ld as a reward for the work of grace in Arsinoe's
soul; and she felt as if she had signed the compact with the Redeemer,
when, fully determined on this course, she went up to the girl and asked
her:

"You are quite forlorn, quite without relations?" Arsinoe bowed her head
in assent, and Paulina went on:

"And do you bear your loss with resignation?"

"What is resignation?" asked the girl modestly. Hannah laid her hand on
the widow's arm and whispered:

"She is a heathen."

"I know it," said Paulina shortly, and then went on kindly but
positively:

"You and yours have lost both parents and a home by your father's death.
You shall find a new home in my house, with me; I ask nothing of you in
return but your love."

Arsinoe looked at the haughty lady in astonishment. She could not
yet feel any impulse of affection towards her, and she did not as yet
understand that what was required of her was the one gift which the best
will, the most loving heart in the world, could not offer at a command.
Paulina did not wait for her reply, but signed to Hannah to follow her
to join the congregation now assembled at the evening meal.

A quarter of an hour later the two women returned. The steward's orphans
were provided for. Two or three Christian families were ready and
willing to take in some of them, and many a kindly house-mother had
begged to have the blind child; but in vain, for Hannah had claimed the
right to bring up the hapless little boy in her own house, at any rate
for the present. She knew how Selene clung to him, and hoped by his
presence to be able to work powerfully on the crushed and chilled heart
of the poor girl.

Arsinoe did not contravene the arrangements of the two women. She
thanked them, indeed, for she felt that she once more stood on firm
ground, but she also was immediately aware that it would be strewn
with sharp stones. The thought of parting from her little brothers and
sisters was terrible and cruel, and never left her mind for an instant,
while, accompanied by Hannah in person, she made her way back to
Lochias.

The next morning her kind friend appeared again and led her and the
little troup to Paulina's town-house. The steward's creditors divided
his little possessions; nothing but the chest of papyri followed the
girl to her new home. The hour in which the fondly-linked circle of
children was riven asunder, when one child was taken here and another
there, was the bitterest which Arsinoe h