"Your own—parents, my lord? I knew that your dear mother had gone before, but—your father—"
"My father has passed to his eternal home. It is well with him as with yours. They are happy. And we—have a common sorrow, love!"
"I did not know—I did not know. No one told me," murmured Salome, as she dropped her face on her open hands, and cried like a child.
"Every one wished to spare you, my sweet girl, as long as possible. Yet I did think, they had told you of my father's departure, else I had not alluded to it so suddenly. There! weep no more, love! Viewed in the true light, those who have passed higher are rather to be envied than mourned."
Then to change the current of her thoughts he said:
"Can you give your mind now to a little business, Salome?"
"Yes, if it concerns you," she sighed, wiping her eyes, and looking up.
"It concerns me only inasmuch as it affects your interests, my love. You are of age, my Salome?"
"Yes, I was twenty-one on my last birthday."
"Then you enter at once upon your great inheritance—an onerous and responsible position."