The mere transformation would have been a sufficient surprise; but it was the least of the causes of his emotion.

Could he be mistaken?
Never was there in life a stranger so like his mother; and like her as she was the day the Roman snatched her from him.

There was but one difference to mar the identity--the hair of this person was a little streaked with gray; yet that was not impossible of reconcilement, since the intelligence which had directed the miracle might have taken into consideration the natural effects of the passage of years.

And who was it by her side, if not Tirzah ?--fair, beautiful, perfect, more mature, but in all other respects exactly the same in appearance as when she looked with him over the parapet the morning of the accident to Gratus.

He had given them over as dead, and time had accustomed him to the bereavement; he had not ceased mourning for them, yet, as something distinguishable, they had simply dropped out of his plans and dreams.