His face turned pale.
"After all that has come and gone between us, Miriam, do you still say so?"
"I still say so."
"You could give your life for me, and yet you will not give your life to me?"
"Yes, Marcus."
"Why? Why?"
"For the reasons that I gave you yonder by the banks of Jordan; because those who begat me laid on me the charge that I should marry none who is not a Christian. How then can I marry you?"
Marcus thought a moment.
"Does the book of your law forbid it?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, but the dead forbid it, and rather will I join them than break their command."
Again Marcus thought and spoke.
"Well, then, since I must, I will become a Christian."
She looked at him sadly and answered:
"It is not enough. Do you remember what I told you far away in the village of the Essenes, that this is no matter of casting incense on an altar, but rather one of a changed spirit. When you can say those words from your heart as well as with your lips, then, Marcus, I will listen to you, but unless G.o.d calls you this you can never do."
"What then do you propose?" he asked.
"I? I have not had time to think. To go away, I suppose."
"To Domitian?" he queried. "Nay, forgive me, but a sore heart makes bitter lips."
"I am glad you asked forgiveness for those words, Marcus," she said quivering. "What need is there to insult a slave?"
The word seemed to suggest a new train of thought to Marcus.
"Yes," he said, "a slave--my slave whom I have bought at a great price.
Well, why should I let you go? I am minded to keep you."
"Marcus, you can keep me if you will, but then your sin against your own honour will be greater even than your sin against me."
"Sin!" he said, pa.s.sionately. "What sin? You say you cannot marry me, not because you do not wish it, if I understand you right, but for other reasons which have weight, at any rate with you. But the dead give no command as to whom you should love."
"No, my love is my own, but if it is not lawful it can be denied."
"Why should it be denied?" he asked softly and coming towards her. "Is there not much between you and me? Did not you, brave and blessed woman that you are, risk your life for my sake in the Old Tower at Jerusalem?
Did you not for my sake stand there upon the gate Nicanor to perish miserably? And I, though it be little, have I not done something for you? Have I not so soon as your message reached me, journeyed here to Rome, at the cost, perhaps, of what I value more than life--my honour?"
"Your honour?" she asked. "Why your honour?"
"Because those who have been taken prisoner by the enemy and escaped are held to be cowards among the Romans," he answered bitterly, "and it may be that such a lot awaits me."
"Coward! You a coward, Marcus?"
"Aye. When it is known that I live, that is what my enemies will call me who lived on for your sake, Miriam--for the sake of a woman who denies me."
"Oh!" she said, "this is bitter. Now I remember and understand what Gallus meant."
"Then will you still deny me? Must I suffer thus in vain? Think, had it not been for you I could have stayed afar until the thing was forgotten, that is, if I still chose to live; but now, because of you, things are thus, and yet, Miriam--you deny me," and he put his arms about her and drew her to his breast.
She did not struggle, she had no strength, only she wrung her hands and sobbed, saying:
"What shall I do? Woe is me, what shall I do?"
"Do?" said the voice of Nehushta, speaking clear as a clarion from the shadows. "Do your duty, girl, and leave the rest to Heaven."
"Silence, accursed woman!" gasped Marcus, turning pale with anger.
"Nay," she answered, "I will not be silent. Listen, Roman; I like you well, as you have reason to know, seeing that it was I who nursed you back to life, when for one hour"s want of care you must have died. I like you well, and above everything on earth I wish that ere my eyes shut for the last time they may see your hand in her hand, and her hand in your hand, man and wife before the face of all men. Yet I tell you that now indeed you are a coward in a deeper fashion than that the Romans dream of; you are a coward who try to work upon the weakness of this poor girl"s loving heart, who try in the hour of her sore distress to draw her from the spirit, if not from the letter, of her duty. So great a coward are you that you remind her even that she is your slave and threaten to deal with her as you heathen deal with slaves. You put a gloss upon the truth; you try to filch the fruit you may not pluck; you say "you may not marry me, but you are my property, and therefore if you give way to your master it is no sin." I tell you it is a sin, doubly a sin, since you would bind the weight of it on her back as well as on your own, and a sin that in this way or in that would bring its reward to both of you."
"Have you finished?" asked Marcus coldly, but suffering Miriam to slip from his arms back upon the couch.
"No, I have not finished; I spoke of the fruits of evil; now as my heart prompts me I speak of the promise of good. Let this woman go free as you have the power to do; strike the chains off her neck and take back the price that you have paid for her, since she has property which will discharge it to the last farthing, which property to-day stands in her name and can be conveyed to you. Then, go search the Scriptures and see if you can find no message in them. If you find it, well and good, then take her with a clean heart and be happy. If you find it not, well and good, then leave her with a clean heart and be sorrowful, for so it is decreed. Only in this matter do not dare to be double-minded, lest the last evil overtake you and her, and your children and hers. Now I have done, and, my lord Marcus, be so good as to signify your pleasure to your slave, Pearl-Maiden, and your servant, Nehushta the Libyan."
Marcus began to walk up and down the room, out of the light into the shadow, out of the shadow into the light. Presently he halted, and the two women watching saw that his face was drawn and ashen, like the face of an old man.
"My pleasure," he said vacantly, "--that is a strange word on my lips to-night, is it not? Well, Nehushta, you have the best of the argument.
All you say is quite true, if a little over-coloured. Of course, Miriam is quite right not to marry me if she has scruples, and, of course, I should be quite wrong to take advantage of the accident of my being able to purchase her in the slave-ring. I think that is all I have to say.
Miriam, I free you, as indeed I remember I promised the Essenes that I would do. Since no one knows you belong to me, I suppose that no formal ceremony will be necessary. It is a manumission "inter amicos," as the lawyers say, but quite valid. As to the t.i.tle to the Tyre property, I accept it in payment of the debt, but I beg that you will keep it a while on my behalf, for, at present, there might be trouble about transferring it into my name. Now, good-night. Nehushta will take you to her room, Miriam, and to-morrow you can depart whither you will. I wish you all fortune, and--why do you not thank me? Under the circ.u.mstances, it would be kind."
But Miriam only burst into a flood of tears.
"What will you do, Marcus? Oh! what will you do?" she sobbed.
"In all probability, things which I would rather you did not know of,"
he answered bitterly, "or I may take it into my head to accept the suggestion of our friend, Nehushta, and begin to search those Scriptures of which I have heard so much; that seem, by the way, specially designed to prevent the happiness of men and women." Then he added fiercely, "Go, girl, go at once, for if you stand there weeping before me any longer, I tell you that I shall change my mind, and as Nehushta says, imperil the safety of your soul, and of my own--which does not matter."
So Miriam stumbled from the room and through the curtained doorway. As Nehushta followed her Marcus caught her by the arm.
"I have half a mind to murder you," he said, quietly.
The old Libyan only laughed.
"All I have said is true and for your own good, Marcus," she answered, "and you will live to know it."
"Where will you take her?"