The caravan, stretched out upon the Desert, was very picturesque; in motion, however, it was like a lazy serpent.

By-and-by its stubborn dragging became intolerably irksome to Balthasar, patient as he was; so, at his suggestion, the party determined to go on by themselves.
If the reader be young, or if he has yet a sympathetic recollection of the romanticisms of his youth, he will relish the pleasure with which Ben-Hur, riding near the camel of the Egyptians, gave a last look at the head of the straggling column almost out of sight on the shimmering plain.
To be definite as may be, and perfectly confidential, Ben-Hur found a certain charm in Iras's presence.

If she looked down upon him from her high place, he made haste to get near her; if she spoke to him, his heart beat out of its usual time.

The desire to be agreeable to her was a constant impulse.

Objects on the way, though ever so common, became interesting the moment she called attention to them; a black swallow in the air pursued by her pointing finger went off in a halo; if a bit of quartz or a flake of mica was seen to sparkle in the drab sand under kissing of the sun, at a word he turned aside and brought it to her; and if she threw it away in disappointment, far from thinking of the trouble he had been put to, he was sorry it proved so worthless, and kept a lookout for something better--a ruby, perchance a diamond.