"It is then, of a truth, the Arab, we seek," she added presently. "The Arab that knows no manners but his fathers' manners; who eats, drinks, loves, hates and conquers after his own fashion." "Without having seen Jerusalem, or Rome?" he asked. "Rome!" she repeated, looking at him again. "Yes, without having seen Rome or Jerusalem or Alexandria." Agrippa tilted his head thoughtfully. "Then, it is good only for a time--for as long as the surfeit of civilization lasts--which lasts no longer the moment one realizes the Arab is not devoted to the bath and that he counts his women among his cattle!" She laughed outright. "I remember thou didst indorse him not a moment since! Wherefore the change?" "Refinement in all things! To get it into an Arab, he has to be modified by alien blood." "A truce! I am in Alexandria; her poetic wickedness has not been entirely exhausted. I--meet new, desirable things--daily!" Her fan was between them as she spoke and he took the stick of it just above where she held it and was putting it aside when the proconsul, resplendent in a tunic of white and purple, appeared in the colonnade. Beside him was Cypros in her Jewish matron's dress. Agrippa put the fan out of the way and made his answer. "Forget not that the East, whether Arab or Alexandrian, is intense--once won. It might harass thee, if thou weariest of it, before it wearies of thee--even to the extreme of pursuing thee to Rome." The proconsul and the princess approached. The deep-set eyes of the Roman wore a peculiarly satisfied look. "Men seek for stray cattle in the fields of sweet grass, look for lost jewels in the wallets of thieves, and missing Herods in the company of beautiful women," he observed. "It is good to have an established reputation, whether we be cattle or jewels or Herods," Agrippa laughed; "for, thou seest, we are disjointed and unsettled, seeing Flaccus now enduring a Jew, again attending a lady. "Again," said the beauty, "we mark the work of circumstances, which led us into difference just now, O thou disputatious." "Well said, Junia," the proconsul declared; "some ladies would make gallants out of the fiends! Know ye all one another?" the proconsul continued. "Except my lovely neighbor," Agrippa replied. "The Lady Junia, daughter of Euodus, who with her father hath been transplanted here from Rome." In the colonnade Lydia, the daughter, appeared and beside her a man, by certain of the more obvious signs, of middle-age. But when he drew closer the more obvious gave way to the indisputable testimony of smooth elastic skin, long lashes and strong, white, unworn teeth that the man was not yet thirty. He was a little above medium height, spare, yet well-built except for a slight lift in the shoulders, beardless, colorless, with straight dark hair, bound with a classic fillet. His general lack of tone brought into noticeable prominence the amiability and luster of his fine brown eyes.