house she must live in, to be fit company for the great governor of
Alexandria. Not that there was not many a sulky and lowering face
among the mob, for the great majority of them were Christians, and
very seditious and turbulent politicians, as Alexandrians, 'men of
Macedonia,' were bound to be; and there was many a grumble among them,
all but audible, at the prefect's going in state to the heathen woman's
house--heathen sorceress, some pious old woman called her--before he
heard any poor soul's petition in the tribunal, or even said his prayers
in church.

Just as he was stepping into his curricle a tall young man, as
gorgeously bedizened as himself, lounged down the steps after him, and
beckoned lazily to the black boy who carried his parasol.

'Ah, Raphael Aben-Ezra! my excellent friend, what propitious
deity--ahem! martyr--brings you to Alexandria just as I want you? Get up
by my side, and let us have a chat on our way to the tribunal.'

The man addressed came slowly forward with an ostentatiously low
salutation, which could not hide, and indeed was not intended to
hide, the contemptuous and lazy expression of his face; and asked in a
drawling tone--

'And for what kind purpose does the representative of the Caesars bestow
such an honour on the humblest of his, etc. etc.--your penetration will
supply the rest.'

'Don't be frightened; I am not going to borrow money of you,' answered
Orestes, laughingly, as the Jew got into the curricle.

'I am glad to hear it. Really one usurer in a family is enough. My
father made the gold, and if I spend it, I consider that I do all that
is required of a philosopher.'

'A charming team of white Nisaeans, is not this? And only one gray foot
among all the four.'

'Yes.... horses are a bore, I begin to find, like everything else.
Always falling sick, or running away, or breaking one's peace of mind in
some way or other. Besides, I have been pestered out of my life there
in Cyrene, by commissions for dogs and horses and bows from that old
Episcopal Nimrod, Synesius.'

'What, is the worthy man as lively as ever?'

'Lively? He nearly drove me into a nervous fever in three days. Up at
four in the morning, always in the most disgustingly good health and
spirits, farming, coursing, shooting, riding over hedge and ditch
after rascally black robbers; preaching, intriguing, borrowing money;
baptizing and excommunicating; bullying that bully, Andronicus;
comforting old women, and