"My heart is as full as yours.

Down by the tank under the old sycamores--we shall be quietest there." Under the dense shade of the centenarian trees was a rough-hewn bench that they themselves had made years before; there Gorgo seated herself, but her companion remained standing.
"Yes!" he exclaimed.

"Here--here you must hear me! Here where we have been so happy together!" "So happy!" she echoed softly.
"And now," he went on, "we are together once more.

My heart beats wildly, Gorgo; it is well that this breastplate holds it fast, for I feel as though it would burst with hope and thankfulness." "Thankfulness ?" said Gorgo, looking down.
"Yes, thankfulness--sheer, fervent passionate gratitude! What you have given me, what an inestimable boon, you yourself hardly know; but no emperor could reward love and fidelity more lavishly than you have done--you, the care and the consolation, the pain and the joy of my life! My mother told me--it was the first thing she thought of--how you shed tears of grief on her bosom when the false report of my death reached home.

Those tears fell as morning dew on the drooping hopes in my heart, they were a welcome such as few travellers find on their return home.