"Vitellius hath bidden me to look for him, adding with certain fervid embellishments that he hath sought everywhere but in Egypt and Hades. Vitellius is no diplomat. Whistling finds the lost hound sooner than search." "But thou wilt not find him, noble Flaccus," Cypros besought in a lowered tone. "Yield us thy promise that thou wilt not betray him!" "My promise, lady! Indeed, I gave it in my heart a moment since. Hear it now. Alexandria is subject to thee. Let him come and be our ward." "I shall depend on that," Agrippa said decidedly. "For I shall despatch a servant for the man, the instant I can so do!" "And yet," Cypros insisted, still distressed, "if Vitellius requires him at thy hands, how shalt thou avoid giving him up?" Flaccus smiled at her with softened eyes. "O gentle lady, the day the young man should arrive, I shall set the prefect on the Nazarenes in Rhacotis. If he be not found, none without this trustworthy circle shall have cause to believe that I am not in all conscience striving to help a brother proconsul run down a fugitive." "A shrewd strategy," Lydia said dryly, "but one rather costly for the Nazarenes." "The Nazarenes! Who wastes tears over them? Thine own straight people condemn them, lady." "An exhilarating recreation, indeed," she repeated as if to herself, "for the prefect, the rabble Alexandrians and the Nazarenes! O seekers of esthetic sport, that will be a rare occasion! Yield me thy promise, my Lord Agrippa, that thou wilt tell us the day the young man arrives!" Flaccus' face darkened for a moment, but at that moment the alabarch appeared in the colonnade. "Here comes our host," said Agrippa. "Hast ordered the garlands, Lysimachus?" "The feast is prepared," Lysimachus replied, and, turning to Flaccus, continued: "Thou shalt see, now, good sir, how Jews feast. In all thine experiences, thou hast never broken bread with a Jew." "Not so!" Flaccus retorted, "for I was present at the Lady Cypros' wedding-feast!" "Ho! Flaccus remembering a wedding-feast!" Agrippa laughed, as he arose, taking Junia's hand. "Mars, cherishing a confection!" "Perchance," Cypros ventured, pleased and coloring, "if Mars' confections were more plentiful and the noble Flaccus' wedding-feasts less rare, they both might forget the one!" "Never!" Flaccus declared, "though I were Hymen himself!" As they proceeded toward the colonnade, Cypros drew closer to him. "Thou canst not know what service thou hast done us by that promise," she said. "It is more than the youth's security; it means my husband's success. For in this young man, we have found Fortune itself!" The proconsul made no answer, for his gray-brown eyes flickered suddenly as if a candle had been moved close by them. CHAPTER X FLACCUS WORKS A COMPLEXITY