He searched in the folds of his sash for a coin, and showed it to her. It was an Italian baiocco polished till it looked like gold.
“You went to Naples ten years ago with your mother and grandfather,” Dylar said. “You visited the Museum. Two men were seated side by side on the steps as you went up, a young and an old man; and the old man stretched his hand out for alms. Your mother gave him something. The young man did not ask, but you gave him this baiocco, and you said, ‘My brother, I am sorry that it is not more.’”
For a moment she could not speak. Then she said,—
“I was taught to call the poor brother and sister. I could not know that I was taking a liberty.”
“The liberty of heaven!” said Dylar. “Well! I thought that you would come here some day. And you are here!”
He rose, looking down, as if to temper somewhat the joyousness of his exclamation.
“Ask all the questions you choose,” he said. “Do in all things as if you were in your father’s house. Farewell, till we meet again.”
CHAPTER XI.
All the social life of San Salvador centred in the Star-house, or assembly rooms, in the Square. This was open at all times to all classes, with certain restrictions. No one should go there in a working dress, nor except by appointment to meet some one, nor when any other convenient rendezvous was available, and no one should enter a room already occupied. It was on no account to be used as a lounging place. The result of these regulations was that all but the library and reading-room were usually deserted by day.
The lower floor was the music and dance-room, and was so constructed, the floor being supported entirely from beneath, and detached from the walls, that no jar was communicated to the rooms above. The only vestibule to this room, entered directly from the Square, was that formed by the pillars supporting the protruding angle of the story above. Inside, the corner opposite the door was railed off and raised for an orchestra. The angle at the right was curtained off for a dressing-room, and the third, entered from the outside, contained the stairway. The two upper floors were divided in nearly the same way; a large, hexagonal room with a supporting cluster of columns in the centre, and three small rooms walled or curtained off in the angles, one containing a staircase.