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.