f the events of the night,
when Paul and Balsamides entered the room together. Paul showed more
emotion than I had expected, and clasped his brother in his arms in
genuine delight at having found him at last. Then he looked long at his
face, as though trying to see how far Alexander was changed in the
twenty months which had elapsed since they had met.

"You are a little thinner,--you look as though you had been ill," said
Paul.

"No, I have not been ill, but I have suffered horribly in many ways,"
answered Alexander, in his smooth, musical voice.

For some minutes they exchanged questions, while they overcame their
first excitement at being once more together. It was indeed little less
than a resurrection, and Alexander's ethereal face was that of a spirit
returning to earth rather than of a living man who had never left it. At
last Paul grew calmer.

"Will you tell us how it happened?" he asked, as he sat down upon the
divan beside his brother. Balsamides and I established ourselves in
chairs, ready to listen with breathless interest to the tale Alexander
was about to tell.

"You remember that night at Santa Sophia, Paul?" began the young man,
leaning back among the cushions, which showed to strong advantage the
extreme beauty of his delicate face. "Yes, of course you remember it,
very vividly, for Mr. Griggs has told me how you acted, and all the
trouble you took to find me. Very well; you remember, then, that the
last time I saw you we were all looking down at those fellows as they
went through their prayers and prostrations, and I stood a little apart
from you. You were very much absorbed in the sight, and the kavass, who
was a Mussulman, was looking on very devoutly. I thought I should like
to see the sight from the other side, and I walked away and turned the
corner of the gallery. You did not notice me, I suppose, and the noise
of the crowd, rising and falling on their knees, must have drowned my
footsteps."

"I had not the slightest idea that you had moved from where you stood,"
said Paul.

"No. When I reached the corner, I was very much surprised to see a man
standing in the shadow of the pillar. I was still more astonished when I
recognized the hideous negro who had knocked off my hat in the
afternoon. I expected that he would insult me, and I suppose I made as
though I would show fight; but he raised his finger to his lips, and
with the other hand held out a letter, composing his face into a sort of