other.

An early and passionate affection attracted the young man to his
charming playfellow; the more ardently he cherished his faith the more
fervently did he desire to win her for his wife. But Olympius' fair
pupil was not easy of conquest; nay, he was not unfrequently hard beset
by her questions and arguments, and while, to her, the fight for a creed
was no more than an amusing wrestling match, in which to display her
strength, to him it was a matter in which his heart was engaged.

Damia and Porphyrius took a vain pleasure in their eager discussions,
and clapped with delight, as though it were a game of skill, when
Gorgo laughingly checkmated her excited opponent with some unanswerable
argument.

But there came a day when Constantine discovered that his eager defence
of that which to him was high and holy, was, to his hearers, no more
than a subject of mockery, and henceforth the lad, now fast growing to
manhood, kept away from the merchant's house. Still, Gorgo could always
win him back again, and sometimes, when they were alone together, the
old strife would be renewed, and more seriously and bitterly than of
old. But while he loved her, she also loved him, and when he had so
far mastered himself as to remain away for any length of time she wore
herself out with longing to see him. They felt that they belonged to
each other, but they also felt that an insuperable gulf yawned between
them, and that whenever they attempted to clasp hands across the abyss a
mysterious and irresistible impulse drove them to open it wider, and to
dig it deeper by fresh discussions, till at last Constantine could not
endure that she, of all people, should mock at his Holy of Holies and
drag it in the dust.

He must go--he must leave Gorgo, quit Alexandria, cost what it
might. The travellers' tales that he had heard from the captains of
trading-vessels and ships of war who frequented his father's house had
filled him with a love of danger and enterprise, and a desire to see
distant lands and foreign peoples. His father's business, for which he
was intended, did not attract him. Away--away--he would go away; and a
happy coincidence opened a path for him.

Porphyrius had taken him one day on some errand to Canopus; the elder
man had gone in his chariot, his two sons and Constantine escorting him
on horseback. At the city-gates they met Romanus, the general in command
of the Imperial army, with his staff of officers, and he, drawing