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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Bride of the Nile, by Georg Ebers, v3
+#80 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: The Bride of the Nile, Volume 3.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5519]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V3 ***
+
+
+
+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 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+After the great excitement of the night Paula had thrown herself on her
+bed with throbbing pulses.  Sleep would not come to her, and so at rather
+more than two hours after sunrise she went to the window to close the
+shutters.  As she did so she looked out, and she saw Hiram leap into a
+boat and push the light bark from the shore.  She dared neither signal
+nor call to him; but when the faithful soul had reached open water he
+looked back at her window, recognized her in her white morning dress and
+flourished the oar high in the air.  This could only mean that he had
+fulfilled his commission and sold her jewel.  Now he was going to the
+other side to engage the Nabathaean.
+
+When she had closed the shutters and darkened the room she again lay
+down.  Youth asserted its rights the weary girl fell into deep, dreamless
+slumbers.
+
+When she woke, with the heat drops on her forehead, the sun was nearly at
+the meridian, only an hour till the Ariston would be served, the Greek
+breakfast, the first meal in the morning, which the family eat together
+as they also did the principal meal later in the clay.  She had never yet
+failed to appear, and her absence would excite remark.
+
+The governor's household, like that of every Egyptian of rank, was
+conducted more on the Greek than the Egyptian plan; and this was the case
+not merely as regarded the meals but in many other things, and especially
+the language spoken.  From the Mukaukas himself down to the youngest
+member of the family, all spoke Greek among themselves, and Coptic, the
+old native dialect, only to the servants.  Nay, many borrowed and foreign
+words had already crept into use in the Coptic.
+
+The governor's granddaughter, pretty little Mary, had learnt to speak
+Greek fluently and correctly before she spoke Coptic, but when Paula had
+first arrived she could not as yet write the beautiful language of Greece
+with due accuracy.  Paula loved children; she longed for some occupation,
+and she had therefore volunteered to instruct the little girl in the art.
+At first her hosts had seemed pleased that she should render this
+service, but ere long the relation between the Lady Neforis and her
+husband's niece had taken the unpleasant aspect which it was destined to
+retain.  She had put a stop to the lessons, and the reason she had
+assigned for this insulting step was that Paula had dictated to her pupil
+long sentences out of her Orthodox Greek prayerbook.  This, it was true,
+she had done; but without the smallest concealment; and the passages she
+had chosen had contained nothing but what must elevate the soul of every
+Christian, of whatever confession.
+
+The child had wept bitterly over her grandmother's fiat, though Paula had
+always taken the lessons quite seriously, for Mary loved her older
+companion with all the enthusiasm of a half-grown girl--as a child of ten
+really is in Egypt; her passionate little heart worshipped the beautiful
+maiden who was in every respect so far above her, and Paula's arms had
+opened wide to embrace the child who brought sunshine into the gloomy,
+chill atmosphere she breathed in her uncle's house.  But Neforis regarded
+the child's ardent love for her Melchite relation as exaggerated and
+morbid, imperilling perhaps her religious faith; and she fancied that
+under Paula's influence Mary had transferred her affections from her to
+the younger woman with added warmth.  Nor was this idea wholly fanciful;
+the child's strong sense of justice could not bear to see her friend
+misunderstood and slighted, often simply and entirely misjudged and
+hardly blamed, so Mary felt it her duty, as far as in her lay, to make up
+for her grandmother's delinquencies in regard to the guest who in the
+child's eyes was perfection.
+
+But Neforis was not the woman to put up with this demeanor in a child.
+Mary was her granddaughter, the only child of her lost son, and no one
+should come between them.  So she forbid the little girl to go to Paula's
+room without an express message, and when a Greek teacher was engaged for
+her, her instructions were that she should keep her pupil as much as
+possible out of the Syrian damsel's way.  All this only fanned the
+child's vehement affection; and tenderly as her grandmother would
+sometimes caress her--while Mary on her part never failed in dutiful
+obedience--neither of them ever felt a true and steady warmth of heart
+towards the other; and for this Paula was no doubt to blame, though
+against her will and by her mere existence.
+
+Often, indeed, and by a hundred covert hints Dame Neforis gave Paula to
+understand that she it was who had alienated her grandchild; there was
+nothing for it but to keep the child for whom she yearned, at a distance,
+and only rarely reveal to her the abundance of her love.  At last her
+life was so full of grievance that she was hardly able to be innocent
+with the innocent--a child with the child; Mary was not slow to note
+this, and ascribed Paula's altered manner to the suffering caused by
+her grandmother's severity.
+
+Mary's most frequent opportunities of speaking to her friend were
+just before meals; for at that time no one was watching her, and her
+grandmother had not forbidden her calling Paula to table.  A visit to her
+room was the child's greatest delight--partly because it was forbidden--
+but no less because Paula, up in her own room, was quite different from
+what she seemed with the others, and because they could there look at
+each other and kiss without interference, and say what ever they pleased.
+There Mary could tell her as much as she dared of the events in their
+little circle, but the lively and sometimes hoydenish little girl was
+often withheld from confessing a misdemeanor, or even an inoffensive
+piece of childishness, by sheer admiration for one who to her appeared
+nobler, greater and loftier than other beings.
+
+Just as Paula had finished putting up her hair, Mary, who would rush like
+a whirlwind even into her grandmother's presence, knocked humbly at the
+door.  She did not fly into Paula's arms as she did into those of
+Susannah or her daughter Katharina, but only kissed her white arm with
+fervent devotion, and colored with happiness when Paula bent down to her,
+pressed her lips to her brow and hair, and wiped her wet, glowing cheeks.
+Then she took Mary's head fondly between her hands and said:
+
+"What is wrong with you, madcap?"
+
+In fact the sweet little face was crimson, and her eyes swelled as if she
+had been crying violently.
+
+"It is so fearfully hot," said Mary.  "Eudoxia"--her Greek governess--
+"says that Egypt in summer is a fiery furnace, a hell upon earth.  She is
+quite ill with the heat, and lies like a fish on the sand; the only good
+thing about it is.  .  ."
+
+"That she lets you run off and gives you no lessons?"
+
+Mary nodded, but as no lecture followed the confession she put her head
+on one side and looked up into Paula's face with large roguish eyes.
+
+"And yet you have been crying!--a great girl like you?"
+
+"I--I crying?"
+
+"Yes, crying.  I can see it in your eyes.  Now confess: what has
+happened?"
+
+"You will not scold me?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Well then.  At first it was fun, such fun you cannot think, and I do
+not mind the heat; but when the great hunt had gone by I wanted to go
+to my grand mother and I was not allowed.  Do you know, something very
+particular had been going on in the fountain-room; and as they all
+came out again I crept behind Orion into the tablinum--there are such
+wonderful things there, and I wanted just to frighten him a little;
+we have often played games together before.  At first he did not see me,
+and as he was bending over the hanging, from which the gem was stolen--I
+believe he was counting the stones in the faded old thing--I just jumped
+on to his shoulder, and he was so frightened--I can tell you, awfully
+frightened!  And he turned upon me like a fighting-cock and--and he gave
+me a box on the ear; such a slap, it is burning now--and all sorts of
+colors danced before my eyes.  He always used to be so nice and kind to
+me, and to you, too, and so I used to be fond of him--he is my uncle too
+--but a box on the ears, a slap such as the cook might give to the
+turnspit--I am too big for that; that I will certainly not put up with
+it!  Since my last birthday all the slaves and upper servants, too, have
+had to treat me as a lady and to bow down to me!  And now!--it was just
+here.--How dare he?"  She began to cry again and sobbed out: "But that
+was not all.  He locked me into the dark tablinum and left--left me...."
+her tears flowed faster and faster, "left me sitting there!  It was so
+horrible; and I might have been there now if I had not found a gold
+plate; I seized my great-grandfather--I mean the silver image of Menas,
+and hammered on it, and screamed Fire!  Then Sebek heard me and fetched
+Orion, and he let me out, and made such a fuss over me and kissed me.
+But what is the good of that; my grandfather will be angry, for in my
+terror I beat his father's nose quite flat on the plate."
+
+Paula had listened, now amused and now grave, to the little girl's story;
+when she ceased, she once more wiped her eyes and said:
+
+"Your uncle is a man, and you must not play with him as if he were a
+child like yourself.  The reminder you got was rather a hard one, no
+doubt, but Orion tried to make up for it.--But the great hunt, what was
+that?"
