primitive Christian communities, side by side with thaumaturgy and the graces of that spiritual life which hath almost become a dream unto the world rather than a blessed reality. So those four years passed fleetly and pleasantly away, and Arius was now a very tall but graceful youth of twenty, and Theckla was an exquisitely beautiful woman of sixteen, when Ammonius told his son that the time had come at which he desired him to go to Antioch in Syria, and pursue his studies with the Bishop Lucanius, for four or five years, preparatory to his ordination as a presbyter--if, indeed, his heart was still set on preferring to be a teacher and a preacher of the gospel to all other vocations; whereupon the young man at once answered that no earthly inducement could lead him to abandon the ministry, for which he had always considered himself set apart; and immediately the family began to make preparations for the young man’s departure. On the evening before Arius left Baucalis, he and Theckla wandered along the shores of the little bay, until they happened to come unto the spot at which she had been rescued from the raft, and the girl said: "Even there thou didst bring me unto the shore, Arius. It seemeth to me to have been ages and ages ago; and yet the time hath passed so pleasantly!" "Yea," said Arius, "yet it is only four years since then, and, after to-morrow, it may be as long a time before I see the dear old farm again, or thee. Theckla, wilt thou forget thy friend and our happy life at Baucalis, and all the things which made us blessed here so long?" "Nay," she said. "Life opens wide before us both, Arius, as we stand here upon its threshold--wide as the sea out yonder, and unknown. But Baucalis will always be the dearest place on earth to me." "Theckla," said the young man, taking one of the girl’s hands in his, "I love thee truly and tenderly. When I shall have finished the course of study at Antioch, I desire to come for thee and claim thee for my wife. Dost thou love me, Theckla, so that thou couldst be happy as my wife?" And the girl laid her head against his shoulder, and, raising her dewy eyes to his, she said, "If thou so lovest me, Arius, I would be the happiest woman in the world to be thy wife." Then the young man kissed her tenderly, and said: "Theckla, let this be a covenant between thee and me before the Lord, that when I shall have finished the studies required at Antioch, I will come for thee, and thou shalt be my wife." And she answered: "Yea, Arius! Let this be our covenant."