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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Bride of the Nile, by Georg Ebers, v1
+#78 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: The Bride of the Nile, Volume 1.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5517]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002]
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V1 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF THE NILE
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 1.
+
+Translated from the German by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The "Bride of the Nile" needs no preface.  For the professional student I
+may observe that I have relied on the authority of de Goeje in adhering
+to my own original opinion that the word Mukaukas is not to be regarded
+as a name but as a title, since the Arab writers to which I have made
+reference apply it to the responsible representatives of the Byzantine
+Emperor in antagonism to the Moslem power.  I was unfortunately unable to
+make further use of Karabacek's researches as to the Mukaukas.
+
+I shall not be held justified in placing the ancient Horus Apollo
+(Horapollo) in the seventh century after Christ by any one who regards
+the author of the Hieroglyphica as identical with the Egyptian
+philosopher of the same name who, according to Suidas, lived under
+Theodosius, and to whom Stephanus of Byzantium refers, writing so early
+as at the end of the fifth century.  But the lexicographer Suidas
+enumerates the works of Horapollo, the philologer and commentator on
+Greek poetry, without naming the Hieroglyphica, which is the only
+treatise alluded to by Stephanus.  Besides, all the other ancient writers
+who mention Horapollo at all leave us quite free to suppose that there
+may have been two sages of the same name--as does C. Leemans, who is most
+intimately versed in the Hieroglyphica--and the second certainly cannot
+have lived earlier than the VIIth century, since an accurate knowledge of
+hieroglyphic writing must have been lost far more completely in his time
+than we can suppose possible in the IVth century.  It must be remembered
+that we still possess well-executed hieroglyphic inscriptions dating from
+the time of Decius, 250 years after Christ.  Thus the Egyptian
+commentator on Greek poetry could hardly have needed a translator,
+whereas the Hieroglyphica seems to have been first rendered into Greek by
+Philippus.  The combination by which the author called in Egyptian Horus
+(the son of Isis) is supposed to have been born in Philae, where the
+cultus of the Egyptian heathen was longest practised, and where some
+familiarity with hieroglyphics must have been preserved to a late date,
+takes into due account the real state of affairs at the period I have
+selected for my story.
+
+                                             GEORG EBERS.
+     October 1st, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Half a lustrum had elapsed since Egypt had become subject to the
+youthful power of the Arabs, which had risen with such unexampled vigor
+and rapidity.  It had fallen an easy prey, cheaply bought, into the
+hands of a small, well-captained troop of Moslem warriors; and the fair
+province, which so lately had been a jewel of the Byzantine Empire and
+the most faithful foster-mother to Christianity, now owned the sway of
+the Khalif Omar and saw the Crescent raised by the side of the Cross.
+
+It was long since a hotter season had afflicted the land; and the Nile,
+whose rising had been watched for on the Night of Dropping--the 17th of
+June--with the usual festive preparations, had cheated the hopes of the
+Egyptians, and instead of rising had shrunk narrower and still narrower
+in its bed.--It was in this time of sore anxiety, on the 10th of July,
+A.D. 643, that a caravan from the North reached Memphis.
+
+It was but a small one; but its appearance in the decayed and deserted
+city of the Pyramids--which had grown only lengthwise, like a huge reed-
+leaf, since its breadth was confined between the Nile and the Libyan
+Hills--attracted the gaze of the passers-by, though in former years a
+Memphite would scarcely have thought it worth while to turn his head to
+gaze at an interminable pile of wagons loaded with merchandise, an
+imposing train of vehicles drawn by oxen, the flashing maniples of the
+imperial cavalry, or an endless procession wending its way down the five
+miles of high street.
+
+The merchant who, riding a dromedary of the choicest breed, conducted
+this caravan, was a lean Moslem of mature age, robed in soft silk.  A
+vast turban covered his small head and cast a shadow over his delicate
+and venerable features.
+
+The Egyptian guide who rode on a brisk little ass by his side, looked up
+frequently and with evident pleasure at the merchant's face--not in
+itself a handsome one with its hollow cheeks, meagre beard and large
+aquiline nose--for it was lighted up by a pair of bright eyes, full of
+attractive thoughtfulness and genuine kindness.  But that this fragile-
+looking man, in whose benevolent countenance grief and infirmities had
+graven many a furrow, could not only command but compel submission was
+legible alike in his thin, firmly-closed lips and in the zeal with which
+his following of truculent and bearded fighting men, armed to the teeth,
+obeyed his slightest sign.
+
+His Egyptian attendant, the head of the Hermeneutai--the guild of the
+Dragomans of that period--was a swarthy and surly native of Memphis;
+whenever he accidentally came too close to the fierce-looking riders of
+the dromedaries he shrunk his shoulders as if he expected a blow or a
+push, while he poured out question and answer to the Merchant Haschim,
+the owner of the caravan, without timidity and with the voluble
+garrulity of his tribe.
+
+"You seem very much at home here in Memphis," he observed, when the old
+man had expressed his surprise at the decadence and melancholy change in
+the city.
+
+"Thirty years ago," replied the merchant, "my business often brought me
+hither.  How many houses are now empty and in ruins where formerly only
+heavy coin could secure admittance!  Ruins on all sides!--Who has so
+cruelly mutilated that fine church?  My fellow-believers left every
+Christian fane untouched--that I know from our chief Amru himself."
+
+"It was the principal church of the Melchites, the Emperor's minions,"
+cried the guide, as if that were ample explanation of the fact.  The
+merchant, however, did not take it so.
+
+"Well," he said, "and what is there so dreadful in their creed?"
+
+"What?" said the Egyptian, and his eye flashed wrathfully.  "What?--
+They dismember the divine person of the Saviour and attribute to it two
+distinct natures.  And then!--All the Greeks settled here, and encouraged
+by the protection of the emperor, treated us, the owners of the land,
+like slaves, till your nation came to put an end to their oppression.
+They drove us by force into their churches, and every true-born Egyptian
+was punished as a rebel and a leper.  They mocked at us and persecuted us
+for our faith in the one divine nature of our Lord."
+
+"And so," interrupted the merchant, "as soon as we drove out the Greeks
+you behaved more unmercifully to them and their sanctuaries than we--whom
+you scorn as infidels--did to you!"
+
+"Mercy?--for them!" cried the Egyptian indignantly, as he cast an evil
+eye on the demolished edifice.  "They have reaped what they sowed; and
+now every one in Egypt who does not believe in your One God--blessed be
+the Saviour!--confesses the one sole nature of our Lord Jesus Christ.
+You drove out the Melchite rabble, and then it was our part to demolish
+the temples of their wretched Saviour, who lost His divine Unity at the
+synod of Chalcedon--damnation wait upon it!"
+
+"But still the Melchites are fellow-believers with you--they are
+Christians," said the merchant.
+
+"Christians?" echoed the guide with a contemptuous shrug.  "They may
+regard themselves as Christians; but I, with every one else great and
+small in this land, am of opinion that they have no right whatever to
+call themselves our fellow-believers and Christians.  They all are and
+shall be for ever accursed with their hundreds--nay thousands of devilish
+heresies, by which they degrade our God and Redeemer to the level of that
+idol on the stone pillar.  Half a cow and half a man!  Why, what rational
+being, I ask you, could pray to such a mongrel thing?  We Jacobites or
+Monophysites or whatever they choose to call us will not yield a jot or
+tittle of the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour; and if the old faith
+must die out, I will turn Moslem and be converted to your One Omnipotent
+God; for before I confess the heresies of the Melchites I will be hewn in
+pieces, and my wife and children with me.  Who knows what may be coming
+to pass?  And there are many advantages in going over to your side: for
+the power is in your hands, and long may you keep it!  We have got to be
+ruled by strangers; and who would not rather pay small tribute to the
+wise and healthy Khalif at Medina than a heavy one to the sickly imperial
+brood of Melchites at Constantinople.  The Mukaukas George, to be sure,
+is not a bad sort of man, and as he so soon gave up all idea of resisting
+you he was no doubt of my opinion.  Regarding you as just and pious
+folks, as our next neighbors, and perhaps even of our own race and blood,
+he preferred you--my brother told me so--to those Byzantine heretics,
+flayers of men and thirsting for blood, but yet, the Mukaukas is as good
+a Christian as breathes."
+
+The Arab had listened attentively and with a subtle smile to the
+Memphite, whose duties as guide now compelled him to break off.  The
+Egyptian made the whole caravan turn down an alley that led into a street
+running parallel to the river, where a few fine houses still stood in the
+midst of their gardens.  When men and beasts were making their way along
+a better pavement the merchant observed: "I knew the father of the man
+you were speaking of, very well.  He was wealthy and virtuous; of his son
+too I hear nothing but good.  But is he still allowed to bear the title
+of governor, or, what did you call him?--Mukaukas?"
+
+"Certainly, Master," said the guide.  "There is no older family than his
+in all Egypt, and if old Menas was rich the Mukaukas is richer, both by
+inheritance and by his wife's dower.  Nor could we wish for a more
+sensible or a juster governor!  He keeps his eye on his underlings too;
+still, business is not done now as briskly as formerly, for though he is
+not much older than I am--and I am not yet sixty--he is always ailing and
+has not been seen out of the house for months.  Even when your chief
+wants to see him he comes over to this side of the river.  It is a pity
+with such a man as he; and who was it that broke down his stalwart
+strength?  Why, those Melchite dogs; you may ask all along the Nile, long
+as it is, who was at the bottom of any misfortune, and you will always
+get the same answer: Wherever the Melchite or the Greek sets foot the
+grass refuses to grow."
+
+"But the Mukaukas, the emperor's representative....  the Arab began.  The
+Egyptian broke in however:
+
+"He, you think, must be safe from them?  They did not certainly injure
+his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against
+our party--it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus had a
+finger in that pie--they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid men--
+killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely."
+
+"Poor man!" sighed the Arab.  "And has he no child left?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  One son, and the widow of his eldest.  She went into a convent
+after her husband's death, but she left her child, her little Mary--she
+must be ten years old now--to live with her grandparents."
+
+"That is well," said the old man, "that will bring some sunshine into the
+house."
+
+"No doubt, Master.  And just lately they have had some cause for
+rejoicing.  The only surviving son--Orion is his name--came home only
+the day before yesterday from Constantinople where he has been for a long
+time.  There was a to-do!  Half the city went crazy.  Thousands went out
+to meet him, as though he were the Saviour; they erected triumphal
+arches, even folks of my creed--no one thought of hanging back.  One and
+all wanted to see the son of the great Mukaukas, and the women of course
+were first and foremost!"
+
+"You speak, however," said the Arab, "as though the returning hero were
+not worthy of so much honor."
+
+"That is as folks think,"  replied the Egyptian shrugging his shoulders.
+"At any rate he is the only son of the greatest man in the land."
