his place to him.

But she was present, ready to watch with open eyes for the welfare of
the too generous Hur.

The elderly man, to whose fate she had linked her own, and whose
faithful devotion touched her, should be defrauded by no rival of the
position which was his due, and which he must retain, if only because
she rebelled against being the wife of a man who could no longer claim
next to her brothers the highest rank in the tribes.

Never before had the much-courted woman, who had full faith in her gift
of prophesy, felt so bitter, sore, and irritated. She did not admit it
even to herself, yet it seemed as if the hatred of the Egyptians with
which Moses had inspired her, and which was now futile, had found a new
purpose and was directed against the only man whom she had ever loved.

But a true woman can always show kindness to everyone whom she does not
scorn, so though she blushed deeply at the sight of the man whose kiss
she had returned, she received him cordially, and with sympathetic
questions.

Meanwhile, however, she addressed him by his former name Hosea, and when
he perceived it was intentional, he asked if she had forgotten that it
was she herself who, as the confidante of the Most High, had commanded
him henceforward to call himself "Joshua."

Her features grew sharper with anxiety as she replied that her memory
was good but he reminded her of a time which she would prefer to forget.
He had himself forfeited the name the Lord had given him by preferring
the favor of the Egyptians to the help which God had promised. Faithful
to the old custom, she would continue to call him "Hosea."

The honest-hearted soldier had not expected such hostility, but he
maintained a tolerable degree of composure and answered quietly that
he would rarely afford her an opportunity to address him by this or any
other name. Those who were his friends readily adopted that of Joshua.

Miriam replied that she, too, would be ready to do so if her husband
approved and he himself insisted upon it; for the name was only a
garment. Of course offices and honors were another matter.

When Joshua then declared that he still believed God Himself had
summoned him, through the lips of His prophetess, to command the Hebrew
soldiers and that he would admit the right of no one save Moses to
deprive him of his claim to this office, Hur assented and held out his
hand to him.

Then Miriam dropped the restraint she had hitherto imposed o