She was faltering her thanks and her apologies.
"It is mine to ask pardon," he exclaimed, still smoldering with wrath.
"I had no part in this, except to interfere with this bad companion of
mine. I did not follow you; believe me."
It confused her to know that he had guessed why she had moved from
their encampment the night before. As necessary as old Momus had made
it seem to her then, it seemed now to have been ungrateful. She could
make no reply to that portion of his speech.
"My servant went to the well," she said. "He will return presently. I
am not afraid now."
"I am; you ought to be. I shall wait till your extraordinary servant
returns."
At this decided speech Laodice showed a little panic.
"No, no! I am not afraid. He--"
But the Maccabee ignored the implied dismissal.
"I owe him both a reproof and thanks for leaving you here alone for
any wayfarer to approach--and for me to discover. I wish," gazing
abroad over the broken horizon, "there were no well between here and
Jerusalem, and that he were as thirsty as Tantalus."
She made no reply to this remark, but her whole presence expressed
discomfort in his determination to remain.
"Heathen Hecate ought to get him in these wilds for forcing that cruel
journey on you last night, when you were so weary and sad! There was
no good in it. He wanted simply to get you away from me! Let us hope
that Titus has got him for his museum by this time, and be at ease!"
She raised her head and reproach flashed through the meshes of her
veil.
"Momus is a good man," she said.
"He can not be," he insisted. "Have I not set forth his iniquities
even now?"
"It was a short task," she maintained. "But time is not long enough to
count his virtues."
"I can spend time better," he declared.
He saw her silken brows lower in a spirited frown and he was glad. She
was showing some other feeling than that dead level of unhappiness
that had possessed her from the first moment he had seen her. His was
not the heart contented to go astray after a tear. Men fall in search
of joy.
"Momus is carrying a burden under which more brilliant men would
falter," she averred. "I am beyond reckoning his debtor!"
"Since he has shifted that sweet burden for a time on my shoulders, I
will forgive him for his looks. If he will stay away, I'll be his
debtor further. But enough of Momus! I came to ask after your health,
when your long journey by night is done."
"I am well; we did not journey all night."
"Sit, I pray you. There is no need for you to stand with that air of
finality. I am not going, yet. I went back to your camp last night
within a short time after I left you and found the camp broken and
your fire lonely. I wanted to offer you my horse."