But it was not these certain signs of strength which engaged Agrippa. Beyond the single glance to note how much the girl had developed in four years he gave his attention to certain physical characteristics which called upon his long experience with women to catalogue. As she stood in the archway, the prince had let his glance slip down to her feet, shod in white sandals, and her ankles laced about with white ribbon. One small foot upbore her weight, the other unconsciously, but most daintily, poised on a toe. She swayed once with indescribable lightness, but afterward stood balanced with such preparedness of young sinew that at a motion she could have moved in any direction. Foremost in summing these things, Agrippa observed that she was wholly unconscious of how she stood. "Terpsichore!" he said to himself, "or else the goddess hath withdrawn the gift of dancing from the earth!" "Enter, Lydia, and know the proconsul, the noble Flaccus," the alabarch said. The girl raised her eyes to the proconsul's face and salaamed with enchanting grace. Flaccus checked a fatherly smile. He would wait before he patronized a girl-child of uncertain age. "And this," the alabarch went on, "thou wilt remember as our prince, Herod Agrippa." "Alas! sweet Lydia," Agrippa said, fixing soft eyes upon her. "Must I be introduced? Am I in four years forgotten?" "No, good my lord," she answered in a voice that was mellow with the music of womanhood--a voice that almost startled with its abated strength and richness, since the illusion of her youth was hard to shake off, "thou art identified by thy sweet lady!" Agrippa stroked his smooth chin and Flaccus shot an amused glance at him. Meanwhile the girl had opened her arms to Cypros. The children, one by one, greeted her. The alabarch went on. "My sons are no longer with us," he said. "They are abroad in the world, preparing themselves to be greater men than their father. But go, be refreshed; it shall be an evening of rejoicing. Lydia, be my right hand and give my guests comfort." He bowed the Herod and his family out of the chamber and they followed the girl to various apartments for rest and change of raiment. The alabarch turned to the proconsul. "If thou wilt follow me, sir--" "No; I thank thee; I shall return to my house and prepare for thy hospitality. But tell me this: what does Agrippa here?" "He comes to borrow money, I believe." "Of you?" "Doubtless." "Put him off until you have consulted me. He is not a safe borrower." CHAPTER IX "--AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS!"