They tore the meat from the bones, and the soldier, especially, devoured the costly and unwonted meal like some ravenous animal.

He could be heard chewing like a horse in the manger, and a feeling of disgust filled the physician's soul.
"Sensual beings," he murmured to himself, "animals with consciousness! And yet human beings.

Strange! They languish bound in the fetters of the world of sense, and yet how much more ardently they desire that which transcends sense than we--how much more real it is to them than to us!" "Will you have some meat ?" cried the soldier, who had remarked that Nebsecht's lips moved, and tearing a piece of meat from the bone of the joint he was devouring, he held it out to the physician.

Nebsecht shrank back; the greedy look, the glistening teeth, the dark, rough features of the man terrified him.

And he thought of the white and fragile form of the sick girl lying within on the mat, and a question escaped his lips.
"Is the maiden, is Uarda, your own child ?" he said.
The soldier struck himself on the breast.