Then he cried: "All that I have, I would share with the old man and Uarda." "And who would protect her ?" "Her father." "That rough drunkard who to-morrow or the day after may be sent no one knows where." "He is a good fellow," said the physician interrupting his friend, and stammering violently.

"But who 'would do anything to the child?
She is so so....

She is so charming, so perfectly--sweet and lovely." With these last words he cast down his eyes and reddened like a girl.
"You understand that," he said, "better than I do; yes, and you also think her beautiful! Strange! you must not laugh if I confess--I am but a man like every one else--when I confess, that I believe I have at length discovered in myself the missing organ for beauty of form--not believe merely, but truly have discovered it, for it has not only spoken, but cried, raged, till I felt a rushing in my ears, and for the first time was attracted more by the sufferer than by suffering.

I have sat in the hut as though spell-bound, and gazed at her hair, at her eyes, at how she breathed.

They must long since have missed me at the House of Seti, perhaps discovered all my preparations, when seeking me in my room! For two days and nights I have allowed myself to be drawn away from my work, for the sake of this child.