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. If we were married you might come to think
like me, or I might come to think like you. It is a matter of the spirit
and the future, not of the body and the present. Every day Christians
wed those who are not Christians; sometimes, even, they convert them."
"Yes, I know; but in my case this may not be--even if I wished that it
should be."
"Why not?"
"Because both by the command of my murdered father and of her own desire
my mother laid it on me with her dying breath that I should take to
husband no man who was not of our faith."
"And do you hold yourself to be bound by this command?"
"I do, without doubt and to the end."
"However much you might chance to love a man who is not a Christian?"
"However much I might chance to love such a man.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156