+
+At this question Mary's eyes suddenly sparkled again.  In an instant all
+her woes were forgotten, even her ancestor's flattened nose, and with a
+merry, hearty laugh she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! you should have seen it!  You would have been amused too.  They
+wanted to catch the bad man who cut the emerald out of the hanging.  He
+had left his shoes and they had held them under the dogs' noses and then
+off they went!  First they rushed here to the stairs; then to the
+stables, then to the lodgings of one of the horse-trainers, and I kept
+close behind, after the terriers and the other dogs.  Then they stopped
+to consider and at last they all ran out at the gate towards the town.  I
+ought not to have gone beyond the court-yard, but--do not be cross with
+me--it was such fun!--Out they went, along Hapi Street, across the
+square, and at last into the Goldsmith's Street, and there the whole pack
+plunged into Gamaliel's shop--the Jew who is always so merry.  While he
+was talking to the others his wife gave me some apricot tartlets; we do
+not have such good ones at home."
+
+"And did they find the man?"  asked Paula, who had changed color
+repeatedly during the child's story.
+
+"I do not know," said Mary sadly.  "They were not chasing any one in
+particular.  The dogs kept their noses to the ground, and we ran after
+them."
+
+"And only to catch a man, who certainly had nothing whatever to do with
+the theft.--Reflect a little, Mary.  The shoes gave the dogs the scent
+and they were set on to seize the man who had worn them, but whom no
+judge had examined.  The shoes were found in the hall; perhaps he had
+dropped them by accident, or some one else may have carried them there.
+Now think of yourself in the place of an innocent man, a Christian like
+ourselves, hunted with a pack of dogs like a wild beast.  Is it not
+frightful?  No good heart should laugh at such a thing!"
+
+Paula spoke with such impressive gravity and deep sorrow, and her whole
+manner betrayed such great and genuine distress that the child looked tip
+at her anxiously, with tearful eyes, threw herself against her, and
+hiding her face in Paula's dress exclaimed: "I did not know that they
+were hunting a poor man, and if it makes you so sad, I wish I had not
+been there!  But is it really and truly so bad?  You are so often unhappy
+when we others laugh!"  She gazed into Paula's face with wide, wondering
+eyes through her tears, and Paula clasped her to her, kissed her fondly,
+and replied with melancholy sweetness:
+
+"I would gladly be as gay as you, but I have gone through so much to
+sadden me.  Laugh and be merry to your heart's content; I am glad you
+should.  But with regard to the poor hunted man, I fear he is my
+father's freedman, the most faithful, honest soul!  Did your exciting
+hunt drive any one out of the goldsmith's shop?"
+
+Mary shook her head; then she asked:
+
+"Is it Hiram, the stammerer, the trainer, that they are hunting?"
+
+"I fear it is."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the child.  "Stay--oh, dear!  it will grieve you again,
+but I think--I think they said--the shoes belonged--but I did not attend.
+However, they were talking of a groom--a freedman--a stammerer.  .  .  ."
+
+"Then they certainly are hunting down an innocent man," cried Paula with
+a deep sigh; and she sat down again in front of her toilet-table to
+finish dressing.  Her hands still moved mechanically, but she was lost in
+thought; she answered the child vaguely, and let her rummage in her open
+trunk till Mary pulled out the necklace that had been bereft of its gem,
+and hung it round her neck.  Just then there was a knock at the
+door and Katharina, the widow Susannah's little daughter, came into the
+room.  The young girl, to whom the governor's wife wished to marry her
+tall son scarcely reached to Paula's shoulder, but she was plump and
+pleasant to look upon; as neat as if she had just been taken out of a
+box, with a fresh, merry lovable little face.  When she laughed she
+showed a gleaming row of small teeth, set rather wide apart, but as white
+as snow; and her bright eyes beamed on the world as gladly as though they
+had nothing that was not pleasing to look for, innocent mischief to dream
+of.  She too, tried to win Paula's favor; but with none of Mary's devoted
+and unvarying enthusiasm.  Often, to be sure, she would devote herself to
+Paula with such stormy vehemence that the elder girl was forced to be
+repellent; then, on the other hand, if she fancied her self slighted, or
+treated more coolly than Mary, she would turn her back on Paula with
+sulky jealousy, temper and pouting.  It always was in Paula's power to
+put an end to the "Water-wagtails tantrums"--which generally had their
+comic side--by a kind word or kiss; but without some such advances
+Katharina was quite capable of indulging her humors to the utmost.
+
+On the present occasion she flew into Paula's arm, and when her friend
+begged, more quietly than usual that she would allow her first to finish
+dressing, she turned away without any display of touchiness and took
+the necklace from Mary's hand to put it on herself.  It was of fine
+workmanship, set with pearls, and took her fancy greatly; only the empty
+medallion from which Hiram had removed the emerald with his knife spoiled
+the whole effect.  Still, it was a princely jewel, and when she had also
+taken from the chest a large fan of ostrich feathers she showed off to
+her play-fellow, with droll, stiff dignity, how the empress and
+princesses at Court curtsied and bowed graciously to their inferiors.
+At this they both laughed a great deal.  When Paula had finished her
+toilet and proceeded to take the necklace off Katharina, the empty
+setting, which Hiram's knife had bent, caught in the thin tissue of her
+dress.  Mary disengaged it, and Paula tossed the jewel back into the
+trunk.
+
+While she was locking the box she asked Katharina whether she had met
+Orion.
+
+"Orion!"  repeated the younger girl, in a tone which implied that she
+alone had the right to enquire about him.  "Yes, we came upstairs
+together; he went to see the wounded man.  Have you anything to say to
+him?"
+
+She crimsoned as she spoke and looked suspiciously at Paula, who simply
+replied: "Perhaps," and then added, as she hung the ribbon with the key
+round her neck: "Now, you little girls, it is breakfast time; I am not
+going down to-day."
+
+"Oh, dear!"  cried Mary disappointed, "my grandfather is ailing and
+grandmother will stay with him; so if you do not come I shall have to sit
+alone with Eudoxia; for Katharina's chariot is waiting and she must go
+home at once.  Oh! do come.  Just to please me; you do not know how
+odious Eudoxia can be when it is so hot."
+
+"Yes, do go down," urged Katharina.  "What will you do up hereby
+yourself?  And this evening mother and I will come again."
+
+"Very well," said Paula.  "But first I must go to see the invalids."
+
+"May I go with you?"  asked the Water wagtail, coaxingly stroking Paula's
+arm.  But Mary clapped her hands, exclaiming:
+
+"She only wants to go to Orion--she is so fond of him.  .  .  ."
+
+Katharina put her hand over the child's mouth, but Paula, with quickened
+breath, explained that she had very serious matters to discuss with
+Orion; so Katharina, turning her back on her with a hasty gesture of
+defiance, sulkily went down stairs, while Mary slipped down the bannister
+rail.  Not many days since, Katharina, who was but just sixteen, would
+gladly have followed her example.
+
+Paula meanwhile knocked at the first of the sickrooms and entered it as
+softly as the door was opened by a nursing-sister from the convent of St.
+Katharine.  Orion, whom she was seeking, had been there, but had just
+left.
+
+In this first room lay the leader of the caravan; in that beyond was the
+crazy Persian.  In a sitting-room adjoining the first room, which, being
+intended for guests of distinction, was furnished with royal
+magnificence, sat two men in earnest conversation: the Arab merchant and
+Philippus the physician, a young man of little more than thirty, tall and
+bony, in a dress of clean but very coarse stuff without any kind of
+adornment.  He had a shrewd, pale face, out of which a pair of bright
+black eyes shone benevolently but with keen vivacity.  His large cheek-
+bones were much too prominent; the lower part of his face was small, ugly
+and, as it were, compressed, while his high broad forehead crowned the
+whole and stamped it as that of a thinker, as a fine cupola may crown an
+insignificant and homely structure.
+
+This man, devoid of charm, though his strongly-characterized
+individuality made it difficult to overlook him even in the midst of
+a distinguished circle, had been conversing eagerly with the Arab, who,
+in the course of their two-days' acquaintance, had inspired him with a
+regard which was fully reciprocated.  At last Orion had been the theme of
+their discourse, and the physician, a restless toiler who could not like
+any man whose life was one of idle enjoyment, though he did full justice
+to his brilliant gifts and well-applied studies, had judged him far more
+hardly than the older man.  To the leech all forms of human life were
+sacred, and in his eyes everything that could injure the body or soul of
+a man was worthy of destruction.  He knew all that Orion had brought upon
+the hapless Mandane, and how lightly he had trifled with the hearts of
+other women; in his eyes this made him a mischievous and criminal member
+of society.  He regarded life as an obligation to be discharged by work
+alone, of whatever kind, if only it were a benefit to society as a whole.
