"It is said," answered Periander, "that love cannot exist without jealousy, and jealousy is often caused by the most trivial things. All I ask of you, and which you owe to an understanding like yours, is, that henceforth you should view my conduct with more candid and less punctilious eyes, (with eyes more beautiful would be impossible,) but not making of any small fault of mine, small as a grain of mustard-seed, a mountain which reaches the skies, from which jealous fancies spring; and for the rest, use your own judgment in dealing with the king and Sinforosa, and do not offend her, but feign to give hopes that may lead them to expect what they desire. And now I will leave you, that our long interview may not lead to any suspicion." So saying, Periander departed, and in leaving the room he met Clodio and Rutilio. Rutilio had just torn up the letter he had written to Polycarpa, and Clodio had folded up his and put it into his breast. Rutilio had repented of his folly, but Clodio was satisfied with his own cleverness and proud of his boldness: however, the time will come when he would gladly give half his life (supposing a life to be divideable) not to have written that letter. [Illustration] CHAPTER VIII. _What passed between Auristella and Sinforosa. All the Strangers resolve to quit the Island._ King Polycarp greatly enlivened by his amorous intentions, and quite confident and secure as to what Auristella's decision would be, set himself already to plan the festivals and rejoicings, which should celebrate the approaching wedding; in all which he never paused to consider the great disparity between his age and the intended bride's--the enormous distance of seventeen years and seventy; and even had he been sixty, the difference would still have been too great. Thus are even the wisest of men led away by the follies that love leads them into. Thus, are they who have not power to resist their amorous inclinations, subdued and carried away by the soft influence of the tender passion. Quite different was the case of Sinforosa, who felt no ways certain of what her fate would be; for, as is most natural, they who hope much, fear much; and those things which might have given weight to her hopes, such as her beauty, rank and station, and great merits, she considered as nothing, for it is a peculiar property of true love to make its votaries fearful that they are not worthy of the beloved object. Love and fear are so coupled together, that one is always to be found with the other; and true love is not arrogant, as some say, but humble, timid and retiring; and the more precious and inestimable is the thing beloved, the more does the lover tremble, lest by some fault of his own he should lose it. The fair Sinforosa considered all this quite differently from her father, and agitated between hope and fear, she went to seek Auristella, and learn from