it.--And that means?"

"Oh! mere nonsense," said the child somewhat abashed. "It was only to
show how my heart was divided among the persons I love. A whole half of
it belongs to Paula, this quarter is yours; but there, there, there,"
and at each word she prodded the wax with the stylus, "that is where I
had kept a little corner for old Horapollo. He had better not come in my
way again!"

Her nimble fingers smoothed the wax, and over the effaced heart--a
child's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human
beings depended. He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's
adroitness and fidelity. Early next morning she was to receive a letter
to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers.

"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by
the mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer. "If we put together
our last gold pieces they will hardly suffice."

"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl. "And
yet--there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the
same time...."

"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!" cried
Orion.

"Oh yes, yes! What do I want with them? But Dame Joanna has my mother's
things in her keeping."

"And you are afraid to ask her for them?" asked the young man. He
appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion
took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her
to hand it to Joanna. Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she
would require on this gem. Mary joyfully took possession of the ring;
but presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction
suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion
as if they were parting for ever.

In the passage leading to Paula's cell the man suddenly stood still:
some one was approaching up the stairs.--If it should be the black
Vekeel, and he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour!

But no. Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their
light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had
often been here before now to console prisoners.

He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned
Melchite. Mary's dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not
belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt
who she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always
accompanied him when he vi