is
house; to-morrow early the children must all quit the palace, and now,
while I am speaking, are at home alone and but ill tended."

The Christian woman's good words fell on kindly soil, and the presbyters
and deacons determined to recommend the congregation who should assemble
at the love-feast to give their assistance to the steward's children.

The elders had still much to discuss, so Hannah and Paulina were charged
with the task of appealing to the hearts of the well-to-do members
of the congregation to provide for the orphans. The poor widow first
conducted her wealthy friend and hostess to the little room where
Arsinoe was waiting with growing impatience. She looked paler than usual
but, in spite of her tear-reddened eyes which she kept fixed on the
ground, she was so lovely, so touchingly lovely, that the mere sight
of her moved Paulina's heart. She had once had two children, an only
daughter besides her son. The girl bad died in the spring-time of her
maidenhood, and Paulina thought of her at every hour of her life. It was
for her sake that she had been baptized and devoted her existence to a
series of painful sacrifices. She strove with all her might to be a good
Christian--for surely she, the self-denying woman who had taken up the
cross of her own free will, the suffering creature who loved stillness
and who had made her country-house, which she visited daily, a scene of
unrest, could not fail to win Heaven, and there she hoped to meet her
innocent child.

Arsinoe reminded her of her Helena, who certainly had been far less fair
than the steward's lovely daughter, but whose image had assumed new and
glorified forms in the mother's faithful heart. Since her son had left
home for a foreign country she had often asked herself whether she
might not find some young creature to take into her home, to attach to
herself, to bring up as a Christian, and to bring as an offering to her
Saviour's feet.

Her daughter had died a heathen, and nothing troubled Paulina so deeply
as that her soul was lost, and that her own struggling and striving
for grace could not lead her to the goal beyond the grave. No sacrifice
seemed too great to purchase her child's beatitude, and now, standing
before Arsinoe and looking at her with deep emotion and admiration, she
was seized with an idea which swiftly ripened to resolve. She would win
this sweet soul for the Redeemer, and implore Him with ceaseless prayers
to save her hapless chi