painful resolution she presently finished the sentence--"whom she
is at loss what to do with."

"No, it is not enough," Ben-Hur said, unmoved by the play--"it
is not enough. To-morrow you will determine what to do with me.
I may die."

"True," she rejoined quickly and with emphasis, "I had something
from Sheik Ilderim as he lay with my father in a grove out in
the Desert. The night was still, very still, and the walls of the
tent, sooth to say, were poor ward against ears outside listening
to--birds and beetles flying through the air."

She smiled at the conceit, but proceeded:

"Some other things--bits of shell for the picture--I had from--"

"Whom?"

"The son of Hur himself."

"Was there no other who contributed?"

"No, not one."

Hur drew a breath of relief, and said, lightly, "Thanks. It were
not well to keep the Lord Sejanus waiting for you. The Desert is
not so sensitive. Again, O Egypt, peace!"

To this time he had been standing uncovered; now he took the
handkerchief from his arm where it had been hanging, and adjusting
it upon his head, turned to depart. But she arrested him; in her
eagerness, she even reached a hand to him.

"Stay," she said.

He looked back at her, but without taking the hand, though it
was very noticeable for its sparkling of jewels; and he knew
by her manner that the reserved point of the scene which was
so surprising to him was now to come.

"Stay, and do not distrust me, O son of Hur, if I declare I know
why the noble Arrius took you for his heir. And, by Isis! by all
the gods of Egypt! I swear I tremble to think of you, so brave and
generous, under the hand of the remorseless minister. You have left
a portion of your youth in the atria of the great capital; consider,
as I do, what the Desert will be to you in contrast of life. Oh,
I give you pity--pity! And if you but do what I say, I will save
you. That, also, I swear, by our holy Isis!"

Words of entreaty and prayer these, poured forth volubly and with
earnestness and the mighty sanction of beauty.

"Almost--almost I believe you," Ben-Hur said, yet hesitatingly,
and in a voice low and indistinct; for a doubt remained with
him grumbling against the yielding tendency of the man--a good
sturdy doubt, such a one as has saved many a life and fortune.

"The perfect life for a woman is to live in love; the greatest
happiness for a man is the conquest of himself; and that, O prince,
is what I have to ask of you."

Sh