Naomi was saved the embarrassment of a reply by their reaching her father's house; and she was glad of the circumstance, for the theme interested her feelings more than she wished Claudia to discover. Rufus the centurion had resided for many years at Jerusalem, holding a command in the imperial army, and his band composing part of the guards stationed in the city. Mutual obligations, and a respect for each other's character, had created a sincere friendship between him and Naomi's father Zadok, who, though he was a priest, and devotedly attached to the Jewish faith, was not blind to the generous and excellent qualities which distinguished the Roman soldier. Their families had constant intercourse, and their children grew up together in habits of familiar friendship. Naomi and Claudia regarded each other as sisters; nor did the difference of their religion or the contrast in their dispositions ever cause a disagreement between them. Marcellus was their constant companion, and their protector in their rambles among the verdant hills, and luxurious meadows and gardens which surrounded the city; and the mutual attachment which grew up between him and Naomi was remarked and smiled at by their parents while they were yet children. But as they advanced in years, it caused some uneasiness to Zadok and his amiable wife Salome, who could not allow themselves to contemplate the possibility of a union between their beloved daughter and an idolater. Nor was such an intention ever entertained by Naomi her soul was peculiarly susceptible to feelings of piety, and she worshipped the God of her fathers with a sincerity and fervency of devotion which was not common in the days of degeneracy and hypocrisy in which she lived. Idolatry she regarded with unfeigned abhorrence; and while she loved her Roman friends with all the natural warmth of an affectionate heart, she grieved for their profane and impious creed, and many were the attempts she made to convince them of its folly. Hitherto her efforts had been entirely unavailing, and she could gain no further concession from her young companions than an acknowledgment that Jehovah, the God of Israel, might certainly be a _Deity_; but they looked upon him merely as one of that host of deities in whom their religion taught them to believe, and by no means superior to their own false gods. This being the case, Naomi would have preferred death to a connexion with a Gentile idolater; and she persuaded herself that her attachment to Marcellus was nothing more than friendship.