atriarch, and that
man's power was as great as his stature. Still, the image of Paula rose
high and supreme above that of the terrible old man, in Orion's fancy,
and his father, as it seemed to him, was like an ally in the battle he
was destined to wage in his own strength.

The young man's vivid imagination and excellent memory recapitulated
every word the prelate had uttered. The domineering old man, overflowing
with bigoted zeal, had played with him as a cat with a mouse. He had
tried to search his soul and sift him to the bottom before he attacked
the subject with which he ought to have begun, and concerning which
he was fully informed when he offered him his hand that first time--as
cheerfully, too, as though he had no serious grievance seething in
his soul. Orion resolved that he would cling fast to his faith without
Benjamin's interposition, and not allow his hold on the two other
Christian graces, Hope and Love, to be weakened by his influence.

By some miracle his mother had not yet told the prelate of his father's
curse, in spite of the anguish of her aching heart; and what a weapon
would not that have been in Benjamin's hand. It was with the deepest
pity that he thought of that poor, grief-stricken woman, and the idea
flashed through his mind that the patriarch might have gone back to his
mother to accuse him and to urge her to further revelations.

Many minutes had passed since the patriarch had left him; Orion had
allowed his illustrious guest to depart unescorted, and this could
not fail to excite surprise. Such a breach of good manners, of the
uncodified laws of society, struck Orion, the son of a noble and ancient
house, who had drunk in his regard for them as it were with his mother's
milk, as an indignity to himself; and to repair it he started
up, hastily smoothing down his tumbled hair, and hurried into the
viridarium. His fears were confirmed, for the patriarch's following were
standing in the fountain-hall close to the exit; his mother, too, was
there and Benjamin was in the act of departure.

The old man accepted his offered escort with dignified affability, as if
nothing but what was pleasant had passed between him and Orion. As they
crossed the viridarium he asked his young host what was the name of some
rare flower, and counselled him to take care that shade-giving trees
were planted in abundance on his various estates. In the outer hall, on
either side of the door, was a statue: Truth and j