The sovereign, our dinar, does it not answer exactly to this poem of the Arabian written in the days of the Crusades! It is yellow, it is pure, it travels vast distances, and is as valuable in India as here, it is famous and has a reputation, the inscription on it is the mark of its worth, it is the sinew of war, the world loves its brightness as if it was coined from their hearts, those who have it in their purses are bold, it helps every one who has it, it banishes all cares, and one might say, were it not for fear of the Lord, that the sovereign was all mighty. All mighty for good as it seemed to Amaryllis thinking in her garret, leaning her head on her hand, and gazing at her violets; all mighty for good--if only she could get the real solid, golden sovereign! But the golden coin has another side--the obverse--another Fate, for evil, clinging to it, and the poet, changing his tone, thunders:-- Ruin on it for a deceiver and insincere, The yellow one with two faces like a hypocrite! It shows forth with two qualities to the eye of him that looks on it, The adornment of the loved one, the colour of the lover. Affection for it, think they who judge truly, Tempts men to commit that which shall anger their Maker. But for it no thief's right hand were cut off; Nor would tyranny be displayed by the impious; Nor would the niggardly shrink from the night-farer; Nor would the delayed claimant mourn the delay of him that withholds; Nor would men call to God from the envious who casts at them. Moreover the worst quality that it possesses Is that it helps thee not in straits, Save by fleeing from thee like a runaway slave. Well done he who casts it away from a hilltop, And who, when it whispers to him with the whispering of a lover, Says to it in the words of the truth-speaking, the veracious, "I have no mind for intimacy with thee,--begone!" "The worst quality that it possesses" remains to this day, and could Amaryllis have obtained the sovereign, still it would only have helped her by passing from her, from her hand to that of the creditor's, fleeing like a runaway slave. But Amaryllis surrounded with the troubles of her father and mother, saw only the good side of the golden sovereign, only that it was all powerful to bless. How unnatural it seems that a girl like this, that young and fresh and full of generous feelings as she was, her whole mind should perforce be taken up with the question of money; an unnatural and evil state of things. It seems to me very wicked that it should be so. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXV. THOUGH the portfolio was pushed aside and dust had gathered on the table, except where her arm touched it, Amaryllis came daily, and often twice a day, to her flowers to pray.