kly--surely
not what we mean by their feeling?"

"Yes, that too," said the leech with stern gravity. "Feeling, too, may
change. Or do you range yourself on the side of the Arab merchant
and his fellow-Moslems, who regard man as the plaything of a blind
Fate?--But our spiritual teachers tell us that the evil to which we are
predestined, which is that born into the world with us, may be averted,
turned and guided to good by what they call spiritual regeneration. But
who that lives in the tumult of the world can ever succeed in 'killing
himself' in their sense of the word, in dying while yet he lives, to be
born again, a new man? The penitent's garb does not suit the stature of
an Orion; however, there is for him another way of returning to the path
he has lost. Fortune has hitherto offered her spoilt favorite so much
pleasure, that sheer enjoyment has left him no time to think seriously
on life itself; now she is showing him its graver side, she is inviting
him to reflect; and if he only finds a friend to give him the counsel
which my father left in a letter for me, his only child, as a youth--and
if he is ready to listen, I regard him as saved."

"And that word of counsel--what is it?" asked Paula with interest.

"To put it briefly, it is this: Life is not a banquet spread by fate for
our enjoyment, but a duty which we are bound to fulfil to the best of
our power. Each one must test his nature and gifts, and the better he
uses them for the weal and benefit of the body of which he was born a
member, the higher will his inmost gladness be, the more certainly will
he attain to a beautiful peace of mind, the less terrors will Death have
for him. In the consciousness of having sown seed for eternity he will
close his eyes like a faithful steward at the end of each day, and of
the last hour vouchsafed to him on earth. If Orion recognizes this,
if he submits to accept the duties imposed on him by existence, if
he devotes himself to them now for the first time to the best of his
powers, a day may come when I shall look up to him with respect--nay,
with admiration. The shipwreck of which the Arab spoke has overtaken
him. Let us see how he will save himself from the waves, and behave when
he is cast on shore."

"Let us see!" repeated Paula, "and wish that he may find such an
adviser! As you were speaking it struck me that it was my part.--But
no, no! He has placed himself beyond the pale of the compassion which
I might have fe