"It is not for her, my son," replied Zadok, "that your sympathy will be excited; our poor Claudia will want all your affectionate consolations." "What has befallen my own dear sister?" interrupted Marcellus hastily, yet with a feeling of relief that his fears for Naomi were groundless. "All her hopes and all her happiness are blighted," said Zadok. "Theophilus is no more, and Claudia's heart is widowed." "The Lord have pity on her!" ejaculated Marcellus fervently. "What disease has carried him off so quickly? But I will go to her, poor girl! She has yet a brother to love and to cherish her, and to mourn with her over what she has lost." He dismounted, and giving his horse to a servant, he approached the litter in which his sister and Naomi were seated. The curtains were partially withdrawn, and they had seen him conversing with Zadok, and knew that the sorrowful truth was now made known to him. Claudia sprang from the litter, and threw herself wildly into his arms, while tears of bitter grief prevented her utterance. It is needless to dwell on such a meeting. All that was kind and affectionate Marcellus expressed; and then he gently replaced his sister in the litter, and in a voice faltering with emotion of various kinds, addressed himself to Naomi. She tried to hide her feelings of deep interest, and to meet him with the easy freedom of an old friend; but she was not very successful, and Marcellus saw with secret delight the embarrassment of her manner, and the deep flush that rose on her pale cheek. He did not however forget the affliction of his friends in his own happy feelings. He hastened to Judith's litter, and greeted her with a kindness that only reminded her more forcibly of the son she had lost, and who had been a friend and companion to Marcellus when she remembered him in former happy days. During the rest of the journey Marcellus rode by the side of his sister, and tried to cheer her with such pious suggestions as he believed she could receive and understand; but he did not utter the name of the Redeemer--of him who has promised rest to the weary and the heavy-laden, and is especially the consolation and support of His people under all their trials and all their sorrows. Both Claudia and Naomi felt how ineffectual must be every consolation that is not derived from Him, and more than ever they regretted that Marcellus should still, as they supposed, be ignorant of His mercies and His power; while both resolved to lose no opportunity of endeavouring to give him that knowledge which they found so precious to their own souls. But this was not the time for entering on such discussions; and they reached Joppa under the mutual impression that both parties were yet in ignorance of the only true way to peace, and to eternal life.