GEORGE MOORE
63
PROBUS (aside): A strange people, surely, on whichever side they range themselves, Christians crying: Freedom for the belly! and Jews replying: A stint on the belly! (Aloud.) Wherefore, knowing you to be Christians, I have brought a sucking-pig that was taken from the dug in such good time that Elijah would have sniffed and mayhap eaten; and do you sniff him, but before eating mark his crackling lined with—do not call it fat, for ambrosia is the word for it. And for those who will not break with the old faith by eating this little innocent that never laid his snout in the trough, here is a kid.
(Enter Timothy with a basket.)
And in this basket—
EUNICE: Thou meanest well, Probus, and hast no thought to offend us, but—
ProBUs: Offend thee, Lady? May not a showman take pride in his show? I durst not add that these quails have prepared themselves for this feast by refraining from flight so that they may gather a flesh so tender— (Eunice turns away.) Pardon my babble, Lady; I will stay my tongue and leave the viands to prove their excellence by being devoured. Of the wine I will only say that it is Chian, and Paul being a Christian, thou'lt not fail to offer him a goblet, for after his long travel he will need it. And here are cakes of white wheaten flour fresh from the kneading-tray, which he'll be glad to nibble, however tired he may be, whilst he drinks.
apollos: Hearken! The tramp of litter-men.
PROBUS (to Eunice): What did I tell thee, Lady—that he would return in an hour or less.
aguiLa: So he did reject the guide's story as a lie!
PRIsciLLA: He could have only heard it, Aquila, by a fire on the hills amid a drift of shepherds.
EUNICE: And whilst their journey they kept away from all encampments for fear of betrayal.
(Apollos, Eunice, and Timothy go to the window.)
TIMOTHY: Mother, Paul has come back.
EUNICE: Then why do we not run to meet him?
(Eunice and Timothy start forward.)
apollos: His feet are already on the stairs.
EUNICE (listening): He coughs as he ascends the steep stairs, and
