“I greatly fear,” said Berenice with a grave shake of her head, “that your unknown bride will prefer to keep herself hidden from you.” “Why should she so act? She was not coerced into the match. She accepted me of her own free will.” “True, but reflect that you are not the great Crispus of her anticipation. She wedded you in the hope of sharing the crown of Pontus, and that hope is now extinguished, Pontus having become annexed to the empire.” “Your opinion then is that a woman should take for her husband one well endowed with material advantages, and that should he, through misfortune, lose these advantages, the woman is justified in discarding him?” “Though woman may not profess that doctrine with her lips,” smiled Berenice, “she’ll carry it out in practice. But answer me this: should you, by happy chance, discover your wife, would you keep her against her will? Would you not grant her a divorce, if such were her desire?” Crispus gravely shook his head. “She cannot part from me, nor I from her, for be it known to you, O princess, that I am a Christian, and a Christian can be separated from his wife by death only.” Tidings so unexpected caused Berenice to draw a sharp breath. Her look of horror could not have been greater if Crispus had suddenly announced himself as a deadly leper. “_You, a Christian!_” she gasped. “The name is displeasing to you, I know; so it was once to me. If you will hear me----” She cut him short with an imperative gesture. “I have had the chief exponent of Christianity, Paul of Tarsus, lecturing in chains before me; where _he_ failed, _you_ can hardly hope to succeed. Go!” she exclaimed, disdainfully waving him away with her hand as though he were a slave or some other inferior creature. “Yet stay! one question I will ask,” she continued with a certain uneasiness of manner that did not escape Crispus’ notice. “In what light do you, as a Christian, regard the holy temple?” “As an obstacle to the progress of Christianity,” he replied significantly, as he turned on his heel and walked quietly away. “Veni, vidi, _non_ vici,” he murmured sorrowfully. Berenice watched him with a strange fear at her heart. “A Christian,” she murmured; “and one who hates the temple! Now, if he should accompany the legions to Jerusalem how easy for him, when they are camping against the holy house, to fulfill his dream by throwing a lighted torch through its windows. If _that_ be his aim, I will foil it. He shall not be permitted to take part in the siege. Titus shall prevent him from joining the army. I have but to say the word and Vespasian will banish him from Palestine.” Meanwhile, Crispus, suspecting something of Berenice’s intentions towards him, and resolving to forestall her, walked along the shore intent upon finding Vespasian, with whom he had always been a great favorite. He found that general joining in the exercises like a common soldier, one of the ways by which he maintained his popularity with the troops.