"
"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 Phoenician, 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.
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