she made, after they had
been baked with fire, were, at her wish, sold by the Essenes to any who
took a fancy to them. As to the money which they fetched, it was paid
into a fund to be distributed among the poor.

This art Miriam carried on in a reed-thatched shed in the garden, where,
by an earthen pipe, water was delivered into a stone basin, which she
used to damp her clay and cloths. Sometimes also, with the help of
masons and the master who had taught her, now a very old man, she copied
these models in marble, which the Essenes brought to her from the ruins
of a palace near Jericho. At the time that the Romans came she was
finishing a work more ambitious than any which she had undertaken as
yet; namely, a life-sized bust cut from the fragment of an ancient
column to the likeness of her great-uncle, Ithiel. On the afternoon
following the day that she met Marcus, clad in her white working-robe,
she was occupied in polishing this bust, with the assistance of
Nehushta, who handed her the cloths and grinding-powder. Suddenly
shadows fell upon her, and turning, she beheld Ithiel and the Roman.

"Daughter," said Ithiel, smiling at her confusion, "I have brought the
captain Marcus to see your work."

"Oh, my uncle!" she replied indignantly, "am I in a state to receive
any captain?" and she held out her wet hands and pointed to her garments
begrimed with clay and powder. "Look at me."

"I look," said Ithiel innocently, "and see naught amiss."

"And I look, lady," added Marcus in his merry voice, "and see much to
admire. Would that more of your sex could be found thus delightfully
employed."

"Alas, sir," she replied, adroitly misunderstanding him, for Miriam did
not lack readiness, "in this poor work there is little to admire. I am
ashamed that you should look on the rude fashionings of a half-trained
girl, you who must have seen all those splendid statues of which I have
been told."

"By the throne of Caesar, lady," he exclaimed in a voice that carried a
conviction of his earnestness, staring hard at the bust of Ithiel before
him, "as it chances, although I am not an artist, I do know something of
sculpture, since I have a friend who is held to be the best of our
day, and often for my sins have sat as model to him. Well, I tell you
this--never did the great Glaucus produce a bust like that."

"I daresay not," said Miriam smiling. "I daresay the great Glaucus would
go mad if he saw it."

"He would--with envy. He