"It is like her–like her!" he groaned.
In the Christian's heart he knew how narrowly Laodice had made her lover's mark for her.
"It is her wish," Nathan continued, "that I teach thee Christ whom she hath received."
"How can I receive Him, when He sent her from me?" the unhappy man groaned, unconscious of his contradictions.
"How canst thou reject Him when His teaching led thy love to do that which thine own lips have confessed to be the better thing?"
"Then what of myself, when I love where I should not love?" the Maccabee insisted.
"You may suffer and sin not," the Christian said kindly.
The unhappy man dropped to his knees.
"O Christ, why should I resist Thee!" he groaned. "Thou hast stripped me and made me see that my loss is good!"
The Christian laid his hands on the Maccabee's head.