Be glad that you have borne her." But in Hannah's face wavered signs of another interpretation of these things.

She broke in on him without the patience to wait until he had completed his sentence.
"Are they prophecies of hope which are fulfilled, or the words of the prophet of despair ?" she insisted.

"What saith Daniel of this hour?
Did he not name it the abomination of desolation?
Said he not that the city and the sanctuary should be destroyed, that there should be a flood and that unto the end of the war desolations shall be determined?
Desolations, Costobarus! And Laodice is but a child and delicately reared!" "All these things may come to pass and not a hair of the heads of the chosen people be harmed," he assured her.
"But Laodice is too young to have part in the conflict of nations, the business of Heaven and earth and the end of all things!" A courier strode into the hall and approached Costobarus, saw that he was engaged in conversation and stopped.

The merchant noted him and withdrew to read the message which the man carried.
"A letter from Philadelphus," he said over his shoulder, as he moved away from Hannah.

"He hath landed in Caesarea with his cousin Julian of Ephesus.