+
+"But he does not promise to be like the old man?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," said the guide.  "My brother, a priest, and the head
+of one of our great schools, was his tutor, and he never met such a
+clever head as Orion's, he tells me.  He learnt everything without any
+trouble and at the same time worked as hard as a poor man's son.  We may
+expect him to win fame and honor--so Marcus says--for his parents and for
+the city of Memphis: but for my part, I can see the shady side, and I
+tell you the women will turn his head and bring him to a bad end.  He is
+handsome, taller even than the old man in his best days, and he knows how
+to make the most of himself when he meets a pretty face--and pretty faces
+are always to be met in his path .  .  ."
+
+"And the young rascal takes what he finds!"  said the Moslem laughing.
+"If that is all you are alarmed at I am glad for the youth.  He is young
+and such things are allowable."
+
+"Nay, Sir, even my brother--he lives now in Alexandria, and is blind and
+foolish enough still in all that concerns his former pupil--and even he
+thinks this is a dangerous rock ahead.  If he does not change in this
+respect he will wander further and further from the law of the Lord, and
+imperil his soul, for dangers surround him on all sides like roaring
+lions.  The noble gifts of a handsome and engaging person will lead him
+to his ruin; and though I do not desire it, I suspect.  .  .  ."
+
+"You look on the dark side and judge hardly," replied the old man.  "The
+young.  .  .  ."
+
+"Even the young, or at least the Christian young, ought to control
+themselves, though I, if any one, am inclined to make the utmost
+allowance for the handsome lad--nay, and I may confess: when he smiles at
+me I feel at once as if I had met with some good-luck; and there are a
+thousand other men in Memphis who feel the same, and still more the women
+you may be sure--but many a one has shed bitter tears on his account for
+all that.--But, by all the saints!--Talk of the wolf and you see his
+tail!  Look, there he is!--Halt!  Stop a minute, you men; it is worth
+while, Sir, to tarry a moment."
+
+"Is that his fine quadriga in front of the high garden gate yonder?"
+
+"Those are the Pannonian horses he brought with him, as swift as
+lightning and as....  But look!  Ah, now they have disappeared behind
+the hedge; but you, high up on your dromedary, must be able to see them.
+The little maid by his side is the widow Susannah's daughter.  This
+garden and the beautiful mansion behind the trees belong to her."
+
+"A very handsome property!"  said the Arab.
+
+"I should think so indeed!"  replied the Memphite.  "The garden goes down
+to the Nile, and then, what care is taken of it!"
+
+"Was it not here that Philommon the corn-merchant lived formerly?"  asked
+the old man, as though some memories were coming back to him.
+
+"To be sure.  He was Susannah's husband and must have been a man of fifty
+when he first wooed her.  The little girl is their only child and the
+richest heiress in the whole province; but she is not altogether grown up
+though she is sixteen years old--an old man's child, you understand, but
+a pretty, merry creature, a laughing dove in human form, and so quick and
+lively.  Her own people call her the little water-wagtail."
+
+"Good!--Good and very appropriate," said the merchant well pleased.
+"She is small too, a child rather than a maiden; but the graceful,
+gladsome creature takes my fancy.  And the governor's son--what is his
+name?"
+
+"Orion, Sir," replied the guide.
+
+"And by my beard," said the old man smiling.  "You have not over-praised
+him, man!  Such a youth as this Orion is not to be seen every day.  What
+a tall fellow, and how becoming are those brown curls.  Such as he are
+spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the other women
+follow suit.  And he has a frank, shrewd face with something behind it.
+If only he had left his purple coat and gold frippery in Constantinople!
+Such finery is out of place in this dismal ruinous city."
+
+While he was yet speaking the Memphite urged his ass forward, but the
+Arab held him back, for his attention was riveted by what was taking
+place within the enclosure.  He saw handsome Orion place a small white
+dog, a silky creature of great beauty that evidently belonged to him--in
+the little maiden's arms saw her kiss it and then put a blade of grass
+round its neck as if to measure its size.  The old man watched them as,
+both laughing gaily, they looked into each other's eyes and presently bid
+each other farewell.  The girl stood on tiptoe in front of some rare
+shrub to reach two exquisite purple flowers that blossomed at the top,
+hastily plucked them and offered them to him with a deep blush; she
+pushed away the hand he had put out to support her as she stretched up
+for the flowers with a saucy slap; and a bright glance of happiness
+lighted up her sweet face as the young man kissed the place her fingers
+had hit, and then pressed the flowers to his lips.  The old man looked on
+with sympathetic pleasure, as though it roused the sweetest memories in
+his mind; and his kind eyes shone as Orion, no less mischievously happy
+than the young girl, whispered something in her ear; she drew the long
+stem of grass out of her waist-belt to administer immediate and condign
+punishment withal, struck it across his face, and then fled over grass-
+plot and flower-bed, as swift as a roe, without heeding his repeated
+shouts of "Katharina! bewitching, big damsel, Katharina!"  till she
+reached the house.
+
+It was a charming little interlude.  Old Haschim was still pondering it
+in his memory with much satisfaction when he and his caravan had gone
+some distance further.  He felt obliged to Orion for this pretty scene,
+and when he heard the young man's quadriga approaching at an easy trot
+behind him, he turned round to gaze.  But the Arab's face had lost its
+contentment by the time the four Pannonians and the chariot, overlaid
+with silver ornamentation and forming, with its driver, a picture of rare
+beauty and in perfect taste, had slowly driven past, to fly on like the
+wind as soon as the road was clear, and to vanish presently in clouds of
+dust.  There was something of melancholy in his voice as he desired his
+young camel-driver to pick up the flowers, which now lay in the dust of
+the road, and to bring them to him.  He himself had observed the handsome
+youth as, with a glance and a gesture of annoyance with himself, he flung
+the innocent gift on the hot, sandy highway.
+
+"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite.  "Women are
+indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life--and he in theirs, I
+fear!  Poor little girl!"
+
+"The little water-wagtail do you mean?  Oh! with her it may perhaps turn
+to real earnest.  The two mothers have settled the matter already.  They
+are both rolling in gold, and where doves nest doves resort.--Thank God,
+the sun is low down over the Pyramids!  Let your people rest at the large
+inn yonder; the host is an honest man and lacks nothing, not even shade!"
+
+"So far as the beasts and drivers are concerned," said the merchant,
+"they may stop here.  But I, and the leader of the caravan, and some of
+my men will only take some refreshment, and then you must guide us to the
+governor; I have to speak with him.  It is growing late.  .  ."
+
+"That does not matter," said the Egyptian.  "The Mukaukas prefers to see
+strangers after sundown on such a scorching day.  If you have any
+dealings with him I am the very man for you.  You have only to make play
+with a gold piece and I can obtain you an audience at once through Sebek,
+the house-steward he is my cousin.  While you are resting here I will
+ride on to the governor's palace and bring you word as to how matters
+stand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The caravansary into which Haschim and his following now turned off
+stood on a plot of rising ground surrounded by palm-trees.  Before the
+destruction of the heathen sanctuaries it had been a temple of Imhotep,
+the Egyptian Esculapius, the beneficient god of healing, who had had his
+places of special worship even in the city of the dead.  It was half
+relined, half buried in desert sand when an enterprising inn-keeper had
+bought the elegant structure with the adjacent grove for a very moderate
+sum.  Since then it had passed to various owners, a large wooden building
+for the accommodation of travellers had been added to the massive
+edifice, and among the palm-trees, which extended as far as the ill-
+repaired quay, stables were erected and plots of ground fenced in for
+beasts of all kinds.  The whole place looked like a cattle-fair, and
+indeed it was a great resort of the butchers and horse-dealers of the
+town, who came there to purchase.  The palm-grove, being one of the few
+remaining close to the city, also served the Memphites as a pleasure-
+ground where they could "sniff fresh air" and treat themselves in a
+pleasant shade.  'Tables and seats had been set out close to the river,
+and there were boats on hire in mine host's little creek; and those who
+took their pleasure in coming thither by water were glad to put in and
+refresh themselves under the palms of Nesptah.
+
+Two rows of houses had formerly divided this rendezvous for the sober and
+the reckless from the highroad, but they had long since been pulled down
+and laid level with the ground by successive landlords.  Even now some
+hundreds of laborers might be seen, in spite of the scorching heat,
+toiling under Arab overseers to demolish a vast ruin of the date of the
+Ptolemies.  and transporting the huge blocks of limestone and marble, and
+the numberless columns which once had supported the roof of the temple of
+Zeus, to the eastern shore of the Nile-loading them on to trucks drawn by
+oxen which hauled them down to the quay to cross the river in flat-
+bottomed boats.
+
+Amru, the Khaliff's general and representative, was there building his
+new capital.  For this the temples of the old gods were used as quarries,
+and they supplied not only finely-squared blocks of the most durable
+stone, but also myriads of Greek columns of every order, which had only
+to be ferried over and set up again on the other shore; for the Arabs
+disdained nothing in the way of materials, and made indiscriminate use of
+blocks and pillars in their own sanctuaries, whether they took them from
+heathen temples or Christian churches.
+
+The walls of the temple of Imhotep had originally been completely covered
+with pictures of the gods, and hieroglyphic inscriptions; but the smoke
+of reeking hearths had long since blackened them, fanatical hands had
+never been wanting to deface them, and in many places they had been lime-
+washed and scrawled with Christian symbols or very unchristian mottoes,
+in Greek and the spoken dialect of the Egyptians.  The Arab and his men
+took their meal in what had been the great hall of the temple--none of
+them drinking wine excepting the captain of the caravan, who was no
+Moslem but belonged to the Parsee sect of the Masdakites.
+
+When the old merchant, sitting at a table by himself, had satisfied his
+hunger, he called this chief and desired him to load the bale containing
+the hanging on a litter between the two largest baggage camels, and to
+fasten it securely but so that it could easily be removed.
+
+"It is done," replied the Persian, as he wiped his thick moustache--he
+was a magnificent man as tall and stalwart as an oak, with light flowing
+hair like a lion's mane.
+
+"So much the better," said Haschim.  "Then come out with me."  And he led
+the way to the palmgrove.
+
+The sun had sunk to rest behind the pyramids, the Necropolis, and the
+Libyan hills; the eastern sky, and the bare limestone rock of Babylon on
+the opposite shore were shining with hues of indescribable diversity and
+beauty.  It seemed as though every variety of rose reared by the skilled
+gardeners of Arsinoe or Naukratis had yielded its hues, from golden buff
+to crimson and the deepest wine-tinted violet, to shed their magic glow
+on the plains, the peaks and gorges of the hills, with the swiftness of
+thought.
