"It is here, it is here," Marcus said confusedly, "such as there is." Taking a lamp he led the way to a table that was placed in the shadow, where stood some meat and fruit with flagons of rich coloured wine and pure water and shallow silver cups to drink from.
Putting her arm about Miriam's waist, Nehushta supported her to the table and sat her down upon one of the couches. Then she poured out wine and put it to her lips, and cut meat and made her swallow it till Miriam would touch no more. Now the colour came back to her face, and her eyes grew bright again, and resting there upon the couch, she listened while Nehushta told Marcus all the story of the slave sale.
"Well done," he said, laughing in his old merry fashion, "well done, indeed! Oh! what favouring god put it into the head of that honest old miser, Stephanus, from year to year to hoard up all that sum of gold against an hour of sudden need which none could foresee!"
"My God and hers," answered Nehushta solemnly, "to Whom if He give you space, you should be thankful, which, by the way, is more than Stephanus is, who has seen so much of your savings squandered in an hour."
"Your savings?" said Miriam, looking up. "Did you buy me, Marcus?"
"I suppose so, beloved," he answered.
"Then, then, I am your slave?"
"Not so, Miriam," he replied nervously. "As you know well, it is I who am yours. All I ask of you is that you should become my wife."
"That cannot be, Marcus," she answered in a kind of cry. "You know that it cannot be."
His face turned pale.
"After all that has come and gone between us, Miriam, do you still say so?"
"I still say so."
"You could give your life for me, and yet you will not give your life to me?"
"Yes, Marcus."
"Why? Why?"
"For the reasons that I gave you yonder by the banks of Jordan; because those who begat me laid on me the charge that I should marry none who is not a Christian. How then can I marry you?"
Marcus thought a moment.
"Does the book of your law forbid it?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, but the dead forbid it, and rather will I join them than break their command."
Again Marcus thought and spoke.
"Well, then, since I must, I will become a Christian."
She looked at him sadly and answered: "It is not enough. Do you remember what I told you far away in the village of the Essenes, that this is no matter of casting incense on an altar, but rather one of a changed spirit. When you can say those words from your heart as well as with your lips, then, Marcus, I will listen to you, but unless God calls you this you can never do."