+And such youths as Orion not only did not recognize this, but used the
+whole and the parts also for base and selfish ends.  The old Moslem, on
+the contrary, viewed life as a dream whose fairest portion, the time of
+youth, each one should enjoy with alert senses, and only take care that
+at the waking which must come with death he might hope to find admission
+into Paradise.  How little could man do against the iron force of fate!
+That could not be forefended by hard work; there was nothing for it but
+to take up a right attitude, and to confront and meet it with dignity.
+The bark of Orion's existence lacked ballast; in fine weather it drifted
+wherever the breeze carried it,  He himself had taken care to equip it
+well; and if only the chances of life should freight it heavily--very
+heavily, and fling it on the rocks, then Orion might show who and what he
+was; he, Haschim, firmly believed that his character would prove itself
+admirable.  It was in the hour of shipwreck that a man showed his worth.
+
+Here the physician interrupted him to prove that it was not Fate, as
+imagined by Moslems, but man himself who guided the bark of life--but at
+this moment Paula looked into the room, and he broke off.  The merchant
+bowed profoundly, Philippus respectfully, but with more embarrassment
+than might have been expected from the general confidence of his manner.
+For some years he had been a daily visitor in the governor's house, and
+after carefully ignoring Paula on her first arrival, since Dame Neforis
+had taken to treating her so coolly he drew her out whenever he had the
+opportunity.  Her conversations with him had now become dear and even
+necessary to her, though at first his dry, cutting tone had displeased
+her, and he had often driven her into a corner in a way that was hard to
+bear.  They kept her mind alert in a circle which never busied itself
+with anything but the trivial details of family life in the decayed city,
+or with dogmatic polemics--for the Mukaukas seldom or never took part in
+the gossip of the women.
+
+The leech never talked of daily events, but expressed his views as to
+other and graver subjects in life, or in books with which they were both
+familiar; and he had the art of eliciting replies from her which he met
+with wit and acumen.  By degrees she had become accustomed to his bold
+mode of thought, sometimes, it is true, too recklessly expressed; and the
+gifted girl now preferred a discussion with him to any other form of
+conversation, recognizing that a childlike and supremely unselfish soul
+animated this thoughtful reservoir of all knowledge.  Almost everything
+she did displeased her uncle's wife, and so, of course, did her familiar
+intercourse with this man, whose appearance certainly had in it nothing
+to attract a young girl.--The physician to a family of rank was there to
+keep its members in good health, and it was unbecoming in one of them to
+converse with him on intimate terms as an equal.  She reproached Paula--
+whose pride she was constantly blaming--for her unseemly condescension
+to Philippus; but what chiefly annoyed her was that Paula took up many
+a half-hour which otherwise Philippus would have devoted to her husband;
+and in him and his health her life and thoughts were centred.
+
+The Arab at once recognized his foe of the previous evening; but they
+soon came to a friendly understanding--Paula confessing her folly in
+holding a single and kindly-disposed man answerable for the crimes of a
+whole nation.  Haschim replied that a right-minded spirit always came to
+a just conclusion at last; and then the conversation turned on her
+father, and the physician explained to the Arab that she was resolved
+never to weary of seeking the missing man.
+
+"Nay, it is the sole aim and end of my life," cried the girl.
+
+"A great mistake, in my opinion," said the leech.  But the merchant
+differed: there were things, he said, too precious to be given up for
+lost, even when the hope of finding them seemed as feeble and thin as a
+rotten reed.
+
+"That is what I feel!"  cried Paula.  "And how can you think differently,
+Philip?  Have I not heard from your own lips that you never give up all
+hope of a sick man till death has put an end to it?  Well, and I cling to
+mine--more than ever now, and I feel that I am right.  My last thought,
+my last coin shall be spent in the search for my father, even without my
+uncle and his wife, and in spite of their prohibition."
+
+"But in such a task a young girl can hardly do without a man's succor,"
+said the merchant.  "I wander a great deal about the world, I speak with
+many foreigners from distant lands, and if you will do me the honor, pray
+regard me as your coadjutor, and allow me to help you in seeking for the
+lost hero."
+
+"Thanks--I fervently thank you!"  cried Paula, grasping the Moslem's hand
+with hearty pleasure.  "Wherever you go bear my lost father in mind; I am
+but a poor, lonely girl, but if you find him.  .  ."
+
+"Then you will know that even among the Moslems there are men.  .  ."
+
+"Men who are ready to show compassion and to succor friendless women!"
+interrupted Paula.
+
+"And with good success, by the blessing of the Almighty," replied the
+Arab.  "As soon as I find a clue you shall hear from me; now, however,
+I must go across the Nile to see Amru the great general; I go in all
+confidence for I know that my poor, brave Rustem is in good hands, friend
+Philippus.  My first enquiries shall be made in Fostat, rely upon that,
+my daughter."
+
+"I do indeed," said Paula with pleased emotion.  "When shall we meet
+again?"
+
+"To-morrow, or the morning after at latest."
+
+The young girl went up to him and whispered: "We have just heard of a
+clue; indeed, I hope my messenger is already on his way.  Have you time
+to hear about it now?"
+
+"I ought long since to have been on the other shore; so not to-day, but
+to-morrow I hope."  The Arab shook hands with her and the physician, and
+hastily took his leave.
+
+Paula stood still, thinking.  Then it struck her that Hiram was now on
+the further side of the Nile, within the jurisdiction of the Arab ruler,
+and that the merchant could perhaps intercede for him, if she were to
+tell him all she knew.  She felt the fullest confidence in the old man,
+whose kind and sympathetic face was still visible to her mind's eye, and
+without paying any further heed to the physician she went quickly towards
+the door of the sick-room.  A crucifix hung close by, and the nun had
+fallen on her knees before it, praying for her infidel patient, and
+beseeching the Good Shepherd to have mercy on the sheep that was not of
+His fold.  Paula did not venture to disturb the worshipper, who was
+kneeling just in the narrow passage; so some minutes elapsed before the
+leech, observing her uneasiness, came out of the larger room, touched the
+nun on the shoulder, and said in a low voice of genuine kindness:
+
+"One moment, good Sister.  Your pious intercession will be heard--but
+this damsel is in haste."  The nun rose at once and made way, sending a
+wrathful glance after Paula as she hurried down the stairs.
+
+At the door of the court-yard she looked out and about for the Arab, but
+in vain.  Then she enquired of a slave who told her that the merchant's
+horse had waited for him at the gate a long time, that he had just come
+galloping out, and by this time must have reached the bridge of boats
+which connected Memphis with the island of Rodah and, beyond the island,
+with the fort of Babylon and the new town of Fostat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Paula went up-stairs again, distressed and vexed with herself.  Was it
+the heat that had enervated her and robbed her of the presence of mind
+she usually had at her command?  She herself could not understand how it
+was that she had not at once taken advantage of the opportunity to plead
+to Haschim for her faithful retainer.  The merchant might have interested
+himself for Hiram.
+
+The slave at the gate had told her that he had not yet been taken; the
+time to intercede, then, had not yet come.  But she was resolved to do
+so, to draw the wrath of her relations down on herself, and, if need
+should be, to relate all she had seen in the course of the night, to save
+her devoted servant.  It was no less than her duty: still, before
+humiliating Orion so deeply she would warn him.  The thought of charging
+him with so shameful a deed pained her like the need for inflicting an
+injury on herself.  She hated him, but she would rather have broken the
+most precious work of art than have branded him--him whose image still
+reigned in her heart, supremely glorious and attractive.
+
+Instead of following Mary to breakfast, or offering herself as usual to
+play draughts with her uncle, she went back to the sick-room.  To meet
+Neforis or Orion at this moment would have been painful, indeed odious
+to her.  It was long since she had felt so weary and oppressed.
+A conversation with the physician might perhaps prove refreshing; after
+the various agitations of the last few hours she longed for something, be
+it what it might, that should revive her spirits and give a fresh turn to
+her thoughts.