+
+The old man's heart beat high as he gazed at the scene; he drew a deep
+breath, and laying his slender hand on the Persian's mighty arm he said:
+"Your prophet, Masdak, taught that it was God's will that no one should
+think himself more or less chosen than another, and that there should be
+neither rich nor poor on earth, but that every possession should belong
+to all in common.  Well, look around you here as I do.  The man who has
+not seen this has seen nothing.  There is no fairer scene here below and
+to whom does it belong?  To poor simple Salech yonder, whom we allowed to
+tramp half naked at our camels' heels out of pity.--It is his as much as
+it is yours or mine or the Khaliff's.  God has given us all an equal
+share in the glory of his works, as your prophet would have it.  How much
+beauty is the common possession of our race!  Let us be thankful for it,
+Rustem, for indeed it is no small matter.--But as to property, such as
+man may win or lose, that is quite a different matter.  We all start on
+the same race-course, and what you Masdakites ask is that lead should be
+tied to the feet of the swift so that no one should outstrip another; but
+that would be....  Well, well!  Let us feast our eyes now on the
+marvellous beauty before us.  Look: What just now was the purple of this
+flower is now deep ruby red; what before was a violet gleam now is the
+richest amethyst.  Do you see the golden fringe to those clouds?  It is
+like a setting.--And all this is ours--is yours and mine--so long as we
+have eyes and heart to enjoy and be uplifted by it!"
+
+The Masdakite laughed, a fresh, sonorous laugh, and said: "Yes, Master,
+for those who see as you see.  The colors are bright no doubt over the
+sky and the hills, and we do not often see such a red as that at home in
+my country; but of what use is all that magic show?  You see rubies and
+amethysts--but as for me!  The gems in your hanging stand for something
+more than that shining show.  I mean no harm, Master, but I would give
+all the sunsets that ever glowed on earth for your bales and never repent
+of the bargain!"  He laughed more heartily than before and added:  "But
+you, worthy Father, would think twice before you signed it.--As to what
+we Masdakites hope for, our time is not yet come."
+
+"And suppose it were, and that the hanging were yours?"
+
+"I should sell it and add the price to my savings, and go home and buy
+some land, and take a pretty wife, and breed camels and horses."
+
+"And next day would come the poorer men who had laid nothing by, and had
+made no bargain over hangings and sunsets; and they would ask for a share
+of your land, and a camel and a foal each, and you would not be able ever
+to see a sunset again but must wander about the world, and your pretty
+wife with you to help you share everything with others.--Let us abide by
+the old order, my Rustem, and may the Most High preserve you your good
+heart, for you have but a foolish and crotchety head."
+
+The big man bent over his master and gratefully kissed his arm; at this
+moment the guide rejoined them, but with a long face for he had promised
+more than he could perform.  The Mukaukas George had set out--a quite
+unheard of event--for an excursion on the river in his barge, with his
+son and the ladies of the house just as he was hoping to secure an
+audience for the Arab.  Orion's return--the steward had explained--had
+made the old man quite young again.  Haschim must now wait till the
+morrow, and he, the guide, would counsel him to pass the night in the
+city at an inn kept by one Moschion, where he would be well cared for.
+
+But the merchant preferred to remain where he was.  He did not care
+about the delay, more particularly as he wished to consult an Egyptian
+physician with regard to an old standing complaint he suffered from,
+and there was no more skilful or learned leech in the whole land,
+the Egyptian guide assured him, than the famous Philip of Memphis.  The
+situation here, outside the town, was very pleasant, and from the river's
+bank he might observe the comet which had been visible for some nights
+past--a portent of evil no doubt.  The natives of the city had been
+paralysed with terror; that indeed was evident even here in Nesptah's
+caravansary, for usually as the evening grew cool, the tables and benches
+under the palms were crowded with guests; but who would care to think of
+enjoyment in those days of dread?
+
+So he remounted his ass to fetch the physician, while old Haschim,
+leaning on the Masdakite's arm, betook himself to a bench by the river.
+There he sat gazing thoughtfully at the starry sky, and his companion
+dreamed of home and of buying a meadow, even without the price of the
+gorgeous hanging, of building a house, and of choosing a pretty little
+wife to manage it.  Should she be fair or dark?  He would rather she
+should be fair.
+
+But his castle in the air was shattered at this point, for an object was
+approaching across the Nile which attracted his attention, and which he
+pointed out to his chief.  The stream lay before them like a broad belt
+of black and silver brocade.  The waxing moon was mirrored in the almost
+unruffled surface and where a ripple curled it the tiny crest glittered
+like white flame.  Bats swooped to and fro in the gloom from the city of
+the dead to the river, and flitted above it like shadows blown about by
+the wind.  A few lateen sails moved like pale, gigantic birds over the
+dark waters; but now from the north--and from the city--a larger mass
+came towards the palm-grove with bright, gleaming eyes of light.
+
+"A fine boat,--the governor's no doubt," said the merchant, as it slowly
+came towards the grove from the middle of the stream.  At the same time
+the clatter of hoofs became audible from the road behind the inn.
+Haschim turned round and was aware of torchbearers running ahead of a
+chariot.
+
+"The sick man has come so far by water," said the Arab, "and now, he is
+to be driven home.--Strange! this is the second time to-day that I have
+met his much-talked-of son!"
+
+The governor's pleasure-barge was nearing the palm-grove.  It was a large
+and handsome boat, built of cedar-wood and richly gilt, with an image of
+John, the patron-saint of the family, for a figure-head.  The nimbus
+round the head was a crown of lamps, and large lanterns shone both at the
+bows and stern of the vessel.  The Mukaukas George was reclining under an
+awning, his wife Neforis by his side.  Opposite to them sat their son and
+a tall young girl, at whose feet a child of ten sat on the ground,
+leaning her pretty head against her knees.  An older Greek woman, the
+child's governess, had a place by the side of a very tall man, on an
+ottoman beyond the verge of the awning.  This man was Philip the leech.
+The cheerful sound of the lute accompanied the barge, and the performer
+was the returned wanderer Orion, who touched the strings with skill and
+deep feeling.
+
+It was altogether a pleasing scene--a fair picture of a wealthy and
+united family.  But who was the damsel sitting by Orion's side?  He was
+devoting his whole attention to her; as he struck the strings with deeper
+emphasis his eyes sought hers, and it seemed as though he were playing
+for her alone.  Nor did she appear unworthy of such homage, for when the
+barge ran into the little haven and Haschim could distinguish her
+features he was startled by her noble and purely Greek beauty.
+
+A few handsomely-dressed slaves, who must have come with the vehicle by
+the road, now went on board the boat to carry their invalid lord to his
+chariot; and it then became apparent that the seat in which he reclined
+was provided with arms by which it could be lifted and moved.  A burly
+negro took this at the back, but just as another was stooping to lift it
+in front Orion pushed him away and took his place, raised the couch with
+his father on it, and carried him across the landing-stage between the
+deck and the shore, past Haschim to the chariot.  The young man did the
+work of bearer with cheerful ease, and looked affectionately at his
+father while he shouted to the ladies--for only his mother and the
+physician accompanied the invalid after carefully wrapping him in shawls
+--to get out of the barge and wait for him.  Then he went forward,
+lighted by the torches which were carried before them.
+
+"Poor man!"  thought the merchant as he looked after the Mukaukas.
+"But to a man who has such a son to carry him the saddest and hardest
+lot floats by like a cloud before the wind."
+
+He was now ready to forgive Orion even the rejected flowers; and when the
+young girl stepped on shore, the child clinging fondly to her arm, he
+confessed to himself that Dame Susannah's little daughter would find it
+hard indeed to hold her own by the side of this tall and royal vision of
+beauty.  What a form was this maiden's, and what princely bearing; and
+how sweet and engaging the voice in which she named some of the
+constellations to her little companion, and pointed out the comet which
+was just rising!
+
+Haschim was sitting in shadow; he could see without being seen, and note
+all that took place on the bench, which was lighted by one of the barge's
+lanterns.  The unexpected entertainment gave him pleasure, for everything
+that affected the governor's son roused his sympathy and interest.  The
+idea of forming an opinion of this remarkable young man smiled on his
+fancy, and the sight of the beautiful girl who sat on the bench yonder
+warmed his old heart.  The child must certainly be Mary, the governor's
+granddaughter.
+
+Then the chariot started off, clattering away down the road, and in a few
+minutes Orion came back to the rest of the party.
+
+Alas!  Poor little heiress of Susannah's wealth!  How different was his
+demeanor to this beautiful damsel from his treatment of that little
+thing!  His eyes rested on her face in rapture, his speech failed him now
+and again as he addressed her, and what he said must be sometimes grave
+and captivating and sometimes witty, for not she alone but the little
+maid's governess listened to him eagerly, and when the fair one laughed
+it was in particularly sweet, clear tones.  There was something so lofty
+in her mien that this frank expression of contentment was almost
+startling; like a breath of perfume from some gorgeous flower which seems
+created to rejoice the eye only.  And she, to whom all that Orion had to
+say was addressed, listened to him not only with deep attention, but in a
+way which showed the merchant that she cared even more for the speaker
+than for what he was so eager in expressing.  If this maiden wedded the
+governor's son, they would indeed be a pair!  Taus, the innkeeper's wife,
+now came out, a buxom and vigorous Egyptian woman of middle age, carrying
+some of the puffs for which she was famous, and which she had just made
+with her own hands.  She also served them with milk, grapes and other
+fruit, her eyes sparkling with delight and gratified ambition; for the
+son of the great Mukaukas, the pride of the city, who in former years had
+often been her visitor, and not only for the sake of her cakes, in water
+parties with his gay companions--mostly Greek officers who now were all
+dead and gone or exiles from the country--now did her the honor to come
+here so soon after his return.  Her facile tongue knew no pause as she
+told him that she and her husband had gone forth with the rest to welcome
+him at the triumphal arch near Menes' Gate, and Emau with them, and the
+little one.  Yes, Emau was married now, and had called her first child
+Orion.  And when the young man asked Dame Taus whether Emau was as
+charming as ever and as like her mother as she used to be, she shook her
+finger at him and asked in her turn, as she pointed towards the young
+lady, whether the fickle bird at whose departure so many had sighed, was
+to be caged at last, and whether yon fair lady....
+
+But Orion cut her short, saying that he was still his own master though
+he already felt the noose round his neck; and the fair lady blushed even
+more deeply than at the good woman's first question.  He however soon got
+over his awkwardness and gaily declared that the worthy Taus' little
+daughter was one of the prettiest girls in Memphis, and had had quite as
+many admirers as her excellent mother's puff-pastry.  Taus was to greet
+her kindly from him.
+
+The landlady departed, much touched and flattered; Orion took up his
+lute, and while the ladies refreshed themselves he did the maiden's
+bidding and sang the song by Alcaeus which she asked for, in a rich
+though subdued voice to the lute, playing it like a master.  The young
+girl's eyes were fixed on his lips, and again, he seemed to be making
+music for her alone.  When it was time to start homewards, and the ladies
+returned to the barge, he went up to the inn to pay the reckoning.  As he
+presently returned alone the Arab saw him pick up a handkerchief that the
+young lady had left on the table, and hastily press it to his lips as he
+went towards the barge.
+
+The gorgeous red blossoms had fared worse in the morning.  The young
+man's heart was given to that maiden on the water.  She could not be his
+sister; what then was the connection between them?
