the taxes?"
"Thanks to your favouring me at Antioch, my good Menelaos, I am in fair prospect, though we have not much gold in Jerusalem. The soldiers have gleaned everything that glittered. But I am getting hold of some estates, the heirs to which have either been killed or have joined the rebels, so that their titles revert to the King. For these he gives me fair commission.
"But there is one matter that puzzles me, Menelaos. Do you remember the house of Shattuck? It is now a score and a half years since that family disappeared from the city. Hosea ben Shattuck was a merchant in Sidon wares, his shop where the Street of David bends toward the Tyropean, his house the great one by the Tower of David. Report has it that he journeyed to Alexandria—took ship at Gaza—but he never returned. As Shattuck was unmarried there seems to be no one interested in chronicling his whereabouts. The property is now one of the largest on the tax list. I could secure the title for the value of a pedlar's pack. Among my father's accounts I found the evidence of Shattuck's indebtedness to the house of Elkiah in the sum of fivescore shekels, some little matter of business between them, such as my father would never press against a neighbor. Though he did not ask the repayment of it, he made record, as was his habit in all money matters. He would not exact usury from a fellow Jew, but with the usury such as our new customs allow it would amount to thrice as much as the original debt."