e siege hath put an end to your efforts in your
own behalf and it is time to face your condition and make the best of
it. John feels restive; I dare not ask too much of him. My household
was already full, before you came."

Laodice was looking at her, now with enlightenment in her face.

"Philadelphus," Amaryllis continued, following up her advantage, "is
nothing more than a man and you are very lovely."

"All this," Laodice said, rousing, "is to persuade me to--"

"There are two standards for women," the Greek interposed before
Laodice finished her indignant sentence. "Yours and another's. As
between yours, who would have love from him whom you have married, and
hers, who hath love from him whom she hath not married, there is only
the difference of a formula. Between her condition and yours, she is
the freer; between her soul and yours, she is the more willingly
faithful. If woman be born to a purpose, she fulfils it; if not she
hath not consecrated her life to a mistake. You overrate the
importance of marriage. It is your whole purpose to preserve yourself
for a ceremony. It is too much pains for too trivial an end. At least,
there are many things which are farther reaching and less selfish in
intent. And who, by the way, holds the longest claim on history? Your
kind or this other? The world does not perpetuate in its chronicles
the continence of women; it is too small, too personal, too common to
be noted. Cleopatra were lost among the horde of forgotten sovereigns,
had she wedded duly and scorned Mark Antony; Aspasia would have been
buried in a gynaeconitis had she wedded Pericles, and Sappho--but the
list is too long; I will not bury you in testimony."

Laodice raised her head.

"You reason well," she said. "It never occurred to me how wickedness
could justify itself by reason. But I observe now how serviceable a
thing it is. It seems that you can reason away any truth, any fact,
any ideal. Perhaps you can banish God by reason, or defend crime by
reason; reason, I shall not be surprised to learn, can make all things
possible or impossible. But--does reason hush that strange speaking
voice in you, which we Jews call conscience? Tell me; have you
reasoned till it ceases to rebuke you?"

"Ah, how hard you are to accommodate," Amaryllis smiled. "I mean to
show you how you can abide here. I can ask no more of John.
Philadelphus alone is master of your fate. I have not sought to change
you before I sought to chan