t garden. I will escort
the sisters as far as Doomiat on the Lake. I will send on a mounted
messenger to-night, and I will charter a ship for the fugitives by the
help of my cousin Columella, the greatest ship-owner of that town. That
will take them over seas wherever the abbess may command."

"Capital, splendid!" cried Rufinus enthusiastically. He took up his
hat and stick, and the radiant expression of his face changed to a very
grave one. He went up to the young man with solemn dignity, looked at
him with fatherly kindliness, and said:

"I know what woes befell your house through those of our confession,
the fellow-believers of these whom you propose to protect with so much
prudence and courage; and that, young man, is noble, nay, is truly
great. I find in you--you who were described to me as a man of the world
and not over-precise--for the first time that which I have sought in
vain for many years and in many lands, among the pious and virtuous: the
spirit of willing self-sacrifice to save an enemy of a different creed
from pressing peril.--But you are young, Orion, and I am old. You
triumph in the action only, I foresee the consequences. Do you know what
lies before you, if it should be discovered that you have covered the
escape of the prey whom the patriarch already sees in his net? Have you
considered that Benjamin, the most implacable and most powerful hater
among the Jacobites, will pursue you as his mortal foe with all the
fearful means at his command?"

"I have considered it," replied Orion.

Rufinus laid his left hand on the young man's shoulder, and his right
hand on his head, saying, "Then take with you, to begin with, an old
man's--a father's blessing."

"Yes, a father's," repeated Orion softly. A happy thrill ran through his
body and soul, and he fell on the old man's neck deeply moved.

For a minute they stood clasped in each other's arms; then Rufinus freed
himself, and set out to seek the abbess. Orion returned to the women,
whose curiosity had been roused to a high pitch by seeing Rufinus
disappear through the gate leading to the convent-garden. Dame Joanna
could not sit still for excitement, and Pulcheria answered at random
when Orion and Paula, who had an infinity of things to say or whisper to
each other, now and then tried to draw her into the conversation.
Once she sighed deeply, and when her friend asked her: "What ails you,
Child?" she answered anxiously:

"Something serious must be g