daring had won, and when the wound
in your breast was cured, we roved over the pastures. Isis, whom you
also loved, had a temple here, and how often I secretly slipped into the
forecourt to pray for you and offer her my holiday-cakes. I had heard so
much from you of Pharaoh and his splendor, of the Egyptians, and their
wisdom, their art, and luxurious life, that my little heart longed to
live among them in the capital; besides, it had reached my ears that my
brother Moses had received great favors in Pharaoh's palace and risen
to distinction in the priesthood. I no longer cared for our own people;
they seemed to me inferior to the Egyptians in all respects.

"Then came the parting from you and, as my little heart was devout and
expected all good gifts from the divine power, no matter what name
it bore, I prayed for Pharaoh and his army, in whose ranks you were
fighting.

"My mother sometimes spoke of the God of our fathers as a mighty
protector, to whom the people in former days owed much gratitude, and
told me many beautiful tales of Him; but she herself often offered
sacrifices in the temple of Seth, or carried clover blossoms to the
sacred bull of the sun-god. She, too, was kindly disposed toward the
Egyptians, among whom her pride and joy, our Moses, had attained such
high honors.

"So in happy intercourse with the others I reached my fifteenth year.
In the evening, when the shepherds returned home, I sat with the young
people around the fire, and was pleased when the sons of the shepherd
princes preferred me to my companions and sought my love; but I refused
them all, even the Egyptian captain who commanded the garrison of the
storehouse; for I remembered you, the companion of my youth. My best
possession would not have seemed too dear a price to pay for some magic
spell that would have brought you to us when, at the festal games, I
danced and sang to the tambourine while the loudest shouts of applause
greeted me. Whenever many were listening I thought of you--then I poured
forth like the lark the feelings that filled my heart, then my song was
inspired by you and not by the fame of the Most High, to whom it was
consecrated."

Here passion, with renewed power, seized the man, to whom the woman he
loved was confessing so many blissful memories. Suddenly starting up,
he extended his arms toward her; but she sternly repulsed him, that she
might control the yearning which threatened to overpower her also.

Yet h