+
+The merchant soon gained this information, for the guide on his return
+could give it him.  She was Paula, the daughter of Thomas, the famous
+Greek general who had defended the city of Damascus so long and so
+bravely against the armies of Islam.  She was Mukaukas George's niece,
+but her fortune was small; she was a poor relation of the family, and
+after her father's disappearance--for his body had never been found--
+she had been received into the governor's house out of pity and charity
+--she, a Melchite!  The interpreter had little to say in her favor, by
+reason of her sect; and though he could find no flaw in her beauty, he
+insisted on it that she was proud and ungracious, and incapable of
+winning any man's love; only the child, little Mary--she, to be sure, was
+very fond of her.  It was no secret that even her uncle's wife, worthy
+Neforis, did not care for her haughty niece and only suffered her to
+please the invalid.  And what business had a Melchite at Memphis, under
+the roof of a good Jacobite?  Every word the dragoman spoke breathed the
+scorn which a mean and narrow-minded man is always ready to heap on those
+who share the kindness of his own benefactors.
+
+But this beautiful and lofty-looking daughter of a great man had
+conquered the merchant's old heart, and his opinion of her was quite
+unmoved by the Memphite's strictures.  It was ere long confirmed indeed,
+for Philip, the leech whom the guide had been to find, and whose
+dignified personality inspired the Arab with confidence, was a daily
+visitor to the governor, and he spoke of Paula as one of the most perfect
+creatures that Heaven had ever formed in a happy hour.  But the Almighty
+seemed to have forgotten to care for his own masterpiece; for years her
+life had been indeed a sad one.
+
+The physician could promise the old man some mitigation of his
+sufferings, and they liked each other so well that they parted the best
+of friends, and not till a late hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Mukaukas' barge, urged forward by powerful rowers, made its way
+smoothly down the river.  On board there was whispering, and now and
+again singing.  Little Mary had dropped asleep on Paula's shoulder; the
+Greek duenna gazed sometimes at the comet which filled her with terrors,
+sometimes at Orion, whose handsome face had bewitched her mature heart,
+and sometimes at the young girl whom she was ill-pleased to see thus
+preferred by this favorite of the gods.  It was a deliciously warm, still
+night, and the moon, which makes the ocean swell and flow, stirs the tide
+of feeling to rise in the human breast.
+
+Whatever Paula asked for Orion sang, as though nothing was unknown to him
+that had ever sounded on a Greek lute; and the longer they went on the
+clearer and richer his voice grew, the more melting and seductive its
+expression, and the more urgently it appealed to the young girl's heart.
+Paula gave herself up to the sweet enchantment, and when he laid down the
+lute and asked in low tones if his native land was not lovely on such a
+night as this, or which song she liked best, and whether she had any idea
+of what it had been to him to find her in his parents' house, she yielded
+to the charm and answered him in whispers like his own.
+
+Under the dense foliage of the sleeping garden he pressed her hand to his
+lips, and she, tremulous, let him have his way.--Bitter, bitter years lay
+behind her.  The physician had spoken only too truly.  The hardest blows
+of fate had brought her--the proud daughter of a noble father--to a
+course of cruel humiliations.  The life of a friendless though not
+penniless relation, taken into a wealthy house out of charity, had proved
+a thorny path to tread, but now-since the day before yesterday--all was
+changed.  Orion had come.  His home and the city had held high festival
+on his return, as at some gift of Fortune, in which she too had a goodly
+share.  He had met her, not as the dependent relative, but as a beautiful
+and high-born woman.  There was sunshine in his presence which warmed her
+very heart, and made her raise her head once more like a flower that is
+brought out under the open sky after long privation of light and air.
+His bright spirit and gladness of life refreshed her heart and brain; the
+respect he paid her revived her crushed self-confidence and filled her
+soul with fervent gratitude.  Ah! and how delightful it was to feel that
+she might be grateful, devotedly grateful.--And then, then this evening
+had been hers, the sweetest, most blessed that she had known for years.
+He had reminded her of what she had almost forgotten:  that she was still
+young, that she was still lovely, that she had a right to be happy, to
+enchant and be enchanted--perhaps even to love and to be loved.
+
+Her hand was still conscious of his burning kiss as she entered the cool
+room where the Lady Neforis sat awaiting the return of the party, turning
+her spinning-wheel by the couch of her invalid husband who always went to
+rest at late hours.  It was with an overflowing heart that Paula raised
+her uncle's hand to her lips--Orion's father, might she not say HER
+Orion's?--Then she kissed her aunt--his mother, and it was long since she
+had done so--as she and little Mary bid her good-night.  Neforis accepted
+the kiss coolly but with some surprise, and looked up enquiringly at the
+girl and at her son.  No doubt she thought many things, but deemed it
+prudent to give them no utterance for the present.  She allowed the girl
+to retire as though nothing unusual had occurred, superintended the
+servants who came to carry her husband into his bedroom, gave him the
+white globule which was to secure him sleep, and with indefatigable
+patience turned and moved his pillows till his couch was to his mind.
+Not till then, nor till she was satisfied that a servant was keeping
+watch in the adjoining room, did she leave him; and then--for there was
+danger in delay--she went to seek her son.
+
+This tall, large and rather too portly woman had been in her youth a
+slender and elegant girl; a graceful creature though her calm and
+expressionless features had never been strikingly beautiful.  Age had
+altered them but little; her face was now that of a good-looking, plump,
+easy-going matron, which had lost its freshness through long and devoted
+attendance on the sick man.  Her birth and position gave her confidence
+and self-reliance, but there was nothing gracious or captivating in her
+individuality.  The joys and woes of others were not hers; still she
+could be moved and stirred by them, even to self-denial, and was very
+capable of feeling quite a passionate interest for others; only, those
+others must be her own immediate belongings and no one else.  Thus a more
+devoted and anxious wife, or a more loving mother would have been hard to
+find; but, if we compare her faculty for loving with a star, its rays
+were too short to reach further than to those nearest to her, and these
+regarded it as an exceptional state of grace to be included within the
+narrow circle of those beloved by her somewhat grudging soul.
+
+She knocked at Orion's sitting-room, and he hailed her late visit with
+surprise and pleasure.  She had come to speak of a matter of importance,
+and had done so promptly, for her son's and Paula's conduct just now
+urged her to lose no time.  Something was going on between these two and
+her husband's niece was far outside the narrow limits of her loving
+kindness.
+
+This, she began by saying, would not allow her to sleep.  She had but one
+heart's desire and his father shared it: Orion must know full well what
+she meant; she had spoken to him about it only yesterday.  His father had
+received him with warm affection, had paid his debts unhesitatingly and
+without a word of reproach, and now it was his part to turn over a new
+leaf: to break with his former reckless life and set up a home of his
+own.  The bride, as he knew, was chosen for him.  "Susannah was here just
+now," she said.  "You scapegrace, she confessed that you had quite turned
+her Katharina's little head this morning."
+
+"I am sorry for it," he interrupted in a tone of annoyance.  "These ways
+with women have grown upon me as a habit; but I have done with them
+henceforth.  They are unworthy of me now, and I feel, my dear Mother...."
+
+"That life is beginning in earnest," Neforis threw in.  "The wish which
+brings me to you now entirely accords with that.  You know what it is,
+and I cannot imagine what you can have to say against it.  In short, you
+must let me settle the matter to-morrow with Dame Susannah.  You are sure
+of her daughter's affection, she is the richest heiress in the country,
+well brought up, and as I said before, she has quite lost her little
+heart to you."
+
+"And she had better have kept it!"  said Orion with a laugh.
+
+Then his mother waxed wroth and exclaimed: "I must beg you to reserve
+your mirth for a more fitting season and for laughable things.  I am very
+much in earnest when I say: The girl is a sweet, good little creature and
+will be a faithful and loving wife to you, under God.  Or have you left
+your heart in Constantinople?  Has the Senator Justinus' fair relation.
+--But nonsense!  You can hardly suppose that that volatile Greek girl..."
+
+Orion clasped her in his arms, and said tenderly, "No, dearest mother,
+no.  Constantinople lies far, far behind me, in grey mist beyond the
+farthest Thule; and here, close here, under my father's roof, I have
+found something far more lovely and more perfect than has ever been
+beheld by the dwellers on the Bosphorus.  That little girl is no match
+for a son of our stalwart and broad-shouldered race.  Our future
+generations must still tower proudly above the common herd in every
+respect; I want no plaything for a wife, but a woman, such as you
+yourself were in youth--tall, dignified and handsome.  My heart goes
+forth to no gold-crested wren but to a really royal maiden.--Of what use
+to waste words!  Paula, the noble daughter of a glorious father, is my
+choice.  It came upon me just now like a revelation; I ask your blessing
+on my union with her!"
+
+So far had Neforis allowed her son to speak.  He had frankly and boldly
+uttered what she had indeed feared to hear.  And so long she had
+succeeded in keeping silence!--But now her patience gave way.  Trembling
+with anger she abruptly broke in, exclaiming, as her face grew crimson:
+
+"No more, no more!  Heaven grant that this which I have been compelled
+to hear may be no more than a fleeting and foolish whim!  Have you quite
+forgotten who and what we are?  Have you forgotten that those were
+Melchites who slew your two dear brothers--our two noble sons?  Of what
+account are we among the orthodox Greeks?  While among the Egyptians and
+all who confess the saving doctrine of Eutyches, among the Monophysites
+we are the chief, and we will remain so, and close our ears and hearts
+against all heretics and their superstitions.  What!  A grandson of
+Menas, the brother of two martyrs for our glorious faith, married to a
+Melchite!  The mere idea is sacrilege, is blasphemy; I can give it no
+milder name!  I and your father will die childless before we consent!
+And it is for the love of this woman, whose heart is so cold that I
+shiver only to think of it--for this waif and stray, who has nothing but
+her ragged pride and the mere scrapings of a lost fortune, which never
+could compare with ours--for this thankless creature, who can hardly
+bring herself to bid me, your mother, such a civil good-morning--by
+Heaven it is the truth--as I can say to a slave--for her that I, that
+your parents are to be bereft of their son, the only child that a
+gracious Providence has left to be their joy and comfort?  No, no,
+never!  Far be it from me!  You, Orion, my heart's darling, you have been
+a wilful fellow all your life, but you cannot have such a perverse heart
+as to bring your old mother, who has kept you in her heart these four and
+twenty years, in sorrow to the grave and embitter your father's few
+remaining days--for his hours are numbered!--And all for the sake of this
+cold beauty, whom you have seen for a few hours these last two days.  You
+cannot have the heart to do this, my heart's treasure, no, you cannot!--
+But if you should in some accursed hour, I tell you--and I have been a
+tender mother to you all your life-but as surely as God shall be my stay
+and your father's in our last hour, I will tear all love for you out of
+my heart like a poisonous weed--I will, though that heart should break!"
+
+Orion put his arms round the excited woman, who lead freed herself from
+his embrace, laid his hand lightly on her lips and kissed her eyes,
+whispering in her ear:
+
+"I have not the heart indeed, and could scarcely find it."  Then, taking
+both her hands, he looked straight into her face.
