"You may have some of them," he said. "This brooch of pearls was once worn by Arsinoë, sister of the great Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt. It came to my grandfather, who had made many loans of convenience to the house of Ptolemy, which were never paid. This cluster of diamonds belonged to the great Joseph, the tax-gatherer, whose palace of white marble is beyond Jordan. He needed a vast sum of ready money in order to buy the office of farmer of the revenues of Syria when our land was under Egypt. He outwitted a whole company of merchants from Tyre by offering single-handed more than they all together. It was my grandfather who advanced to Joseph the needed gold--which, of course, never was returned, as our possession of his jewels shows. Joseph had nothing finer than these in all his marble castle." One by one the gems slipped from Glaucon's fingers into those of the Princess. "And that! Oh, how magnificent!" cried she, as he drew a necklace of scores of precious stones, and spread it into shape upon the ebony table. "That I must never part with. It was my mother's, and now is Debor--Berenice's," said Glaucon, gripping the necklace with hesitating fingers. "But she can never claim it, now that she has gone over to the traitors, and is herself outlawed," argued the temptress. "Yet it is hers," replied Glaucon, his voice softening as if a tear was diffused through it. "I cannot part with it." "Glaucon, my love!" cried the Princess, taking his face between her hands, and kissing him upon the lips. Deborah threw aside the curtain, and stood before the frightened couple. "You monster!" cried she. Both started from the seat. Deborah grasped the jewels which had fallen from the fingers of the startled Princess. The woman quickly recovered her self-possession. "The traitress! The traitress! Ho, guards!" "The strumpet of Antioch, how dare she come into the house of Elkiah?" retorted Deborah. "By better right, I take it, than the Jewish spy," replied Helena. "Glaucon, command her to leave this house," cried Deborah. The coward imitated the chameleon, which changes its color according to the object that reflects the light upon it; for, as he looked from one to the other of these women, he became for the moment the victim of each, and dared to decide for neither. "If Glaucon will not purge his house of this refuse of the camp of Apollonius, then will I, that our mother's memory be not polluted. Begone!" She raised the curtain and pointed to the exit. The Princess' dignity gave way before the indignant gaze of Deborah, as weak plants wither in the scorching rays of the sun. Still she moved not. "Must I compel you?" Deborah exclaimed. She dexterously drew from Glaucon's side his sword, ere he could interpose, and poised it at the throat of her enemy. "Your paramour Apollonius once quailed before the sword of the daughter of Elkiah. How shall I spare this miserable remnant of----"