He smiled.

"You laugh at me!" she cried indignantly.

"You mock me--you are going away and you are glad!" She would have turned away from him, but he held her two hands.
"Not alone," he answered.

"The Great King has sent an order that I shall bring to Shushan the kinsfolk of Jehoiakim, saving only Daniel, our master, for he is so old that he cannot perform the journey.

The king would honour the royal seed of Judah, and to that end he sends for you, most noble and most beloved princess." Nehushta was silent and thoughtful; her hand slipped from Zoroaster's grasp, and her eyes looked dreamily out at the river, on which the beams of the now fully-risen moon glanced, as on the scales of a silver serpent.
"Are you glad, my beloved ?" asked Zoroaster.