sudden burst of thunder sounded just above the court. Distant footsteps pattered, various slaves were making ready for the rain. Then again (so soon!) the sound of the old slave by the water-clock: "It is night, it is night! But joy cometh in the morning."

He arose and went about, muttering and alone, for all the splendid courts which he tramped were wholly silent now, save for the inward feeling of impending great thunder. And a sombre fear shook him to the heart, because he thought his loneliness a presentiment that, on a day, these courts should be indeed deserted. And he wandered about in them like a lion in the splendid ruins of forgotten palaces.

At length he whispered, "O God! the loneliness that is in my soul!-I will become Yea, I will become-in spite of even thee, O God-a crypto-Jew!"

He began to hear servants calling (among them Conatus) "Simon, domine! Simon, domine!"

He followed the sounds of their voices, and came unto the servants. They said, "Thy brethren await thee."

He went to the atrium, found there Na-aph, the adulterer; Gannab, the thief; Keseel, the stupid one; Alukah, the horse-leech; and, holding himself aloof in vain pretentious praying, Parush, the separate and formalistic.

Simon gave them all sportulæ, the which they accepted gladly. Then Parush might have said unto Simon of Cyrene certain words concerning Berith, yet was that man so bound to his misadvising wife, even Thorah (which, by interpretation, meaneth "The Law") that he never would speak unto Simon even the words he might have spoke.

They began, first one and then another of the brethren, to berate the master of the house. Quoth they, "What kind of Jew art thou, O Simon of Cyrene? Hast thou not, these many long years, spoken aloud, even in the presence of the heathen, the unmentionable name? What a priest unto God! Can any one tell thee from a Gentile? When hast thou gone to the synagogue? Twice and three times monthly. Hast thou said the Kiddush for a whole year? Where art thou at Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom-Kippur? Dost thou believe that any amount of charities will purchase thy pardons as to all these things? And hast thou celebrated, of late, even the Hanuccah, the triumph of Judaism over idolatry?"

Simon of Cyrene hung his head, for he would not dispute with his brethren. Moreover, there was still in his heart the will to become a crypto-Jew.

"Dost thou not even associate familiarly with Christians, the ref

use of idolaters? It is even said that many do not know thee from a Christian, and more each day thy ways are like theirs. Especially this Conatus hath upon thee-"

But Simon would hear them in nothing against Conatus. He took them and feasted them all (for he loved his brethren, spite of their transgressions) and returned them to their homes with yet more heavy gifts. But his heart was bitter.

There came the annunciator, and said: ness and Joy, do await thee at thy gate. Christopherus and Nea Diatheka. Long Shall I let them in?"

"Thy sons, both CheerfulThey stand by the side of have they been a-seeking.

Simon thundered, "No. By the God of the Temple, no. Ten thousand times ten thousand times, I say to thee, No. For I, shall I fellowship idolaters, and take as my sons the followers of Christ?" The annunciator fled, and went to the door with the message. There the sons of Simon and Amahnah wept.

And they came each day for many days, and Christopherus and Nea Diatheka often with them. But never the doors of Simon of Cyrene opened unto any of these. And often, because discouraged, they grew negligent for whole long periods, and came not.

And Conatus, because of timidity, did not at any time seek to gather together the Christians of the house of Simon for service and for prayer within that house. Yet, because of the freedom which all the servants had, both they and Conatus did often meet in another portion of the city. And they were greatly encouraged and edified both by Christopherus and also by Cheerfulness and Joy.

And the house of Simon of Cyrene prospered, in part because of the humble Conatus, who ruled with gentleness and love, and who knew not night from day in his toil for both the Master and the servants. He was no longer the mere mocker and trivial profaner whom the Jew in far off Cyrenaica had chidden and chidden yet. again and all in vain. But there played in his happy eyes the divine light of them who live most joyfully for others, and would die for them as joyfully.

About this time, at the suggestion of Conatus, Simon began to give his charities not only unto them in the Regio Judeorum, but also unto any and all that were anywhere in the city, needing raiment or bread. After a time, he sent out emissaries, who sought for the poor in distant lands, whether sons of Shem, or sons of Ham, or sons of Japhet.

And Conatus was always, in his fervent and persistent praying which he made each night in his solitary cubiculum, asking for

"the wonderful thing," as he called it-the most wonderful thing that can happen unto any man-to occur to his master. His eyes grew wistful with the praying and the waiting, wistful and ofttimes sad. Yet did he never cease to pray.

Sometimes he attempted to speak as about this thing unto his master. But as he drew anigh the subject, he stammered, cast down his eyes to the ground, and became confused, and went off to speaking (as his master perceived clearly) about some other affair than that whereof, at first, he would have spoken.

Therefore, to make his servant the more at ease, also to hide his own eternally ineradicable Judaism, Simon of Cyrene spake unto Conatus about skepticism.

And Conatus, humble and fearful and confused, would say: "True, Master. True, Master." And try yet again to talk, and yet again fail.

Simon in his heart was gratified, for he said: "If the man but keep the Maxims of the Sons of Noah, need I endeavor to proselytize? I would only offend a most excellent servant. Let his religion be as it may. Moreover, I will not speak out concerning Adonai (in whom I still fully believe) even to these that are mine own servants in mine own house. For they, as well as I, can find Adonai out, if they will."

