Among the relatives whom she was almost compelled occasionally to meet, and to receive at her own house, was her cousin Harroun, the son of her mother’s sister, who also was a pagan. The young man was of perfect physical organization, like so many of the Egyptian upper class, as beautiful as an untamed leopard, of quick, bright, sparkling intelligence, instinct with passion and appetite, and a general favorite among the aristocratic youth of Egyptian society in the city. One of Theckla’s greatest misfortunes and annoyances she found in the fact that this elegant youth conceived a violent passion for her at first sight, and seemed resolved to push his claims to the heart and hand of the young maiden without delay. As soon, however, as Theckla perceived any intimation of his feelings in regard to herself, she quietly arranged to receive him thereafter only in the library, and took care to see that Grand-uncle Am-nem-hat should be present, so that the young man never got an opportunity to see her alone. And to prevent the constant repetition of his invitations to her to visit the theatre, the hippodrome, and other places of amusement, she told him kindly that it was useless to offer such courtesies, for, that while it was unpleasant to refuse them, she could not and would not accept them from him nor from any one else, having no inclination to mingle in such throngs, and no need of any amusements except those which she was accustomed to find in literary pursuits. Harroun, who had been raised under a system in which courtship and marriage were, to a large extent, matters of convenience, and in which a chaste girl was not supposed to be possessed of any will, but was to be disposed of as her relations might deem to be proper and advantageous, thought that he had never seen so shy a maiden; but, in spite of her seeming unconsciousness and manifest indifference, he ceased not to visit her, claiming the privilege of a near relation in that particular, and ceased not to show his admiration for her by looks which were almost loathsome to her pure young soul. For the youth, like every other pagan, was mostly a brute, a very beautiful and elegant animal, truly, but not the less an animal; a very intellectual and gifted brute, but not the less brutal; and his sensuous admiration was offensive to the girl. The lofty and pure affection to which she and Arius gave the name of love would have been utterly incomprehensible to him as to every heathen. That to which they gave the name of love sprang as directly out of sensuous admiration and preference as does the passion of the lower animals; and while she did not comprehend why his advances were so repulsive to herself, she began to feel his preference as a sort of persecution, and avoided him as much as possible. Yet, as far as a pagan is capable of love at all, he loved her, and the very fact that he found her favor hard to win rendered successful pursuit of her all the more desirable.