Would she ever see him again?
Miriam could not tell.

Yet she knelt and prayed from her pure heart that if it were once only, she might speak with him face to face.

Indeed, it was this hope of meeting that, more than any other, supported her through all those dreadful days.
A week went by, and although the hurt to her foot had healed, like some flower in the dark Miriam drooped and languished in those gloomy vaults.
Twice she prayed her uncle to be allowed to creep to the mouth of the hole behind the ridge of rock, there to breathe the fresh air and see the blessed sky.

But this he would not suffer.

The thing was too dangerous, he said; for although none knew the secret of their hiding-place, already two or three fugitives had found their way into the quarries by other entrances, and these it was very difficult to pass unseen.
"So be it," answered Miriam, and crept back to her cell.
Nehushta looked after her anxiously, then said: "If she cannot have air I think that she will soon die.