Her?
Or that, her seeming sister?
Or the next ?....

Or--Was it Pelagia herself, most beautiful and most sinful of them all?
Fearful thought! He blushed scarlet at the bare imagination: yet why, in his secret heart, was that the most pleasant hypothesis of them all?
And suddenly flashed across him that observation of one of the girls on board the boat, on his likeness to Pelagia.
Strange, that he had never recollected it before! It must be so! and yet on what a slender thread, woven of scattered hints and surmises, did that 'must' depend! He would be sane! he would wait; he would have patience.

Patience, with a sister yet unfound, perhaps perishing?
Impossible! Suddenly the train of his thoughts was changed perforce:-- 'Come! come and see! There's a fight in the streets,' called one of the damsels down the stairs, at the highest pitch of her voice.
'I shan't go,' yawned a huge fellow, who was lying on his back on a sofa.
'Oh come up, my hero,' said one of the girls.

'Such a charming riot, and the Prefect himself in the middle of it! We have not had such a one in the street this month.' 'The princes won't let me knock any of these donkey-riders on the head, and seeing other people do it only makes me envious.

Give me the wine-jug--curse the girl! she has run upstairs!' The shouting and trampling came nearer; and in another minute Wulf came rapidly downstairs, through the hall into the harem-court, and into the presence of the Amal.
'Prince--here is a chance for us.