“I have heard,” she began, faltering, “I have heard that—­” She stopped.  Her tongue would not shape the story.  But after a glance at her, he understood.

“And thou hast heard it, also?” he whispered.  “Thou believest it?”

It seemed that to acknowledge her fear that the King had come and gone would establish the fact.

“No!” she cried.

“It is enough,” he said nervously.  “We do not well to talk of it.  I came for another reason.  Tell me; hast thou other shelter than this house?”

“No,” she answered.

“Hast thou talked with this Philadelphus, here?” he asked after silence.

She assented with averted face.

“Is he that one who was with me in the hills?” he persisted.

Again she assented, with surprise.

His hands clenched and for a moment he struggled with his rage.

“This house is no place for you!” he declared at last.

“What manner of house is this?” she asked pathetically.  “It is so strange!”

“Why did you come here?”

“Because there was nowhere else to go.”

He was silent.

“Who is this Amaryllis?” she asked.

“John’s mistress.”

She shrank away from him and looked at him with horror-stricken eyes.

“Hast thou not yet seen him, who buys thy bread and meat and insures this safe roof?” he persisted.

“And—­and I eat bread—­bought—­bought by—­” she stammered.

“Even so!”

Her hands dropped at her sides.

“Are the good all dead?” she said.

“In Jerusalem, yes; for Virtue gets hungry, at times.”

She had risen and moved away from him, but he followed her with interested eyes.

“Then—­then—­” she began, hesitating under a rush of convictions.  “That is why—­why I can not—­why he—­he—­”

He knew she spoke of Philadelphus.

“Go on,” he said.

“Why I can not live in safety near him!”

He, too, arose.  Until that moment it had not occurred to him that Julian of Ephesus, as repugnant to her as she had shown him ever to be, might prove a peril to her life as he had been to the Maccabee who had stood in his way.

“What has he said to you?” he demanded fiercely.  “How do you live, here in this house?”

She threw up her head, seeing another meaning in his question.

“Shut in!  Locked!” she said between her teeth.

“But even then you are not safe!”

She drew back hastily and looked at him with alarm.  What did he mean?

He was beside her.

“Tell me, in truth, who you are,” he said tenderly, “and I shall reveal myself.”

Then, indeed, Amaryllis had told him her claim and had convinced him that it was fraudulent.

“And she told you?” she said wearily.

“Tell me,” he insisted.  “I have truly a revelation worth hearing!”