Had he
done so I should, I think, be as poor to-day as when I left you,
dear, and perhaps poorer still, for I might have lost my head with my
inheritance.
"As it was I found favour in the sight of my uncle Caius, who a week
after my arrival executed a formal testament leaving to me all his land,
goods, and moneys, which on his death three months later I inherited.
Thus I have become rich--so rich that now, having much money to spend,
by some perversity which I cannot explain, I have grown careful and
spend as little as possible. After I had entered into my inheritance I
made a plan to return to Judaea, for one reason and one alone--to be near
to you, most sweet Miriam. At the last moment I was stayed by a very
evil chance. That bust which you made of me I had managed to save from
the shipwreck and bring safe to Rome--now I wish it was at the bottom of
the sea, and you shall learn why.
"When I came into possession of this house in the Via Agrippa, which is
large and beautiful, I set it in a place of honour in the antechamber
and summoned that sculptor, Glaucus, of whom I have spoken to you, and
others who follow the art, to come and pass judgment upon the work. They
came, they wondered and they were silent, for each of them feared lest
in praising it he should exalt some rival.
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