"Friend," Philadelphus said in his smooth way, "I came upon this woman by the wayside in the hills. I and a wayfarer cast a coin for possession of her--and the other man won. Give thyself no concern." Laodice flung her hands over her face and shrank in an agony of shame down upon the exedra. Amaryllis looked down on her bowed head. "Is it true?" she asked. After a moment Laodice raised herself. "God of Israel," she said in a low voice, "how hast Thy servant deserved these things!" There was a space of silence, in which the two impostors turned together and talking between themselves of anything but the recent interview walked out of the chamber. After a time Laodice lifted her head and spoke to the Greek. "If thou wilt give me shelter, madam, for a few days only, I promise thee thou shalt not regret it," she said. The girl was interesting and Amaryllis had been disappointed in Philadelphus. Nothing tender or compassionate; only a little curiosity, a little rancor, a little ennui and a faint instinctive hope that something of interest might yet develop, moved the Greek. "Send your servant to Ascalon for proofs," she said. "I shall give you shelter here until you are proved undeserving of it. And since the times are uncertain, do not delay." Chapter X THE STORY OF A DIVINE TRAGEDY The following morning, there was a rap at the door of the chamber to which Laodice had been led and informed that it was her own. She had passed a sleepless night and had risen early, but the knock came late in the morning. She opened the door. Without stood a ten year old girl, of the most bewitching beauty, as barely clad as ever the children of her blood went over the green meadows of Achaia. Her golden hair was knotted on the back of her pretty head and held in place by an ampyx. On her feet were tiny sheepskin buskins; about her perfect little body, worn carelessly, was a simple chiton, out of which her dimpled shoulders and small round arms showed pink and tender as field-flowers. Nothing could have been more composed than her gaze at Laodice. "We breakfast in the hall, now. You are to join us," she said. Laodice stepped, out of the chamber into the court and followed her little guide. "The mistress and her guests rise late," the child went on. "That perforce starves the rest of us until mid-morning. Eheu! It is the one injustice in this house." Laodice dumbly wondered if she were to be classed with the house servants while she waited until the return of her devoted old mute. She was led into a long narrow room, showing the same simple elegance that marked all the house of Amaryllis, the Greek. Down the center were two tables, separated by a cluster of tall plants that almost screened one from the other.