"It is my own dear sister Naomi! I thought I could not mistake your form and step--but your voice completely satisfied me. I have been lingering here for some hours; for I was anxious, if possible, to see some member of my father's household, and learn the present state of the city before I presented myself at the gate. But as I find you, Naomi, walking thus slenderly attended, I conclude that the civil war has somewhat subsided, and I may fearlessly enter the city under your escort." Naomi most joyfully embraced her brother, for whom she had a sincere affection, notwithstanding the many annoyances and provocations which she had received for his violent temper. Indeed all these were forgotten and forgiven during his long absence; and she remembered but that Javan was her only brother, who had been in danger and in captivity, and had now returned to be her friend and companion, and the comfort, as she hoped, of her parents. She assured him that he could safely enter the walls of Jerusalem, as the Zealots were almost constantly shut up in the temple, except when they sallied forth to insult or pillage the more peaceable inhabitants. "But happily," she added, "the situation of our father's house, so near the water-gate, allows me to walk out constantly in this direction; and not only to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of our own garden, but to ramble unmolested among the olive-groves of yonder mount, and to visit the lovely village of Bethany." Naomi sighed as she spoke of Bethany, for she feared that the return of her brother might put a stop to the happy and interesting hours which she passed there with Mary; for she knew that if he once suspected the object of her visits to the village, his anger would be ungovernable, and she dreaded his becoming acquainted with what he would call her impious apostasy. She could have wished that he might remain ignorant of it, but she felt that it was almost a hopeless wish, and she only prayed that she might be supported under the bitter addition of a brother's anger and a brother's scorn.