d."

The next morning John went early into the garden; not that he was
strong enough for heavy work, but in order that Mary might, as
usual, join him there.

"Do you know, John," she said, after their first greeting, "you
have made me happier than I have been, for some time."

"How is that, Mary?"

"It seemed to me, John, that you were getting away from me."

"Getting away, Mary!" he repeated; "how do you mean?"

"You were becoming a great leader, John. I was proud that it should
be so, proud to think that you might become a deliverer of the
nation; and then it would have been meet and right that you should
take to yourself, as a wife, a daughter of one of the great ones of
the land."

"Mary!" John exclaimed, indignantly.

"It might have been necessary, John. The tillers of the soil can
marry where they please. Those who have power must wed for other
reasons than that of love. They must make alliances that will
strengthen their position, and it would have been your duty to have
sacrificed your love for the sake of your country. I should have
been the first to bid you do so. I should have been content to make
my sacrifice, too, on the altar of our country; content with
knowing that you, the deliverer of Israel, would have chosen me
from among all other women, had you only had your own pleasure and
happiness to consult.

"But after what you told us yesterday, I think, perhaps, that this
need not be so; and that the way in which you were to save the
Temple was not the way we thought. Your mission has been
fulfilled--not by great victories, which would have made you the
hero of Israel--but in that contest in the valley, where no eyes
but those of God beheld you; and should the Temple be saved, no one
will know that you were its savior, save we who love you.
Therefore, John, once again I can look forward to the time when you
and I can dwell, together, in the house of your fathers."

Mary was so earnest that John did not attempt to laugh her out of
her fancies, as was his usual way. He only said, quietly:

"Perhaps you are right, Mary, as to my mission; but I do not think,
dear, that even had I been made ruler of Israel, I would have gone
elsewhere for a wife; but as you say, circumstances might have been
too strong for me and, at any rate, I am well pleased that there is
no chance of my happiness being set in one scale, and the good of
my country in another."

"And now, John, I believe that you will come bac