That, lady, is my style and history.
By way of exchange, will you be pleased to tell me yours?"
Miriam hesitated, not being sure whether she should enter on such
confidences at so short a notice. Thereon, Nehushta, who was untroubled
by doubts, and thought it politic to be quite open with this Roman, a
man in authority, answered for her.
"Lord, this maiden, whose servant I am, as I was that of her grandmother
and mother before her----"
"Surely you cannot be so old," interrupted Marcus. He made it a rule to
be polite to all women, whatever their colour, having noticed that life
went more easily with those who were courteous to the sex.
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 Graeco-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.
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