Nehushta smiled a little as she answered--for at what age does a woman learn to despise a compliment?--"Lord, they both died young"; then repeated, "This maiden is the only child of the high-born Græco-Syrian of Tyre, Demas, and his noble wife, Rachel----"
"I know Tyre," he interrupted. "I was quartered there till two months ago"; adding in a different tone, "I understand that this pair no longer live."
"They died," said Nehushta sadly, "the father in the amphitheatre at Berytus by command of the first Agrippa, and the mother when her child was born."
"In the amphitheatre at Berytus? Was he then a malefactor?"
"No, sir," broke in Miriam proudly; "he was a Christian."
"Oh! I understand. Well, they are ill-spoken of as enemies of the human race, but for my part I have had to do with several Christians and found them very good people, though visionary in their views." Here a doubt struck him and he said, "But, lady, I understand that you are an Essene."
"Nay, sir," she replied in the same steady voice, "I also am a Christian, who have been protected by the Essenes."
He looked at her with pity and replied, "It is a dangerous profession for one so young and fair."
"Dangerous let it be," she said; "at least it is mine from the beginning to the end."
Marcus bowed, perceiving that the subject was not to be pursued, and said to Nehushta, "Continue the story, my friend."
"Lord, the father of my lady's mother is a very wealthy Jewish merchant of Tyre, named Benoni."
"Benoni," he said, "I know him well, too well for a poor man!--a Jew of the Jews, a Zealot, they say. At least he hates us Romans enough to be one, although many is the dinner that I have eaten at his palace. He is the most successful trader in all Tyre, unless it be his rival Amram, the Phœnician, but a hard man, and as able as he is hard. Now I think of it, he has no living children, so why does not your lady, his grandchild, dwell with him rather than in this desert?"
"Lord, you have answered your own question. Benoni is a Jew of the Jews; his granddaughter is a Christian, as I am also. Therefore when her mother died, I brought her here to be taken care of by her uncle Ithiel the Essene, and I do not think Benoni knows even that she lives. Lord, perhaps I have said too much; but you must soon have heard the story from the Essenes, and we trust to you, who chance to be Benoni's friend, to keep our secret from him."