Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/197

Rh amidst the dancing splendors of the early sun upon the rippling water. There the servant left him with Esther.

The much shouting of laborers, and their beating and pounding, did not disturb him any more than the tramping of people on the bridge-floor almost overhead, being as familiar to his ear as the view before him to his eye, and therefore unnoticeable, except as suggestions of profits in promise.

Esther sat on the arm of the chair nursing his hand, and waiting his speech, which came at length in the calm way, the mighty will having carried him back to himself.

&quot;When the young man was speaking, Esther, I observed thee, and thought thou wert won by him.&quot; Her eyes fell as she replied,

&quot;Speak you of faith, father, I believed him.&quot;

&quot;In thy eyes, then, he is the lost son of the Prince Hur?&quot;

&quot;If he is not—&quot; She hesitated.

&quot;And if he is not, Esther?&quot;

&quot;I have been thy handmaiden, father, since my mother answered the call of the Lord God; by thy side I have heard and seen thee deal in wise ways with all manner of men seeking profit, holy and unholy; and now I say, if indeed the young man be not the prince he claims to be, then before me falsehood never played so well the part of righteous truth.&quot;

&quot;By the glory of Solomon, daughter, thou speakest earnestly. Dost thou believe thy father his father’s servant?&quot;

&quot;I understood him to ask of that as something he had but heard.&quot;

For a time Simonides gaze swam among his swimming ships, though they had no place in his mind.

&quot;Well, thou art a good child, Esther, of genuine Jewish shrewdness, and of years and strength to hear a sorrowful tale. Wherefore give me heed, and I will tell you of myself, and of thy mother, and of many things pertaining to the past not in thy knowledge or thy dreams—things withheld from the persecuting Romans for a hope’s sake, and