+
+In the Masdakite's room the Sister coldly asked her what she wanted, and
+who had given her leave to assist in tending the sufferers.  The leech,
+who at that moment was moistening the bandage on the wounded man's head,
+at this turned to the nun and informed her decidedly that he desired the
+young girl's assistance in attending on both his patients.  Then he led
+the way sitting-room, saying in subdued into the adjoining tones:
+
+"For the present all is well.  Let us rest here a little while."
+
+She sat down on a divan, and he on a seat opposite, and Philippus began:
+
+"You were seeking handsome Orion just now, but you must.  .  .  ."
+
+"What?"  she asked gravely.  "And I would have you to know that the son
+of the house is no more to me than his mother is.  Your phrase 'Handsome
+Orion' seems to imply something that I do not again wish to hear.  But I
+must speak to him, and soon, in reference to an important matter."
+
+"To what, then, do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here again?  To
+confess the truth I did not hope for your return."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Excuse me from answering.  No  one likes to hear unpleasant things.  If
+one of my profession thinks any one is not well.  .  .  ."
+
+"If that is meant for me," replied the girl, "all I can tell you is that
+the one thing on which I still can pride myself is my health.  Say what
+you will--the very worst for aught I care.  I want something to-day to
+rouse me from lethargy, even if it should make me angry."
+
+"Very well then," replied the leech, "though I am plunging into deep
+waters!--As to health, as it is commonly understood, a fish might envy
+you; but the higher health--health of mind: that I fear you cannot boast
+of."
+
+"This is a serious beginning," said Paula.  "Your reproof would seem to
+imply that I have done you or some one else a wrong."
+
+"If only you had!"  exclaimed he.  "No, you have not sinned against us in
+any way.--'I am as I am' is what you think of yourself; and what do you
+care for others?"
+
+"That must depend on whom you mean by 'others!'"
+
+"Nothing less than all and each of those with whom you live--here, in
+this house, in this town, in this world.  To you they are mere air--or
+less; for the air is a tangible thing that can fill a ship's sails and
+drive it against the stream, whose varying nature can bring comfort or
+suffering to your body."
+
+"My world is within!"  said Paula, laying her hand on her heart.
+
+"Very true.  And all creation may find room there; for what cannot the
+human heart, as it is called, contain!  The more we require it to take
+and keep, the more ready it is to hold it.  It is unsafe to let the lock
+rust; for, if once it has grown stiff, when we want to open it no pulling
+and wrenching will avail.  And besides--but I do not want to grieve you.
+--You have a habit of only looking backwards...."
+
+"And what that is pleasurable lies before me?  Your blame is harsh and at
+the same time unjust.--Indeed, and how can you tell which way I look?"
+
+"Because I have watched you with the eye of a friend.  In truth, Paula,
+you have forgotten how to look around and forward.  The life which lies
+behind you and which you have lost is all your world.  I once showed you
+on a fragmentary papyrus that belonged to my foster father, Horus Apollo,
+a heathen demon represented as going forwards, while his head was turned
+on his neck so that the face and eyes looked behind him."
+
+"I remember it perfectly."
+
+Well, you have long been just like him.  'All things move,' says
+Heraclitus, so you are forced to float onwards with the great stream;
+or, to vary the image, you must walk forwards on the high-road of life
+towards the common goal; but your eye is fixed on what lies behind you,
+feasting on the prospect of a handsome and wealthy home, kindness and
+tenderness, noble and loving faces, and a happy, but alas!  long-lost
+existence.  All the same, on you must go.--What must the result be?"
+
+"I must stumble, you think, and fall?"
+
+The physician's reproof had hit Paula all the harder because she could
+not conceal from herself that there was much truth in it.  She had come
+hither on purpose to find encouragement, and these accusations troubled
+even her sense of high health.  Why should she submit to be taken to task
+like a school-girl by this man, himself still young?  If this went on she
+would let him hear....  But he was speaking again, and his reply calmed
+her, and strengthened her conviction that he was a true and well-meaning
+friend.
+
+"Not that perhaps," he said, "because--well, because nature has blessed
+you with perfect balance, and you go forward in full self-possession as
+becomes the daughter of a hero.  We must not forget that it is of your
+soul that I am speaking; and that maintains its innate dignity of feeling
+among so much that is petty and mean."
+
+"Then why need I fear to look back when it gives me so much comfort?"
+she eagerly enquired, as she gazed in his face with fresh spirit.
+
+"Because it may easily lead you to tread on other people's feet!  That
+hurts them; then they are annoyed, and they get accustomed to think
+grudgingly of you--you who are more lovable than they are."
+
+"But quite unjustly; for I am not conscious of ever having intentionally
+grieved or hurt any one in my whole life."
+
+"I know that; but you have done so unintentionally a thousand times."
+
+"Then it would be better I should quit them altogether."
+
+"No, and a thousand times no!  The man who avoids his kind and lives in
+solitude fancies he is doing some great thing and raising himself above
+the level of the existence he despises.  But look a little closer: it is
+self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave and the cloister.
+In any case he neglects his highest duty towards humanity--or let us say
+merely towards the society he belongs to--in order to win what he
+believes to be his own salvation.  Society is a great body, and every
+individual should regard himself as a member of it, bound to serve and
+succor it, and even, when necessary, to make sacrifices for it.  The
+greatest are not too great.  But those who crave isolation,--you
+yourself--nay, hear me out, for I may never again risk the danger of
+incurring your wrath--desire to be a body apart.  What Paula has known
+and possessed, she keeps locked in the treasure-house of her memory under
+bolt and key; What Paula is, she feels she still must be--and for whom?
+Again, for that same Paula.  She has suffered great sorrow and on that
+her soul lives; but this is evil nourishment, unwholesome and bad for
+her."
+
+She was about to rise; but he bent forward, with a zealous conviction
+that he must not allow himself to be interrupted, and lightly touched her
+arm as though to prevent her quitting her seat, while he went on
+unhesitatingly:
+
+"You feed on your old sorrows!  Well and good.  Many a time have I seen
+that trial can elevate the soul.  It can teach a brave heart to feel the
+woes of others more deeply; it can rouse a desire to assuage the griefs
+of others with beautiful self-devotion.  Those who have known pain and
+affliction enjoy ease and pleasure with double satisfaction; sufferers
+learn to be grateful for even the smaller joys of life.  But you?--
+I have long striven for courage to tell you so--you derive no benefit
+from suffering because you lock it up in your breast--as if a man were to
+enclose some precious seed in a silver trinket to carry about with him.
+It should be sown in the earth, to sprout and bear fruit!  However, I do
+not blame you; I only wish to advise you as a true and devoted friend.
+Learn to feel yourself a member of the body to which your destiny has
+bound you for the present, whether you like it or not.  Try to contribute
+to it all that your capacities allow you achieve.  You will find that you
+can do something for it; the casket will open, and to your surprise and
+delight you will perceive that the seed dropped into the soil will
+germinate, that flowers will open and fruit will form of which you may
+make bread, or extract from it a balm for yourself or for others!  Then
+you will leave the dead to bury the dead, as the Bible has it, and
+dedicate to the living those great powers and gracious gifts which an
+illustrious father and a noble mother--nay, and a long succession of
+distinguished ancestors, have bequeathed to a descendant worthy of them.
+Then you will recover that which you have lost: the joy in existence
+which we ought both to feel and to diffuse, because it brings with it an
+obligation which it which is only granted to us once to fulfil.  Kind
+fate has fitted you above a hundred thousand others for being loved; and
+if you do not forget the gratitude you owe for that, hearts will be
+turned to you, though now they shun the tree which has beset itself
+intentionally with thorns, and which lets its branches droop like the
+weeping-willows by the Nile.  Thus you will lead a new and beautiful
+life, receiving and giving joy.  The isolated and charmless existence you
+drag through here, to the satisfaction of none and least of all to your
+own, you can transform to one of fruition and satisfaction--breathing and
+moving healthily and beneficently in the light of day.  It lies in your
+power.  When you came up here to give your care to these poor injured
+creatures, you took the first step in the new path I desire to show you,
+to true happiness.  I did not expect you, and I am thankful that you have
+come; for I know that as you entered that door you may have started on
+the road to renewed happiness, if you have the will to walk in it.--Thank
+God!  That is said and over!"
+
+The leech rose and wiped his forehead, looking uneasily at Paula who had
+remained seated; her breath came fast, and she was more confused and
+undecided than he had ever seen her.  She clasped her hand over her brow,
+and gazed, speechless, into her lap as though she wished to smother some
+pain.
