and in a choked and muttered voice, Leila poured
forth her prayer, she was startled by a deep groan; and turning, in
alarm she saw that Almamen had awaked, and, leaning on his arm, was now
bending upon her his dark eyes, once more gleaming with all their wonted
fire.

"Speak," he said, as she coweringly hid her face, "speak to me, or I
shall be turned to stone by one horrid thought. It is not before that
symbol that thou kneelest in adoration; and my sense wanders, if it tell
me that thy broken words expressed the worship of an apostate? In mercy,
speak!"

"Father!" began Leila; but her lips refused to utter more than that
touching and holy word.

Almamen rose; and plucking the hands from her face, gazed on her some
moments, as if he would penetrate her very soul; and Leila, recovering
her courage in the pause, by degrees met his eyes unquailing--her pure
and ingenuous brow raised to his, and sadness, but not guilt, speaking
from every line of that lovely face.

"Thou dost not tremble," said Almamen, at length, breaking the silence,
"and I have erred. Thou art not the criminal I deemed thee. Come to my
arms!"

"Alas!" said Leila, obeying the instinct, and casting herself upon that
rugged bosom. "I will dare, at least, not to disavow my God. Father! by
that dread anathema which is on our race, which has made us homeless and
powerless--outcasts and strangers in the land; by the persecution
and anguish we have known, teach thy lordly heart that we are rightly
punished for the persecution and the anguish we doomed to Him, whose
footstep hallowed our native earth! FIRST, IN THE HISTORY of THE
WORLD, DID THE STERN HEBREWS INFLICT UPON MANKIND THE AWFUL CRIME OF
PERSECUTION FOR OPINIONS SAKE. The seed we sowed hath brought forth the
Dead Sea fruit upon which we feed. I asked for resignation and for hope:
I looked upon yonder cross, and I found both. Harden not thy heart;
listen to thy child; wise though thou be, and weak though her woman
spirit, listen to me."

"Be dumb!" cried Almamen, in such a voice as might have come from the
charnel, so ghostly and deathly sounded its hollow tone; then, recoiling
some steps, he placed both his hands upon his temples, and muttered,
"Mad, mad! yes, yes, this is but a delirium, and I am tempted with a
devil! Oh, my child!" he resumed, in a voice that became, on the sudden,
inexpressibly tender and imploring, "I have been sorely tried; and I
dreamt a feverish dream of passion and rev