But he loved the girl, and this woman stood in the way of that love.

Therefore her charms were nullified; her latent faults intensified; all in all she repelled him because she was an obstacle.
The injustice in his feelings toward her did not occur to him.

He was angry because she had come; he hated her for her stateliness; he found himself looking for defects in her and belittling her undeniable graces.

Confused and for the moment without plan, he looked at her frowning, and with cold astonishment the woman gazed back at him.
"Thou art Laodice, daughter of Costobarus ?" he asked, to gain time.
She inclined her head.
"When--when dost thou expect Philadelphus ?" he asked next.
"Why do you ask ?" she parried.
"I--I have a message for him," he essayed finally.

"Is he here ?" "Tell me, who art thou ?" the woman asked pointedly.
A vision of the girl, flushed and trembling with pleasure at sight of him, flashed with poignant effect upon him at that moment.