nly I can accomplish the one
thing for which I am risking person, life, all that I once prized!
Wait, you poor, impulsive fellow!"--and here she again kissed him on
the cheeks--"I shall succeed in smoothing the path for you also. That is
enough now!"

This command sounded graver, and was intended to curb the increasing
impetuosity of the ardent youth. But she suddenly started up, exclaiming
with anxious haste: "Go, go, at once!"

The footsteps of men approaching the tent, and a warning word from
the nurse had brought this stern order to the young widow's lips, and
Ephraim's quick ear made him understand her anxiety and urged him to
join the old nurse in the dark room. There he perceived that a few
moments' delay would have betrayed him; for the curtain of the tent was
drawn aside and a man passed through the central space straight to the
lighted apartment, where Kasana--the youth heard it distinctly--welcomed
the new guest only too cordially, as though his late arrival surprised
her.

Meanwhile the nurse had seized her own cloak, flung it over the
fugitive's bare shoulders, and whispered:

"Be near the tent just before sunrise, but do not enter it until I call
you, if you value your life. You have neither mother nor father, and my
child Kasana ah, what a dear, loving heart she has!--she is the best
of all good women; but whether she is fit to be the guide of an
inexperienced young blusterer, whose heart is blazing like dry straw
with love for her, is another question. I considered many things, while
listening to your story, and on account of my liking for you I will tell
you this. You have an uncle who--my child is right there--is the best
of men, and I know mankind. Whatever he advised, do; for it will surely
benefit you. Obey him! If his bidding leads you far away from here and
Kasana, so much the better for you. We are walking in dangerous paths,
and had it not been done for Hosea's sake, I would have tried to hold
her back with all my might. But for him--I am an old woman; but I would
go through fire myself for that man. I am more grieved than I can tell,
both for the pure, sweet child and for yourself, whom my own son was
once so much like, so I repeat: Obey your uncle, boy! Do that, or you
will go to ruin, and that would be a pity!"

With these words, without waiting for an answer, she drew the curtain
of the tent aside, and waited until Ephraim had slipped through. Then,
wiping her eyes, she entered, as if