Now it was curious that, at this very time, Simon of Cyrene was reading many a skeptical philosopher, in whom he verily thought he believed-Lucretius and Aristotle and Academicians of the skeptic school. He said to himself, "I am wholly a skeptic." Yet, all the while, he was truly planning to become a crypto-Jew, to set up glorious idols in his house, that the Romans might thereby think he worshipped Cæsar, though, as he said in his soul, he would "worship only thee, Adonai.”

And still the house of Simon continued to prosper, in part because of Conatus the steward. But Conatus and his master remained as strangers, for this that they knew not God together.

And the life of Simon the wealthy, was ever a curious thing, even as Betah and Jeezer had prophesied. He had no ease, and there was no rest for the sole of his foot. Yea, though he possessed innumerable habitations, he was still as a wanderer, for his life hung ever in doubt before him; he feared night and day and had none assurance of his life. In the morning he said, Would God it were even! and at even he said, Would God it were morning again, for the fear of his heart which he feared and the sight of his eyes which he saw.

CHAPTER XLV

BETWEEN TWO STOOLS

IN those days became Simon of Cyrene a crypto-Jew. He still believed upon Adonai, but he set up in his halls the statues of Jupiter and Juno (for did he not require the countenances of the great?); Minerva, the goddess of wisdom (and who so much in need of wisdom as a snare-encircled Jew?); Vesta, the goddess of fire (whose flames tried out the bright gold from the ore); Ceres, she of the corn and of husbandry (whose profits were sooner or later in Simon's own tills); and Neptune, god of the seas (the seas, upon whose waters rode his innumerable, rich ships); and Venus (let love and beauty still increase, that expenditures and profits may be greater); Vulcan, her husband, blacksmith to the gods, who forged in winter the thunderbolts which great Jupiter, vindictive and unafraid of mortals, cast in the pleasant summer time (but let no Jew be stricken by the lightning) lame was Vulcan, lame and a cuckold (as seldom a Jew had been) and ridiculous; Mars, the fierce god of war, riding in a chariot, strong, and holding tight his spear (especially hateful unto Jews was Mars); then Diana, goddess of the woods and the chase (might the profits on the furs and the timbers be also unto him, the Hebrew); next Mercury, the patron of merchants and of gain: winged sandals, or talaria, were upon his feet (for promptness was important in business), while a caduceus, or wand entwined with wisest serpents, was holden in his hand, and he bore a purse, marsupium; last of all the greater twelve of the Roman gods, was Apollo, which had been specially loved of Lampadephorus (and, after him, of Simon): god of music and of poetry and of painting was Apollo; and of medicine likewise, and all the finer and better arts. Praise unto all these gods of Rome, but especially unto Mercury and Apollo.

And all these "greater" (they that the Romans called "celestial") deities he set up in his atrium, and certain of the lesser deities also set he up, for ensamples, Plutus, god of riches (Ceres' son) and Saturn, the god of time, he that was shown as a snake eating eternally his own futile tail. And this the Jew set up beside old Chronos and his water-clock of silver.

And just inside the atrium door, he erected, greater than all the celestial gods combined-Cæsar, the Lord of the Whole World.

He set up also, in his minor courts, innumerable statues of the lesser gods-Janus, the god of the year; Pluto, king of Hell; the Fates; the Furies; Somnus, or sleep; Bacchus Corniger, attended by

Silenus his nurse; Luna, the moon, and Sol, the sun; and Hercules; and his own Genius-of which each man-according to the Romans -hath one only.

And there were other gods also. But in each of the courts of Simon was either a bust or a statue of Cæsar.

Simon, in his heart, despised the gods, Cæsar most of all. He said, "O Adonai, thou knowest! thou knowest! But for these, and the silence which I have set as a seal upon my lips, I should go to the gates of Hades and be as nothing. Therefore have I done these things. But behold! I will stand high charitable to all men, and I will make new deserts to prosper, new caravans to wind, and the world shall be far happier even for this, that I am in it. Therefore forgive." Yet his heart was afraid and his knees trembled, because he had set up the images. He believed not upon them, yet he feared and feared the very appearance of idolatry.

And they that beheld the statues in the house of Simon, reported quickly the things they had seen. And they told Cæsar.

Hence, on a day (even as Simon was feeling in the flesh of his arm for the pearl of great price which in it he had buried) there came to the house of Simon a messenger from Cæsar.

Who handed unto him a scroll.

And Simon, taking the scroll, and breaking the seal thereof, read: "I, even Cæsar, do hereby make thee a knight. Thou hast been high serviceable unto me. I may later cause that thou shalt be a senator."

Then wrote Simon a grateful answer, and gave it unto the messenger, and despatched him with it.

But still did Simon fear. And he felt in the flesh of his arm again for his great pearl. And, finding it, was more content.

For behold! it had come to pass that, in his highest happiness, the man was most afraid, inasmuch as, because of the great vicissitudes of his years, he had come to believe in his soul that happiness did not of right belong to him, Simon of Cyrene. Even the laughter of his slaves, as well as of himself, was tinged now and again with a wholly tragic fear.

About this time Conatus was greatly care-burdened for his master. He came therefore unto him, and said: "Master, among the slaves (who know everything, but will not always tell exactly how they have learned) it is fearfully whispered that our Master is to go into exile. It is also whispered that he is, instead, to be secretly assassinated. What will be the outcome? Is there, O Master, anything afoot at all?"