d through her mind
which she meant to impress upon the man to whom she had granted so much
that its memory now weighed on her heart like a crime.

We are most ready to be angry with those to whom we have been unjust, and
this woman regarded the gift of her love as something so great, so
precious, that it behooved even the man whom she had rejected never to
cease to remember it with gratitude. But Joshua had boasted that he no
longer desired, even were she offered to him, the woman whom he had once
so fervently loved and clasped in his embrace. Nay, he had confirmed this
assertion by leisurely waiting, without seeking her.

At last he came, and in company with her husband, who was ready to cede
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 q