thank you for having found me this haven of rest. Help me now to keep
out everything that can intrude itself here to disturb my peace. If
Orion should ever dare, for whatever purpose, to force or steal a way
into this house, I trust to you, my friend and deliverer!"

She held out her hand to Philippus, and as he took it the blood seethed
in his veins with tender emotion.

"My strength, like my heart, is wholly yours!" he exclaimed ardently.
"Command them, and if the devoted love of a faithful, plain-spoken man--"

"Say no more, no, no!" Paula broke in with anxious vehemence. "Let us
remain closely bound together by friendship-as brother and sister."

"As brother and sister?" he dully echoed with a melancholy smile. "Aye,
friendship too is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But yet--let me speak--
I have dreamed of love, the tossing sea of passion; I have felt its
surges here--in here; I feel them still.... But man, man," and he struck
his forehead with his fist, "have you forgotten, like a fool, what your
image is in the mirror; have you forgotten that you are an ugly, clumsy
fellow, and that the gorgeous flower you long for. . . ."

Paula had shrunk back, startled by her friend's vehemence; but she now
went up to him, and taking his hand with frank spirit, she said
impressively:

"It is not so, Philippus, my dear, kind, only friend. The gorgeous
flower you desire I can no longer give you--or any one. It is mine no
longer; for when it had opened, once for all, cruel feet trod it down.
Do not abuse your mirrored image; do not call yourself a clumsy fellow.