"As surely as our house stands before us!--Well, we have no time for any
more discussion, so it is settled: we start together. Let me find you in
the garden early to-morrow morning. You must tell your Mandane that you
are called away by important business."

"And Dame Joanna?" asked the Persian, and his voice was grave and
anxious as he went on: "The thing I like least, child, is that you should
not ask her, and take her into your confidence."

"But she will hear all about it, only not immediately," replied Mary.
"And the day after to-morrow, when she knows what I have gone off for and
that you are with me, she will praise us and bless us; yes, she will, as
surely as I hope that the Almighty will succor us in our journey!"

At these words, which evidently came from the very depths of her heart,
the Masdakite's resistance altogether gave way--just in time, for their
walk was at an end, and they both felt as though the long distance had
been covered by quite a few steps. They had passed close to several
groups of noisy and quarrelsome citizens, and many a funeral train had
borne the plague-stricken dead to the grave by torchlight under their
very eyes, but they had heeded none of these things.

It was not till they reached the garden-gate that they observed what was
going on around them. There they found the gardener and all the
household, anxiously watching for the return of their belated mistress.
Eudoxia too was waiting for them with some alarm. In the house they were
met by Horapollo, but Joanna and Pulcheria returned his greeting with a
cold bow, while Mary purposely turned her back on him. The old man
shrugged his shoulders with regretful annoyance, and in the solitude of