--as safe as though it had been received under the sacred seal of
confession."

With this understanding Alwyn seemed relieved and satisfied, and
thereupon they left the apartment together.




CHAPTER VI.

"NOURHALMA" AND THE ORIGINAL ESDRAS.


Later on in the afternoon of the same day, when the sun, poised
above the western mountain-range, appeared to be lazily looking
about him with a drowsy, golden smile of farewell before
descending to his rest, Alwyn was once more alone in the library.
Twilight shadows were already gathering in the corners of the
long, low room, but he had moved the writing-table to the window,
in order to enjoy the magnificence of the surrounding scenery, and
sat where the light fell full upon his face as he leaned back in
his chair, with his hands clasped behind his head, in an attitude
of pleased, half-meditative indolence. He had just finished
reading from beginning to end the poem he had composed in his
trance ... there was not a line in it he could have wished
altered,--not a word that would have been better omitted,--the
only thing it lacked was a title, and this was the question on
which he now pondered. The subject of the poem itself was not new
to him--it was a story he had known from boyhood, ... an old