little daughters. They were to go away on the morrow, so the young girl
had been obliged to devote herself to them: "And so the poor child is
sitting there at this minute," she lamented, "and must keep those two
little chatter-boxes quiet while she is longing to be here instead."

Orion quite understood these last words; he asked after the young girl,
and then added gaily:

"She promised me a collar yesterday for my little white keepsake from
Constantinople. Fie! Mary, you should not tease the poor little beast."

"No, let the dog go," added the widow, addressing the governor's little
granddaughter, who was trying to make the recalcitrant dog kiss her doll.
"But you know, Orion, this tiny creature is really too delicate for such
a big man as you are! You should give him to some pretty young lady and
then he would fulfil his destiny! And Katharina is embroidering him a
collar; I ought not to tell her little secret, but it is to have gold
stars on a blue ground."

"Because Orion is a star," cried the little girl. "So she is working
nothing but Orions."

"But fortunately there is but one star of my name," observed he. "Pray
tell her that Dame Susa."

The child clapped her hands. "He does not choose to have any other star
near him!" she exclaimed.

The widow broke in: "Little simpleton! I know people who cannot even
bear to have a likeness traced between themselves and any one else.--But