all over it.--And that means?"

"Oh! mere nonsense," said the child somewhat abashed. "It was only to
show how my heart was divided among the persons I love. A whole half of
it belongs to Paula, this quarter is yours; but there, there, there," and
at each word she prodded the wax with the stylus, "that is where I had
kept a little corner for old Horapollo. He had better not come in my way
again!"

Her nimble fingers smoothed the wax, and over the effaced heart--
a child's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human
beings depended. He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's
adroitness and fidelity. Early next morning she was to receive a letter
to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers.

"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by the
mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer. "If we put together our
last gold pieces they will hardly suffice."

"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl. "And yet--
there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the same
time. . . ."

"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!" cried
Orion.

"Oh yes, yes! What do I want with them? But Dame Joanna has my mother's
things in her keeping."

"And you are afraid to ask her for them?" asked the young man. He