“He is mad; I believe he is mad.  The city is full of demoniacs.”

“There is something great about him!” the woman declared.  “He seems to be the instrument of miracle.”

“Is it that?” John asked in an amused tone.

She studied him for a moment that was tense with meaning.

“Do you know,” she began slowly, “that neither you nor Simon, nor any of these who aspire to the control of Jerusalem, have come upon the plan which will best appeal to your distracted subjects?”

“Have we not?” he repeated.  “We have bought them and bullied them; we are fighting the Romans for them; we are preaching patience in the will of the Lord.  What more, lady?”

“What have you to offer them in their hope of a Messiah?” she said pointedly.

“Messiah!  What else is preached in the Temple but the Messiah, or in the proseuchae or the streets or on the walls?  We eat, drink, sleep, fight, buy, sell, rob or restore in the name of the Messiah!  They are surfeited with religion.”

“Are they?” she asked sententiously.  “But you haven’t given them a Messiah.”

He looked at her without comprehending.

“You have a mad city here; you can not reason with it; indulge it, then, as you indulge your lunatics,” she suggested.

He shook his head, smiling that he did not understand her.  She turned again to Seraiah.

“Watch him,” she insisted.  “He possesses me.”

After a long silence in which John trifled with his wine, she prepared to rise.

“Send me the roll of the law,” the woman said suddenly.

“Posthumus shall bring it.  He is another lunatic.  Experiment with him and learn how I shall act toward the city.”

“Well said,” she averred; “and I will see your Idumeans.  Is it proper for me to appear in the Temple?”

The Gischalan’s eyes flashed a sudden elation and delight.  He bent low and kissed her hand.

“And I will fetch somewhat which will divert us,” she added and was gone.

When a few moments later John passed again into the Greek’s apartment, Amaryllis entered from an inner corridor.  Before she spoke to the master of the house she addressed a servant who had been a moment before summoned.

“Send hither my guest.”

“The stranger?” John asked.  “Is she still with you?”

“I mean to add her to my household, if you will,” she explained.

“Keep her or dismiss her at your pleasure.”

“It shall be for my pleasure.  She has a charm that besets me.  It will be entertainment to discover her history.”

“I see no mystery in her.  It is plain enough that there is between her and this married Philadelphus some cause for her coming.  His wife is much more engaging.”

She sighed and dropped into her ivory chair, pushed back the locks of fair hair that had loosened from their fillet and waited languidly.