hen during this life
its high aims have kept it unspotted by the dust of the sensual life, and
he, as the judge, sees that it has preserved itself worthy of its pure
First Cause, he allows it to return to the eternal and supreme Spirit
whence it originally proceeded.

"And do not you, too, strive after purification, to the end that your
soul may find an everlasting home in the radiant realms? Again and again
do we meet with the same ideas, only they bear different forms and names.
Try to feel the true bearing of my words, and then you will gladly join
in the pathetic appeal to the sublime god to return. How like he is to
your Lord! Is he not, like your Christ, a Saviour, and risen from the
dead? The Temple or the Church--both are the sanctuaries of the Deity. By
the ivy-wreathed altar of the weeping goddess, at the foot of the tall
cypresses which cast their mysterious shadows on the snowy whiteness of
the marble steps on which lies the bier of the god, you will feel the
sacred awe which falls upon every pure soul when it is conscious of the
presence of the Deity--call Him what you will.

"Isis, whom you now know, and who is neither more nor less than a
personification of divine mercy, will make you a return by restoring you
to the freedom for which you pine. She will allow you to find a home in
some Christian house through our intervention, in acknowledgment of the
pious service you are rendering, not to her but to the faith in divine
goodness. There you may live with your little brother, as free as heart
can desire. To-morrow you will go with Gorgo to the temple of the goddess
. . ."

But Agne broke in on his speech: "No, I will not go with her!"

Her cheeks were scarlet and her breath came short and fast with
excitement as she went on:

"I will not, I must not, I cannot! Do what you will with me: sell me and
my brother, put us to turn a mill--but I will not sing in the temple!"

Olympius knit his brows; his beard quivered and his lips parted in wrath,
but he controlled himself and going close to the girl he laid his hand on
her shoulder and said in a deep grave tone of fatherly admonition:

"Reflect, child, pause; think over what I have been saying to you;
remember, too, what you owe the little one you love, and to-morrow
morning tell us that you have duly weighed your answer. Give me your
hand, my daughter; believe me, Olympius is one of your sincerest
well-wishers."

He turned his back on her and was going