felt that he must be beloved.

"Oh, joy!" cried Zarah, clasping her hands. "Then have you also
embraced the Holy Covenant, and you are numbered amongst the children
of Abraham! Then may I look upon you as a brother indeed!"

"Can you not look upon me as something more than a brother, Zarah?"
exclaimed the Athenian. "Why should you not fly--since you needs must
fly from this dangerous spot--under the protection, the loving, devoted
care, of an affianced husband?"

Zarah flushed, trembled, covered her face with her hands, and sank,
rather than seated herself, upon the divan from which she had risen on
hearing the knock of the Greek. Lycidas ventured to seat himself
beside the young maiden, take one of her unresisting hands and press it
first to his heart, then to his lips--for he read consent in the
silence of Zarah.

But the maiden had none of the calm tranquillity of happiness; she felt
bewildered, doubtful of herself; again she covered her face and
murmured, "Oh, that my mother were here to guide me!"

"Hadassah would not have spurned a proselyte whom the elders have
received; she was too large-minded, too just," said Lycidas,
disappointed and somewhat mortified at the doubts which evidently
disturbed the mind of the maiden. "Listen to the plan which I have
formed for your escape, my Zarah. I have already made arrangements
with the trusty Joab. He will bring a horse-litter an hour after dark
to bear you and your handmaid hence; I will accompany you as your armed
and mounted attendant. We will direct our course to the coast. At
Joppa we shall, I hope, find a vessel, borne forward by whose white
wings we shall soon reach my own beautiful and glorious land, where
love, freedom, and happiness, shall await my fair Hebrew bride!"

For some moments Zarah made no reply; how tempting was the vista thus
suddenly opened before her--radiant with rosy light, like those seen in
the clouds at sunrise! Then Zarah uncovered her face, but without
raising it, or venturing to look at Lycidas, she said, in a voice that
trembled with emotion, "Hadassah, my mother, would have deemed it
unseemly for a maiden thus to flee from her country to a land where her
God is not known and worshipped, and under the protection of one who is
none of her kindred."

"I thought that you had no kindred, Zarah," said Lycidas, with
uneasiness; "that you had none left of your family whose guardianship
you could seek."

"I have--or had--an aged