often thought of her, and each time that her image had appeared to his
inward eye he had felt as though daylight had shone in his soul. To have
met her he regarded as the greatest joy of his life, but he dared not
aspire to claim her as his own.

He did not undervalue himself and knew that he might well be proud of the
position he had won by his own industry and talents; and still she was
the grandchild of the man who had had the right to sell his grandfather
for mere coin, and was so high-born, rich and distinguished that he would
have thought it hardly more audacious to ask the Emperor what he would
take for the purple than to woo her. But to shelter her, to warn her, to
allow his soul to be refreshed by the sight of her and by her talk--this
he felt was permissible, this happiness no one could deprive him of. And
this she would grant him--she esteemed him and would give him the right
to protect her, this he felt, with thankfulness and joy. He would, then
and there, have gone through the exertions of the last few hours all over
again if he could have been certain that he should once more be refreshed
with the draught of water from her hand. Only to think of her and of her
sweetness seemed greater happiness than the possession of any other
woman.

As he got out of his litter at the door of his sister's town-house he
shook his head, smiling at himself; for he confessed to himself that the
whole of the long distance he had hardly thought of anything but
Balbilla.

Paulina's house had but few windows opening upon the street and these
belonged to the strangers' rooms, and yet his arrival had been observed.
A window at the side of the house, all grown round with creepers, framed
in a sweet girlish head which looked down from it inquisitively on the