that? Was it wise to tell him?

Thinking and planning, Belasez fell asleep.

The ordeal did not come off immediately. It seemed to Belasez as if her
father would gladly have avoided it altogether; but she was tolerably
sure that her mother would not allow him much peace till it was done.

"Delecresse," she said, the first time she was alone with her brother,
"had we ever a sister?"

"Never, to my knowledge," said Delecresse, looking as if he wondered
what had put that notion into her head.

Evidently he knew nothing.

Genta, who was constantly coming in and out, for her home was in the
same short street, dropped in during the evening, and Belasez carried
her off to her own little bed-chamber, which was really a goodsized
closet, on the pretext of showing her some new embroidery.

"Genta," she said, "tell me when my sister died."

"Thy sister, Belasez?" Genta's expression was one of most innocent
perplexity. "Hadst thou ever a sister?"

"Had I not?"

"I never heard of one."

"Think, Genta I was she not called Anegay?"

Genta's shake of the head was decided enough to settle any question, but
Belasez fancied she caught a momentary flash in her eyes which was by no
means a negation.

But Belasez did not hear a few sentences that were uttered before Genta
left the house.

"Aunt Licorice, what has Belasez got in her head?"

"Nay, what has she, Genta?"

"I am sure some one has been telling her something. She has asked me
to-night if she had not once a sister, and if her name were not Anegay."

The exclamation in reply was more forcible than elegant. But that
night, as Belasez lay in bed, through half-closed eyes she saw her
mother enter and hold the lantern to her face. I am sorry to add that
Belasez instantly counterfeited profound sleep; and Licorice retired
with apparent satisfaction.

"Husband!" she heard her mother say, a few minutes later, "either some
son of a Philistine has told that child something, or she has overheard
our words."

"What makes thee think so?" Abraham's tone was one of great distress,
if not terror.

"She has been asking questions of Genta. But she has got hold of the
wrong pattern--she fancies Anegay was her sister."

"Does she?" replied Abraham, in a tone of sorrowful tenderness.

"There's less harm in her thinking that, than if she knew the truth.
Genta showed great good sense: she professed to know nothing at all
about it."

"Dissimulation again, Licorice!"