+
+The young physician beat his arms together, like a laborer in the winter
+when his hands are frozen, and exclaimed with distressful emotion: "Yes,
+I have spoken, and I cannot regret having done so; but what I foresaw has
+come to pass:  The greatest happiness that ever sweetened my daily life
+is gone out of it!  To love Plato is a noble rule, but greater than Plato
+is the truth; and yet, those who preach it must be prepared to find that
+truth scares away friends from the unpleasing vicinity of its ill-starred
+Apostles!"
+
+At this Paula rose, and following the impulse of her generous heart,
+offered the leech her hand in all sincerity; he grasped it in both his,
+pressing it so tightly that it almost hurt her, and his eyes glistened
+with moisture as he exclaimed: "That is as I hoped; that is splendid,
+that is noble!  Let me but be your brother, high-souled maiden!--Now,
+come.  That poor, crazy, lovely girl will heal of her death-wound under
+your hands if under any!"
+
+"I will come!"  she replied heartily; and there was something healthy and
+cheerful in her manner as they entered the sick-room; but her expression
+suddenly changed, and she asked pensively:
+
+"And supposing we restore the unhappy girl--what good will she get by
+it?"
+
+"She will breathe and see the sunshine," replied the leech; "she will be
+grateful to you, and finally she will contribute what she can to the
+whole body.  She will be alive in short, she will live.  For life--feel
+it, understand it as I do--life is the best thing we have."  Paula gazed
+with astonishment in the man's unlovely but enthusiastic face.  How
+radiantly joyful!
+
+No one could have called it ugly at this moment, or have said that it
+lacked charm.
+
+He believed what he had asserted with such fervent feeling, though it was
+in contradiction to a view he had held only yesterday and often defended:
+that life in itself was misery to all who could not grasp it of their own
+strength, and make something of it worth making.  At this moment he
+really felt that it was the best gift.
+
+Paula went forward, and his eyes followed her, as the gaze of the pious
+pilgrim is fixed on the holy image he has travelled to see, over seas and
+mountains, with bruised feet.
+
+They went up to the sick girl's bed.  The nun drew back, making her own
+reflections on the physician's altered mien, and his childlike, beaming
+contentment, as he explained to Paula what particular peril threatened
+the sufferer, and by what treatment he hoped to save her; how to make the
+bandages and give the medicines, and how necessary it was to accept the
+poor crazy girl's fancies and treat them as rational ideas so long as the
+fever lasted.
+
+At last he was forced to go and attend to other patients.  Paula remained
+sitting at the head of the bed and gazing at the face of the sufferer.
+
+How fair it was!  And Orion had snatched this rose in the bud, and
+trodden it under foot!  She had, no doubt, felt for him what Paula
+herself felt.  And now?  Did she feel nothing but hatred of him, or could
+her heart, in spite of her indignation and scorn, not altogether cast off
+the spell that had once bound it?
+
+What weakness was this!  She was, she must, she would be his foe!
+
+Her thoughts went back to the idle and futile life that she had led for
+so many years.  The physician had hit the mark; and he had been too easy
+rather than severe.  Yes, she would begin to make good use of her powers
+--but how, in what way, here and among these people?  How transfigured
+poor Philippus had seemed when she had given him her hand; with what
+energy had he poured forth his words.
+
+"And how false," she mused, "is the saying that the body is the mirror of
+the soul!  If it were so, Philippus would have the face of Orion, and
+Orion that of Philippus."  But could Orion's heart be wholly reprobate?
+Nay, that was impossible; her every impulse resisted the belief.  She
+must either love him or hate him, there was no third alternative; but as
+yet the two passions were struggling within her in a way that was quite
+intolerable.
+
+The physician had spoken of being a brother to her, and she could not
+help smiling at the idea.  She could, she thought, live very happily and
+calmly with him, with her nurse Betta, and with the learned old friend
+who shared his home, and of whom he had often talked to her; she could
+join him in his studies, help him in his calling, and discuss many things
+well worth knowing.  Such a life, she told herself, would be a thousand
+times preferable to this, with Neforis.  In him she had certainly found
+a friend; and her glad recognition of the fact was the first step towards
+the fulfilment of his promise, since it showed that her heart was still
+ready to go forth to the kindness of another.
+
+Amid these meditations, however, her anxiety for Hiram constantly
+recurred to her, and it was clear to her mind that, if she and Orion
+should come to extremities, she could no longer dwell under the
+governor's roof.  Often she had longed for nothing so fervently as to be
+able to quit it; but to-day it filled her with dread, for parting from
+her uncle necessarily involved parting from his son.  She hated him;
+still, to lose sight of him altogether would be very hard to bear.
+To go with Philippus and live with him as his sister would never do;
+nay, it struck her as something inconceivable, strangely incongruous.
+
+Meanwhile she listened to Mandane's breathing and treated her in
+obedience to the leech's orders, longing for his return; presently
+however, not he but the nun came to the bed-side, laid her hand on the
+girl's forehead, and without paying any heed to Paula, whispered kindly:
+"That is right child, sleep away; have a nice long sleep.  So long as she
+can be kept quiet; if only she goes on like this!--Her head is cooler.
+Philippus will certainly say there is scarcely any fever.  Thank God, the
+worst danger is over!"
+
+"Oh, how glad I am!"  cried Paula, and she spoke with such warmth and
+sincerity that the nun gave her a friendly nod and left the sick girl to
+her care, quite satisfied.
+
+It was long since Paula had felt so happy.  She fancied that her presence
+had had a good affect on the sufferer, that Mandane had already been
+brought by her nursing to the threshold of a new life.  Paula, who but
+just now had regarded herself as a persecuted victim of Fate, now
+breathed more freely in the belief that she too might bring joy to some
+one.  She looked into Mandane's more than pretty face with real joy and
+tenderness, laid the bandage which had slipped aside gently over her
+ears, and breathed a soft kiss on her long silken lashes.
+
+She rapidly grew in favor with the shrewd nun; when the hour for prayer
+came round, the sister included in her petitions--Paula--the orphan under
+a stranger's roof, the Greek girl born, by the inscrutable decrees of
+God, outside the pale of her saving creed.  At length Philippus returned;
+he was rejoiced at his new friend's brightened aspect, and declared that
+Mandane had, under her care, got past the first and worst danger, and
+might be expected to recover, slowly indeed, but completely.
+
+After Paula had renewed the compress--and he intentionally left her to do
+it unaided, he said encouragingly:
+
+"How quickly you have learnt your business.--Now, the patient is asleep
+again; the Sister will keep watch, and for the present we can be of no
+use to the girl; sleep is the best nourishment she can have.  But with
+us--or at any rate with me, it is different.  We have still two hours to
+wait for the next meal: my breakfast is standing untouched, and yours no
+doubt fared the same; so be my guest.  They always send up enough to
+satisfy six bargemen."
+
+Paula liked the proposal, for she had long been hungry.  The nun was
+desired to hasten to fetch some more plates, of drinking-vessels there
+was no lack--and soon the new allies were seated face to face, each at a
+small table.  He carved the duck and the roast quails, put the salad
+before her and some steaming artichokes, which the nun had brought up at
+the request of the cook whose only son the physician had saved; he
+invited her attention to the little pies, the fruits and cakes which were
+laid ready, and played the part of butler; and then, while they heartily
+enjoyed the meal, they carried on a lively conversation.
+
+Paula for the first time asked Philippus to tell her something of his
+early youth; he began with an account of his present mode of life, as a
+partner in the home of the singular old priest of Isis, Horus Apollo, a
+diligent student; he described his strenuous activity by day and his
+quiet studies by night, and gave everything such an amusing aspect that
+often she could not help laughing.  But presently he was sad, as he told
+her how at an early age he had lost his father and mother, and was left
+to depend solely on himself and on a very small fortune, having no
+relations; for his father had been a grammarian, invited to Alexandria
+from Athens, who had been forced to make a road for himself through life,
+which had lain before him like an overgrown jungle of papyrus and reeds.
+Every hour of his life was devoted to his work, for a rough, outspoken
+Goliath, such as he, never could find it easy to meet with helpful
+patrons.  He had managed to live by teaching in the high schools of
+Alexandria, Athens, and Caesarea, and by preparing medicines from choice
+herbs--drinking water instead of wine, eating bread and fruit instead of
+quails and pies; and he had made a friend of many a good man, but never
+yet of a woman--it would be difficult with such a face as his!
