Patience! So concluding, he waited.
Half an hour passed--a much longer period to Ben-Hur--when the door which had admitted him opened and closed noiselessly as before, and without attracting his attention.
The moment of the occurrence he was sitting at the farther end of the room.

A footstep startled him.
"At last she has come!" he thought, with a throb of relief and pleasure, and arose.
The step was heavy, and accompanied with the gride and clang of coarse sandals.

The gilded pillars were between him and the door; he advanced quietly, and leaned against one of them.

Presently he heard voices--the voices of men--one of them rough and guttural.
What was said he could not understand, as the language was not of the East or South of Europe.
After a general survey of the room, the strangers crossed to their left, and were brought into Ben-Hur's view--two men, one very stout, both tall, and both in short tunics.

They had not the air of masters of the house or domestics.