"Evil, evil; naught but evil," he sighed, "and threats. And the proconsul's threats are never empty!" "What does he threaten?" Classicus asked. "Me--and mine." "Alas! our people!" Lydia sighed. "No, daughter! Thee!" "Lydia!" Classicus exclaimed. "Why does he threaten me?" Lydia cried. The alabarch shook his head. "Flaccus betrayed only enough to show that he will concentrate his vengeance against me and thee, or me through thee, but thee of a surety, my Lydia! Yet, he was as dark and ominous as the wrath of God!" Lydia came close to her father and he laid his arm about her shoulders. "Lydia, that bat escaped from Sheol, Eutychus, is openly attached to Flaccus' train; once, he abode under my roof, where he could learn many things. Has he any information against thee which Flaccus could use?" Lydia's answer was not ready. It meant too much to tell that which the alabarch groped after. Already she had surrendered until she was stripped of all but her father's confidence, and her people's respect. She could not cast off these ties to all that was desirable on earth. And Classicus, silent and smug behind her, seemed to be a prepared witness awaiting a confession. Conscience and human nature had the usual struggle, and when she replied she did not raise her head. "My father, Eutychus will never be at a loss for information. What actualities he can not furnish, he may have from his imagination." "Alexandria does not wait for charges against the Jews," the alabarch said. "But what says Flaccus?" Classicus urged after a silence. "That I have abducted Agrippa's wife; that I have been guilty of insubordination to him, my superior; that thou, my Lydia, art amenable to him and all the people of Alexandria, and that he will proceed as his information warrants, unless I produce Cypros--between sunrise and sunset, to-morrow!" There was silence. "What wilt thou do?" Lydia asked in a suppressed voice. "I can produce Cypros," he answered, torn by the inevitable. "No!" Lydia cried. "If Agrippa cares so little for her--" the alabarch began, but Lydia put off his arm and stood away from him. "This matter is neither thine nor Agrippa's to decide! Cypros is a good woman and she shall be kept secure--even against herself, if need be! Thou shalt not bring her before Flaccus!" "Lydia, I am brought to decide between her and thee!" "Thou canst suffer dishonor and peril, even as Cypros," Classicus put in, to Lydia. "We are no less unwilling to surrender thee to the unknown charges Flaccus brings against thee, than thou art to give up Cypros!" "Flaccus is no arbiter of the virtue of women! He is not Caesar, beyond whom there is no human appeal! Let him remember that it is no longer the old man Tiberius who is emperor of the world, but the young man Caligula, whose warmest friend is a Jew! Let him touch Cypros at his peril!" "Daughter, why should Caesar defend a woman for whom not even her husband cares?"