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people; and lo! many came running thither, exclaiming, "Penthea's fountain is dried up!" Then some remembered the words of the oracle, and exclaimed, "This Master is greater than Plato, for he has uttered "GOD IS LOVE."

THE FAVORITE OF VENUS.

THE FAVORITE OF VENUS.

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IN

O, Eudora: you are not right to call me heartless," said Helena

to her, as they walked by moonlight through the garden of Hipparchus, the wealthy father of Eudora. "I am not heartless; but I am proud, and bitterly have I felt the scorn of the world. You know not what it is to be an outcast, a slave, to eat the bread of a servitude the more galling because I am the pampered plaything, not the strong and useful tool. No, Eudora: I can remember my dreams by the sunny banks of my native river, when a mother's voice had lovingly soothed me to sleep; and I know that, though but a child, they were full of deep and earnest love. I dreamed of loving a warrior, of following him in disguise from camp to camp,

and serving him as a menial that I might lighten his toil, of hovering close beside him as he mingled in the wildest, fiercest conflicts, and, when he died upon the battle-field, of closing his eyes with my kisses, and weeping my life away upon his grave. But for years I have been unloved. Tell me not of Philostratus," she answered to the look of Eudora : "he cares for me as he would for a favorite horse, and is almost as proud of me as of the wondrous statue wrought by Phidias, which adorns the entrance to the princely house; but does he ever call me daughter? does he ever lay his hand carelessly upon my hair? does he forget or let me forget for a moment that I am his slave?"

"Ah! Helena, but I love you!"

Helena's eyes moistened for a moment as she pressed the hand which had timidly stolen to hers.

"I am unkind to forget it, dear Eudora: you have indeed been my friend, but times will soon change. Alcmeon is already on his way hither, and will take you from us; and,

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