would be
peculiarly painful to have to throw herself upon the kindness of her
brave kinsman. Zarah could not, as she thought, tell him why the idea
of such a union was hateful to her soul--why she was averse to
fulfilling the wishes of Mattathias and Hadassah. While Maccabeus
often experienced an almost irrepressible yearning once more to look
upon Zarah, whom he believed to be still with Hadassah, of whose death
he never had heard, Zarah shrank with emotions of fear from meeting the
Hebrew chieftain.

Tender affection also made the orphan girl cling to her parents' grave
and the home of her youth. Dear associations were linked with almost
every object on which her eyes rested. Those to whom the present is a
thorny waste, and the future a prospect darkened by gloomy mists, are
wont to dwell more than others on the green spots which memory yet can
survey in the past. It is natural to youth to look forward. Zarah, as
regarded this world, dared only look back. It was well for her that
she could do so with so little of remorse or regret.

"Not to have known a treasure's worth
Till time hath stolen away the slighted boon,
Is cause of half the misery we feel,
And makes this world the wilderness it is."

When winter was drawing near, when the bursting cotton-pods had been
gathered, and the vintage season was over, when the leaves were
beginning to fall fast, and the cold grew sharp after sunset,
circumstances occurred which compelled a change in Zarah's quiet
routine of existence. She could no longer be left to indulge her
lonely sorrow; the current of life was about to take a sudden turn
which must of necessity bring her amongst new scenes, and expose her to
fresh trials.

CHAPTER XXX.

CHANGES.

One evening, towards the hour of sunset, Zarah sat alone at her wheel
awaiting the return of Anna from the city, she was startled by the
sound of a hand rapping hastily upon the panel of the door. The hand
was assuredly not that of Anna, who, from precaution, had adopted a
peculiar way of tapping to announce her return. As no visitor ever
came to Zarah's dwelling, it was no marvel that she felt alarm at the
unexpected sound, especially as she was aware that she had neglected
her usual precaution of barring the door during the absence of Anna.
As Zarah hastily rose to repair her omission, the door was opened from
without, and Lycidas stood before her. The countenance of the Greek
expressed an