But Joshua, unheeding her entreaty, exclaimed "Should I be a man, if I
forgot vengeance?"

The young widow clung anxiously to his arm, gasping in beseeching
accents:

"How could you forgive him? Only you must not curse him; for my father
became your foe through love for me. You know his hot blood, which so
easily carries him to extremes, despite his years. He concealed from me
what he regarded as an insult; for he saw many woo me, and I am his
greatest treasure. Pharaoh can pardon rebels more easily than my father
can forgive the man who disdained his jewel. He behaved like one
possessed when he returned. Every word he uttered was an invective.
He could not endure to stay at home and raged just as furiously
elsewhere. But no doubt he would have calmed himself at last, as he so
often did before, had not some one who desired to pour oil on the flames
met him in the fore-court of the palace. I learned all this from Bai's
wife; for she, too, repents what she did to injure you; her husband used
every effort to save you. She, who is as brave as any man, was ready to
aid him and open the door of your prison; for she has not forgotten that
you saved her husband's life in Libya. Ephraim's chains were to fall
with yours, and everything was ready to aid your flight."

"I know it," Hosea interrupted gloomily, "and I will thank the God of my
fathers if those were wrong from whom I heard that you are to blame,
Kasana, for having our dungeon door locked more firmly."

"Should I be here, if that were so!" cried the beautiful, grieving woman
with impassioned eagerness. True, resentment did stir within me as it
does in every woman whose lover scorns her; but the misfortune that