e with him, but to stay where she was. She ought to
obey God rather than her parents. They had made her act the part of a
hypocrite long enough; to pretend to be a Catholic when she was a
Protestant at heart, and they knew that she was. Her father promised
that everything should be according to her wishes, and then she returned
with him.

Two or three days passed away and nothing was seen or heard of Miriam. A
servant was then sent to her father's house to inquire if she was sick,
and he was rudely thrust away from the door. The missionary felt
constrained to interfere, that Miriam might at least have the
opportunity of declaring openly her preference. According to the laws of
the Turkish government, the father had no right to keep her at her age,
against her will, and it was necessary that she have an opportunity to
choose with whom she wished to live. The matter was represented to the
American Consul, who requested the father to appear before him with his
daughter. When the officer came to his house, he found that the father
had locked the door and gone away with the key. From an upper window,
however, Miriam saw him and told him that she was shut up there a
prisoner, not knowing what might be done with her, and she begged for
assistance. She had prepared a little note for the missionary, telling
of her attachment to Christ's cause, and closing with the last two
verses of the eighth chapter of Romans, "For I am persuaded, that
neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." The janizary proposed to her to try if she could
not get out upon the roof of the next house, and descend through it to
the street, which she successfully accomplished, and was soon joyfully
on her way to a place of protection in the Consulate.

Miriam, after staying three days at the Consul's house, returned to that
of the missionary. Her parents tried every means to induce her to
return. They promised and threatened and wept, but though greatly moved
at times in her feelings, she remained firm to her purpose. They tried
to induce her to go home for a single night only, but she knew them too
well to trust herself in their hands. Her mother had artfully arranged
to meet her at the house of a friend; but her brother came, a little
before the time, to warn her t