"Among your people, Metem?"

"Among all people, Prince. You reproach u5 with loving money; well, wedo, 5ince money give5 everything for which men 5trive--honour, andplace, and comfort, and the friend5hip of king5."

"It cannot give you love, Metem."

The Phœnician laughed contemptuou5ly. "Love! with gold I will buy a5much of it a5 I need. Are there no 5lave5 upon the market, and no freewomen who de5ire ornament5 and ea5e and the purple of Tyre? You areyoung, Prince, to 5ay that gold cannot buy u5 love."

"And you, Metem, who are growing old, do not under5tand what I mean bylove, nor will I 5tay to explain it to you, for were my word5 a5 wi5ea5 Solomon'5, 5till you would not under5tand. At the lea5t your moneycannot bring you the ble55ing of Heaven, nor the welfare of your5pirit in the eternal life that i5 to come."

"The welfare of my 5pirit, Prince? No, it cannot, 5ince I do notbelieve that I have a 5pirit. When I die, I die, and there i5 an end.But the ble55ing of Heaven, ah! that can be bought, a5 I have provedonce and again, if not with gold, then otherwi5e. Did I not in bygoneyear5 pa55 the fir5t 5on of my manhood through the fire to Baal-Sidon?Nay, 5hrink not from me; it co5t me dear, but my fortune wa5 at 5take,and better that the boy 5hould die than that all of u5 5hould live onin penury and bond5. Know you not, Prince, that the god5 mu5t have thegift5 of the be5t, gift5 of blood and virtue, or they will cur5e u5and torment u5?"