to the warm, sunny glow of happiness which thrilled through her, or occasioned its quick and delightful growth; for her eye did not linger on the large and glittering stone, but rested spellbound on the poor gold frame which had once held it, and which had cost her such hours of anguish.  This broken and worthless thing, it is true, was powerful to justify her in the opinions of her judges and her enemies; with this in her hand she would easily confute her accusers.  Still, it was not that which so greatly consoled her.  The physician’s remark, that there was no greater joy than the discovery that we have been deceived in thinking ill of another, recurred to her mind; and she had once loved the man who now stood before her open to every good influence, deeply moved in her presence; and her judgment of him had been a hundred, a thousand times too hard.  Only a noble soul could confidently expect magnanimity from a foe and he, he had put himself defenceless into the power of her who had been mortally stricken by the most fateful, and perhaps the only disgraceful act of his life.  In giving up this gold frame Orion also gave himself up; with this talisman in her possession she stood before him as irresistible Fate.  And now, as she looked up at him and met his large eyes, full of life and intellect but sparkling through tears of violent agitation, she felt absolutely certain that this favorite of Fortune, though he had indeed sinned deeply and disastrously, was capable of the highest and greatest aims if he had a friend to show him what life required of him and were but ready to follow such guidance.  And such a friend she would be to him!

She, like Orion, could not for some time speak; but he, at last, was unable to contain himself; he hastened towards her and pressed her hand to his lips with fervent gratitude, while she—­she had to submit; nay, she would have been incapable of resisting him if, as in her dream, he had clasped her in his arms, to his heart.  His burning lips had rested fervently on her hand, but it was only for an instant that she abandoned herself to the violent agitation that mastered her.  Then with a great effort her instinct and determination to do right enabled her to control it; she pushed him from her decisively but not ungently, and then, with some emotion and an arch sweetness which he had never before seen in her, and which charmed him even more than her noble and lofty pride, she said, threatening him with her finger.

“Take care, Orion!  Now I have the stone and the setting; yes, that very setting.  Beware of the consequences, rash man!”

“Not at all.  Say rather:  Fool, who at last has succeeded in doing something rational,” he replied joyfully.  “What I have brought you is not a gift; it is your own.  To you it can be neither more nor less than it was before; but to me it has gained inestimably in value since it places my honor, perhaps my life even, in your keeping; I am in your power as completely as the humblest slave in the palace is in that of the Emperor.  Keep the gem, and use it and this fateful gold trifle till the day shall come when my weal and woe are one with yours.”