I had actually deluded myself into the fancy that the Deity of the Galileans might be, after all, the God of our old Hebrew forefathers--of Adam and Eve, of Abraham and David, and of the rest who believed that children and the fruit of the womb were an heritage and gift which cometh of the Lord--and that Paul was right--actually right--in his theory that the church was the development and fulfilment of our old national polity....
I must thank you for opening my eyes to a mistake which, had I not been besotted for the moment, every monk and nun would have contradicted by the mere fact of their existence, and reserve my nascent faith for some Deity who takes no delight in seeing his creature: stultify the primary laws of their being.

Farewell!' And while the Prefect stood petrified with astonishment, he retired to the further extremity of the deck, muttering to himself-- 'Did I not know all along that this gleam was too sudden and too bright to last?
Did I not know that he, too, would prove himself like all the rest--an ass ?....

Fool! to have looked for common sense on such an earth as this!....

Back to chaos again, Raphael Aben-Ezra, and spin ropes of sand to the end of the farce!' And mixing with the soldiers, he exchanged no word with the Prefect and his children, till they reached the port of Berenice; and then putting the necklace into Victoria's hands, vanished among the crowds upon the quay, no one knew whither..