+
+"Then I am the first?"  said Paula, who felt deep respect for the man who
+had made his way by his own energy to the eminent position which he had
+long held, not merely in Memphis, but among Egyptian physicians
+generally.
+
+He nodded, and with such a blissful smile that she felt as though a
+sunbeam had shone into her very soul.  He noticed this at once, raised
+his goblet, and drank to her, exclaiming with a flush on his cheek:
+
+"The joy that comes to others early has come to me late; but then the
+woman I call my friend is matchless!"
+
+"Well, it is to be hoped she may not prove to be so wicked as you just
+now described her.--If only our alliance is not fated to end soon and
+abruptly."
+
+"Ah!"  cried the physician, "every drop of blood in my veins......"
+
+"You would be ready to shed it for me," Paula broke in, with a pathetic
+gesture, borrowed from a great tragedian she had seen at the theatre in
+Damascus.  "But never fear: it will not be a matter of life and death--
+at worst they will but turn me out of the house and of Memphis."
+
+"You?"  cried Philippus startled, "but who would dare to do so?"
+
+"They who still regard me as a stranger.--You described the case
+admirably.  If they have their way, my dear new friend, our fate will be
+like that of the learned Dionysius of Cyrene."
+
+"Of Cyrene?"
+
+"Yes.  It was my father who told me the story.  When Dionysius sent his
+son to the High School at Athens, he sat down to write a treatise for him
+on all the things a student should do and avoid.  He devoted himself to
+the task with the utmost diligence; but when, at the end of four years,
+he could write on the last leaf of the roll.  "Here this book hath a
+happy ending," the young man whose studies it was intended to guide
+came home to Cyrene, a finished scholar."
+
+"And we have struck up a friendship.... ?"
+
+"And made a treaty of alliance, only to be parted ere long."
+
+Philippus struck his fist vehemently on the little table in front of his
+couch and exclaimed: "That I will find means to prevent!--But now, tell
+me in confidence, what has last happened between you and the family down-
+stairs?"
+
+"You will know quite soon enough."
+
+"Whichever of them fancies that you can be turned out of doors without
+more ado and there will be an end between us, may find himself mistaken!"
+cried the physician with an angry sparkle in his eyes.  "I have a right
+to put in a word in this house.  It has not nearly come to that yet, and
+what is more, it never shall.  You shall quit it certainly; but of your
+own free will, and holding your head high...."
+
+As he spoke the door of the outer room was hastily opened and the next
+instant Orion was standing before them, looking with great surprise at
+the pair who had just finished their meal.  He said coldly:
+
+"I am disturbing you, I see."
+
+"Not in the least," replied the leech; and the young man, perceiving what
+bad taste it would be and how much out of place to give expression to his
+jealous annoyance, said, with a smile: "If only it had been granted to a
+third person to join in this symposium!"
+
+"We found each other all-sufficient company," answered Philippus.
+
+"A man who could believe in all the doctrines of the Church as readily as
+in that statement would be assured of salvation," laughed Orion.  "I am
+no spoilsport, respected friends; but I deeply regret that I must, on the
+present occasion, disturb your happiness.  The matter in question......"
+And he felt he might now abandon the jesting tone which so little
+answered to his mood, "is a serious one.  In the first instance it
+concerns your freedman, my fair foe."
+
+"Has Hiram come back?"  asked Paula, feeling herself turn pale.
+
+"They have brought him in," replied Orion.  "My father at once summoned
+the court of judges.  Justice has a swift foot here with us; I am sorry
+for the man, but I cannot prevent its taking its course.  I must beg of
+you to appear at the examination when you are called."
+
+"The whole truth shall be told!"  said Paula sternly and firmly.
+
+"Of course," replied Orion.  Then turning to the physician, he added: "I
+would request you, worthy Esculapius, to leave me and my cousin together
+for a few minutes.  I want to give her a word of counsel which will
+certainly be to her advantage."
+
+Philippus glanced enquiringly at the girl; she said with clear decision:
+"You and I can have no secrets.  What I may hear, Philippus too may
+know."
+
+Orion, with a shrug, turned to leave the room:
+
+On the threshold he paused, exclaiming with some excitement and genuine
+distress:
+
+"If you will not listen to me for your own sake, do so at least, whatever
+ill-feeling you may bear me, because I implore you not to refuse me this
+favor.  It is a matter of life or death to one human being, of joy or
+misery to another.  Do not refuse me.--I ask nothing unreasonable,
+Philippus.  Do as I entreat you and leave us for a moment alone."
+
+Again the physician's eyes consulted the young girl's; this time she
+said: "Go!" and he immediately quitted the room.
+
+Orion closed the door.
+
+"What have I done, Paula," he began with panting breath, "that since
+yesterday you have shunned me like a leper--that you are doing your
+utmost to bring me to ruin?"
+
+"I mean to plead for the life of a trusty servant; nothing more," she
+said indifferently.
+
+"At the risk of disgracing me!"  he retorted bitterly.
+
+"At that risk, no doubt, if you are indeed so base as to throw your
+own guilt on the shoulders of an honest man."
+
+"Then you watched me last night?"
+
+"The merest chance led me to see you come out of the tablinum...."
+
+"I do not ask you now what took you there so late," he interrupted, "for
+it revolts me to think anything of you but the best, the highest.--But
+you?  What have you experienced at my hands but friendship--nay, for
+concealment or dissimulation is here folly--but what a lover....?"
+
+"A lover!"  cried Paula indignantly.  "A lover?  Dare you utter the
+word, when you have offered your heart and hand to another--you. . . ."
+
+"Who told you so?"  asked Orion gloomily.
+
+"Your own mother."
+
+"That is it; so that is it?"  cried the young man, clasping his hands
+convulsively.  "Now I begin to see, now I understand.  But stay.  For if
+it is indeed that which has roused you to hate me and persecute me, you
+must love me, Paula--you do love me, and then, noblest and sweetest...."
+He held out his hand; but she struck it aside, exclaiming in a tremulous
+voice:
+
+"Be under no delusion.  I am not one of the feeble lambs whom you have
+beguiled by the misuse of your gifts and advantages; and who then are
+eager to kiss your hands.  I am the daughter of Thomas; and another
+woman's betrothed, who craves my embraces on the way to his wedding, will
+learn to his rueing that there are women who scorn his disgraceful suit
+and can avenge the insult intended them.  Go--go to your judges!  You,
+a false witness, may accuse Hiram, but I will proclaim you, you the son
+of this house, as the thief!  We shall see which they believe."
+
+"Me!"  cried Orion, and his eyes flashed as wrathfully and vindictively
+as her own.  "The son of the Mukaukas!  Oh, that you were not a woman!
+I would force you to your knees and compel you to crave my pardon.  How
+dare you point your finger at a man whose life has hitherto been as
+spotless as your own white raiment?  Yes, I did go to the tablinum--I did
+tear the emerald from the hanging; but I did it in a fit of recklessness,
+and in the knowledge that what is my father's is mine.  I threw away the
+gem to gratify  a mere fancy, a transient whim.  Cursed be the hour when
+I did it!--Not on account of the deed itself, but of the consequences it
+may entail through your mad hatred.  Jealousy, petty, unworthy jealousy
+is at the bottom of it!  And of whom are you jealous?"
+
+"Of no one; not even of your betrothed, Katharina," replied Paula with
+forced composure.  "What are you to me that, to spare you humiliation,
+I should risk the life of the most honest soul living?  I have said:
+The judges shall decide between you."
+
+"No, they shall not!"  stormed Orion.  "At least, not as you intend!
+Beware, beware, I say, of driving me to extremities!  I still see in you
+the woman I loved; I still offer you what lies within my power: to let
+everything end for the best for you. . . ."
+
+"For me!  Then I, too, am to suffer for your guilt?"
+
+"Did you hear the barking of hounds just now?"
+
+"I heard dogs yelping."
+
+"Very well.--Your freedman has been brought in, the pack got on his
+scent and have now been let into the house close to the tablinum.  The
+dogs would not stir beyond the threshold and on the white marble step,
+towards the right-hand side, the print of a man's foot was found in the
+dust.  It is a peculiar one, for instead of five toes there are but
+three.  Your Hiram was fetched in, and he was found to have the same
+number of toes as the mark on the marble, neither more nor less.  A horse
+trod on his foot, in your father's stable, and two of his toes had to be
+cut off: we got this out of the stammering wretch with some difficulty.
