think, wilt be a faithful one."

"What! I, but this moment a poor slave, the friend of the fairest and
most envied lady in all Rome! Nay, now thou laughest at me; but believe
me I am still heart and soul and body thy most devoted servant."

"I do believe it, child," said the Empress; "but tell me, pray, why thou
speakest in that proud melancholy tone of thy father? Was he a
freedman?"

"Nay, your Majesty, he was free-born; neither he nor his fathers were
ever in bondage to any man,"--and the fair face of the girl was suffused
with the glow of honest pride in the freeborn blood that flowed in her
veins.

"Forgive me, child, if I touched a sore spot in thy memory. Perchance I
may heal it. Money can do much, men say."

"In this case, dearest mistress, it is powerless. But from thee I can
have no secrets, if you care to listen to the story of one so long a
slave."

"I never knew thou wert aught else, child. My steward bought thee in the
slave market in the Suburra. Tell me all."

"'Tis a short story, but a sad one, your Majesty," said the girl, as she
went on braiding her mistress's hair. "My father was a Hebrew merchant,
a dealer in precious stones, well esteemed in his nation. He lived in
Damascus, where I was born. He named me after the beautiful fountain
near the Jordan of his native land."

"I thought it had been from the pagan goddess," interrupted the Empress.

"Nay, 'twas from the healing fountain of Callirho[e:], in Judea," continued
the girl "When my mother died, my father was plunged into inconsolable
grief, and fell ill, well-nigh to death. The most skilled physician in
Damascus, Eliezer by name, brought him back to life; but his friends
thought he had better let him die, for he converted him to the hated
Christian faith. Persecuted by his kinsmen, he came to Antioch with my
brother and myself, that he might join the great and flourishing
Christian Church in that city.[9] While on a trading voyage to Smyrna,
in which we children accompanied our father, we were captured by
Illyrian pirates, and carried to the slave market at Ravenna. There I
was purchased by a slave dealer from Rome, and my father and brother
were sold I know not whither. I never saw them again,"--and she heaved a
weary and hopeless sigh.

"Poor child!" said the Empress, a tear of sympathy glistening on her
cheek, "I fear that I can give thee little help. 'Tis strange how my
heart went out toward thee when thou wert first brought so t