Next day early, to the neglect of the city, Ben-Hur sought the house of Simonides.

Through an embattled gateway he passed to a continuity of wharves; thence up the river midst a busy press, to the Seleucian Bridge, under which he paused to take in the scene.
There, directly under the bridge, was the merchant's house, a mass of gray stone, unhewn, referable to no style, looking, as the voyager had described it, like a buttress of the wall against which it leaned.

Two immense doors in front communicated with the wharf.

Some holes near the top, heavily barred, served as windows.

Weeds waved from the crevices, and in places black moss splotched the otherwise bald stones.
The doors were open.