+--On the other side of the door-way there was a smaller print, but though
+the dogs paid no heed to that I examined it, and assured myself--how,
+I need not tell you--that it was you who had stood there.  He, who has no
+business whatever in the house, must have made his way last night into
+the tablinum, our treasury.  Now, put yourself in the judges' place.  How
+can such facts be outweighed by the mere word of a girl who, as every one
+knows, is on anything rather than good terms with my mother, and who will
+leave no stone unturned to save her servant."
+
+"Infamous!"  cried Paula.  "Hiram did not steal the gem, as you must know
+who stole it.  The emerald he sold was my property; and were those stones
+really so much alike that even the seller. . ."
+
+"Yes, indeed.  He could not tell one from the other.  Evil spirits have
+been at work all through, devilish, malignant demons.  It would be enough
+to turn one's brain, if life were not so full of enigmas!  You yourself
+are  the  greatest.--Did you give the Syrian your emerald to sell in
+order to fly from this house with the money?--You are silent?  Then I am
+right.  What can my father be to you--you do not love my mother--and the
+son!--Paula, Paula, you are perhaps doing him an injustice--you hate him,
+and it is a pleasure to you to injure him."
+
+"I do not wish to hurt you or any one," replied the girl.  "And you have
+guessed wrongly.  Your father refused me the means of seeking mine."
+
+"And you wanted to procure money to search for one who is long since
+dead!--Even my mother admits that you speak the truth; if she is right,
+and you really take no pleasure in doing me a mischief, listen to me,
+follow my advice, and grant my prayer!  I do not ask any great matter."
+
+"Speak on then."
+
+"Do you know what a man's honor is to him?  Need I tell you that I am a
+lost and despised man if I am found guilty of this act of the maddest
+folly by the judges of my own house?  It may cost my father his life if
+he hears that the word 'guilty' is pronounced on me; and I--I--what would
+become of me I cannot foresee!--I--oh God, oh God, preserve me from
+frenzy!--But I must be calm; time presses....  How different it is for
+your servant; he seems ready even now to take the guilt on himself, for,
+whatever he is asked, he still keeps silence.  Do you do the same; and
+if the judges insist on knowing what you had to do with the Syrian last
+night--for the dogs traced the scent to your staircase--hazard a
+conjecture that the faithful fellow stole the emerald in order to gratify
+your desire to search for your father, his beloved master.  If you can
+make up your mind to so great a sacrifice--oh, that I should have to ask
+it of you!--I swear to you by all I hold sacred, by yourself and by my
+father's head, I will set Hiram free within three days, unbeaten and
+unhurt, and magnificently indemnified; and I will myself help him on the
+way whither he may desire to go, or you to send him, in search of your
+father.--Be silent; remain neutral in the background; that is all I ask,
+and I will keep my word--that, at any rate, you do not doubt?"  She had
+listened to him with bated breath; she pitied him deeply as he stood
+there, a suppliant in bitter anguish of soul, a criminal who still could
+not understand that he was one, and who relied on the confidence that,
+only yesterday, he still had had the right to exact from all the world.
+He appeared before her like a fine proud tree struck by lightning, whose
+riven trunk, trembling to its fall, must be crushed to the earth by the
+first storm, unless the gardener props it up.  She longed to be able to
+forget all he had brought upon her and to grasp his hand in friendly
+consolation; but her deeply aggrieved pride helped her to preserve the
+cold and repellent manner she had so far succeeded in assuming.
+
+With much hesitation and reserve she consented to be silent as long as
+he kept his promise.  It was for his father's sake, rather than his own,
+that she would so far become his accomplice: at the same time everything
+else was at an end between them, and she should bless the hour which
+might see her severed from him and his for ever.
+
+The end of her speech was in a strangely hard and repellent tone; she
+felt she must adopt it to disguise how deeply she was touched by his
+unhappiness and by the extinction of the sunshine in him which had once
+warmed her own heart too with bliss.  To him it seemed that an icy rigor
+breathed in her words--bitter contempt and hostile revulsion.  He had
+some difficulty in keeping himself from breaking out again in violent
+wrath.  He was almost sorry that he had trusted her with his secret and
+begged her for mercy, instead of leaving things to run their course, and
+if it had come to the worst, dragging her to perdition with him.  Sooner
+would he forfeit honor and peace than humble himself again before this
+pitiless and cold-hearted foe.  At this moment he really hated her, and
+only wished it were possible to fight her, to break her pride, to see her
+vanquished and crying for quarter at his feet.  It was with a great
+effort--with tingling cheeks and constrained utterance that he said:
+
+"Severance from you is indeed best for us all.--Be ready: the judges will
+send for you soon."
+
+"Very well," she replied.  "I will be silent; you have only to provide
+for the Syrian's safety.  You have given me your word."
+
+"And so long as you keep yours I will keep mine.  Or else. . ."  the
+words would come from his quivering lips--"or else war to the knife!"
+
+"War to the knife!"  she echoed with flashing eyes.  "But one thing more.
+I have proof that the emerald which Hiram sold belonged to me.  By all
+the saints--proof!"
+
+"So much the better for you," he said.  "Woe to us both, if you force me
+to forget that you are a woman!"
+
+And he left the room with a rapid step.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Orion went down stairs scowling and clenching his fists.  His heart ached
+to bursting.
+
+What had he done, what had befallen him?  That a woman should dare to
+treat him so!--a woman whom he had deigned to love--the loveliest and
+noblest of women; but at the same time the haughtiest, most vengeful,
+and most hateful.
+
+He had once read this maxim: "When a man has committed a base action,
+if only one other knows of it he carries the death-warrant of his peace
+in the bosom of his garment."  He felt the full weight of this sentence;
+and the other--the one who knew--was Paula, the woman of all others whom
+he most wished should look up to him.  But yesterday it had been a vision
+of heaven on earth to dream of holding her in his arms and calling her
+his; now he had but one wish: that he could humble and punish her.  Oh,
+that his hands should be tied, that he should be dependent on her mercy
+like a condemned criminal!  It was inconceivable--intolerable!
+
+But she should be taught to know him.  He had passed through life
+hitherto as white as a swan; if this luckless hour and this woman made
+him appear as a vulture, it was not his fault, it was hers.  She should
+soon see which was the stronger of the two.  He would punish her in every
+way in which a woman can be punished, even if the way to it led through
+crime and misery!  He was not afraid that the leech bad won her
+affections, for he knew, with strange certainty that, in spite of the
+hostility she displayed, her heart was his and his alone.  "The gold coin
+called love," said he to himself, "has two faces: tender devotion and
+bitter aversion; just now she is showing me the latter.  But, however
+different the image and superscription may be on the two sides, if you
+ring it, it always gives out the same tone; and I can hear it even in her
+most insulting words."
+
+When the family met at table he made Paula's excuses; he himself ate only
+a few mouthfuls, for the judges had assembled some time since and were
+waiting for him.
+
+The right of life and death had been placed in the hands of the ancestors
+of the Mukaukas, powerful princes of provinces; they had certainly
+wielded it even in the dynasty of Psammitichus, whose power had been put
+to a terrible end by Cambyses the Persian.  And still the Uraeus snake--
+the asp whose bite caused almost instant death, reared its head as the
+time-honored emblem of this privilege, by the side of St. George the
+Dragon-slayer, over the palaces of the Mukaukas at Memphis, and at
+Lykopolis in Upper Egypt.  And in both these places the head of the
+family retained the right of arbitrary judgment and capital punishment
+over the retainers of his house and the inhabitants of the district he
+governed, after Justinian first, and then the Emperor Heraclius, had
+confirmed them in their old prerogative.  The chivalrous St. George
+was placed between the snakes so as to replace a heathen symbol by a
+Christian one.  Formerly indeed the knight himself had had the head of
+a sparrow-hawk: that is to say of the god Horus, who had overthrown the
+evil-spirit, Seth-Typhon, to avenge his father; but about two centuries
+since the heathen crocodile-destroyer had been transformed into the
+Christian conqueror of the dragon.
+
+After the Arab conquest the Moslems had left all ancient customs and
+rights undisturbed, including those of the Mukaukas.
+
+The court which assembled to sit in judgment on all cases concerning
+the adherents of the house consisted of the higher officials of the
+governor's establishment.  The Mukaukas himself was president, and his
+grown-up son was his natural deputy.  During Orion's absence, Nilus, the
+head of the exchequer, a shrewd and judicious Egyptian, had generally
+represented his invalid master; but on the present occasion Orion was
+appointed to take his place, and to preside over the assembly.
