188 A Legend of the Egean. [FEB. 



Eobardus embraced his young charge with tears of holy transport ; 

 and the maiden said, " Assuredly, father, it is now that I ought to 

 make my vows in token of gratitude to Phoebus !" 



fe Aphelia," returned her monitor, " not so. It is now that thou 

 mayest safely leave me/' 



" Leave thee, and live, my sire ? It cannot be." 



" Child of mine adoption, it must be ; but mine eye will watch over 

 thy roof; thou shalt see me day by day. It is time that thou shouldst 

 think and act for thyself, acquiring those feminine and household arts 

 of which, as yet, thou knowest nought. I am to bestow on thee a cot- 

 tage, with a garden, a field, a vineyard, and a flock. The venerable 

 Phrosyne, thy nurse, shall still attend thee. There thou wilt be at 

 liberty to make friends of thy kind ; shouldst thou love, consult me on 

 thy choice, my daughter ! for it is the will of higher powers that thou 

 shouldst be the mother of warriors." 



Behold, then, Aphelia, whose life had been hitherto so ethereal, cheer- 

 fully lending her small snowy hands to the tasks of a rustic. No hearth 

 was so neat as her's. She spun, she gardened ; she learnt to buy and 

 sell. Her wine, her mead, were soon famed in the isle. Her eco- 

 nomy, her bounty to the poor, endeared her to all hearts ; and was there 

 a dispute, of so temporal a nature that the peasants would have blushed 

 at appealing to Eobardus, they carried their cause before his pupil, 

 whose keen sense of right, and deep love of harmony, so obviously 

 blended, that her decisions were sure to silence, if not to satisfy both 

 parties ; and young or old would whisper ({ Aphelia is inspired !" 



Yet her high thoughts and lonely musings interfered neither with 

 her womanly duties, nor her child-like calm ; though she said and did 

 all things with an air so noble, she was so sincerely kind, so free from 

 vanity or lightness, that the shepherdesses were not jealous of her, and 

 even the swains she rejected remained her loving servants. 



" Be as my brother, dear Alexis \" would she say, with an artless 

 smile ; " I will pray that Cupid may draw his arrow from thy breast, 

 and heal the wound ; but I cannot, my sweet friend, ask the young god 

 to pierce my bosom for thy sake. Be as my brother." 



It was early spring when she settled in her cottage ; and after some 

 months of prosperous labour, she bethought her, that, besides her due 

 and daily service at the temple, it behoved her to thank Apollo in the 

 very scene he had blest. So, one eve, just after sunset, she went alone 

 to an open space, in a myrtle thicket by her dwelling, piled up a little 

 altar of turf, laid on it some boughs of laurel, a piece of honeycomb, a 

 bunch of grapes, then kindling it from her lamp, knelt down, and sung 

 praises to the god of light. 



It must have been a rare spectacle, that virgin in her fearless solitude. 

 If the gross sy Ivans lurking near could there have dared to gaze and 

 listen, they must have unlearnt the ill desires, by which they so oft pro- 

 faned scenes no less fair, and weepingly have owned, what a hallowed 

 thing is love when inspired by chastity ! 



So entranced was the maid, that, every now and then, she imagined 

 the rich tones of a lyre filling up the pauses of her chaunt ; but ere she 

 could ask herself if this might be so, a heavy peal of thunder crashed 

 over her head, and a dart of lightning paled the fires of her bloodless 

 sacrifice. Aphelia started to her feet, crying bravely 



" How have I offended ? What god is angry with me ?" 



