sir," she replied in the same steady voice, "I also am a
Christian, who have been protected by the Essenes."

He looked at her with pity and replied, "It is a dangerous profession
for one so young and fair."

"Dangerous let it be," she said; "at least it is mine from the beginning
to the end."

Marcus bowed, perceiving that the subject was not to be pursued, and
said to Nehushta, "Continue the story, my friend."

"Lord, the father of my lady's mother is a very wealthy Jewish merchant
of Tyre, named Benoni."

"Benoni," he said, "I know him well, too well for a poor man!--a Jew of
the Jews, a Zealot, they say. At least he hates us Romans enough to be
one, although many is the dinner that I have eaten at his palace. He is
the most successful trader in all Tyre, unless it be his rival Amram,
the Phoenician, but a hard man, and as able as he is hard. Now I think
of it, he has no living children, so why does not your lady, his
grandchild, dwell with him rather than in this desert?"

"Lord, you have answered your own question. Benoni is a Jew of the
Jews; his granddaughter is a Christian, as I am also. Therefore when her
mother died, I brought her here to be taken care of by her uncle Ithiel
the Essene, and I do not think Benoni knows even that she lives. Lord,
perhaps I have said too much; but you must soon have heard the story
from the Essenes, and we trust to you, who chance to be Benoni's friend,
to keep our secret from him."

"You do not trust in vain; yet it seems sad that all the wealth and
station which are hers by right should thus be wasted."

"Lord, rank and station are not everything; freedom of faith and person
are more than these. My lady lacks for nothing, and--this is all her
story."

"Not quite, friend; you have not told me her name."

"Lord, it is Miriam."

"Miriam, Miriam," he repeated, his slightly foreign accent dwelling
softly on the syllables. "It is a very pretty name, befitting such
a----" and he checked himself.

By now they were on the crest of the rise, and, stopping between two
clumps of thorn trees, Miriam broke in hastily:

"See, sir, there below lies the village of the Essenes; those green
trees to the left mark the banks of Jordan, whence we irrigate our
fields, while that grey stretch of water to the right, surrounded by a
wall of mountain, is the Dead Sea."

"Is it so? Well, the green is pleasant in this desert, and those fields
look well cultivated. I hope to visit them so