out so loud and passionately that I felt as if I
must die of grief and pity: 'Forgive me if you can! Forgive me, wholly,
freely. I want it--you must, you must! I was going to run up to him
and throw my arms round him and forgive him everything, his trouble
distressed me so much; but he gravely pushed me away--not roughly
or sternly, and he said that there was an end of all love-making and
betrothal between us--that I was young, and that I should be able to
forget him. He would still be a true friend to me and to my mother, and
the more we required of him the more gladly would he serve us.

"I was about to answer him, but he hastily interrupted me and said
firmly and decisively: 'Lovable as you are, I cannot love you as you
deserve; for it is my duty to tell you, I have another and a greater
love in my heart--my first and my last; and though once in my life I
have proved myself a wretch, still, it was but once; and I would rather
endure your anger, and hurt both you and myself now, than continue
this unrighteous tie and cheat you and others.'--At this I was greatly
startled, and asked: 'Paula?' However, he did not answer, but bent over
me and touched my forehead with his lips, just as my father often kissed
me, and then went quickly out into the garden.

"Just then my mother came up, as red as a poppy and panting for breath:
she took me by the hand without a word, dragged me into the chariot
after her, and then cried out quite beside herself--she could not even
shed a tear for rage: 'What insolence! what unheard-of behavior--How can
I find the heart to tell you, poor sacrificed lamb...'"

"And she would have gone on, but that I would not let her finish; I told
her at once that I knew all, and happily I was able to keep quite calm.
I had some bad hours at home; and when Nilus came to us yesterday, after
the opening of the will, and brought me the pretty little gold box with
turquoises and pearls that I have always admired, and told me that the
good Mukaukas had written with his own hand, in his last will, that
it was to be given to me I his bright little 'Katharina,' my mother
insisted on my not taking it and sent it back to Neforis, though I
begged and prayed to keep it. And of course I shall never go to that
house again; indeed my mother talks of quitting Memphis altogether and
settling in Constantinople or some other city under Christian rule.
'Then our nice, pretty house must be given up, and our dear, lovely
garden