"Irene—a sound pleasant to the ear"—Mahommed muttered. "Why is she called good?"
"Because she is an angel of mercy to the poor."
"That is not usual with the great and rich," he said next, yielding to a charm in the encomiums.
"Yes," the boatman responded, "she is great, being akin to the Emperor, and rich, too, though"—
Here the man broke off to assist in bringing the boat back from its recession with the current, at this point boisterously swift.
"You were saying the Princess is rich," Mahommed said, when the oars were again at rest.
"Oh, yes! But I cannot tell you, my friend, how many are partners in her wealth. Every widow and orphan who can get to her comes away with a portion. Isn't it so?"
His companion grunted affirmatively, adding: "Down yonder a man with a crooked back lives in an arched cell opening on the water. Perhaps the stranger saw it as he came up."
"Yes," Mahommed answered.
"Well, in the back part of the cell he has an altar with a crucifix and a picture of the Blessed Mother on it, and he keeps a candle burning before them day and night—something he could not do if we did not help him, for candles of wax are costly. He has named the altar after the Princess, Sta. Irene. We often stop and go in there to pray; and I have heard the blessings in the light of that candle are rich and many as the Patriarch has for sale in Sta. Sophia."