“Take me to my husband,” she said.  “Now!  While I have strength.”

Momus caught the old Christian by the arm and, signing eagerly that he would lead, hurried away in advance of the two down into the ravine and crossed to the house of Amaryllis.

There were no soldiers to stop them about the house.  When no response was made to her knock, Laodice opened the door and passed in.

Her old conductors followed her.

Amaryllis sat in her ivory chair; opposite her in the exedra was Philadelphus.  At sight of him, the last of the soft color went out of Laodice’s face.  A curve of despair marked the corners of her mouth and she seemed to grow old before those that looked at her.

Philadelphus and the Greek sprang to their feet, the instant the group entered.

Laodice waited for no preliminary.  Amaryllis’ design was patent to her; it was part of her sorrow that now Hesper would be free to the devices of this deceitful woman.  So she did not look at the Greek.  She addressed Philadelphus in a voice from which all hope and vivacity had gone.

“I have brought proofs.  Behold them!”

Nathan, the Christian, stood forth.

“I, Nathan of Jerusalem, met and talked with this Laodice, daughter of Costobarus, in company with Aquila, the Ephesian, three men-servants in all the panoply and state of a coming princess three leagues out of Ascalon, her native city.  I buried by the roadside her father, who died of pestilence on their journey hither.  I bear witness that she is the daughter of Costobarus and thy wedded wife.”

A great light sprang into the face of the Greek.  Philadelphus, nervous, albeit the news he heard filled him with pleasure, stood and waited.

The Christian stepped back and Momus, bowing, approached and handed the leather roll into the none too steady hands of the Ephesian.  He opened it and drew forth parchments.

Aloud he read a minute description of Laodice from the rabbi of the synagogue in Ascalon; under the great seals of the Roman state, he found and read the oath of the prefect, that such a maiden as the rabbi had described had been married before him to Philadelphus Maccabaeus fourteen years before.  Then followed the depositions of forty Jews and Gentiles who were nurses, tradesmen and other people like to have daily contact with the young woman in her house, setting entirely at naught any claim that Laodice was other than the wife who had been supplanted by an adventuress.  Philadelphus did not read them all.  Before he made an end he dropped the documents and flung wide his arms.  But Laodice with a countenance frozen with suffering held him off for a moment.

“Go,” she said to the old Christian, “unto Hesper and lead him into the belief of the Lord Jesus Christ which is mine.”

The old Christian approached the fountain in the center of the andronitis and taking up water in his palm sprinkled a few drops on her hair while she knelt.