oner? In any case we
are in the power of strangers. We have never set our feet out of thy
apartments or of this well-walled garden, and know nothing of the
outside world. But thou art ever still and happy, as if it must be so!"

"And it must be so!"

"Indeed? and how will it end?"

"_He_ will come and set me free."

"Truly, White Lily, thou hast strong faith. If we were at home in
Mauretania, and I saw thee looking at night at the stars, I should say
that thou hadst read everything there. But in this way I do not
understand it," and she shook her black locks, "and I shall never
understand it."

"But thou shalt and wilt, Aspa!" said Mataswintha, raising herself, and
putting her white arm tenderly round the girl's brown neck; "thy
faithful love has long since deserved this reward, the best that I can
give thee."

A tear rose in the slave's dark eye.

"Reward?" she said. "Aspa was stolen by wild men with long red locks.
Aspa is a slave. Every one has scolded and beaten her. Thou boughtest
me as a flower is bought. But thou strokest my cheek and my hair. Thou
art as beautiful as the Goddess of the Sun, and thou speakest of
reward?"

And she nestled her head upon the bosom of her mistress.

"Thou art my gazelle!" said Mataswintha; "thou hast a heart of gold.
Thou shalt know all; thou shalt hear what is known to none but myself.
Listen; my childhood was without love, without joy; and yet my young
soul needed both. My poor mother had ardently longed for a boy, for an
heir to the throne--and she treated the girl who was born to her with
dislike, coldness, and severity. When Athalaric was born, she became
less harsh but more cold; all her love and care went to the heir to the
throne. I should not have felt it, had I not seen just the contrary in
my tender father. I felt that he also suffered under the coldness of
his wife, and the sick man often pressed me to his heart with tears and
sighs. And when he was dead and buried, all the love in the world was
dead for me. I saw little of Athalaric; he was educated by other
teachers in another part of the palace. I saw my mother still less;
scarcely ever, unless she had to punish me. And yet I loved her so
much! And I saw how my nurses and teachers loved their own children,
and kissed and petted them; and my heart longed with all its might for
similar warmth and affection. So I grew up like a pale flower without
sunshine! My favourite place in all the world was the grave of