The fiery ambition which consumes you will not suffer you to be the wife of a man who is second to any other.

You refuse to call me by the name I owe to you.

But if hatred and arrogance do not stifle in your breast the one feeling that still unites us--love for our people, the day will come when you will voluntarily approach and, unasked, by the free impulse of your heart, call me 'Joshua.'" With these words he took leave of Miriam and her husband by a short wave of the hand, and vanished in the darkness of the night.
Hur gazed gloomily after him in silence until the footsteps of the belated guest had died away in the sleeping camp; then the ill-repressed wrath of the grave man, who had hitherto regarded his young wife with tender admiration, knew no bounds.
With two long strides he stood directly before her as she gazed with a troubled look into the fire, her face even paler than his own.

His voice had lost its metallic harmony, and sounded shrill and sharp as he exclaimed: "I had the courage to woo a maiden who supposed herself to be nearer to God than other women, and now that she has become my wife she makes me atone for such presumption." "Atone ?" escaped Miriam's livid lips, and a defiant glance blazed at him from her black eyes.

But, undismayed, he continued, grasping her hand with so firm a pressure that it hurt her: "Aye, you make me atone for it!--Shame on me, if I permit this disgraceful hour to be followed by similar ones." Miriam strove to wrest her hand from his clasp, but he would not release it, and went on: "I sought you, that you might be the pride of my house.