"But," he insisted to the last moment, "remember that Pella is a City
of Refuge. If Jerusalem ceases to be hospitable, come to Pella."
A thought struck him.
"She," he said in a low tone, "promised that she would come."
"Then expect me," the Maccabee said.
The shepherd boy smiled contentedly and blessed the Maccabee and let
him go. As long as the man could see, his young host watched him, and
at the summit of the hill the Maccabee turned to wave his final
farewell. When the path dipped down the other side of the hill, the
man felt that more than the sunshine had been cut off by its great
shadow.
He did not go forward with a light heart. The whole of his purpose had
suddenly resolved itself into duty. There had been a certain nervous
expectancy that was almost fear in the thought of meeting the grown
woman he had married in her babyhood. He had lived in Ephesus with an
unengaged heart in all the crowd of opportunities for love, good and
bad. He had magnetism, strength, aloofness and a certain beauty--four
qualifications which had made him over and over again immensely
attractive to all classes of Ephesian women. But whatever his response
to them, he had not loved. Love and marriage were things so apart from
his activities as to be uninteresting. When finally he was called in
full manhood to assume without preliminary both of these things, he
was uncomfortable and apprehensive.
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