He stopped, noted that she was beautiful and waited.
"I would speak with the Lady Amaryllis," she hesitated.
"Have you the countersign ?" he asked.
"No; else I should have entered.

But Amaryllis will know me." "Enter then," the Gischalan said.
In a moment she was admitted at the solid doors and led into a vestibule.

Here, a porter took charge of Momus and showed him into a side passage, while Laodice followed her conductor through a corridor into an interior hall of splendid simplicity.

Lounging on an exedra was a young woman in a woolen chiton, barefoot and trifling with the Greek ampyx that bound her golden hair.
Laodice put up her veil and looked with hurrying heart at her hostess.
Before she could get a preliminary idea of the woman she was to meet, John spoke lightly: "Be wearied no longer.

I have brought you a mystery--a stranger, without the countersign, asking audience with you." "Go back to the fortress," the young woman answered.