and beauty
seemed a precious prize. When I saw her last, she was in company with an
ancient Jewess. Heaven grant that this Miriam may prove to be the one!'

'And I have a sister!' gasped Philammon, his eyes bursting with tears.
'We must find her! You will help me?--Now--this moment! There is nothing
else to be thought of, spoken of, done, henceforth, till she is found!'

'Ah, my son, my son! Better, better, perhaps, to leave her in the hands
of God! What if she were dead? To discover that, would be to discover
needless sorrow. And what if--God grant that it be not so! she had only
a name to live, and were dead, worse than dead, in sinful pleasure--'

'We would save her, or die trying to save her! Is it not enough for
me that she is my sister?' Arsenius shook his head. He little knew the
strange new light and warmth which his words had poured in upon the
young heart beside him. 'A sister!' What mysterious virtue was there in
that simple word, which made Philammon's brain reel and his heart throb
madly? A sister! not merely a friend, an equal, a help-mate, given
by God Himself, for loving whom none, not even a monk, could blame
him.--Not merely something delicate, weak, beautiful--for of course she
must be beautiful-whom he might cherish, guide, support, deliver, die
for, and find death delicious. Yes--all that, and more than that, lay
in the sacred word. For those divided and partial notions had flitted
across his mind too rapidly to stir such passion as moved him now; even
the hint of her sin and danger had been heard heedlessly, if heard at
all. It was the word itself which bore its own message, its own spell
to the heart of the fatherless and motherless foundling, as he faced for
the first time the deep, everlasting, divine reality of kindred.... A
sister! of his own flesh and blood--born of the same father, the
same mother--his, his, for ever! How hollow and fleeting seemed all
'spiritual sonships,' 'spiritual daughterhoods,' inventions of the
changing fancy, the wayward will of man! Arsenius--Pambo--ay, Hypatia
herself--what were they to him now? Here was a real relationship .... A
sister! What else was worth caring for upon earth?

'And she was at Athens when Pelagia was'--he cried at last--'perhaps
knew her--let us go to Pelagia herself!'

'Heaven forbid!' said Arsenius. 'We must wait at least till Miriam's
answer comes.'

'I can show you her house at least in the meanwhile; and you can go in
yourself when