Miriam, I love you." "Marcus," she answered steadily, "I do not think I should be asked to listen to such words." "Why not?
They have always been thought honest between man and woman." "Perhaps, when they are meant honestly, which in this case can scarcely be." He grew hot and red.

"What do you mean?
Do you suppose----" "I suppose nothing, Captain Marcus." "Do you suppose," he repeated, "that I would offer you less than the place of wife ?" "Assuredly not," she replied, "since to do so would be to insult you.
But neither do I suppose that you really meant to offer me that place." "Yet that was in my mind, Miriam." Her eyes grew soft, but she answered: "Then, Marcus, I pray you, put it out of your mind, since between us rolls a great sea." "Is it named Caleb ?" he asked bitterly.
She smiled and shook her head.

"You know well that it has no such name." "Tell me of this sea." "It is easy.

You are a Roman worshipping the Roman gods; I am a Christian worshipping the God of the Christians.

Therefore we are forever separate." "Why?
I do not understand.