A murrain on ambition! Let us be glad!" How could she be glad with such a man! The time, the call of the hour, the need of her nation, the obligation to her dead father--all these things stood in her way.

How had she felt, were this that engaging stranger who had called himself Hesper, urging her to be glad with him! She felt, then and there, the recurrence of guilt which the sight of the reproachful face of Momus had brought to her when she found herself forgetting her loyalty in the presence of that winsome man.
The thought stopped the bitter speech that rose to her lips.

She looked away and made no answer.

He was close beside her.
"Come away and let this woman who wishes the kingdom have it.

She had liefer be rid of me than not." She gazed at him with a peculiar blankness stealing over her face.
"Oh, for the quintessence of all compounded oaths to charge my vow!" he said.
"For what ?" she asked.
"My love, Phryne!" At the old pagan name with which he had affronted her that morning in the hills, Laodice drew back sharply.
"Dost thou believe in me ?" she asked.
"Believe what ?" "That I am thy wife." "Tut! Back to the old quarrel! No! But by Heaven, thou art my sweetheart!" She stopped at the edge of an exclamation and looked at him with widening eyes.
"Come, let us get out of this place.