ting deeply that I shall be considered as the cause of it,
and be upbraided with ingratitude.'

"`You did your duty,' replied Miriam. `I have been converted by your
having so done. Now I have my duty to do. I am aware of the pain it
will occasion my father, my relations, and the whole of our tribe; but
if they suffer, shall I not suffer more? Thrust out from my father's
door; loaded with curses and execration; not one Jew permitted to offer
me an asylum, not even to give me a morsel of bread, or a drop of water;
a wanderer and an outcast! Such must be my fate.'

"`Not so, Miriam; if your tribe desert you--'

"`Stop one moment,' interrupted Miriam; `do you recollect the
conversation you had with me before we entered into the subject of our
relative creeds? Do you remember what you then said; and was it true,
or was it merely as an excuse?'

"`It was as true, Miriam, as I stand here. I have loved you long and
devotedly. I have tried to conquer the passion, on account of the
misery your marriage with a Christian would have occasioned your
relations; but if you persist in avowing your new faith, the misery will
be equally incurred; and, therefore, I am doubly bound, not only by my
love, but because I have, by converting you, put you in such a dreadful
position, to offer you not only an asylum, but, if you will accept them,
my heart and hand.'

"Miriam folded her arms across her breast, and knelt down, with her eyes
fixed upon the floor. `I can only answer in the words of Ruth,' replied
she, in a low voice and with trembling lips. I hardly need observe,
that after this interview the affair was decided,--the great difficulty
was to get her out of the house; for you must have been inside of one of
the houses of a Jew of rank to be aware of their arrangements. It was
impossible that Miriam could be absent an hour without being missed; and
to go out by herself without being seen was equally difficult. Her
cousin is married to a Jew, who keeps the masquerade paraphernalia and
costumes in Tavistock Street, and she sometimes accompanies her father
and brother there, and, as usual, goes up to her cousin in the women's
apartment, while her male relations remain below. We therefore hit upon
this plan: That on the first masquerade-night at Vauxhall she should
persuade her father and brother to go with her to her cousin's; that I
should be close by in a coach, and, after she had gone in, I was to
drive up as the other