Reference to the girl in the hills seemed blasphemy on this man's lips.
"And you do not recall your wife's face ?" Julian persisted.
The Maccabee's face hardened more.

But he shook his head.
"Fourteen years can change a woman from a beauty to--a--a Christian, ugly and old and cold," Julian augured.
The Maccabee turned his head away from his tormentor and Julian's laughter trailed off into a half-jocular groan.
"How much you harp on beauty!" the Maccabee said deliberately.

"Are you then going to regret the actresses you left behind when I tore you from your exalted calling as the forelegs of the elephant in the theaters at Ephesus ?" Julian's face blackened.

A foolhardy daring born of rage resolved him at that instant.

He flung himself out from his saddle and raised his hand with a knife clenched in it.