“What do you want? Send the wretch and his frightful dog away, gentlemen!” said the poor philosopher in some trepidation.
“I know that dog,” said one of them; “it is Aben-Ezra’s. Where did you find it before it was lost, you rascal.”
“Where your mother found you when she palmed you off upon her goodman, my child—in the slave-market. Fair Sybil, have you already forgotten your humblest pupil, as these young dogs have, who are already trying to upset their master and instructor in the angelic science of bullying?”
And the beggar, lifting his broad straw hat, disclosed the features of Raphael Aben-Ezra. Hypatia recoiled with a shriek of surprise.
“Ah! you are astonished. At what, I pray?”
“To see you, sir, thus!”
“Why, then? You have been preaching to us all a long time the glory of abstraction from the allurements of sense. It augurs ill, surely, for your estimate either of your pupils or of your own eloquence, if you are so struck with consternation because one of them has actually at last obeyed you.”
“What is the meaning of this masquerade, most excellent sir?” asked Hypatia and a dozen voices beside.
“Ask Cyril. I am on my way to Italy, in the character of the New Diogenes, to look, like him, for a man. When I have found one, I shall feel great pleasure in returning to acquaint you with the amazing news. Farewell! I wished to look once more at a certain countenance, though I have turned, as you see, Cynic; and intend henceforth to attend no teacher but my dog, who will luckily charge no fees for instruction; if she did, I must go untaught, for my ancestral wealth made itself wings yesterday morning. You are aware, doubtless, of the Plebiscitum against the Jews, which was carried into effect under the auspices of a certain holy tribune of the people?”
“Infamous!”
“And dangerous, my dear lady. Success is inspiriting … and Theon’s house is quite as easily sacked, as the Jews’ quarter. … Beware.”
“Come, come, Aben-Ezra,” cried the young men; “you are far too good company for us to lose you for that rascally patriarch’s fancy. We will make a subscription for you, eh? And you shall live with each of us, month and month about. We shall quite lose the trick of joking without you.”
“Thank you, gentlemen. But really you have been my butts far too long for me to think of becoming yours. Madam, one word in private before I go.”
Hypatia leant forward, and speaking in Syriac, whispered hurriedly—
“Oh, stay, sir, I beseech you: You are the wisest of my pupils—perhaps my only true pupil. … My father will find some concealment for you from these wretches; and if you need money, remember, he is your debtor. We have never repaid you the gold which—”
“Fairest Muse, that was but my entrance-fee to Parnassus. It is I who am in your debt; and I have brought my arrears, in the form of this opal ring. As for shelter near you,” he went on, lowering his voice, and speaking like her, in Syriac—“Hypatia the Gentile is far too lovely for the peace of mind of Raphael the Jew.” And he drew from his finger Miriam’s ring and offered it.
“Impossible!” said Hypatia, blushing scarlet: “I cannot accept it.”
“I beseech you. It is the last earthly burden I have, except this snail’s prison of flesh and blood. My dagger will open a crack through that when it becomes intolerable. But as I do not intend to leave my shell, if I can help it, except just when and how I choose, and as, if I take this ring with me, some of Heraclian’s Circumcellions will assuredly knock my brains out for the sake of it—I must entreat.”
“Never! Can you not sell the ring, and escape to Synesius? He will give you shelter.”
“The hospitable hurricane! Shelter, yes; but rest, none. As soon pitch my tent in the crater of Aetna. Why, he will be trying day and night to convert me to that eclectic farrago of his, which he calls philosophic Christianity. Well, if you will not have the ring, it is soon disposed of. We Easterns know how to be magnificent, and vanish as the lords of the world ought.”
And he turned to the philosophic crowd.
“Here, gentlemen of Alexandria! Does any gay youth wish to pay his debts once and for all?—Behold the Rainbow of Solomon, an opal such as Alexandria never saw before, which would buy any one of you, and his Macedonian papa, and his Macedonian mamma, and his Macedonian sisters, and horses, and parrots, and peacocks, twice over, in any slave-market in the world. Any gentleman who wishes to possess a jewel worth ten thousand gold pieces, will only need to pick it out of the gutter into which I throw it. Scramble for it, you young Phaedrias and Pamphili! There are Laides and Thaides enough about, who will help you to spend it.”
And raising the jewel on high, he was in the act of tossing it into the street, when his arm was seized from behind, and the ring snatched from his hand. He turned, fiercely enough, and saw behind him, her eyes flashing fury and contempt, old Miriam.
Bran sprang at the old woman’s throat in an instant; but recoiled again before the glare of her eye. Raphael called the dog
