alone in the garden with her little
brother, and perceiving that no one paid any further attention to their
proceedings, she fell on her knees, clasped the child closely to her and
whispered:

"Pray with me, Papias; pray, pray that the Lord will protect us, and
that we may not be turned out of the way that leads us to our parents!
Pray, as I do!"

For a minute she remained prostrate with the child by her side.
Then, rising quickly, she took him by the hand and led him in almost
breathless haste through the garden-gate out into the road, bending her
steps towards the lake and then down the first turning that led to the
city.

CHAPTER XI.

Agne's flight remained unperceived for some little time, for every
member of the merchant's household was at the moment intent on some
personal interest. When Karnis and Orpheus had set out Gorgo was left
with her grandmother and it was not till some little time after that she
went out into the colonnade on the garden side of the house, whence she
had a view over the park and the shore as far as the ship-yard. There,
leaning against the shaft of a pillar, under the shade of the blossoming
shrubs, she stood gazing thoughtfully to the southward.

She was dreaming of the past, of her childhood's joys and privations.
Fate had bereft her of a mother's love, that sun of life's spring. Below
her, in a splendid mausoleum of purple porphyry, lay the mortal remains
of the beautiful woman who had given her birth, and who had been
snatched away before she could give her infant a first caress. But all
round the solemn monument gardens bloomed in the sunshine, and on the
further side of the wall covered with creepers, was the ship-yard, the
scene of numberless delightful games. She sighed as she looked at the
tall hulks, and watched for the man who, from her earliest girlhood, had
owned her heart, whose image was inseparable from every thing of joy
and beauty that she had ever known, and every grief her young soul had
suffered under.

Constantine, the younger son of Clemens the shipbuilder, had been her
brothers' companion and closest friend. He had proved himself their
superior in talents and gifts, and in all their games had been the
recognized leader. While still a tiny thing she would always be at their
heels, and Constantine had never failed to be patient with her, or to
help and protect her, and then came a time when the lads were all
eager to win her sympathy for their games and