A pause followed--a pause in which I heard my own heart beating loudly,
so great was my anxiety. Heliobas suffered a few moments to elapse,
then stretched his hand across his sister's bier.

"In HER name, let there be peace between us, Ivan," he said in accents
that were both gentle and solemn.

The Prince, touched to the quick, responded to these kindly words with
eager promptness, and they clasped hands over the quiet and lovely form
that lay there--a silent, binding witness of their reconciliation.

"I have to ask your pardon, Casimir," then whispered Ivan. "I have also
to thank you for my life."

"Thank the friend who stands beside you," returned Heliobas, in the
same low tone, with a slight gesture towards me. "She reminded me of a
duty in time. As for pardon, I know of no cause of offence on your part
save what was perfectly excusable. Say no more; wisdom comes with
years, and you are yet young."

A long silence followed. We all remained looking wistfully down upon
the body of our lost darling, in thought too deep for words or weeping.
I then noticed that another humble mourner shared our watch--a mourner
whose very existence I had nearly forgotten. It was the faithful Leo.
He lay couchant on the stone floor at the foot of the bier, almost as
silent as a dog of marble; the only sign of animation he gave being a
deep sigh which broke from his honest heart now and then. I went to him
and softly patted his shaggy coat. He looked up at me with big brown
eyes full of tears, licked my hand meekly, and again laid his head down
upon his two fore-paws with a resignation that was most pathetic.

The dawn began to peer faintly through the chapel windows--the dawn of
a misty, chilly morning. The storm of the past night had left a sting
in the air, and the rain still fell, though gently. The wind had almost
entirely sunk into silence. I re-arranged the flowers that were strewn
on Zara's corpse, taking away all those that had slightly faded. The
orange-blossom was almost dead, but I left that where it was--where the
living Zara had herself placed it. As I performed this slight service,
I thought, half mournfully, half gladly--

"Yes, Heaven is thine, but this
Is a world of sweets and sours--
Our flowers are merely FLOWERS;
And the shadow of thy perfect bliss
Is the sunshine of ours."

Prince Ivan at last roused himself as from a deep and melancholy
reverie, and, addressing himself to Heliobas, said so