y judgments, and Thy ways past finding out!" Then he
laid his hand upon Belasez's head.

"It is Adonai," he said. "Let Him do what seemeth Him good. He said
unto Shimei, Curse David. Methinks He hath said to thee, Love Bruno.
The Holy One forbid that I should grudge the love of--of our child, to
the desolate heart which we made desolate. Adonai knows, and He only,
whether we did good or bad. Pray to Him, my Belasez, to forgive that
one among us who truly needs His forgiveness!"

And Abraham hurried from the room, as if he were afraid to trust
himself, lest if he stayed he should say something which he might
afterwards regret bitterly.

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Note 1. Priest. All Jews named Cohen are sons of Aaron.

CHAPTER NINE.

PAYING THE BILL.

"'Tis hard when young heart, singing songs of to-morrow,
Is suddenly met by the old hag, Sorrow."

_Leigh Hunt_.

Father Bruno was walking slowly, with his hands one in the other behind
him, about a mile from Bury Castle. It was a lovely morning in April,
and, though alone, he had no fear of highwaymen; for he would have been
a bold sinner indeed who, in 1236, meddled with a priest for his harm.
An absent-minded man was Father Bruno, at all times when he was free to
indulge in meditation. For to him:--

"The future was all dark,
And the past a troubled sea,
And Memory sat in his heart
Wailing where Hope should be."

He was given to murmuring his thoughts half aloud when in solitude; and
he was doing it now. They oscillated from one to the other of two
subjects, closely associated in his mind. One was Belasez: the other
was a memory of his sorrowful past, a fair girl-face, the likeness to
which had struck him so distressingly in hers, and which would never
fade from his memory "till God's love set her at his side again."

"What will become of the maiden?" he whispered to himself. "So like, so
like!--just what my Beatrice might have been, if--nay, Thou art wise, O
Lord! It is I who am blind and ignorant. Ay, and just the same age!
She must be the infant of whom Licorice spoke: she was then in the
cradle, I remember. She said that if Beatrice had lived, they might
have been like twin sisters. Well, well! Ay, and it is well. For
Anegay has found her in Heaven, safe from sin and sorrow, from tempest
and temptation, with Christ for evermore.

"`_O mea, spes mea, O Syon aurea, ut