ed by his active assistance. When he entered just now, she
had even held out her hand to him, and inquired about the progress of
his work.

He was overwhelmed with business, but so great was his pleasure in
talking with her that he lingered longer than he would have deemed
right under any other circumstances, and regarded it as an unpleasant
interruption when Barine--for whom his heart had throbbed so warmly only
yesterday--entered the tablinum.

The young beauty was by no means content with a brief greeting; but drew
Helena entirely away from him. Never had he seen her embrace and kiss
her sister so passionately as while hurriedly telling her that she had
come to bid farewell to the loved ones in her grandparents' house.

Berenike had arrived with her, but went first to the old couple.

While Barine was telling Helena and Gorgias, also, why all this plan had
been formed so hastily, Gorgias was silently comparing the two sisters.
He found it natural that he had once believed that he loved Barine; but
she would not have been a fitting mistress of his house. Life at her
side would have been a chain of jealous emotions and anxieties, and her
stimulating remarks and searching questions, which demanded absolute
attention, would not have permitted him, after his return home, wearied
by arduous toil, to find the rest for which he longed. His eye wandered
from her to her sister, as if testing the space between two newly
erected pillars; and Barine, who had noticed his strange manner,
suddenly laughed merrily, and asked whether they might know what
building was occupying his thoughts, while a good friend was telling him
that the pleasant hours in her house were over.

Gorgias started, and the apology he stammered showed so plainly how
inattentively he had listened, that Barine would have had good reason to
feel offended. But one glance at her sister and another at him enabled
her speedily to guess the truth. She was pleased; for she esteemed
Gorgias, and had secretly feared that she might be forced to grieve him
by a refusal, but he seemed as if created for her sister. Her arrival
had probably interrupted them so, turning to Helena, she exclaimed: "I
must see my mother and our grandparents. Meanwhile entertain our friend
here. We know each other well. He is one of the few men who can be
trusted. That is my honest opinion, Gorgias, and I say it to you also,
Helena."

With these words she nodded to both, and Gorgias was agai