r brother of her deceased
husband. He was to have been their heir; but they had mourned his death
now two years; for news had reached them that Narses, who had served in
the Imperial army as tribune of cavalry, had fallen in battle against the
infidels. No one, however, had ever brought a more exact report of his
death; and at last their indefatigable enquiries had resulted in their
learning that he had been taken prisoner by the Saracens and carried into
slavery in Arabia. This report received confirmation through the efforts
of Orion and his deceased father. Within a few hours of the young
Egyptian's departure, they received a letter from the youth they had
given up for lost, written in trembling characters, in which he implored
them to effect his deliverance through Amru, the Arab governor of Egypt.
The old people had set forth at once on their pilgrimage, and Heliodora
had done her part in urging them to this step. Her passion for Orion, to
whom, for more than a year, her gentle heart had been wholly devoted, had
increased every hour since his departure. She had not concealed it from
Martina, who thought it no less than her duty to stand by the poor
lovesick child; for Heliodora had nursed her husband, the senator's
nephew, to the end, with touching fidelity and care; and besides, Martina
had given the young Egyptian--with whom she was "quite in love
herself"--every opportunity of paying his addresses to the young widow.

They were a pair that seemed made for each other, and Martina delighted
in match-making. But in this case, though hearts had met, hands had not,
and finally it had been a real grief to Martina to hear Orion and
Heliodora called--and with good reason--a pair of lovers.

Once she had appealed in her genial way to the young man's conscience,
and he had replied that his father, who was a Jacobite, would never
consent to his union with a woman of any other confession. At that time
she had found little to answer; but she had often thought if only she
could make the Mukaukas acquainted with Heliodora, he, whom she had known
in the capital as a young and handsome admirer of every charming woman,
would certainly capitulate.

Her favorite niece had indeed every grace that a father's heart could
desire to attract the son. She was of good family, the widow of a man of
rank, rich, but just two and twenty, and beautiful enough to bewitch old
or young. A sweeter and gentler soul Martina had never known. Those la