+
+"Brrr!"  he exclaimed, "your daredevil  son was never so much frightened
+in his life as by your threats.  What dreadful words are these--and even
+worse were at the tip of your tongue!  Mother--Mother Neforis!  Your name
+means kindness, but you can be cruel, bitterly cruel!"
+
+Still he drew her fondly to him, and kissed her hair and brow and cheeks
+with eager haste, in a vehemence of feeling which came over him like a
+revulsion after the shock he had gone through; and when they parted he
+had given her leave to negotiate for little Katharina's hand on his
+behalf, and she had promised in return that it should be not on the
+morrow but the day after at soonest.  This delay seemed to him a sort of
+victory and when he found himself alone and reflected on what he had done
+in yielding to his mother, though his heart bled from the wounds of which
+he himself knew not the depth, he rejoiced that he had not bound Paula by
+any closer tie.  His eyes had indeed told her much, but the word "Love"
+had not passed his lips--and yet that was what it came to.--But surely
+a cousin might be allowed to kiss the hand of a lovely relation.  She was
+a desirable woman--ah, how desirable!--and must ever be: but to quarrel
+with his parents for the sake of a girl, were she Aphrodite herself,
+or one of the Muses or the Graces--that was impossible!  There were
+thousands of pretty women in the world, but only one mother; and how
+often had his heart beat high and won another heart, taken all it had
+to give, and then easily and quickly recovered its balance.
+
+This time however, it seemed more deeply hit than on former occasions;
+even the lovely Persian slave for whose sake he had committed the wildest
+follies while yet scarcely more than a school-boy--even the bewitching
+Heliodora at Constantinople for whom he still had a tender thought, had
+not agitated him so strongly.  It was hard to give up this Paula; but
+there was no help for it.  To-morrow he must do his best to establish
+their intercourse on a friendly and fraternal footing; for he could have
+no hope that she would be content to accept his love only, like the
+gentle Heliodora, who was quite her equal in birth.  Life would have been
+fair, unutterably fair, with this splendid creature by his side!  If only
+he could take her to the Capital he felt sure that all the world would
+stand still to turn round and gaze at her.  And if she loved him--if she
+met him open-armed....  Oh, why had spiteful fate made her a Melchite?
+But then, alas, alas!  There must surely be something wrong with her
+nature and temper; would she not otherwise have been able in two years to
+gain the love, instead of the dislike, of his excellent and fond mother?
+--Well, after all, it was best so; but Paula's image haunted him
+nevertheless and spoilt his sleep, and his longing for her was not
+to be stilled.
+
+Neforis, meanwhile, did not return at once to her husband but went to
+find Paula.  This business must be settled on all sides and at once.
+If she could have believed that her victory would give the invalid
+unqualified pleasure she would have hastened to him with the good news,
+for she knew no higher joy than to procure him a moment's happiness; but
+the Mukaukas had agreed to her choice very reluctantly.  Katharina seemed
+to him too small and childish for his noble son, whose mental superiority
+had been revealed to him unmistakably and undeniably, in many long
+discussions since his return, to the delight of his father's heart.
+"The water-wagtail," though he wished her every happiness, did not
+satisfy him for Orion.  To him, the father, Paula would have been a well-
+beloved daughter-in-law, and he had often found pleasure in picturing her
+by Orion's side.  But she was a Melchite; he knew too how ill-affected
+his wife was towards her, so he kept his wish locked in his own breast in
+order not to vex the faithful companion who lived, thought, and felt for
+him alone; and Dame Neforis knew or guessed all this, and said to herself
+that it would cost him his night's rest if he were to be told at once
+what a concession Orion had made.
+
+With Paula it was different.  The sooner she learnt that she had nothing
+to expect from their son, the better for her.
+
+That very morning she and Orion had greeted each other like a couple of
+lovers and just now they had parted like a promised bride and bridegroom.
+She would not again be witness to such vexatious doings; so she went to
+the young girl's room and confided to her with much satisfaction the
+happy prospects her son had promised them,--only Paula must say nothing
+about it till the day after to-morrow.
+
+The moment she entered the room Paula inferred from her beaming
+expression that she had something to say unpleasant to herself, so she
+preserved due composure.  Her face wore a look of unmoved indifference
+while she submitted to the overflow of a too-happy mother's heart; and
+she wished the betrothed couple joy: but she did so with a smile that
+infuriated Neforis.
+
+She was not on the whole spiteful; but face to face with this girl, her
+nature was transformed, and she rather liked the idea of showing her,
+once more in her life, that in her place humility would beseem her.  All
+this she said to herself as she quitted Paula's room; but perhaps this
+woman, who had much that was good in her, might have felt some ruth, if
+in the course of the next few hours she could but have looked into the
+heart of the orphan entrusted to her protection.  Only once did Paula sob
+aloud; then she indignantly dried her tears, and sat for a long time
+gazing at the floor, shaking her pretty head again and again as though
+something unheard-of and incredible had befallen her.
+
+At last, with a bitter sigh, she went to bed; and while she vainly strove
+for sleep, and for strength to pray and be silently resigned, Time seemed
+to her a wild-beast chase, Fate a relentless hunter, and the quarry he
+was pursuing was herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+On the following evening Haschim, the merchant, came to the governor's
+house with a small part of his caravan.  A stranger might have taken the
+mansion for the home of a wealthy country-gentleman rather than the
+official residence of a high official; for at this hour, after sunset,
+large herds of beasts and sheep were being driven into the vast court-
+yard behind the house, surrounded on three sides by out-buildings; half a
+hundred horses of choice breed came, tied in couples, from the watering-
+place; and in a well-sanded paddock enclosed by hurdles, slaves, brown
+and black, were bringing fodder to a large troop of camels.
+
+The house itself was well-fitted by its unusually palatial size and
+antique splendor to be the residence of the emperor's viceroy, and the
+Mukaukas, to whom it all belonged, had in fact held the office for a long
+time.  After the conquest of the country by the Arabs they had left him
+in possession, and at the present date he managed the affairs of his
+Egyptian fellow-countrymen, no more in the name of the emperor at
+Byzantium, but under the authority of the Khaliff at Medina and his great
+general, Amru.  The Moslem conquerors had found him a ready and judicious
+mediator; while his fellow-Christians and country-men obeyed him as being
+the noblest and wealthiest of their race and the descendant of ancestors
+who had enjoyed high distinction even under the Pharaohs.
+
+Only the governor's residence was Greek--or rather Alexandrian-in style;
+the court-yards and out-buildings on the contrary, looked as though
+they belonged to some Oriental magnate-to some Erpaha (or prince of a
+province) as the Mukaukas' forefathers had been called, a rank which
+commanded respect both at court and among the populace.
+
+The dragoman had not told the merchant too much beforehand of the
+governor's possessions: he had vast estates, in both Upper and Lower
+Egypt, tilled by thousands of slaves under numerous overseers.  Here in
+Memphis was the centre of administration of his property, and besides the
+offices for his private affairs were those he needed as a state official.
+
+Well-kept quays, and the wide road running along the harbor side, divided
+his large domain from the river, and a street ran along the wall which
+enclosed it on the north.  On this side was the great gate, always wide
+open by day, by which servants or persons on business-errands made their
+entrance; the other gate, a handsome portal with Corinthian columns
+opening from the Nile-quay, was that by which the waterparty had returned
+the evening before.  This was kept closed, and only opened for the
+family, or for guests and distinguished visitors.  There was a guardhouse
+at the north gate with a small detachment of Egyptian soldiers, who were
+entrusted with the protection of the Mukaukas' person.
+
+As soon as the refreshing evening breeze came up from the river after the
+heat of the day there was a stir in the great court-yard.  Men, women and
+girls came trooping out of the retainers' dwellings to breathe the cooler
+air.  Waiting-maids and slaves dipped for water into enormous earthen
+vessels and carried it away in graceful jars; the free-men of the
+household rested in groups after the fatigues of the day, chatting,
+playing and singing.  From the slaves' quarters in another court-yard
+came confused sounds of singing hymns, with the shrill tones of the
+double pipe and duller noise of the tabor--an invitation to dance;
+scolding and laughter; the jubilant shouts of a girl led out to dance,
+and the shrieks of a victim to the overseer's rod.
+
+The servant's gateway, still hung with flowers and wreaths in honor of
+Orion's recent return, was wide open for the coming and going of the
+accountants and scribes, or of such citizens as came very willingly to
+pay an evening call on their friends in the governor's household; for
+there were always some officials near the Mukaukas' person who knew more
+than other folks of the latest events in Church and State.
+
+Ere long a considerable number of men had assembled to sit under the deep
+wooden porch of the head-steward's dwelling, all taking eager part in the
+conversation, which they would have found very enjoyable even without the
+beer which their host offered them in honor of the great event of his
+young lord's return; for what was ever dearer to Egyptians than a brisk
+exchange of talk, at the same time heaping ridicule or scorn on their
+unapproachable superiors in rank, and on all they deem enemies to their
+creed or their country.
+
+Many a trenchant word and many a witty jest must have been uttered this
+evening, for hearty laughter and loud applause were incessant in the head
+steward's porch; the captain of the guard at the gate cast envious and
+impatient glances at the merry band, which he would gladly have joined;
+but he could not yet leave his post.  The messengers' horses were
+standing saddled while their riders awaited their orders, there were
+supplicants and traders to be admitted or turned away, and there were
+still a number of persons lingering in the large vestibule of the
+governor's palace and craving to speak with him, for it was well known in
+Memphis that during the hot season the ailing Mukaukas granted audience
+only in the evening.
+
+The Egyptians had not yet acquired full confidence in the Arab
+government, and every one tried to avoid being handed over to its
+representative; for none of its officials could be so wise or so just as
+their old Mukaukas.  How the suffering man found strength and time to
+keep an eye on everything, it was hard to imagine; but the fact remained
+that he himself looked into every decision.  At the same time no one
+could be sure of his affairs being settled out of hand unless he could
+get at the governor himself.
+
+Business hours were now over; the anxiety caused both by the delay in the
+rising of the Nile and by the advent of the comet had filled the waiting-
+rooms with more petitioners than usual.  Deputations from town and
+village magistrates had been admitted in parties; supplicants on private
+business had gone in one by one; and most of them had come forth content,
+or at any rate well advised.  Only one man still lingered,--a countryman
+whose case had long been awaiting settlement--in the hope that a gift to
+the great man's doorkeeper, of a few drachmae out of his poverty might at
+length secure him the fruit of his long patience--when the chamberlain,
+bidding him return on the morrow, officiously flung open the high doors
+that led to the Mukaukas' apartments, to admit the Arab merchant, in
+consideration of Haschim's gold piece which had come to him through his
+cousin the dragoman.  Haschim, however, had observed the countryman, and
+insisted on his being shown in first.  This was done, and a few minutes
+later the peasant came out satisfied, and gratefully kissed the Arab's
+hand.
+
+Then the chamberlain led the old merchant, and the men who followed him
+with a heavy bale, into a magnificent anteroom to wait; and his patience
+was put to a severe test before his name was called and he could show the
+governor his merchandise.
