arch of her.

They rose, and as they went towards the house Constantine said very
earnestly:

"I will not insist; but trust my experience: When we have to give
something up sooner or later, if the wrench is a painful one, the sooner
and the more definitely it is done the better. Nothing is gained by
postponement and the pain is only prolonged. Hesitation and delay,
Gorgo, are a barrier built up by your own hand between us and our
happiness. You always had abundance of determination; be brave then,
now, and cut short at once a state of things that cannot last."

"Well, well," she said hurriedly. "But you must not, you will not
require me to do anything that is beyond my strength, or that would
involve breaking my word. To-morrow is not, and cannot be yours; it must
be a day of leave-taking and parting. After that I am yours, I cannot
live without you. I want you and nothing else. Your happiness shall be
mine; only, do not make it too hard to me to part from all that has been
dear to me from my infancy. Shut your eyes to tomorrow's proceedings,
and then--oh! if only we were sure of the right path, if only we could
tread it together! We know each other so perfectly, and I know, I feel,
that it will perhaps be a comfort to our hearts to be patient with each
other over matters which our judgment fails to comprehend or even to
approve. I might be so unutterably happy; but my heart trembles within
me, and I am not, I dare not be quite glad yet."

CHAPTER XII.

The young soldier was heartily welcomed by his friends of the merchant's
family; but old Damia was a little uneasy at the attitude which he
and Gorgo had taken up after their first greeting. He was agitated and
grave, she was eager and excited, with an air of determined enterprise.

Was Eros at the bottom of it all? Were the young people going to carry
out the jest of their childhood in sober earnest? The young officer was
handsome and attractive enough, and her granddaughter after all was but
a woman.

So far as Constantine was concerned the old lady had no personal
objection to him; nay, she appreciated his steady, grave manliness and,
for his own sake, was very glad to see him once more; but to contemplate
the ship-builder's son--the grandson of a freedman--a Christian and
devoted to the Emperor, even though he were a prefect or of even higher
grade--as a possible suitor for her Gorgo, the beautiful heiress of the
greater part of her wealth--the centre o