is
virtuous beauty knew full well that nothing became her better than dark
colors! In manner, gait and height this pair looked like two superior
beings, destined for each other by Fate; Katharina herself could not but
confess it.

Some spiteful demon--a friendly one, she thought--led them past her, so
close that her sharp ears could catch every word they said as they slowly
walked on, or now and then stood still, dogged by the agile
water-wagtail, who stole along parallel with them on the other side of
the hedge.

"I have so much to thank you for," were the first words she caught from
Orion, "that I am shy of asking you yet another favor; but this one
indeed concerns yourself. You know how deep a blow was struck me by
little Mary's childish hand; still, the impulse that prompted her had its
rise in her honest, upright feeling and her idolizing love of you."

"And you would like me to take charge of her?" asked Paula. "Such a wish
is of course granted beforehand--only. . . ."

"Only?" repeated Orion.

"Only you must send her here; for you know that I will never enter your
doors again."

"Alas that it should be so!--But the child has been very ill and can
hardly leave the house at present; and--since I must own it--my mother
avoids her in a way which distresses the child, who is over-excited as it
is, and fills her with new terrors."

"How can Neforis treat her little favorite so?"

"Remember," said Orion, "what my father has been to my poor mother. She
is now completely crushed: and, when she sees the little girl, that last
scene of her unhappy husband's life is brought back to her, with all that
came upon my father and me, beyond a doubt through Mary. She looks on the
poor little thing as the bane of the family?"

"Then she must come away," said Paula much touched. "Send her to us. Kind
and comforting souls dwell under Rufinus' roof."

"I thank you warmly. I will entreat my mother most urgently. . . ."

"Do so," interrupted Paula. "Have you ever seen Pulcheria, the daughter
of my worthy host?"

"Yes.--A singularly lovable creature!"

"She will soon take Mary into her faithful heart--"

"And our poor little girl needs a friend, now that Susannah has forbidden
her daughter to visit at our house."

The conversation now turned on the two girls, of whom they spoke as sweet
children, both much to be pitied; and, when Orion observed that his niece
was old for her tender years, Paula replied with a slight acc