"Does Dion live?" asked Deborah.
"Dion, I fear, is dead. A curse on those treacherous sons of Mattathias. Sons of Belial! But," he rattled on, "it will be well to make known to the people of the better sort in Jerusalem the return of the mistress of the house of Glaucon. I will see to it that the wife of Menelaos, the High Priest, and the wife of General Seron—who is to command the new army of the King—and the Princess make their welcome to you. Berenice, sister of Glaucon: why may she not some day be Queen of Jerusalem? Already, my sister, with the wealth our father left me, and much more that I have gained through my own shrewdness—for I am the best business head in the land—I am the richest man in the city; and with the revenues I can control in my office as tax assessor, I can soon buy what I will from the King."
"I fear, my dear Benjamin—my dear Glaucon," said the new Berenice, gently touching her brother's cheeks, "that the glitter of your riches has affected your head as the sun's rays sometimes do. As for the new garments, I shall be glad of anything that makes me fairer in your eyes; but I still bethink me that the apparel of Jewish women is more elegant than that of the Greeks. Indeed, the better costumes of Athens are borrowed from those of Syria. Of late years, since the death of our mother, and since the sorrows of the land crushed our father, the great oaken chests have been unopened. In them are garments laid away in cassia dust, for which the costumers of Antioch would give more shekels than they ask to array the chief of Antiochus' concubines. To-morrow, if it please you, let Berenice, as the mistress of the house of Glaucon, receive the ladies whom you desire."
"As you will have it," said he, kissing the hand of his sister in the latest manner of such etiquette imported from the capital. "Such spirit as yours, Deb—Berenice, is worthy of her who is to outshine them all."
XX
A FEMALE SYMPOSIUM
A double awning shielded the house-top of Glaucon from the glare of the late afternoon sun, whose rays gathered intensity by being reflected from a hundred white domes which, like inverted wasps' nests, rose from the lower roofs of the city. Toward the sky the canopy was of coarse white flaxen material; beneath it was lined with silk, blue and white. Several movable divans, one of ivory, one of beaten brass, the others of sycamore wood, were set next the western parapet. These were covered with cloths of various colors upon which were wrought conventional figures in threads of silver and gold. The couches were so arranged that they faced a low table of ebony, heavily inlaid with mother of pearl. On this were the remnants of a repast, consisting of cakes, confections, fruits, and wines mixed with water. On the couches reclined four women, richly clad according to the fashion of the day.