And now what if the Jew prophet spoke truly? What if this creed of
hers were a lie, root and branch, and there did lie in the heavens above
a Lord and Father who heard and answered the prayers of men, and who did
not seek of them the blood of the children He had given?
A great doubt took hold of Elissa and shook her being, and with the
doubt came hope. How was it--if her faith were true--that when she took
the name of the goddess in vain, nothing had befallen her? She desired
to learn more of this matter, but who was to teach her? The Levite
turned from her with loathing as from a thing unclean, and there
remained, therefore, but the prince Aziel, who had put her from him with
those bitter words of scorn. Ah! why did they pain her so, piercing her
heart as with a spear? Was it because--because--he had grown dear to
her? Yes, that was the truth. She had learned it even as he cursed her;
all her quick southern blood was alight with a new fire, the like of
which she had never known before. And not her blood only, it was her
spirit--her spirit that yearned to his. Had it not leapt within her
at the first sight of him as to one most dear, one long-lost and found
again? She loved him, and he loathed her, and oh! her lot was hard.
As Elissa lay brooding thus in her pain, the door opened and Sakon, her
father, hurried into the chamber.
"What is it that chanced yonder?" he asked, for he had not been present
in the sanctuary, "and, daughter, why do you weep?"
"I weep, father, because your guest, the prince Aziel, has called me 'a
girl of the groves, and a murderess of children,'" she replied.
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