Then she had voluntarily left Julian, perhaps to seek him!
"You shall not go back to him!" he exclaimed. "After I have given up
everything but my life to have you for myself!"
"You must not think of me in that way!" she commanded him vehemently.
"I am a married woman! You shall remember that! If you forget it, I
will go out into the streets and ask the Idumeans to kill me!"
"Nay, peace, peace! I shall do you no harm! You are frightened! I will
do nothing that you would not have me do! Be comforted. Not any one in
all the world has your happiness at heart so much as I. Believe me!"
"Believe me!" she insisted. "I am weary of doubt and denial. I am
only safe if you recognize me as that which I claim to be. Answer me!
You do believe I am the wife of Philadelphus?"
"I believed it, at once," he said frankly.
"Then--then--" but she flung her hands over her face and slipped down
on the rugs. For a moment he hesitated, restraining the impulse to
break over the limits she had laid down for him.
Then he rose and, summoning one of the women who had taken refuge in
the crypt, sent her to remain with the girl, and departed, shaken and
uncertain, to his own place.