To be an empress--an empress!....

Far finer than anything the poor Jew could have offered....

But still....

An empress need not be above hearing her subject's petition....' All this was uttered rapidly, and in a wheedling undertone, with a continual snaky writhing of her whole body, except her eye, which seemed, in the intense fixity of its glare, to act as a fulcrum for all her limbs; and from that eye, as long as it kept its mysterious hold, there was no escaping.
'What do you mean?
What have I to do with this ring ?' asked Hypatia, half frightened.
'He who owned it once, offers it to you now.

You recollect a little black agate--a paltry thing.....