seemed to have forgotten to care for his own masterpiece; for
years her life had been indeed a sad one.

The physician could promise the old man some mitigation of his
sufferings, and they liked each other so well that they parted the best
of friends, and not till a late hour.

CHAPTER III.

The Mukaukas' barge, urged forward by powerful rowers, made its way
smoothly down the river. On board there was whispering, and now and
again singing. Little Mary had dropped asleep on Paula's shoulder; the
Greek duenna gazed sometimes at the comet which filled her with terrors,
sometimes at Orion, whose handsome face had bewitched her mature heart,
and sometimes at the young girl whom she was ill-pleased to see thus
preferred by this favorite of the gods. It was a deliciously warm, still
night, and the moon, which makes the ocean swell and flow, stirs the
tide of feeling to rise in the human breast.

Whatever Paula asked for Orion sang, as though nothing was unknown to
him that had ever sounded on a Greek lute; and the longer they went on
the clearer and richer his voice grew, the more melting and seductive
its expression, and the more urgently it appealed to the young girl's
heart. Paula gave herself up to the sweet enchantment, and when he laid
down the lute and asked in low tones if his native land was not lovely
on such a night as this, or which song she liked best, and whether she
had any idea of what it had been to him to find her in his parents'
house, she yielded to the charm and answered him in whispers like his
own.

Under the dense foliage of the sleeping garden he pressed her hand to
his lips, and she, tremulous, let him have his way.--Bitter, bitter
years lay behind her. The physician had spoken only too truly. The
hardest blows of fate had brought her--the proud daughter of a noble
father--to a course of cruel humiliations. The life of a friendless
though not penniless relation, taken into a wealthy house out of
charity, had proved a thorny path to tread, but now-since the day before
yesterday--all was changed. Orion had come. His home and the city had
held high festival on his return, as at some gift of Fortune, in
which she too had a goodly share. He had met her, not as the dependent
relative, but as a beautiful and high-born woman. There was sunshine in
his presence which warmed her very heart, and made her raise her head
once more like a flower that is brought out under the open sky after
long privatio