The youth just described was his son, whose habit it was to carry about with him all too faithfully a remembrance of the relation between his grandfather and the great Romans of his day.
The associate of the Messala was slighter in form, and his garments were of fine white linen and of the prevalent style in Jerusalem; a cloth covered his head, held by a yellow cord, and arranged so as to fall away from the forehead down low over the back of the neck.

An observer skilled in the distinctions of race, and studying his features more than his costume, would have soon discovered him to be of Jewish descent.

The forehead of the Roman was high and narrow, his nose sharp and aquiline, while his lips were thin and straight, and his eyes cold and close under the brows.

The front of the Israelite, on the other hand, was low and broad; his nose long, with expanded nostrils; his upper lip, slightly shading the lower one, short and curving to the dimpled corners, like a Cupid's bow; points which, in connection with the round chin, full eyes, and oval cheeks reddened with a wine-like glow, gave his face the softness, strength, and beauty peculiar to his race.

The comeliness of the Roman was severe and chaste, that of the Jew rich and voluptuous.
"Did you not say the new procurator is to arrive to-morrow ?" The question proceeded from the younger of the friends, and was couched in Greek, at the time, singularly enough, the language everywhere prevalent in the politer circles of Judea; having passed from the palace into the camp and college; thence, nobody knew exactly when or how, into the Temple itself, and, for that matter, into precincts of the Temple far beyond the gates and cloisters--precincts of a sanctity intolerable for a Gentile.
"Yes, to-morrow," Messala answered.
"Who told you ?" "I heard Ishmael, the new governor in the palace--you call him high priest--tell my father so last night.