the
vessel will not be ready to set sail, nor yet for a day or two, for its
owner spoke to my messenger concerning possible delays. If so, there
will be time for you to look around you, and think of the days when you
wandered along the shore, hand in hand with your chosen one. You will,
perhaps, go over those wanderings again--along the sands leading past
Druse's olive grove to the altar of Vesta, or to the--'

'How know you about Druse's grove?' he cried with a start; and again
that look of keen inquiry came into his face. It was but a single step
now--he stood upon the very border of the truth. Should she repress him?
It were hardly worth the while. So she let him gaze, and, if anything,
softened her features yet more into the old familiar expression.

'Past Druse's Grove, Cleotos--or to the smooth rock which the waves
washed at Cato's Point. Do you remember, Cleotos, how often we there
sat, you holding me with your arm while I slid down the sloping side,
the better to dip my naked feet into the water?'

With a wild sob he seized her hand, and threw himself at her feet. Near
to the truth as he had been standing, it seemed at the last to burst
upon him with as much force as though even a suspicion of it had been a
thing before impossible. And yet, at the same time, it appeared to him
as though he must have known it all the while; for how could he
comprehend his blindness?

'AEnone,' he cried, 'send me not away! Let me stay here to serve you
forever!'

'Oh, speak not thus!' she said, touching his lips lightly with her
finger. 'Had you not been about to go from here, you should never have
recognized me. Forget, now, all that has ever passed between us; or
rather, strive to remember it only as a pleasant dream which left us in
its proper time. If the Fates separated us, it was only because they
were wiser than ourselves. Those bright anticipations of our youthful
love could never have been fully realized; and, if persisted in, might
have led only to sorrow and despair. Let me not blush now at having
revealed myself to you. Think, for the few minutes that remain to us, of
friendship and of duty alone.'

Raising him up, she placed him beside her, and there they talked about
the past and its pleasant recollections. How the cross miller, who had
never been known to do a kindness to any one else, had sometimes let
them ride upon his horse--how they had once rowed together about the
bay, and he had taken her aboard his