While the servant was answering for the elder, the curtain of the doorway was drawn aside, and the younger Egyptian came in, and walked--or floated, upborne in a white cloud of the gauzy raiment she so loved and lived in--to the centre of the chamber, where the light cast by lamps from the seven-armed brazen stick planted upon the floor was the strongest.
With her there was no fear of light.
The servant left the two alone.
In the excitement occasioned by the events of the few days past Ben-Hur had scarcely given a thought to the fair Egyptian.

If she came to his mind at all, it was merely as a briefest pleasure, a suggestion of a delight which could wait for him, and was waiting.
But now the influence of the woman revived with all its force the instant Ben-Hur beheld her.

He advanced to her eagerly, but stopped and gazed.

Such a change he had never seen! Theretofore she had been a lover studious to win him--in manner all warmth, each glance an admission, each action an avowal.

She had showered him with incense of flattery.