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Philip's heart leaped as he met
that soft beseeching glance, which seemed to entreat his patience with
the old man for her sake--he felt himself drawn into a bond of union
with her thoughts, and in his innermost soul he swore as knightly a vow
of chivalry and reverence for the fair maiden, who thus took him into
her silent confidence, as though he were some gallant Crusader of old
time, pledged to defend his lady's honor unto death. Olaf Gueldmar, after
a long and apparently sorrowful pause, resumed his conversation.
"Yes," he said, "Thelma is a Catholic, though here she has scarcely any
opportunity for performing the duties of her religion. It is a pretty
and a graceful creed,--well fitted for women. As for me, I am made of
sterner stuff, and the maxims of that gentle creature, Christ, find no
echo in my soul. But you, young sir," he added, turning suddenly on
Lorimer, who was engaged in meditatively smoothing out on his palm one
of the fallen rose-petals--"you have not spoken.


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