+
+The Mukaukas, in fact, after signifying by a speechless nod that he would
+presently receive the merchant--who came well recommended--had retired to
+recreate himself, and was now engaged in a game of draughts, heedless of
+those whom he kept waiting.  He reclined on a divan covered with a sleek
+lioness' skin, while his young antagonist sat opposite on a low stool,
+The doors of the room, facing the Nile, where he received petitioners
+were left half open to admit the fresher but still warm evening-air.  The
+green velarium or awning, which during the day had screened off the sun's
+rays where the middle of the ceiling was open to the sky, was now rolled
+back, and the moon and stars looked down into the room.  It was well
+adapted to its purpose as a refuge from the heat of the summer day, for
+the walls were lined with cool, colored earthenware tiles, the floor was
+a brightly-tinted mosaic of patterns on a ground of gold glass, and in
+the circular central ornament of this artistic pavement stood the real
+source of freshness: a basin, two man's length across, of brown porphyry
+flecked with white, from which a fountain leaped, filling the surrounding
+air with misty spray.  A few stools, couches and small tables, all of
+cool-looking metal, formed the sole furniture of this lofty apartment
+which was brilliantly lighted by numerous lamps.
+
+A light air blew in through the open roof and doors, made the lamps
+flicker, and played with Paula's brown hair as she sat absorbed, as it
+seemed, in the game.  Orion, who stood behind her, had several times
+endeavored to attract her attention, but in vain.  He now eagerly offered
+his services to fetch her a handkerchief to preserve her from a chill;
+this, however, she shortly and decidedly declined, though the breeze came
+up damp from the river and she had more than once drawn her peplos more
+closely across her bosom.
+
+The young man set his teeth at this fresh repulse.  He did not know that
+his mother had told Paula what he had yesterday agreed to, and could not
+account for the girl's altered behavior.  All day she had treated him
+with icy coldness, had scarcely answered his questions with a distant
+"Yes," or "No;" and to him, the spoilt favorite of women, this conduct
+had become more and more intolerable.  Yes, his mother had judged her
+rightly: she allowed herself to be swayed in a most extraordinary
+manner by her moods; and now even he was to feel the insolence of her
+haughtiness, of which he had as yet seen nothing.  This repellent
+coldness bordered on rudeness and he had no mind to submit to it for
+long.  It was with deep vexation that he watched every turn of her hand,
+every movement of her body, and the varying expression of her face; and
+the more the image of this proud maiden sank into his heart the more
+lovely and perfect he thought her, and the greater grew his desire to see
+her smile once more, to see her again as sweetly womanly as she had been
+but yesterday.  Now she was like nothing so much as a splendid marble
+statue, though he knew indeed that it had a soul--and what a glorious
+task it would be to free this fair being from herself, as it were, from
+the foolish tempers that enslaved her, to show her--by severity if need
+should be--what best beseems a woman, a maiden.
+
+He became more and more exclusively absorbed in watching the young girl,
+as his mother--who was sitting with Dame Susannah on a couch at some
+little distance from the players--observed with growing annoyance, and
+she tried to divert his attention by questions and small errands, so as
+to give his evident excitement a fresh direction.
+
+Who could have thought, yesterday morning, that her darling would so soon
+cause her fresh vexation and anxiety.
+
+He had come home just such a man as she and his father could have wished:
+independent and experienced in the ways of the great world.  In the
+Capital he had, no doubt, enjoyed all that seems pleasant in the eyes of
+a wealthy youth, but in spite of that he had remained fresh and open-
+hearted even to the smallest things; and this was what most rejoiced his
+father.  In him there was no trace of the satiety, the blunted faculty
+for enjoyment, which fell like a blight on so many men of his age and
+rank.  He could still play as merrily with little Mary, still take as
+much pleasure in a rare flower or a fine horse, as before his departure.
+At the same time he had gained keen insight into the political situation
+of the time, into the state of the empire and the court, into
+administration, and the innovations in church matters; it was a joy
+to his father to hear him discourse; and he assured his wife that he had
+learnt a great deal from the boy, that Orion was on the high road to be
+a great statesman and was already quite capable of taking his father's
+place.
+
+When Neforis confessed how large a sum in debts Orion had left in
+Constantinople the old man put his hand in his purse with a sort of
+pride, delighted to find that his sole remaining heir knew how to spend
+the immense wealth which to him was now a burden rather than a pleasure--
+to make good use of it, as he himself had done in his day, and display a
+magnificence of which the lustre was reflected on him and on his name.
+
+"With him, at any rate," said the old man, "one gets something for the
+money.  His horses cost a great deal but he knows how to win with them;
+his entertainments swallow up a pretty sum, but they gain him respect
+wherever he goes.  He brought me a letter from the Senator Justinus, and
+the worthy man tells me what a leading part he plays among the gilded
+youth of the Capital.  All this is not to be had for nothing, and it will
+be cheap in the end.  What need we care about a hundred talents more or
+less!  And there is something magnanimous in the lad that has given him
+the spirit to feel that."
+
+And it was not a hale old grey-beard who spoke thus, but a broken man,
+whose only joy it was to lavish on his son the riches which he had long
+been incapable of enjoying.  The high-spirited and gifted youth, scarcely
+more than a boy in years, whom he had sent to the Capital with no small
+misgivings, must have led a far less lawless life than might have been
+expected; of this the ruddy tinge in his sunburnt cheeks was ample
+guarantee, the vigorous solidity of his muscles, and the thick waves of
+his hair, which was artificially curled and fell in a fringe, as was then
+the fashion, over his high brow, giving him a certain resemblance to the
+portraits of Antinous, the handsomest youth in the time of the Emperor
+Hadrian.  Even his mother owned that he looked like health itself, and
+no member of the Imperial family could be more richly, carefully and
+fashionably dressed than her darling.  But even in the humblest garb he
+would have been a handsome--a splendid youth, and his mother's pride!
+When he left home there was still a smack of the provincial about him;
+but now every kind of awkwardness had vanished, and wherever he might go
+--even in the Capital, he was certain to be one of the first to attract
+observation and approval.
+
+And what had he not known in his city experience?  The events of half a
+century had followed each other with intoxicating rapidity in the course
+of the thirty months he had spent there.  The greater the excitement, the
+greater the pleasure was the watchword of his time; and though he had
+rioted and revelled on the shores of the Bosphorus if ever man did,
+still the pleasures of feasting and of love, or of racing with his own
+victorious horses--all of which he had enjoyed there to the full--were
+as child's play compared with the nervous tension to which he had been
+strung by the appalling events he had witnessed on all sides.  How petty
+was the excitement of an Alexandrian horse-race!  Whether Timon or
+Ptolemy or he himself should win--what did it matter?  It was a fine
+thing no doubt to carry off the crown in the circus at Byzantium, but
+there were other and soul-stirring crises there beyond those which were
+bound up with horses or chariots.  There a throne was the prize, and
+might cost the blood and life of thousands!--What did a man bring home
+from the churches in the Nile valley?  But if he crossed the threshold
+of St. Sophia's in Constantinople he often might have his blood curdled,
+or bring home--what matter?--bleeding wounds, or even be carried home
+--a corpse.
+
+Three times had he seen the throne change masters.  An emperor and an
+empress had been stripped of the purple and mutilated before his eyes.
+
+Aye, then and there he had had real and intense excitement to thrill him
+to the marrow and quick.  As for the rest!  Well, yes, he had had more
+trivial pleasures too.  He had not been received as other Egyptians were:
+half-educated philosophers--who called themselves Sages and assumed a
+mystic and pompously solemn demeanor, Astrologers, Rhetoricians, poverty-
+stricken but witty and venemous satirists, physicians making a display of
+the learning of their forefathers, fanatical theologians--always ready to
+avail themselves of other weapons than reason and dogma in their bitter
+contests over articles of faith, hermits and recluses--
+as foul in mind as they were dirty in their persons, corn-merchants and
+usurers with whom it was dangerous to conclude a bargain without
+witnesses.  Orion was none of these.  As the handsome, genial, and
+original-minded son of the rich and noble Governor, Mukaukas George, he
+was welcomed as a sort of ambassador; whatever the golden youth of the
+city allowed themselves was permitted to him.  His purse was as well
+lined as theirs, his health and vigor far more enduring; and his horses
+had beaten theirs in three races, though he drove them himself and did
+not trust them to paid charioteers.  The "rich Egyptian," the "New
+Antinous," "handsome Orion," as he was called, could never be spared from
+feast or entertainment.  He was a welcome guest at the first houses in
+the city, and in the palace and the villa of the Senator Justinus, an old
+friend of his father, he was as much at home as a son of the house.
+
+It was under his roof, and the auspices of his kindhearted wife Martina,
+that he made acquaintance with the fair Heliodora, the widow of a nephew
+of the Senator; and the whole city had been set talking of the tender
+intimacy Orion had formed with the beautiful young woman whose rigid
+virtue had hitherto been a subject of admiration no less than her fair
+hair and the big jewels with which she loved to set off her simple but
+costly dress.  And many a fair Byzantine had striven for the young
+Egyptian's good graces before Heliodora had driven them all out of the
+field.  Still, she had not yet succeeded in enslaving Orion deeply and
+permanently; and when, last evening, he had assured his mother that she
+was not mistress of his heart he spoke truly.
+
+His conduct in the Capital had not certainly been exemplary, but he had
+never run wild, and had enjoyed the respect not only of his companions in
+pleasure, but of grave and venerable men whom he had met in the house of
+Justinus, and who sang the praises of his intelligence and eagerness to
+learn.  As a boy he had been a diligent scholar, and here he let no
+opportunity slip.  Not least had he cultivated his musical talents in the
+Imperial city, and had acquired a rare mastery in singing and playing the
+lute.
+
+He would gladly have remained some time longer at the Capital, but at
+last the place grew too hot to hold him-mainly on his father's account.
+The conviction that George had largely contributed to the disaffection of
+Egypt for the Byzantine Empire and had played into the hands of the
+irresistible and detested upstart Arabs, had found increasing acceptance
+in the highest circles, especially since Cyrus--the deposed and now
+deceased Patriarch of Alexandria--had retired to Constantinople.  Orion's
+capture was in fact already decided on, when the Senator Justinus and
+some other friends had hinted a warning which he had acted on just in
+time.
+
+His father's line of conduct had placed him in great peril; but he owed
+him no grudge for it--indeed, he most deeply approved of it.  A thousand
+times had he witnessed the contempt heaped on the Egyptians by the
+Greeks, and the loathing and hatred of the Orthodox for the Monophysite
+creed of his fellow-countrymen.
+
+He had with difficulty controlled his wrath as he had listened again
+and again to the abuse and scorn poured out on his country and people by
+gentle and simple, laymen and priests, even in his presence; regarding
+him no doubt as one of themselves--a Greek in whose eyes everything
+"Barbarian" was as odious and as contemptible as in their own.
