Of course you mean that you wish to be separated." "Separated!" I exclaimed.

"What do you mean?
Of course we wish to be united." The Kohen stared at me as I said this with the look of one who was quite puzzled; and I then went on to speak of the fate that was before us, and to entreat his sympathy and his aid that we might be saved from so hideous a doom.

To all these words the Kohen listened with an air of amazement, as though I were saying incomprehensible things.
"You have a gentle and an affectionate nature," I said--"a nature full of sympathy with others, and noble self-denial." "Of course," said the Kohen, quickly, as though glad to get hold of something which he could understand, "of course we are all so, for we are so made.

It is our nature.

Who is there who is not self-denying?
No one can help that." This sounded strange indeed; but I did not care to criticize it.