me witty sayings to
repeat to her from the table of the emperor. He, if any one, had a right
to smile. Now he was in the ante-room, in which two slave-women were
accustomed to keep watch; he found only one, and she was sleeping and
breathing deeply; he still smiled as he threw the light upon her
face--how stupid she looked with her mouth open! An alabaster lamp shed a
dim light in the bed-room, softly and still smiling he went up to
Glycera's ivory couch, and held up his lamp, and stared at the empty and
undisturbed bed--and the smile faded from his lips. The smile of that
evening came back to him no more through all the long years, for Glycera
had betrayed him, and left him--him and her child. All this had happened
twenty years since, and to-day all that he had then felt had returned to
him, and he saw his wife's empty couch with his "mind's eye," as plainly
as he had then seen it, and he felt as lonely and as miserable as in that
night. But now a shadow appeared before the opening of the cave, and he
breathed a deep sigh as he felt himself released from the hideous vision,
for he had recognized Paulus, who came up and knelt down beside him.

"Water, water!" Stephanus implored in a low voice, and Paulus, who was
cut to the heart by the moaning of the old man, which he had not heard
till he entered the cave, seized the pitcher. He looked into it, and,
finding it quite dry, he rushed down to the spring as if he were running
for a wager, filled it to the brim and brought it to the lips of the sick
man, who gulped the grateful drink down with deep draughts, and at last
exclaimed with a sigh of relief; "That is better; why were you so long
away? I was so thirsty!" Paulus who had fallen again on his knees by the
old man, pressed his brow against the couch, and made no reply. Stephanus
gazed in astonishment at his companion, but perceiving that he was
weeping passionately he asked no further questions. Perfect stillness
reigned in the cave for about an hour; at last Paulus raised his face,
and said, "Forgive me Stephanus. I forgot your necessity in prayer and
scourging, in order to recover the peace of mind I had trifled away--no
heathen would have done such a thing!" The sick man stroked his friend's
arm affectionately; but Paulus murmured, "Egoism, miserable egoism guides
and governs us. Which of us ever thinks of the needs of others? And
we--we who profess to walk in the way of the Lamb!"

He sighed deeply, and leaned his