At last she came close to Hamilcar, and without looking at him, without raising her head to him: 

“Greeting, eye of Baalim, eternal glory! triumph! leisure! satisfaction! riches!  Long has my heart been sad and the house drooping.  But the returning master is like reviving Tammouz; and beneath your gaze, O father, joyfulness and a new existence will everywhere prevail!”

And taking from Taanach’s hands a little oblong vase wherein smoked a mixture of meal, butter, cardamom, and wine:  “Drink freely,” said she, “of the returning cup, which your servant has prepared!”

He replied:  “A blessing upon you!” and he mechanically grasped the golden vase which she held out to him.

He scanned her, however, with such harsh attention, that Salammbo was troubled and stammered out: 

“They have told you, O Master!”

“Yes!  I know!” said Hamilcar in a low voice.

Was this a confession, or was she speaking of the Barbarians?  And he added a few vague words upon the public embarrassments which he hoped by his sole efforts to clear away.

“O father!” exclaimed Salammbo, “you will not obliterate what is irreparable!”

Then he drew back and Salammbo was astonished at his amazement; for she was not thinking of Carthage but of the sacrilege in which she found herself implicated.  This man, who made legions tremble and whom she hardly knew, terrified her like a god; he had guessed, he knew all, something awful was about to happen.  “Pardon!” she cried.

Hamilcar slowly bowed his head.

Although she wished to accuse herself she dared not open her lips; and yet she felt stifled with the need of complaining and being comforted.  Hamilcar was struggling against a longing to break his oath.  He kept it out of pride or from the dread of putting an end to his uncertainty; and he looked into her face with all his might so as to lay hold on what she kept concealed at the bottom of her heart.

By degrees the panting Salammbo, crushed by such heavy looks, let her head sink below her shoulders.  He was now sure that she had erred in the embrace of a Barbarian; he shuddered and raised both his fists.  She uttered a shriek and fell down among her women, who crowded around her.

Hamilcar turned on his heel.  All the stewards followed him.

The door of the emporiums was opened, and he entered a vast round hall form which long passages leading to other halls branched off like the spokes from the nave of a wheel.  A stone disc stood in the centre with balustrades to support the cushions that were heaped up upon carpets.