This long letter from her beloved brother gave Claudia the greatest pleasure; and though she expressed much surprise at the entire change in his sentiments on religion, and the deep importance which he now seemed to attach to that subject, yet the change did not appear to give her any dissatisfaction, and from that time she listened with attention and complacency to all the arguments of Naomi, and even obeyed her brother's injunction to peruse the inspired writings of Moses and the prophets, of which her friend possessed a beautiful copy. The intelligence conveyed in the letter of Marcellus was to Naomi a source of unmixed joy and gratitude. That he who had so long possessed her esteem and affection should have forsaken the sin and folly of idolatry, and have learned to worship that one Supreme Being who was the object of her entire devotion, filled her with delight; and she felt that her attachment to him, against which she had so long struggled, was now no longer guilty. But a great change had taken place in her own opinions and feelings since her first interview with Mary on the Mount of Olives. All that she had heard from that aged disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ had sunk deep into her heart, and God had caused the word of truth spoken by his feeble servant to take root in the soul of the young Jewess. She could not banish the subject from her thoughts; and the natural energy and determination of her character led her to risk everything, in order to obtain information on a point which she felt to be one of eternal consequence. She had therefore used all her influence with the kind-hearted, indulgent old Deborah; and had already induced her to accompany her more than once to the house of her Christian friend, and to leave her there to enjoy, for as long a time as it was safe to do so, the conversation that was at once so interesting and so delightful. Deborah was not informed that Mary was one of the detested sect of the Nazarenes, or even Naomi would have failed to persuade her to assist in these stolen interviews; but she knew that her religion differed from that of her young friend, and therefore she believed that she was of a different sect of Jews to that of which Zadok and his family were distinguished members, and that consequently Naomi's friendship for her would be disapproved of by her father; but she thought no great harm could come from these meetings, and promised that she would keep them secret.