"Take me with you," entreated Sirona in a low tone. "In my need I opened
my heart to your good and loving God, and I will never more pray to any
other. The mere thought of Him strengthened and comforted me, and now,
if ever, in this hour I need His merciful support."

"My child, my daughter!" cried the deaconess, deeply moved; she bent
over Sirona, kissed her forehead and her lips, and led her by the hand
into her quiet sleeping-room.

"This is the place where I most love to pray," she said, "although there
is here no image and no altar. My God is everywhere present and in every
place I can find Him."

The two women knelt down side by side, and both besought the same God for
the same mercies--not for themselves, but for another; and both in their
sorrow could give thanks--Sirona, because in Dorothea she had found a
mother, and Dorothea, because in Sirona she had found a dear and loving
daughter.




CHAPTER XXII.

Paulus was sitting in front of the cave that had sheltered Polykarp and
Sirona, and he watched the torches whose light lessened as the bearers
went farther and farther towards the valley. They lighted the way for
the wounded sculptor, who was being borne home to the oasis, lying in his
mother's easy litter, and accompanied by his father and his sister.