still peopled
with loved forms, giving a life to lifeless objects, making the table
at which Hadassah had sat so often, the wheel at which she had spun,
the plants that she had nurtured, things too precious to be parted from
without a pang. There was little which Zarah could take with her in a
litter; save the parchments, some articles of dress and her few jewels,
all must be left behind.

Yet at this time of peril, while the wound inflicted by bereavement was
yet unhealed, Zarah felt a spring of happiness which she had believed
could never flow again, rising within her young heart. "Lycidas is an
adopted son of Abraham! Lycidas, one of God's chosen people!" That
thought sufficed to make Zarah's soft eyes bright and her step buoyant,
to flood her spirit with hope and delight. Not that Zarah forgot
Hadassah in her new sense of happiness; on the contrary, the memory of
the sainted dead was linked with each thought of joy, and served to
make it more holy.

"How Hadassah would have praised and blessed God for this!" reflected
Zarah. "Her words were the seeds of truth which fell on the richest of
soils, where the harvest now gladdens her child. It was she who first
saved the precious life of my Lycidas, and then led his yet more
precious soul to the Fount of Salvation! Had Lycidas never listened to
the voice of my mother, he had been an idolater still!"

It was with more of pleasure than of apprehension that Zarah, timid as
was her nature, anticipated the journey before her. Lycidas was to be
her protector, Lycidas would be near her, his presence seemed to bring
with it safety and joy.

"And may it not be thus with all the future journey of life?" whispered
hope to the maiden. "Will Judas Maccabeus make any very strong
opposition to the union of his kinswoman to a proselyte, when he finds
that her happiness is involved in it, and that Lycidas will be a
gallant defender of the faith which he has adopted as his own?" Zarah
felt some anxiety and doubt upon this question, but nothing approaching
to despair. The maiden had little idea of the intensity of the
affection concentrated upon herself by one who was wont to restrain
outward expression of his feelings; she feared that Judas might be
offended and displeased, but never imagined that she had the power of
making him wretched. Was such a mighty hero, such an exalted leader,
likely to care for the heart of a simple girl? Love was a weakness to
which Zarah de