d indeed sinned deeply and disastrously, was capable of
the highest and greatest aims if he had a friend to show him what life
required of him and were but ready to follow such guidance. And such a
friend she would be to him!

She, like Orion, could not for some time speak; but he, at last, was
unable to contain himself; he hastened towards her and pressed her hand
to his lips with fervent gratitude, while she--she had to submit; nay,
she would have been incapable of resisting him if, as in her dream, he
had clasped her in his arms, to his heart. His burning lips had rested
fervently on her hand, but it was only for an instant that she abandoned
herself to the violent agitation that mastered her. Then with a great
effort her instinct and determination to do right enabled her to control
it; she pushed him from her decisively but not ungently, and then, with
some emotion and an arch sweetness which he had never before seen in
her, and which charmed him even more than her noble and lofty pride, she
said, threatening him with her finger.

"Take care, Orion! Now I have the stone and the setting; yes, that very
setting. Beware of the consequences, rash man!"

"Not at all. Say rather: Fool, who at last has succeeded in doing
something rational," he replied joyfully. "What I have brought you is
not a gift; it is your own. To you it can be neither more nor less than
it was before; but to me it has gained inestimably in value since it
places my honor, perhaps my life even, in your keeping; I am in your
power as completely as the humblest slave in the palace is in that of
the Emperor. Keep the gem, and use it and this fateful gold trifle till
the day shall come when my weal and woe are one with yours."

"For your dead father's sake," she answered, coloring deeply, "your weal
lies already very near my heart. Am not I, who brought upon you your
father's curse, bound indeed to help you to free yourself from the
burden of it? And it may perhaps be in my power to do so, Orion, if you
do not scorn to listen to the counsels of an ignorant girl?"

"Speak," he cried; but she did not reply immediately. She only begged
him to come into the garden with her; the close atmosphere of the room
had become intolerable to both, and when they got out and Katharina
had first caught sight of them their flushed cheeks had not escaped her
watchful eye.

In the open air, a scarcely perceptible breath from the river moderated
the noontide heat, and t