s, she said in
a low tone of urgent entreaty:

"Forgive me for coming so late. How long you must have been waiting!
But parting from my best friend, my second mother, agitated me so
painfully--it was so unspeakably sad.--I did not know how to hold up
my head, it ached so when I came home, and now--oh, I had hoped that we
might meet to-day so differently!"

"But even yesterday you had no time to spare for me," he retorted
sullenly, "and this morning--you were present when Rufinus invited
me--this morning!--I am not exacting, and to you, good God! How could
I be?--But have we not to part, to bid each other farewell--perhaps for
ever? Why should you have given up so much time and strength to your
friend, that so scanty a remnant is left for the lover? That is an
unfair division."

"How could I deny it?" she said with melancholy entreaty. "You are
indeed very right; but I could not leave the child last evening, as soon
as she came, and while she was weeping out all her sorrows; and if you
only knew how surprised and grieved I was--how my heart ached when,
instead of finding you, your note...."

"I was obliged to go to Amru," interrupted Orion. "This undertaking
compels me to leave much behind, and I am no longer the freest of
the free, as I used to be. During this dreadful breakfast I have been
sitting on thorns. But let all that pass. I came hither with a heart
high with hope--and now?--You see, Paula, this enterprise tears me in
two in more ways than you can imagine, puts me into a more critical
position, and weighs more on my mind than you can think or know--I will
explain it all to you at another time--and to bear it all, to keep up
the spirit and happy energy that I need, I must be secure of the one
thing for which I could take far greater toil and danger as mere child's
play; I must know...."

"You must know," she interposed, "whether my heart is fully and wholly
open to your love...."

"And whether," he added, with growing ardor, "in spite of the bitter
suffering that weighs on my wretched soul, I may hope to be happier than
the saints in bliss. O Paula, adored and only woman, may I...."

"You may," she said clearly and fervently. "I love you, Orion, and shall
never, never cease to love you with my whole soul."

He flew to her side, clasped both her hands as if beside himself,
snatched them to his lips regardless of the nearness of the house,
whence ten pairs of eyes might have seen him, and covered them wi