from a journey_; Daja, _meeting him_.

DAJA.

'Tis he! 'Tis Nathan! endless thanks to Heaven
That you at last are happily returned.

NATHAN.

Yes, Daja! thanks to Heaven! But why at _last_?
Was it my purpose--was it in my power
To come back sooner? Babylon from here,
As I was forced to take my devious way,
Is a long journey of two hundred leagues;
And gathering in one's debts is not--at best,
A task that expedites a traveller's steps.

DAJA.

O Nathan! what a dire calamity
Had, in your absence, nigh befallen us!
Your house----

NATHAN.

Took fire. I have already heard.
God grant I may have learnt the whole that chanced!

DAJA.

Chance saved it, or it had been burnt to ashes.

NATHAN.

Then, Daja! we had built another house,
And a far better----

DAJA.

True--ay, true! but Recha
Was on the point of perishing amid
The flames----

NATHAN.

Of perishing? Who saidst thou? Recha?
I had not heard of that. I should not then
Have needed any house. What! on the point
Of perishing? Nay, nay; perchance she's dead--
Is burnt alive. Speak, speak the dreadful truth.
Kill me, but do not agonize me thus.
Tell me at once she's dead.

DAJA.

And if she were
Could you expect to hear it from these lips?

NATHAN.

Why then alarm me? Recha! O my Recha!

DAJA.

Your Recha? Yours?

NATHAN.

And can it ever be
That I shall cease to call this child my own?

DAJA.

Is all you have yours by an equal title?

NATHAN.

Nought by a better. What I else enjoy
Are Fortune's gifts, or Nature's. This alone--
This treasure do I owe to virtue.

DAJA.

Nathan!
How dearly must I pay for all your goodness!
If goodness practised for an end like yours
De