+
+But the blood of his race flowed in the veins of the "new Antinous" who
+could sing Greek songs so well and with so pure an accent; every insult
+to his people was stamped deep in his heart, every sneer at his faith
+revived his memory of the day when the Melchites had slain his two
+brothers.  And these bloody deeds, these innumerable acts of oppression
+by which the Greek; had provoked and offended the schismatic Egyptian and
+hunted them to death, were now avenged by his father.  It lifted up his
+heart and made him proud to think of it.  He showed his secret soul to
+the old man who was as much surprised as delighted at what he found
+there; for he had feared that Orion might not be able wholly to escape
+the powerful influences of Greek beguilements;--nay, he had often felt
+anxious lest his own son might disapprove of his having surrendered to
+the Arab conquerors the province entrusted to his rule, and concluded a
+peace with them.
+
+The Mukaukas now felt himself as one with Orion, and from time to time
+looked tenderly up at him from the draught-board.  Neforis was doing her
+best to entertain the mother of her son's future bride, and divert her
+attention from his strange demeanor.  She seemed indeed to be successful,
+for Dame Susannah agreed to everything she said; but she betrayed the
+fact that she was keeping a sharp watch by suddenly asking: "Does your
+husband's lofty niece not think us worthy of a single word?"
+
+"Oh no!"  said Neforis bitterly.  "I only hope she may soon find some
+other people to whom she can behave more graciously.  You may depend
+upon it I will put no obstacle in her way."
+
+Then she brought the conversation round to Katharina, and the widow told
+her that her brother-in-law, Chrysippus, was now in Memphis with his two
+little daughters.  They were to go away on the morrow, so the young girl
+had been obliged to devote herself to them:  "And so the poor child is
+sitting there at this minute," she lamented, "and must keep those two
+little chatter-boxes quiet while she is longing to be here instead."
+
+Orion quite understood these last words; he asked after the young girl,
+and then added gaily:
+
+"She promised me a collar yesterday for my little white keepsake from
+Constantinople.  Fie! Mary, you should not tease the poor little beast."
+
+"No, let the dog go," added the widow, addressing the governor's little
+granddaughter, who was trying to make the recalcitrant dog kiss her doll.
+"But you know, Orion, this tiny creature is really too delicate for such
+a big man as you are!  You should give him to some pretty young lady and
+then he would fulfil his destiny!  And Katharina is embroidering him a
+collar; I ought not to tell her little secret, but it is to have gold
+stars on a blue ground."
+
+"Because Orion is a star," cried the little girl.  "So she is working
+nothing but Orions."
+
+"But fortunately there is but one star of my name," observed he.  "Pray
+tell her that Dame Susa."
+
+The child clapped her hands.  "He does not choose to have any other star
+near him!"  she exclaimed.
+
+The widow broke in: "Little simpleton!  I know people who cannot even
+bear to have a likeness traced between themselves and any one else.--But
+this you must permit, Orion--you were quite right just now, Neforis; his
+mouth and brow might have been taken from his father's face."
+
+The remark was quite accurate; and yet it would have been hard to imagine
+two men more unlike than the bright youth full of vitality, and the
+languid old man on the couch, to whom even the small exertion of moving
+the men was an effort.  The Mukaukas might once have been like his son,
+but in some long past time.  Thin grey locks now only covered one half of
+his bald head, and of his eyes, which, thirty years since, had sparkled
+perhaps as keenly as Orion's, there was usually nothing, or very little
+to be seen; for the heavy lids always drooped over them as though they
+had lost the power to open, and this gave his handsome but deathly-pale
+face a somewhat owl-like look.  It was not morose, however; on the
+contrary the mingled lines of suffering and of benevolent kindliness
+resulted in an expression only of melancholy.  The mouth and flabby
+cheeks were as motionless as though they were dead.  Grief, anxiety and
+alarms seemed to have passed over them with a paralysing hand and had
+left their trace there.  He looked like a man weary unto death, and still
+living only because fate had denied him the grace to die.  Indeed, he had
+often been taken for dead by his family when he had dipped too freely
+into a certain little blood-stone box to take too many of the white
+opium-pills, one of which he placed between his colorless lips at long
+intervals, even during his game of draughts.
+
+He lifted each piece slowly, like a sleeper with his eyes half shut; and
+yet his opponent could not hold her own against his wary tactics and was
+defeated by him now for the third time, though her uncle himself called
+her a good player.  It was easy to read in her high, smooth brow and
+dark-blue eyes with their direct gaze, that she could think clearly and
+decisively, and also feel deeply.  But she seemed wilful too, and
+contradictory--at any rate to-day; for when Orion pointed out some move
+to her she rarely took his advice, but with set lips, pushed the piece
+according to her own, rarely wiser, judgment.  It was quite plain that
+she was refractory under the guidance of this--especially of this
+counsellor.
+
+The bystanders could not fail to see the girl's repellent manner and
+Orion's eager attempts to propitiate her; and for this reason Neforis was
+glad when, just as her husband had finished the third game, and had
+pushed the men together on the board with the back of his hand, his
+chamberlain reminded him that the Arab was without, awaiting his pleasure
+with growing impatience.  The Mukaukas answered only by a sign, drew his
+long caftan of the finest wool closer around him, and pointed to the
+doors and the open roof.  The rest of the party had long felt the chill
+of the damp night air that blew through the room from the river, but
+knowing that the father suffered more from heat than from anything, they
+had all willingly endured the draught.  Now, however, Orion called the
+slaves, and before the strangers were admitted the doors were closed and
+the roof covered.
+
+Paula rose; the governor lay motionless and kept his eyes apparently
+closed; he must, however, have seen what was going forward through an
+imperceptible slit, for he turned first to Paula and then to the other
+women saying: "Is it not strange?--Most old folks, like children, seek
+the sun, and love to sit, as the others play, in its heat.  While I--
+something that happened to me years ago--you know;--and it seemed to
+freeze my blood.  Now it never gets warm, and I feel the contrast between
+the coolness in here and the heat outside most acutely, almost as a pain.
+The older we grow the more ready we are to abandon to the young the
+things we ourselves used most to enjoy.  The only thing which we old
+folks do not willingly relinquish is personal comfort, and I thank you
+for enduring annoyances so patiently for the sake of securing mine.--It
+is a terrific summer!  You, Paula, from the heights of Lebanon, know what
+ice is.  How often have I wished that I could have a bed of snow.  To
+feel myself one with that fresh, still coldness would be all I wish for!
+The cold air which you dread does me good.  But the warmth of youth
+rebels against everything that is cool."
+
+This was the first long sentence the Mukaukas had uttered since the
+beginning of the game.  Orion listened respectfully to the end, but then
+he said with a laugh: "But there are some young people who seem to take
+pleasure in being cool and icy--for what cause God alone knows!"
+
+As he spoke he looked the girl at whom the words were aimed, full in the
+face; but she turned silently and proudly away, and an angry shade passed
+over her lovely features.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+When the Arab was at last admitted to the governor's presence his
+attendants unfolded a hanging before him.  The giant Masdakite did the
+chief share of the work; but as soon as the Mukaukas caught sight of the
+big man, with his bushy, mane-like hair, and a dagger and a battle-axe
+stuck through his belt, he cried out:
+
+"Away, away with him!  That man--those weapons--I will not look at the
+hanging till he is gone."
+
+His hands were trembling, and the merchant at once desired his faithful
+Rustem, the most harmless of mortals, to quit the room.  The governor,
+whose sensitive nerves had been liable to such attacks of panic ever
+since an exiled Greek had once attempted to murder him, now soon
+recovered his composure, and looked with great admiration at the hanging
+round which the family were standing.  They all confessed they had never
+seen anything like it, and the vivacious Dame Susannah proposed to send
+for her daughter and her visitors; but it was already late, and her house
+was so far from the governor's that she gave that up.  The father and son
+had already heard of this marvellous piece of work, which had formed part
+of the plunder taken by the Arab conquerors of the Persian Empire at the
+sack of the "White Tower"--the royal palace of Madam, the capital of the
+Sassanidze.  They knew that it had been originally 300 ells long and 60
+ells wide, and had heard with indignation that the Khaliff Omar, who
+always lived and dressed and ate like the chief of a caravan, and
+looked down with contempt on all such objects of luxury, had cut this
+inestimable treasure of art into pieces and divided it among the
+Companions of the Prophet.
+
+Haschim explained to them that this particular fragment had been the
+share of the booty allotted to Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law.  Haschim
+himself had seen the work before its dismemberment at Madain, where it
+hung on the wall of the magnificent throne-room, and subsequently, at
+Medina.
+
+His audience eagerly requested him to describe the other portions; he,
+however, seemed somewhat uneasy, looking down at his bare feet which were
+standing on the mosaic pavement, damp from the fountain; for, after the
+manner of his nation, he had left his shoes in the outer room.  The
+governor had noticed the old man's gestures as he repeatedly put his hand
+to his mouth, and while his wife, Orion, and the widow were besieging the
+merchant with questions, he whispered a few words to one of the slaves.
+The man vanished, and returned bringing in, by his master's orders, a
+long strip of carpet which he laid in front of the Arab's brown and
+strong but delicately-formed feet.
+
+A wonderful change came over the merchant's whole being as this was done.
+He drew himself up with a dignity which none of those present had
+suspected in the man who had so humbly entered the room and so diligently
+praised his wares; an expression of satisfaction overspread his calm,
+mild features, a sweet smile parted his lips, and his kind eyes sparkled
+through tears like those of a child unexpectedly pleased.  Then he bowed
+before the Mukaukas, touching his brow, lips and breast with the finger-
+tips of the right hand to express: "All my thoughts, words and feelings
+are devoted to you,"--while he said: "Thanks, Son of Menas.  That was the
+act of Moslem."
+
+"Of a Christian!"  cried Orion hastily.  But his father shook his head
+gently, and said, slowly and impressively: "Only of a man."
+
+"Of a man," repeated the merchant, and then he added thoughtfully: "Of a
+man!  Yes, that is the highest mark so long as we are what we ought to be
+The image of the one God.  Who is more compassionate than He?  And every
+mother's son who is likewise compassionate, is like him."
+
+"Another Christian rule, thou strange Moslem!"  said Orion interrupting
+him.
