it before
it plunged into an unknown region, it knew not where. Paulett asked
himself where. "A little longer," said he, "and they must have died;
could not they wait their time, and take patience with death? Must they
die in drunkenness, in madness; worse than beasts?" Then his own thirsty
eyes fixed on the table, where, in the light of the sun, the water
sparkled, and gave rainbow rays. He forgot all beside, in the impulse
which urged him to seize and drink--to drink the first draught--to
satiate his throat with water. He drank and revived; and then blamed
himself for yielding so passionately to the impulse which was now passed
away; and as it passed, the horror of the scene around him acquired
greater force, and he longed to be out of its influence. He made haste
to collect all the jewels around him, and when he had done, found that
his burden was as much as he could safely carry. He went hastily out of
the room, as if any of these figures could rise and follow him, and
fastened the door again, where the crime had been wrought. He hastily
crossed the marble halls and gilded rooms, and came out in the
sunlight--the splendid, solemn sunlight that looked upon a burnt-up
world!

CHAPTER III.

Meantime, poor Ellen waited anxiously in the cavern, and as soon as the
first possible moment for Paulett's return was passed, her fears grew
strong. There was so much danger for him in the bare desert, with his
scanty supply of water, that she might well listen to fear as soon as it
had any reason to make itself heard; and with this dread, when she next
drew water from her scanty supply, came the horrible torment of the
anticipated death by thirst, which seemed descending upon her children
and her. The day she had thought he would return rose and set, and so
did another and another; and from fearing, she had begun to believe,
indeed, that Paulett's earthly hours were passed. Yet hope would not be
subdued entirely; and then she felt that perhaps by prolonging their
lives another day only, she should save them to welcome him, and to
profit by his hard-earned treasure. The store of water was sacredly
precious. She dealt it out in the smallest portions to her children, and
she herself scarcely wetted her lips; she hardened her heart to see her
boy's pale face, her girl's feverish eye; she checked even the motherly
tenderness of her habits, lest the softening of her heart should
overcome her resolution; and so she laid them in their