and the
fiery sun seemed to shine through tears as Father Paul, with his
assistants, read in solemn yet cheerful tones the service for the dead
according to the Catholic ritual. One of the chief mourners at the
grave was the faithful Leo; who, without obtruding himself in anyone's
way, sat at a little distance, and seemed, by the confiding look with
which he turned his eyes upon his master, to thoroughly understand that
he must henceforth devote his life entirely to him alone. The coffin
was lowered, the "Requiem aeternam" spoken--all was over. Those
assembled shook hands quietly with Heliobas, saluted each other, and
gradually dispersed. I entered a carriage and drove back to the Hotel
Mars, leaving Heliobas in the cemetery to give his final instructions
for the ornamentation and decoration of his sister's grave.

The little page served me with some luncheon in my own apartment, and
by the time all was ready for my departure, Heliobas returned. I went
down to him in his study, and found him sitting pensively in his
arm-chair, absorbed in thought. He looked sad and solitary, and my
whole heart went out to him in gratitude and sympathy. I knelt beside
him as a daughter might have done, and softly kissed his hand.

He started as though awakened suddenly from sleep, and seeing me, his
eyes softened, and he smiled gravely.

"Are you come to say 'Good-bye,' my child?" he asked, in a kind tone.
"Well, your mission here is ended!"

"Had I any mission at all," I replied, with a grateful look, "save the
very selfish one which was comprised in the natural desire to be
restored to health?"

Heliobas surveyed me for a few moments in silence.

"Were I to tell you," he said at last, "by what mystical authority and
influence you were compelled to come here, by what a marvellously
linked chain of circumstances you became known to me long before I saw
you; how I was made aware that you were the only woman living to whose
companionship I could trust my sister at a time when the society of one
of her own sex became absolutely necessary to her; how you were marked
out to me as a small point of light by which possibly I might steer my
course clear of the darkness which threatened me--I say, were I to tell
you all this, you would no longer doubt the urgent need of your
presence here. It is, however, enough to tell you that you have
fulfilled all that was expected of you, even beyond my best hopes; and
in return for your services, the