“Leave him to me,” smiled Damaris. “We have understood each other long enough.”
Marius had not long to wait. Soon after, Lucia joined them, and they waited in the porch for the return of Ethne and Baithene. It was evening before they came back, with a happy repose in their look and manner. This newly acknowledged freedom seemed to make little difference to Ethne; but Baithene’s step was light with a new spring, and his whole being had a new power, not so much as if he had been ransomed from bondage, but as if he had sprung at a bound into full and princely manhood, prepared to take his place in the world.
Fabricius drew near and greeted him with a smile.
“You have been to your friends the Israelites. Doubtless,” he added with some malice to Ethne, “you, lady, have kept your rigid determination to bestow nothing on them.”
“She has given Miriam the treasure she values most—an ancient heirloom of our house,” replied Baithene.
Ethne could not defend herself; and Lucia kissed her hand, laughing, and said—
“Of course; I knew—we all knew what thou wouldst do!”
Had Lucia spoken thus but yesterday, Baithene would have retorted with a jest; but with the recognition of their freedom and true place in the world, and all the happy possibilities the breaking down of any barrier between them might involve, had come also an indefinable distance between them, and he only said—
“I had thought that very jewel might be accepted by thy mother or by thee, little as our poor barbarian treasures must seem to you.”