"She would buy the man"s freedom, but what then? She would still be here in Alexandria as penniless as ever."
"The consular suggestion, it seems, only held thee a moment in abeyance," the proconsul said slyly. "She will get the three hundred thousand drachmae, yet!"
"She will not," the alabarch declared, "First, because I have it not; next, because I am not eager to pay a Herod"s debts."
"Or, chiefly, because thou shouldst never see it again."
The alabarch tapped the pavement with his foot and looked away. The att.i.tude was confession to a belief in the proconsul"s convictions.
"What sum couldst thou lend by pinching thyself?" Flaccus asked presently.
"Two hundred thousand drachmae--but not to a Herod. I could lose five talents without ruin."
"Give her five talents, then; give it--do not slander a gift by calling it a loan."
"What! Toss an alms to a Herod? They would throw it in my face!"
"Jupiter! but they are haughty!"
The alabarch made no answer and Flaccus looked out at the night dropping over his garden.
"Why not hold the lady in hostage, here, for five talents?" he asked after a while.
The alabarch looked startled; it was Roman extremes, a trifle too brutal for him to dress in diplomacy. He demurred.
"Not brutal, Lysimachus," Flaccus said earnestly. "Herod can not use her well; it will be a respite from her long wandering and poverty.
Thou canst say to her that the five talents are all thou canst afford.
Tell her that it will do no more than beach them penniless in Italy; that thou hast a crust for Agrippa--will she starve him by eating half of it, herself?"
Flaccus laughed at his own words, but perplexity came into the alabarch"s face.
"But why?" he asked.
"Why? Is it not plain to you? Keep her so that Agrippa will in honor have to redeem her if ever he become possessed of five talents!"
Now the alabarch laughed. "I am not so sure. Is it native in a Herod to love his wife so well? It would be a bad mortgage for me to foreclose--one cast-off female whose chief uses are for tears!"
"No, by Venus! She is too comely to play Dido. But try my plan, Alexander. It is well worth the experiment."
The alabarch arose and stepped down from the rostrum. "It--it is--" he hesitated. "But then, I should have them on my hands, under any circ.u.mstances."
He took a few more steps, and paused for thought.
"Well enough," he said finally, "we shall see."
With a motion of farewell to the proconsul, he pa.s.sed out and disappeared.
Flaccus dropped back into his curule, and lapsed again into gloomy meditation. The night fell and obscured him. He seemed to be waiting, but not with marked impatience.
Again the atriensis bowed before him.
"A lady who says she was summoned," he said.
"Let her enter. And bid the lampadary light the torch, yonder, not here--and only one."
The atriensis disappeared, and presently a slave with a burning reed set fire to the wick in one of the bra.s.s bowls by the arch into the vestibule, and Junia appeared.
"Hither, and sit beside me, Junia," Flaccus called to her.
He drew the chair closer, which the alabarch had occupied, and Junia, dropping off her mantle and vitta, sat down in it.
"What a despot one"s living is!" she exclaimed. "But for the fact I owe my meat and wine to thy favor, thou shouldst have come to me, to-night, not I to thee!"
"I came often enough at thy beck, Junia! It were time I was visited!"
"Thou ill-timed tyrant! I am expected at a feast to-night, and my young gallant doubtless waits and wonders, at my house."
"Let him wait! I was his predecessor, and his better. Methinks thou hast reduced thy standard of lovers of late."
"No longer the man but the substance," she answered. "In the old days it was muscle and front; now it is purse and position."
"The first was love; the second calculation. Why wilt thou marry this obscure young Alexandrian--whoever he be?"
"To be a.s.sured of a living--to cast off the hand thou hast had upon me, thus long."
He leaned nearer that he might look into her face.
"So!" he exclaimed. "Does it chafe, in truth?"
She laughed. "No," she said. "Why should I prefer the provision of one man above another"s? Young Obscurity"s authority over me, his wife, would be no less tyrannical than Flaccus"--my one-time dear."
Flaccus took her hand and run his palm over her small knuckles.
"_Eheu!_" he said. "I shall not be happy to see thee wedded--"
"Nor shall I; like the fabulous maiden who weeps on the eve of her marriage, I shall in good earnest heave a sigh over the days of my freedom. Alas! the mind grows old young, that learns the fullness of life early. There are as many ashes on my heart as there are in this bulging temple of thine, Avillus."
"Dost thou love this--boy? Beshrew him, let him have no name!"
"How? Dost thou love the usurer that lends thee money, Flaccus?"
"What dost thou love, at all?" he asked.
"Sundry old memories; perchance the image of a consul, less portly, less purple, less stiff--and less imposing!"
"Pluto! am I like that?" he demanded.
"To one that was thy dear in younger days. To one who does not remember the sprightlier man, thou couldst be less charming."