THE DARK DAY.
sing it in their prayers, while their hearers are totally ignorant of the import of the sounds that are uttered. '
“A momentary hectic past over the countenance of Miriam; I saw it, and with some astonishment, believed it a slight indication of anger; it was the first she had ever exhibited it passed away as rapidly as it approached -and her countenance exhibited a perfect image of resignation. She had risen slowly, and turned partly towards the window against the side of which she was leaning; her head was thrown a little back, and as the fire threw its light upon her visage, I discovered that her lips slightly moved, her large black eyes were raised, and suffused with a tear. Miriam, thought I, cannot harbour feelings of anger, or, if she does, what was there to cause it even now. She turned towards the family. The children had retired, our circle was small, but the eyes of Miriam passed rapidly from one to the other, as if anxious to observe whether more or less were in the room than were necessary to some purpose at which she evidently aimed.
“I have not been permitted, “said she, “since my residence in this family, to express my feelings for the deliverance, and protection for which I am indebted to its different members. I have not, I trust, been less grateful, for your favours, because they were delicately conferred; but an expression has escaped, this evening, which, were I to leave unnoticed, might secure for me the censure of hypocrisy, at least, of disingenu- ousness.
“To conceal from you longer, that I am not of your faith, would be to give evidence that I am ashamed of my own. I am the daughter of a JEW; and while I blush for my own unworthiness, I glory in the faith of my fathers. ' She paused; but that pliant meekness that had sat upon her visage, that humility of the downcast eye, which had been so peculiarly her characteristic, was past. Her form was extended, her cheek slightly suffused, and that dark eye, which had only languished before, was lit up with piercing brightness. She stood alone, as if conscious that she had thrown her gage among a host of foes, and was prepared for their acceptance. My father started from his chair with sudden emotion, and my mother, shuddering, drew near to him, as if fearful of contact with a Jewess. My father was a man of decision, and would have issued an order for barring his door against admission to a Jew, even in the most inclement season, had it been required of him before the offender against his faith had applied; but he had not a heart to injure or offend a human being in his power, least of all that one before him.
“I am in the house of a Christian, “said Miriam, after a long pause, “of one who has expressed his abhorrence for my faith and my kindred. I owe to him and his, my life, and now its only comforts; for these I have foregone much, I would sacrifice all my personal feelings, but I may not do treason to my GOD. Sooner than apostatize from the religion of my fathers, I must
throw myself upon the mercies of the world.'— My father stepped suddenly forward, and interrupted her, by taking her hand.' Miriam, “said he, “you will not doubt the sincerity of my feelings, when I tell you I deplore your want of knowledge of the religion of Christ, but I should do injustice to the excellence of your conduct, were I not to say that my house has been blessed by your presence. My children have been instructed by your assiduous attention, and edified by your example. I commend you now to the care of that God, who gave your chosen nation, the law by his Prophet; and I pray that in due time he may bless you, the most chosen of his people, with the spirit of the Gospel of his Son. ' -So saying, he kissed her forehead, and my mother followed her to her chamber.
“I dwell, “said again the unhappy being before me, “with strange pertinacity upon these details; and, it may occur to you that trifling circumstances are remembered with a distinctness, strange and unaccountable, in one suffering as I have suffered. But, I tell you, that all my life is condensed in a few short years. I know nothing, and am connected with nothing, but that one particular, that bright, evanescent object of my earthly adoration why am I not consumed by that fire that continually burns upon my brain? Even now, the everlasting waves do not moisten these weeds faster than my throbbing temples dry them to scorching. Oh! had I passed away; had heaven blessed me with utter dissolution; and the lightning that only scathed me, had it blasted and annihilated its object; had the uplifted waves that threw me breathing upon the shore, buried me lifeless in the channel's sand, what days of darkness had I escaped, and what nights, aye, long, long solitary nights of more than human suffering, should I have been spared. "
The mournful object of my contemplation smote violently and repeatedly upon his forehead, and threw himself from the rock on which he was seated.
Some days elapsed before I met the unhappy man again; when I saw him he bore evident marks of the effect of the paroxysm which had seized him when last we were together.
“I have learned, “said he, “to be less garrulous, in what I have further to tell; and I beseech you in charity to hear me; I shall be brief.
“To none could the profession of Judaism by Miriam, come with a more astounding effect than upon me. Why, I need not now tell youif this care worn face does not testify; if these white hairs, blanched in my youth, are not the testimony of deep anguish and bitter disappointment, what can words avail? -Yet Miriam never deceived me; but I mistook the cause of aversion to one subject. I imputed it to her sense of dependance, and fear of my father's prejudices, and his hopes upon another side. This profession, while it made no difference in the general deportment of the family towards her, at least, after a few days, cut off, as I believed, those hopes which I had cherished, but not uttered.—
