ed, in a low voice. "Not here-not to this great
palace in a street. Let us live in a little house, quite quietly, by
ourselves. A house with a garden, and a seat in the shade. Your mother
lives here!"

And then she blushed scarlet and looked down. He guessed, however, what
was passing in her mind, and bid her only to have patience, for as soon
as she was a baptized Christian Eusebius would intercede for her. And he
spoke warmly of his mother's piety and virtues, and asked Dada if she had
seen her at the races.

"Yes," she replied timidly; and when he went on to ask her if she had not
thought Mary very handsome and dignified, she answered frankly:
"Yes--very; but then she is so tall and grand-looking-she must wish for a
daughter-in-law very different from a poor, forsaken orphan like me--a
mere singer, looked down upon by every one! It is different with you; you
are satisfied with me as I am, and you know that I love you. If I never
find my uncle again I have no one on earth to care for me but you; but I
want no other, for you are my one and only hope, and to live for you and
with you is enough. Only you must never leave me or I shall die! But you
never can, for you told me that my soul was dearer to you than your own
life; and so long as I have you and your love I shall grow better and
better every day; but if you ever let me be parted from you I shall be
utterly lost. Yes, understand that once for all--ruined and lost, body
and soul!--I do not know what it is that terrifies me, but do let us go
on, away from this house. Suppose your mother were to see us!"

He did as she wished and tried to soothe her, praising his mother's
virtues with the affectionate blindness of a son; but she only half
listened to his eulogy, for, as they approached Rhacotis the throng grew
denser, they had no opportunities for conversation, they could think of
nothing but battling their way through the crowd; still, they were happy.

[The quarter of the city inhabited by the Egyptians. It was the old
town close to which Alexander the Great built his splendid new
city.]

They thus got to the street of the Sun--one of the main arteries of the
city cutting the Canopic way at right angles--and they went down it
towards the Gate of Helios in the south wall. The Serapeum lay to their
right, several streets leading to it from the street of the Sun. To reach
the house where Eusebius lived they ought to have turned down the street
of the Acr