should succeed in washing the dark hue out of her skin. And all this she
did for him, that on his return she might charm him as much as the white
woman in the oasis, whom she hated as fiercely as she loved him
passionately.

During the heavy storm of last night a torrent from the mountain-height
had shed itself into her retreat and had driven her out of it. Wet
through, shelterless, tormented by remorse, fear and longing, she had
clambered from stone to stone, and sought refuge and peace under first
one rock and then another; thus she had been attracted by the glimmer of
light that shone out of the new dwelling of the pious Paulus; she had
seen and recognized the Alexandrian, but he had not observed her as he
cowered on the ground near his hearth deeply sunk in thought.

She knew now where the excommunicated man dwelt after whom Stephanus
often asked, and she had gathered from the old man's lamentations and
dark hints, that Paulus too had been ensnared and brought to ruin by her
enemy.

As the morning-star began to pale Miriam went up to Stephanus' cave; her
heart was full of tears, and yet she was unable to pour out her need and
suffering in a soothing flood of weeping; she was wholly possessed with a
wild desire to sink down on the earth there and die, and to be released
by death from her relentless, driving torment. But it was still too
early to disturb the old man--and yet--she must hear a human voice, one
word--even if it were a hard word--from the lips of a human being; for
the bewildering feeling of distraction which confused her mind, and the
misery of abandonment that crushed her heart, were all too cruelly
painful to be borne.