splendors
and sinful works of the heathen, which pandered only to the senses. She
longed to remain miserable and poor on earth, that she might rejoin her
parents and dwell with them eternally.

To her it was not a belief but a certainty that her father and mother
were dwelling in Heaven, and she had often felt moved to pray that she
might die and be reunited to them; but she must not die yet, for her
little brother still needed her care. The kind souls whom she served
let him lack for nothing, it is true, that could conduce to his bodily
welfare; still, she could not appear before her parents without the
little one in her hand, and he would be lost eternally if his soul fell
into the power of the enemies of her faith. Her heart ached when she
reflected that Karnis, who was certainly not one of the reprobate and
whom she affectionately revered as a master in the art she loved--that
Herse, and the light-hearted Dada, and Orpheus even, must all be doomed
to perish eternally; and to save Orpheus she would willingly have
forfeited half the joys of Paradise. She saw that he was no less an
idolater than his parents; and yet, day by day, she prayed that his soul
might be saved, and she never ceased to hope for a miracle--that he too
might see a vision, like Paul, and confess the Saviour. She was so happy
when she was with him, and never happier than when it was her fortune to
sing with him, or to his admirable accompaniment on the lute. When she
could succeed in forgetting herself completely, and in giving utterance
by her lovely voice to all that was highest and best in her soul, he,
whose ear was no less sensitive and appreciative than his father's,
would frankly express his approval, and in these moments life was indeed
fair and precious.

Music was the bond between her and Orpheus, and when her soul was
stirred she could feel and express herself in music. Song was the
language of her heart, and she had learnt by experience that it was
a language which even the heathen could both use and understand. The
Eternal Father himself must find joy in such a voice as Gorgo's. She was
a heathen, and yet she had thrown into her song all that Agne herself
could feel when she lifted up her heart in passionate prayer. The
Christian--so she had often been taught--must have no part with the
idolaters; but it was God himself who had cast her on the hands of
Karnis, and the Church commanded that servants should obey their
masters. Singing