The Sisters A Romance Author:Georg Ebers, Clara Bell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: air; then she was alone and she shook her head gently as she said to herself: " I give up everything to her and what I have left she takes from me. Three times h... more »ave I met the Roman, yesterday he gave me the violets, and I did want to keep those for myself—and now —" As she spoke she clasped the bowl she still held in her hand closely to her and her lips trembled pitifully, but only for an instant; she drew herself up and said firmly: "But it is all as it should be." Then she was silent; she set down the water-jar on the chest by her side, passed the back of her hand across her forehead as if her head were aching, then, as she sat gazing down dreamily into her lap, her weary head presently fell on her shoulder and she was asleep. CHAPTER II. The low brick building of which the sisters' room formed a part, was called the Pastophorium, and it was occupied also by other persons attached to the service of the temple, and by numbers of pilgrims. These assembled here from all parts of Egypt, and were glad to pass a night under the protection of the sanctuary. Irene, when she quitted her sister, went past many doors—which had been thrown open after sunrise— hastily returning the greetings of many strange as well as familiar faces, for all glanced after her kindly as though to see her thus early were an omen of happy augury, and she soon reached an outbuilding adjoining the northern end of the Pastophorium; here there was no door, but at the level of about a man's height fromthe ground there were six unclosed windows opening on the road. From the first of these the pale and much wrinkled face of an old man looked down on the girl as she approached. She shouted up to him Jn cheerful accents the greeting familiar to the Hellenes "Rejoice!" But he, without moving his lips, gravely...« less