curls and
limbs fresh from the bath. True, the whole earth was fair, even out in
the pastures among the flocks or round the fire in front of the tent in
the cool of the evening, when the shepherds sang, the hunters told tales
of daring exploits, and the stars sparkled brightly overhead.

But all these pleasures were preceded by weary, hateful labor; here it
was a delight merely to see and to breathe and, when the curtains parted
and the young widow, giving him a friendly greeting, made him sit down
opposite to her, sometimes questioning him and sometimes listening
with earnest sympathy to his replies, he almost imagined his senses had
failed him as they had done under the ruins of the fallen house, and
he was enjoying the sweetest of dreams. The feeling that threatened to
stifle him and frequently interrupted the flow of words was the rapture
bestowed upon him by great Aschera, the companion of Baal, of whom the
Phoenician traders who supplied the shepherds with many good things had
told him such marvels, and whom the stern Miriam forbade him ever to
name at home.

His family had instilled into his young heart hatred of the Egyptians as
the oppressors of his race, but could they be so wicked, could he detest
a people among whom were creatures like this lovely, gentle woman, who
gazed into his eyes so softly, so tenderly, whose voice fell on his ear
like harmonious music, and whose glance made his blood course so swiftly
that he could scarce endure it and pressed his hand upon his heart to
quiet its wild pulsation.

Kasana sat opposite to him on a seat covered with a panther-skin,
drawing the fine wool from the distaff. He had pleased her and she had
received him kindly because he was related to the man whom she had loved
from childhood. She imagined that she could trace a resemblance between
him and Hosea, though the youth lacked the grave earnestness of the
man to whom she had yielded her young heart, she knew not why nor when,
though he had never sought her love.

A lotus blossom rested among her dark waving curls, and its stem fell in
a graceful curve on her bent neck, round which clustered a mass of soft
locks. When she lifted her eyes to his, he felt as though two springs
had opened to pour floods of bliss into his young breast, and he had
already clasped in greeting the dainty hand which held the yarn.

She now questioned him about Hosea and the woman who had sent the
message, whether she was young and fair