That is enough now!" This command sounded graver, and was intended to curb the increasing impetuosity of the ardent youth.

But she suddenly started up, exclaiming with anxious haste: "Go, go, at once!" The footsteps of men approaching the tent, and a warning word from the nurse had brought this stern order to the young widow's lips, and Ephraim's quick ear made him understand her anxiety and urged him to join the old nurse in the dark room.

There he perceived that a few moments' delay would have betrayed him; for the curtain of the tent was drawn aside and a man passed through the central space straight to the lighted apartment, where Kasana--the youth heard it distinctly--welcomed the new guest only too cordially, as though his late arrival surprised her.
Meanwhile the nurse had seized her own cloak, flung it over the fugitive's bare shoulders, and whispered: "Be near the tent just before sunrise, but do not enter it until I call you, if you value your life.

You have neither mother nor father, and my child Kasana ah, what a dear, loving heart she has!--she is the best of all good women; but whether she is fit to be the guide of an inexperienced young blusterer, whose heart is blazing like dry straw with love for her, is another question.

I considered many things, while listening to your story, and on account of my liking for you I will tell you this.