Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The woman rode up and instantly the mute stepped between her and his young mistress and went on with his work. Laodice understood the question in the woman's attitude although, with true sense of an inferior's place, the stranger did not speak. "We are unclean," Laodice said with effort. "We have come from a pestilential city and we have touched the dead.
Was this a picture of herself she heard? The Maccabee was enjoying himself uncommonly. "She will wear the garments of a queen, but how little a slip of silver tissue will become her!" Laodice looked down in alarm at her gleaming garment, and reached for her mantle. The Maccabee had no idea how much pleasure he was to derive in making his own story, Julian's. He continued, almost recklessly, now.
"Philadelphus Maccabaeus hath sent to me, bidding me send Laodice to him in Jerusalem," Costobarus said in a low voice. Philip's eyes widened with sudden comprehension. "He hath returned!" he exclaimed in a whisper. For a time there was silence between the two old men, while they gazed at each other. Then Philip's manner became intensely confident.
But by signs, he showed them that his tongue was dead, and finally, with suppressed remarks upon the exceeding misfortune of the pair, they, too, disappeared. A thoughtful one invited them to return to the village. Laodice, careless now of what he should think of his exposure to pestilence, told him bluntly that they were unclean.
He spoke to each one by name, and after they had greeted him, they filed out into the court and the servants began to remove the remnants of their meal. Laodice rose at sign of this concerted deference to Philadelphus but sat down again, with her lips compressed. However they had disposed her, she would not accept the menial attitude. She had not finished her honey-cakes.
The pretender glanced again at Laodice and again at the Greek. "What is the play, lady?" he asked. Amaryllis looked at Laodice standing stony white at her place, and lost her confident smile. "Is this not he?" she asked. "Is this Philadelphus Maccabaeus?" Laodice asked. The Ephesian's face changed quickly. Enlightenment mixed with discomfiture appeared there for an instant.
Below, Nathan, the Christian, seized upon the shoulders of the Maccabee as he was dashing after the thousands. His face was black with terror for Laodice. He struggled to throw off Nathan, crying futilely against the uproar that Laodice was perishing. "Comfort thee!" the Christian shouted in his ear. "She is saved. She sent me to thee."
"A royal creature, daughter of an ancient and haughty family, with all her life purpose congealed in lofty and serious intent, her coffers lined with gold and her face as determined and unbending as Juno's with her jealousy stirred. He is not delighted, poor lad!" Laodice sat very still and listened. There was enough similarity in this story to interest her.
He had come unseen; with silent step he departed. A little later he stepped boldly into the circle of light from their camp-fire. To Laodice, in her lowly position, he seemed superhumanly big and splendid.
They accused him, in his younger years, of cohabiting with his own sister Elpinice, who, indeed, otherwise had no very clear reputation, but was reported to have been over intimate with Polygnotus, the painter; and hence, when he painted the Trojan women in the porch, then called the Plesianactium, and now the Poecile, he made Laodice a portrait of her.
Word Of The Day