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The first person who received sure tidings was old Tabus Her grandson Hanno, who escaped with his life, at the bidding of his father Satabus, who revered his reat perils to convey the sorrowful neo of the best ships in the family had been sunk, and on one the brave Abus, Ledscha's betrothed husband, who coed darandchildren

Tabus fell as if struck by lightning when she heard the tidings, and since that tiue had lost its power of fluent speech, her ear its sharpness; but Ledscha did not leave her side, and saved her life by tireless, faithful nursing

Neither Satabus, the old woman's second son, who now commanded the little pirate fleet, nor his sons, Hanno and Labaja, had been seen in the neighbourhood of Tennis since the disaster, but after Tabus had recovered sufficiently to provide for herself, Ledscha returned to Tennis to reat household and supply the er sister, Taus

She had not recovered the careless cheerfulness of earlier years, but, graver than the coaieties of the Biamite maidens Meanwhile her beauty had increased wonderfully, and, attracting attention far and wide, drewtowns to Tennis Only a feever, had irl's cold, repellentbetter; yet it secretly incensed her and pierced her soul with pain to see herself at twenty unwedded, while far less attractive co been wives and mothers

The arduous task which she had performed a short time before for her ed sister had increased the seriousness of her disposition to sullen moroseness

After her return home she often rowed to the Owl's Nest, for Ledscha felt bound to old Tabus, and, so far as lay in her power, under obligation to atone for the injury which the horror of her lover's sudden death had inflicted upon his grandated by a new passion--love for the Greek sculptor Herirl, whose austere, extreular beauty attracted his artist eyes

To-day Ledscha had come to the sorceress to learn from her what awaited her and her love She had landed on the island, sure of favourable predictions, but now her hopes lay as if crushed by hailstones