Paradise of their own. He often took her out in his chariot; or she took
him in hers."

"Such a woman has horses too?" asked the head groom contemptuously.

"A woman!" cried the secretary. "A lady of rank!--She has none but
bright chestnuts; large horses of Armenian breed, and small, swift beasts
from the island of Sardinia, which fly on with the chariot, four abreast,
like hunted foxes. Her horses are always decked with flowers and ribbons
fluttering from the gold harness, and the grooms know how to drive them
too!--Well, every one thought that our young lord and the handsome widow
would marry; and it was a terrible blow to the hapless Heliodora when
nothing came of it--she looks like a saint and is as soft as a kitten.
I was by when they parted, and she shed such bitter tears it was pitiable
to see. Still, she could not be angry with her idol, poor, gentle,
tender kitten. She even gave him her lap-dog for a keepsake--that little
silky thing you have seen here. And take my word for it, that was a true
love-token, for her heart was as much set on that little beast as if it
had been her favorite child. And he felt the parting too, felt it
deeply; however, I am his confidential secretary, and it would never do
for me to tell tales out of school. He clasped the little dog to his
heart as he bid her farewell, and he promised her to send some keepsake
in return which should show her how precious her love had been--and it
will be no trifle, that any one may swear who knows my master. You,
Gamaliel, I daresay he has been to you about it by this time."

The man thus addressed--the same to whom Hiram was to offer Paula's
emerald--was a rich Alexandrian of a happy turn of mind; as soon as the
incursion of the Saracens had made Alexandria an unsafe residence, so
that the majority of his fellow Israelites had fled from the great port,