+
+"And yet," said Haschim, with tranquil dignity, "it corresponds word
+for word with the teaching of the Best of men--our Prophet.  I am one of
+those who knew him here on earth.  His brother's smallest pain filled his
+soft heart with friendly sympathy; his law insists on charity, even
+towards the shrub by the, wayside; he pronounces it mortal sin to injure
+it, and every Moslem must obey him.  Compassion for all is the command of
+the Prophet. . . ."  Here the Arab was suddenly and roughly interrupted;
+Paula, who, till now, had been leaning against a pilaster, contemplating
+the hanging and silently listening to the conversation, hastily stepped
+nearer to the old man, and with flaming cheeks and flashing eyes pointed
+at him wrathfully, while she exclaimed in a trembling voice-heedless
+alike of the astonished and indignant bystanders, and of the little dog
+which flew at the Arab, barking furiously:
+
+"You--you, the followers of the false prophet--you, the companions of the
+bloodhound Khalid--you and Charity!  I know you!  I know what you did in
+Syria.  With these eyes have I seen you, and your bloodthirsty women, and
+the foam on your raging lips.  Here I stand to bear witness against you
+and I cast it in your teeth:  You broke faith in Damascus, and the
+victims of your treachery--defenceless women and tender infants as well
+as men--you killed with the sword or strangled with your hands.  You--you
+the Apostle of Compassion?--have you ever heard of Abyla?  You, the
+friend of your Prophet--I ask you what did you, who so tenderly spare the
+tree by the wayside, do to the innocent folk of Abyla, whom you fell upon
+like wolves in a sheepfold?  You--you and Compassionate!"  The vehement
+girl, to whom no one had ever shown any pity, and on whose soul the word
+had fallen like a mockery, who for long hours had been suffering
+suppressed and torturing misery, felt it a relief to give free vent to
+the anguish of her soul; she ended with a hard laugh, and waved her hand
+round her head as though to disperse a swarm of gadflies.
+
+What a woman!
+
+Orion's gaze was fixed on her in horror--but in enchantment.  Yes, his
+mother had judged her rightly.  No gentle, tender-hearted woman laughed
+like that; but she was grand, splendid, wonderful in her wrath.  She
+reminded him of the picture of the goddess of vengeance, by Apelles,
+which he had seen in Constantinople.  His mother shrugged her shoulders
+and cast a meaning glance at the widow, and even his father was startled
+at the sight.  He knew what had roused her; still he felt that he could
+not permit this, and he recalled the excited girl to her senses by
+speaking her name, half-reproachfully and half-regretfully, at first
+quite gently but then louder and more severely.
+
+She started like a sleep-walker suddenly awaked from her trance, passed
+her hand over her eyes, and said, as she bowed her head before the
+governor:
+
+"Forgive me, Uncle, I am sorry for what has occurred--but it was too much
+for me.  You know what my past has been, and when I am reminded--when I
+must listen to the praises even of the wretches to whom my father and
+brother...."
+
+A loud sob interrupted her; little Mary was clinging to her and weeping.
+Orion could hardly keep himself from hastening to her and clasping her in
+his arms.  Ah, how well her woman's weakness became the noble girl!  How
+strongly it drew him to her!
+
+But Paula soon recovered from it; even while the governor was soothing
+her with kind words she mastered her violent agitation, and said gently,
+though her tears still quietly flowed: "Let me go to my room, I beg...."
+
+"Good-night, then, child,"  said  the Mukaukas affectionately, and Paula
+turned towards the door with a silent greeting to the rest of the party;
+but the Moslem detained her and said:
+
+"I know who you are, noble daughter of Thomas, and I have heard that
+your brother was the bridegroom who had come to Abyla to solemnize his
+marriage with the daughter of the prefect of Tripolis.  Alas, alas!
+I myself was there with my merchandise at the fair, when a maddened horde
+of my fellow-believers fell upon the peaceful town.  Poor child, poor
+child!  Your father was the greatest and most redoubtable of our foes.
+Whether still on earth or in heaven he yet, no doubt honors our sword
+as we honor his.  But your brother, whom we sent to his grave as a
+bridegroom--he cursed us with his dying breath.  You have inherited his
+rancor; and when it surges up against me, a Moslem, I can do no more than
+bow my head and do penance for the guilt of those whose blood runs in my
+veins and whose faith I confess.  I have nothing to plead--no, noble
+maiden, nothing that can excuse the deed of Abyla.  There--there alone it
+was the fate of my grey hairs to be ashamed of my fellow-Moslems--believe
+me, maiden, it was grievous to me.  War, and the memory of many friends
+slain and of wealth lightly plundered had unchained men's passion; and
+where passion's pinions wave, whether in the struggle for mine and thine
+or for other possessions, ever since the days of Cain and Abel, it is
+always and everywhere the same."
+
+Paula, who till now had stood motionless in front of the old man, shook
+her head and said bitterly:
+
+"But all this will not give me back my father and brother.  You yourself
+look like a kind-hearted man; but for the future--if you are as just as
+you are kind--find out to whom you are speaking before you talk of the
+compassion of the Moslems!"
+
+She once more bowed good-night and left the room.  Orion followed her;
+come what might he must see her.  But he returned a few minutes after,
+breathing hard and with his teeth set.  He had taken her hand, had tried
+to tell her all a loving heart could find to say; but how sharply, how
+icily had he been repulsed, with what an air of intolerable scorn had she
+turned her back upon him!  And now that he was in their midst again he
+scarcely heard his father express his regrets that so painful a scene
+should have occurred under his roof, while the Arab said that he could
+quite understand why the daughter of Thomas should have been betrayed
+to anger: the massacre of Abyla was quite inexcusable.
+
+"But then," the old man went on, "in what war do not such things take
+place?  Even the Christian is not always master of himself: you yourself
+I know, lost two promising sons--and who were the murderers?  Christians
+--your own fellow-believers. . ."
+
+"The bitterest foes of my beliefs," said the governor slowly, and every
+syllable was a calm and dignified reproof to the Moslem for supposing
+that the creed of those who had killed his sons could be his.  As he
+spoke he opened his eyes wide with the look of those hard, opaquely-
+glittering stones which his ancestors had been wont to set for eyes in
+their portrait statues.  But he suddenly closed them again and said
+indifferently:
+
+"At what price do you value your hanging?  I have a fancy to buy it.
+Name your lowest terms: I cannot bear to bargain."
+
+"I had thought of asking five hundred thousand drachmae," said the
+dealer.  "Four hundred thousand drachmae, and it is yours."
+
+The governor's wife clasped her hands at such a sum and made warning
+signals to her husband, shaking her head disapprovingly, when Orion,
+making a great effort to show that he too took an interest in this
+important transaction, said: "It may be worth three hundred thousand."
+
+"Four hundred thousand," repeated the merchant coolly.  "Your father
+wished to know the lowest price, and I am asking no more than is right.
+The rubies and garnets in these grapes, the pearls in the myrtle
+blossoms, the turquoises in the forget-me-nots, the diamonds hanging as
+dew on the grass, the emeralds which give brilliancy to the green leaves
+--this one especially, which is an immense stone--alone are worth more."
+
+"Then why do you not cut them out of the tissue?"  asked Neforis.
+
+"Because I cannot bear to destroy this noble work," replied the Arab.  "I
+will sell it as it is or not at all."  At these words the Mukaukas nodded
+to his son, heedless of the disapprobation his wife persisted in
+expressing, asked for a tablet which lay near the chessboard, and on it
+wrote a few words.
+
+"We are agreed," he said to the merchant.  "The treasurer, Nilus, will
+hand you the payment to-morrow morning on presenting this order."
+
+A fresh emotion now took possession of Orion, and crying: "Splendid!
+Splendid!"  he rushed up to his father and excitedly kissed his hand.
+Then, turning to his mother, whose eyes were full of tears of vexation,
+he put his hand under her chin, kissed her brow, and exclaimed with
+triumphant satisfaction: "This is how we and the emperor do business!
+When the father is the most liberal of men the son is apt to look small.
+Meaning no harm, worthy merchant!  As far as the hanging is concerned,
+it may be more precious than all the treasures of Croesus; but you have
+something yet to give us into the bargain before you load your camels
+with our gold: Tell us what the whole work was like before it was
+divided."
+
+The Moslem, who had placed the precious tablet in his girdle, at once
+obeyed this request.
+
+"You know how enormous were its length and breadth," he began.  "The hall
+it decorated could hold several thousand guests, besides space for a
+hundred body guards to stand on each side of the throne.  As many
+weavers, embroiderers and jewellers as there are days in the year worked
+on it, they say, for the years of a man's life.  The woven picture
+represented paradise as the Persians imagine it--full of green trees,
+flowers and fruits.  Here you can still see a fragment of the sparkling
+fountain which, when seen from a distance, with its sprinkling of
+diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, looked like living water.  Here the
+pearls represent the foam on a wave.  These leaves, cut across here,
+belonged to a rose-bush which grew by the fountain of Eden before the
+evil of the first rain fell on the world.
+
+"Originally all roses were white, but as the limbs of the first woman
+shone with more dazzling whiteness they blushed for shame, and since then
+there are crimson as well as white roses.  So the Persians say."
+
+"And this--our piece?"  asked Orion.
+
+"This," replied  the  merchant, with a pleasant glance at the young man,
+"was the very middle of the hanging.  On the left you see the judgment at
+the bridge of Chinvat.  The damned were not represented, but only the
+winged, Fravashi, Genii who, as the Persians believe, dwell one with each
+mortal as his guardian angel through life, united to him but separable.
+They were depicted in stormy pursuit of the damned--the miscreant
+followers of Angramainjus, the evil Spirit, of whom you must imagine a
+vast multitude fleeing before them.  The souls in bliss, the pure and
+faithful servants of the Persian divinity Auramazda, enter with songs of
+triumph into the flower-decked pleasure-garden, while at their feet the
+spirits were shown of those who were neither altogether cursed nor
+altogether blessed, vanishing in humble silence into a dusky grove.  The
+pure enjoyed the gifts of paradise in peace and contentment.--All this
+was explained to me by a priest of the Fire-worshippers.  Here, you see,
+is a huge bunch of grapes which one of the happy ones is about to pluck;
+the hand is uninjured--the arm unfortunately is cut through; but here is
+a splendid fragment of the wreath of fruit and flowers which framed the
+whole.  That emerald forming a bud--how much do you think it is worth?"
+
+"A  magnificent stone!"  cried  Orion.  "Even Heliodora has nothing to
+equal it.--Well, father, what do you say is its value?"
+
+"Great, very great," replied the Mukaukas.  "And yet the whole
+unmutilated work would be too small an offering for Him to whom I propose
+to offer it."
+
+"To the great general, Amru?"  asked Orion.
+
+"No child," said the governor decidedly.  "To the great, indivisible and
+divine Person of Jesus Christ and his Church."
+
+Orion looked down greatly disappointed; the idea of seeing this splendid
+gem hidden away in a reliquary in some dim cupboard did not please him:
+He could have found a much more gratifying use for it.
+
+Neither his father nor his mother observed his dissatisfaction, for
+Neforis had rushed up to her husband's couch, and fallen on her knees by
+his side, covering his cold, slender hand with kisses, as joyful as
+though this determination had relieved her of a heavy burden of dread:
+"Our souls, our souls, George!  For such a gift--only wait--you will be
+forgiven all, and recover your lost peace!"
+
+The governor shrugged his shoulders and said nothing; the hanging was
+rolled up and locked into the tablinum by Orion; then the Mukaukas bid
+the chamberlain show the Arab and his followers to quarters for the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Abandon to the young the things we ourselves used most to enjoy
+Spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the women
+Talk of the wolf and you see his tail
+Temples of the old gods were used as quarries
+Women are indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V1 ***
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