Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/191

Rh a friend acquainted with my history, and spoke of it not harshly, he must have persuaded thee that I could not be else than a man distrustful of my kind. The God of Israel help him who, at the end of life, is constrained to acknowledge so much! My loves are few, but they are. One of them is a soul which&quot;—he carried the hand holding his to his lips, in manner unmistakable—&quot;a soul which to this time has been unselfishly mine, and such sweet comfort that, were it taken from me, I would die.&quot;

Esther’s head drooped until her cheek touched his. &quot;The other love is but a memory; of which I will say further that, like a benison of the Lord, it hath a compass to contain a whole family, if only&quot;—his voice lowered and trembled—&quot;if only I knew where they were.&quot;

Ben-Hur’s face suffused, and, advancing a step, he cried, impulsively, &quot;My mother and sister! Oh, it is of them you speak!&quot;

Esther, as if spoken to, raised her head; but Simonides returned to his calm, and answered, coldly, &quot;Hear me to the end. Because I am that I am, and because of the loves of which I have spoken, before I make return to thy demand touching my relations to the Prince Hur, and as something which of right should come first, do thou show me proofs of who thou art. Is thy witness in writing?

Or cometh it in person?&quot;

The demand was plain, and the right of it indisputable.

Ben-Hur blushed, clasped his hands, stammered, and turned away at loss. Simonides pressed him.

&quot;The proofs, the proofs, I say! Set them before me—lay them in my hands!&quot;

Yet Ben-Hur made no answer. He had not anticipated the requirement; and, now that it was made, to him as never before came the awful fact that the three years in the galley had carried away all the proofs of his identity; mother and sister gone, he did not live in the knowledge of any human being. Many there were acquainted with him, but that was all. Had Quintus Arrius been present, what could he have said more than where he found him, and that he believed the pretender to be the son of Hur? But, as will presently appear in full, the brave Roman