The cumbrous Roman lock resisted his first effort to raise it; and the second--the blood chilled in his cheeks--he wrenched with all his might: in vain--the door was not even shaken.

A sense of danger seized him, and for a moment he stood irresolute.
Who in Antioch had the motive to do him harm?
Messala! And this palace of Idernee?
He had seen Egypt in the vestibule, Athens in the snowy portico; but here, in the atrium, was Rome; everything about him betrayed Roman ownership.

True, the site was on the great thoroughfare of the city, a very public place in which to do him violence; but for that reason it was more accordant with the audacious genius of his enemy.

The atrium underwent a change; with all its elegance and beauty, it was no more than a trap.

Apprehension always paints in black.
The idea irritated Ben-Hur.
There were many doors on the right and left of the atrium, leading, doubtless, to sleeping-chambers; he tried them, but they were all firmly fastened.