Only he hoped that there was an escape, and the passion in his heart scorned the idea that in loving Nehushta he was being led astray, or made to abandon the right path.
The cold breeze blew steadily from the east, with a chill dampness in it, sighing wearily among the trees.

The summer was not yet wholly come, and the after-breath of the winter still made itself felt from time to time.

The lovers parted, taking leave of the spot they loved so well,--Zoroaster with a heavy foreboding of evil to come; Nehushta with a great longing for the morrow, a mad desire to be on the way to Shushan.
Something in her way of speaking had given Zoroaster a sense of pain.
Her interest in the court and in the Great King, the strange capricious hatred that seemed already forming in her breast against Atossa, the evident desire she betrayed to take part in the brilliant life of the capital,--indeed, her whole manner troubled him.

It seemed so unaccountable that she should be angry with him for his conduct at the burial of the prophet, that he almost thought she had wished to take advantage of a trifle for the sake of annoying him.

He felt that doubt which never comes so suddenly and wounds so keenly as when a man feels the most certain of his position and of himself.
He retired to his apartment in the palace with a burden of unhappiness and evil presentiment that was new to him.