ere unprotected amongst these
distinguished but disappointed gentlemen."

Accordingly Miriam was led from the marble stand into an office annexed
to the receiving-house, whither she was followed by the auctioneer and
by Nehushta and her servant, whose backs, it was now observed, bent
beneath the weight of the baskets that were strapped upon them. Here the
door was locked, and with the help of her attendant Nehushta loosened
her basket, letting it fall upon the table with a sigh of relief.

"Take it and count," he said to the auctioneer, untying the lid.

He lifted it and there met his eye a layer of lettuces neatly packed.

"By Venus!" he began in a fury.

"Softly, friend, softly," said Nehushta, "these lettuces are of a kind
which only grow in yellow soil. Look," and lifting the vegetables she
revealed beneath row upon row of gold coin. "Examine it before you
count," she said.

He did so by biting pieces at hazard with his teeth and causing them to
ring upon the marble table.

"It is good," he said.

"Quite so. Then count."

So he and the clerk counted, even to the bottom of the basket, which was
found to contain gold to the value of over eleven hundred sestertia.

"So far well," he said, "but that is not enough."

The buyer beckoned to the man with her who stood in the corner, his face
hidden by the shadow, and he dragged forward the second basket, which he
had already unstrapped from his shoulders. Here also were lettuces, and
beneath the lettuces gold. When the full two thousand sestertia were
counted, that is, over fifteen thousand pounds of our money, this second
basket still remained more than a third full.

"I ought to have run you up, madam," said the auctioneer, surveying the
shining gold with greedy eyes.

"Yes," she replied calmly, "if you had guessed the truth you might have
done so. But who knows the truth, except myself?"

"Are you a sorceress?" he asked.

"Perhaps. What does it matter? At least, the gold will not melt. And,
by the way, it is troublesome carrying so much of the stuff back again.
Would you like a couple of handfuls for yourself, and say ten pieces for
your clerk? Yes? Well, please first fill in that deed with the name
that I shall give you and with your own as witness? Here it is--'Miriam,
daughter of Demas and Rachel, born in the year of the death of Herod
Agrippa.' Thank you. You have signed, and the clerk also, I think. Now I
will take that roll.

"One thing more, th