omplications of Cyprus, that when her need came he might be ready.

He never forgot the vision of the girl-queen in her sweeping widow's
robes, across the great space between them, in the sunshine of the
loggia--her hand extended as if to hasten or to bless him--a wonderful,
unearthly light and strength in her face; and, for one moment as she met
his gaze and understood the full depth of his devotion, the ghost of a
smile--as if it had been granted him to bring her in this hour of
martyrdom one little ray of human comfort.

XIV

Hagios Johannes, the holiest man in Cyprus, stood waiting in the vast,
empty presence-chamber of the young Queen; for, since the sudden death
of Janus, there had been no court-life in this palace of Potamia, and
the gloom hung most heavily over the more sumptuous halls of ceremony.

Hagios Johannes--_the holy John_--they called this prior of the House of
Priests from Troodos--the Mountain of the Holy Cross--after the name of
the earlier Saint who had made the spot famous for the holiness of his
living, for his boundless charity and the wisdom of his judgments, so
that the people had gone to him in ceaseless procession with their sins
and woes in the days of primitive Christianity in Cyprus, and had
returned to their peasant homes the stronger to endure and to renounce.
Johannes the Lesser, this one called himself--being truly great and
devout of heart, so that his vision was wise and true as that of Hagios
Johannes the Greater.

A curtain at the further end of the audience-chamber parted to admit a
stately figure in mourning-robes, as the Lady Beata of the Bernardini
advanced to meet him, bringing the message that the Queen would receive
him in an inner cabinet.

"She is very worn and tired, most Reverend Father, and in years so near
to childhood that the nobility and strength of her resolve are
marvellous. And the comfort that she seeketh of thee she doth most
sorely need."

The eyes of this strong and faithful friend gleamed with unshed tears as
she turned them upon the prior, in tender appeal.

But to Hagios Johannes all courts were strange; the life of his mountain
overflowed with possibilities of ministration which busied all his
powers, and it was the first time that he had ever entered any of the
palaces of the luxurious Kings of Cyprus--of which, perhaps, this summer
palace of Potamia was the most sumptuous. The long corridors of precious
marbles, with intricate carvings