Page:Ben-Hur a tale of the Christ.djvu/522

Rh &quot;Consider all I know about you.&quot;

&quot;O most fair Egyptian,&quot; he said, returning, &quot;what all do you know about me?&quot;

She looked at him absently.

&quot;You are more of a Roman, son of Hur, than any of your Hebrew brethren.&quot;

&quot;Am I so unlike my countrymen?&quot; he asked, indifferently.

&quot;The demi-gods are all Roman now,&quot; she rejoined.

&quot;And therefore you will tell me what more you know about me?&quot;

&quot;The likeness is not lost upon me. It might induce me to save you.&quot;

&quot;Save me!&quot;

The pink-stained fingers toyed daintily with the lustrous pendant at the throat, and her voice was exceeding low and soft; only a tapping on the floor with her silken sandal admonished him to have a care.

&quot;There was a Jew, an escaped galley-slave, who killed a man in the Palace of Idernee,&quot; she began, slowly.

Ben-Hur was startled.

&quot;The same Jew slew a Roman soldier before the Market place here in Jerusalem; the same Jew has three trained legions from Galilee to seize the Roman governor to-night; the same Jew has alliances perfected for war upon Rome, and Ilderim the Sheik is one of his partners.&quot;

Drawing nearer him, she almost whispered,

&quot;You have lived in Rome. Suppose these things repeated in ears we know of. Ah! you change color.&quot;

He drew back from her with somewhat of the look which may be imagined upon the face of a man who, thinking to play with a kitten, has run upon a tiger; and she proceeded:

&quot;You are acquainted in the antechamber, and know the Lord Sejanus. Suppose it were told him with the proofs in hand—or without the proofs—that the same Jew is the richest man in the East—nay, in all the empire. The fishes of the Tiber would have fattening other than that they dig out of its ooze, would they not? And while they were feeding—ha! son of Hur!—what splendor there would be