"I would join in the request," said Judith, "but I know that it would be useless. Naomi will not desert her mother to ensure her own safety; and she is right. For you, my dear Claudia, circumstances are widely different; and you do quite right in resolving to go with us and your betrothed husband. I have no doubt of your father's cheerful consent to your marriage, for he has no home himself to which he can invite you to return; and Jerusalem is no longer a desirable or safe abode for you. You shall be our beloved daughter, and I will seek to replace to you the parent whom you have lost." "Zadok will not oppose your kind determination, Claudia," said Theophilus; "for at Javan's urgent request he declared that you, as well as myself, should be prohibited from all intercourse with Naomi, except in his own or Salome's presence. Javan fears that you may communicate to her the heresies you have learnt from me; and he will rejoice in your departure." "Naomi, dearest Naomi," cried Claudia, "and am I then to be deprived of your society so soon? Is the short time which must elapse ere the wide ocean divides us to be embittered by your brother's cruel plans? I will not consent to it. I will appeal to Zadok. He knows that it is from you and Theophilus I have learnt the blessed faith that I will cherish to my dying hour; and I can have no power to teach you anything. Let me remain with you, my sister, my friend, until I leave you, perhaps for ever!" Claudia threw herself into the arms of Naomi, with a sudden burst of grief; and her friend could no longer restrain her own emotions. She saw that almost all her earthly comforts were about to be torn from her, and that she would be left alone to bear her father's displeasure, and probably soon to incur her brother's hatred and cruel oppression. Her mother would, she knew, be ever her kind and sympathising friend; but even she could not enter into all her feelings, or talk with her on the only subject that could now interest her. Of Marcellus she had heard nothing for some time past, and when Claudia should have left Jerusalem, she could not hope to receive any intelligence of him. Probably he would soon forget her; and at all events she felt that they were never likely to meet again. Her heart was heavily oppressed, and she wept silently and sadly. Javan's abrupt entrance roused her from her anticipated sorrows, to a sense of present trials.