How?
What?
St--t! The physician told me even now.

Let none of the household know it--above all things not thy mistress!" The last sentence was delivered in a whisper in response to certain uneasy gestures the mute had made.

The man bowed and withdrew.
A second servitor now approached with papers which the merchant inspected and signed hastily with ink and stylus which the clerk bore.
When this last item was disposed of, Hannah was again at her husband's side.
"Costobarus," she whispered, "it is known that the East Gate of the Temple, which twenty Levites can close only with effort, opened of itself in the sixth hour of the night!" "A sign that God reentereth His house," the merchant explained.
"A sign, O my husband, that the security of the Holy House is dissolved of its own accord for the advantage of its enemies!" Costobarus observed two huge Ethiopians who appeared bewildered at the threshold of the unfamiliar interior, looking for the master of the house to tell them what to do.

The merchant motioned toward a tall ebony case that stood against one of the walls and showed them that they were to carry it out.

Hannah continued: "And thou hast not forgotten that night when the priests at the Pentecost, entering the inner court, were thrown down by the trembling of the Temple and that a vast multitude, which they could not see, cried: 'Let us go hence!' And that dreadful sunset which we watched and which all Israel saw when armies were seen fighting in the skies and cities with toppling towers and rocking walls fell into red clouds and vanished!" "What of thyself, Hannah ?" he broke in.