I hoped all things--and
where is this love? As you spared me nothing that could cause me pain,
I will, pitiless to myself, confess the whole truth to you. It was not
alone because the God of my fathers called me, but because His summons
reached me through you and my father that I came. You yearn for a land
in the far uncertain distance, which the Lord has promised you; but
I opened to the people the door of a new and sure home. Not for their
sakes--what hitherto have they been to me?--but first of all to live
there in happiness with you whom I loved, and my old father. Yet you,
whose cold heart knows naught of love, with my kiss still on your lips,
disdain what I offer, from hatred of the hand to which I owe it. Your
life, your conflicts have made you masculine. What other women would
trample the highest blessings under foot?"

Miriam could bear no more and, sobbing aloud, covered her convulsed face
with her hands.

At the grey light of dawn the sleepers in the camp began to stir,
and men and maid servants came out of the dwellings of Amminadab and
Naashon. All whom the morning had roused were moving toward the wells
and watering places, but she did not see them.

How her heart had expanded and rejoiced when her lover exclaimed that
he had come to lead them to the land which the Lord had promised to his
people. Gladly had she rested on his breast to enjoy one brief moment of
the greatest bliss; but how quickly had bitter disappointment expelled
joy! While the morning breeze had stirred the crown of the sycamore
and Joshua had told her what Pharaoh would grant to the Hebrews, the
rustling among the branches had seemed to her like the voice of God's
wrath and she fancied she again heard the angry words of hoary-headed
Nun. The latter's reproaches had dismayed Uri like the flash of
lightning, the roll of thunder, yet how did Joshua's proposition differ
from Uri's?

The people--she had heard it also from the lips of Moses--were lost if,
faithless to their God, they yielded to the temptations of Pharaoh. To
wed a man who came to destroy all for which she, her brothers, and his
own father lived and labored, was base treachery. Yet she loved Joshua
and, instead of harshly repulsing him, she would have again nestled ah,
how gladly, to the heart which she knew loved her so ardently.

But the leaves in the top of the tree continued to rustle and it seemed
as if they reminded her of Aaron's warning, so she forced herself to