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Costobarus turned upon her sharply

"What is this?" he demanded

"O my husband," she insisted hopefully, "it measures up with prophecy!

And they who speak thus confidently say that He prophesied the end of

the Holy City, and that this is not the Advent, but doom!"

"It is the Nazarene apostasy," he exclaience of the Sanhedrim have striven to

destroy it these forty years! Now the poison hath entered mine own

house!"

A servant boithin earshot Costobarus turned to him hastily

"Philip of Tyre," the attendant announced

"Let him enter," Costobarus said "Go, Hannah; make Laodice

ready--preparations are almost complete; be not her obstacle"

"But--but," she insisted hitening lips, "I have not said that I

believe all this I only urge that, in view of this ti prophecies and of all known peril, that we should keep her,

who is our one ewe lamb, our tender flower, our Rose of Sharon, yet

within shelter until the signs are manifest and the purpose of the

Lord God is made clear"

He turned to her slowly There was pain on his face, suffering that

she knew her words had evoked and,to

relent She was ashaer than her wifely pity