is heart seemed opened to this
admonition, then--but no, this must be all that could pass between
them--then all must be at an end, extinct, dead, like the fires in a
sunken raft, like a soap-bubble that the wind has burst, like an echo
that has died away--all over and utterly gone.

And as to the counsel she thought of offering to the man she had once
looked up to? What right had she to give it? Did he not look like a man
quite capable of planning and living his own life in his own strength?
Her heart thirsted for him, every fibre of her being yearned to see him
again, to hear his voice, and it was this longing, this craving to which
she gave the name of duty, connecting it with the gratitude she owed to
the dead.

She was so much absorbed in these reflections and doubts that she
scarcely heard all the garrulous old nurse was saying as she walked by
her side.

Perpetua could not be easy over such a funeral ceremony as this; so
different to anything that Memphis had been wont to see. No priests, a
procession on horseback, mourners riding, and among them the son even of
the dead--while of old the survivors had always followed the body on
foot, as was everywhere the custom! And then a mere chirping of crickets
at the tomb of such illustrious dead, followed by the disorderly
squalling of an immense mob--it had nearly cracked her ears! However, the
citizens might be forgiven for that, since it was all in honor of their
departed governor!--this thought touched even her resolute heart and
brought the tears to her eyes; but it roused her wrath, too, for had she
not seen quite humble folk buried in a more solemn manner and with
worthier ceremonial than the great and good Mukaukas George, who had made
such a magnificent gift to the Church. Oh those Jacobites! They only were
capable of such ingratitude, only their heretical prelate could commit
such a crime. Every one in the Convent of St. Cecilia, from the abbess
down to the youngest novice, knew that the Patriarch had sent word by a
carrier pigeon forbidding the Bishop to allow the priests to take part in
the ceremony. Plotinus was a worthy man, and he had been highly indignant
at these instructions; it was not in his power to contravene them; but at
any rate he had led the procession in person, and had not forbidden
John's accompanying him. Orion, however, had not looked as though he
meant to brook such an insult to his father or let it pass unpunished.
And whose arm was lo