+
+The governor's son hastened to his father's bedroom to beg him to lend
+him his ring as a token of the authority transferred to him; the Mukaukas
+had willingly allowed him to take it off his finger, and had enjoined him
+to exercise relentless severity.  Generally he inclined to leniency; but
+breaking into a house was punishable with death, and in this instance it
+was but right to show no mercy, out of deference to the Arab merchant.
+But Orion, mindful of his covenant with Paula, begged his father to give
+him full discretion.  The old Moslem was a just man, who would agree to a
+mitigated sentence under the circumstances; besides, the culprit was not
+in strict fact a member of the household, but in the service of a
+relation.
+
+The Mukaukas applauded his son's moderation and judgment.  If only he
+had been in rather better health he himself would have had the pleasure
+of being present at the sitting, to see him fulfil for the first time so
+important a function, worthy of his birth and position.
+
+Orion kissed his father's hand with heart-felt but melancholy emotion,
+for this praise from the man he so truly loved was a keen pleasure; and
+yet he felt that it was of ill-omen that his duties as judge, of which he
+knew the sacred solemnity, should be thus--thus begun.
+
+It was in a softened mood, sunk in thought as to how he could best save
+Hiram and leave Paula's name altogether out of the matter, that he went
+to the hall of justice; and there he found the nurse Perpetua in eager
+discussion with Nilus.
+
+The old woman was quite beside herself.  In the clatter of her loom she
+had heard nothing of what had been going on till a few minutes ago; now
+she was ready to swear to the luckless Hiram's innocence.  The stone he
+had sold had belonged to his young mistress, and thank God there was no
+lack of evidence of the fact; the setting of the emerald was lying safe
+and sound in Paula's trunk.  Happily she had had an opportunity of
+speaking to her; and that she, the daughter of Thomas, should be brought
+before the tribunal, like a citizen's daughter or slave-girl, was unheard
+of, shameful!
+
+At this Orion roughly interfered; he desired the old gate-keeper to
+conduct Perpetua at once to the storeroom next to the tablinum, where the
+various stuffs prepared for the use of the household were laid by, and to
+keep her there under safe guard till further notice.  The tone in which
+he gave the order was such that even the nurse did not remonstrate; and
+Nilus, for his part obeyed in silence when Orion bid him return to his
+place among the judges.
+
+Nilus went back to the judgment-hall in uneasy consternation.  Never
+before had he seen his young lord in this mood.  As he heard the nurse's
+statement the veins had swelled in his smooth youthful forehead, his
+nostrils had quivered with convulsive agitation, his voice had lost all
+its sweetness, and his eyes had a sinister gleam.
+
+Orion was now alone; he ground his teeth with rage.  Paula had betrayed
+him in spite of her promise, and how mean was her woman's cunning!
+She could be silent before the judges--yes.  Silent in all confidence
+now, to the very last; but the nurse, her mouthpiece, had already put
+Nilus, the keenest and most important member of the court, in possession
+of the evidence which spoke for her and against him.  It was shocking,
+disgraceful!  Base and deliberately malicious treachery.  But the end was
+not yet: he still was free to act and to ward off the spiteful stroke by
+a counterthrust.  How it should be dealt was clear from Perpetua's
+statement; but his conscience, his instincts and long habits of
+submission to what was right, good, and fitting held him back.
+Not only had he never himself done a base or a mean action; he loathed
+it in another, and the only thing he could do to render Paula's perfidy
+harmless was, as he could not deny, original and bold, but at the same
+time detestable and shameful.
+
+Still, he could not and he would not succumb in this struggle.  Time
+pressed.  Long reflection was impossible; suddenly he felt carried away
+by a fierce and mad longing to fight it out--he felt as he had felt on.
+a race-day in the hippodrome, when he had driven his own quadriga ahead
+of all the rest.
+
+Onwards, then, onwards; and if the chariot were wrecked, if the horses
+were killed, if his wheels maimed his comrades overthrown in the arena-
+still, onwards, onwards!
+
+A few hasty steps brought him to the lodge of the gate-keeper, a sturdy
+old man who had held his post for forty years.  He had formerly been a
+locksmith and it still was part of his duty to undertake the repairs of
+the simple household utensils.  Orion as a youth had been a beautiful and
+engaging boy and a great favorite with this worthy man; he had delighted
+in sitting in his little room and handing him the tools for his work.
+He himself had remarkable mechanical facility and had been the old man's
+apt pupil; nay, he had made such progress as to be able to carve pretty
+little boxes, prayer-book cases, and such like, and provide them with
+locks, as gifts to his parents on their birth days--a festival always
+kept with peculiar solemnity in Egypt, and marked by giving and receiving
+presents.  He understood the use of tools, and he now hastily selected
+such as he needed.  On the window-ledge stood a bunch of flowers which
+he had ordered for Paula the day before, and which he had forgotten to
+fetch this terrible morning.  With this in one hand, and the tools in the
+breast of his robe he hastened upstairs.
+
+"Onwards, I must keep on!"  he muttered, as he entered Paula's room,
+bolted the door inside and, kneeling before her chest, tossed the flowers
+aside.  If he was discovered, he would say that he had gone into his
+cousin's chamber to give her the bouquet.
+
+"Onwards; I must go on!"  was still his thought, as he unscrewed the
+hinge on which the lid of the trunk moved.  His hands trembled, his
+breath came fast, but he did his task quickly.  This was the right way to
+work, for the lock was a peculiar one, and could not have been opened
+without spoiling it.  He raised the lid, and the first thing his hand
+came upon in the chest was the necklace with the empty medallion--it was
+as though some kind Genius were aiding him.  The medallion hung but
+slightly to the elegantly-wrought chain; to detach it and conceal it
+about his person was the work of a minute.
+
+But now the most resolute.  "On, on. . . ."  was of no further avail.
+This was theft: he had robbed her whom, if she only had chosen it, he was
+ready to load with everything wherewith fate had so superabundantly
+blessed him.  No, this--this....
+
+A singular idea suddenly flashed through his brain; a thought which
+brought a smile to his lips even at this moment of frightful tension.
+He acted upon it forth with: he drew out from within his under-garment a
+gem that hung round his neck by a gold chain.  This jewel--a masterpiece
+by one of the famous Greek engravers of heathen antiquity--had been given
+him in Constantinople in exchange for a team of four horses to which his
+greatest friend there had taken a fancy.  It was in fact of greater price
+than half a dozen fine horses.  Half beside himself, and as if
+intoxicated, Orion followed the wild impulse to which he had yielded;
+indeed, he was glad to have so precious a jewel at hand to hang in the
+place of the worthless gold frame-work.  It was done with a pinch; but
+screwing up the hinge again was a longer task, for his hands trembled
+violently--and as the moment drew near in which he meant to let Paula
+feel his power, the more quickly his heart beat, and the more difficult
+he found it to control his mind to calm deliberation.
+
+After he had unbolted the door he stood like a thief spying the long
+corridor of the strangers' wing, and this increased his excitement to a
+frenzy of rage with the world, and fate, and most of all with her who had
+compelled him to stoop to such base conduct.  But now the charioteer had
+the reins and goad in his hand.  Onwards now, onwards!
+
+He flew down stairs, three steps at a time, as he had been wont when a
+boy.  In the anteroom he met Eudoxia, Mary's Greek governess, who had
+just brought her refractory pupil into the house, and he tossed her the
+nosegay he still held in his hands; then, without heeding the languishing
+glances the middle-aged damsel sent after him with her thanks, he
+hastened back to the gate-keeper's lodge where he hurriedly disburdened
+himself of the locksmith's tools.
+
+A few minutes later he entered the judgment-hall.  Nilus the treasurer
+showed him to the governor's raised seat, but an overpowering bashfulness
+kept him from taking this position of honor.  It was with a burning brow,
+and looks so ominously dark that the assembly gazed at him with timid
+astonishment, that he opened the proceedings with a few broken sentences.
+He himself scarcely knew what he was saying, and heard his own voice as
+vaguely as though it were the distant roar of waves.  However, he
+succeeded in clearly stating all that had happened: he showed the
+assembly the stone which had been stolen and recovered; he explained how
+the thief had been taken; he declared Paula's freedman to be guilty of
+the robbery, and called upon him to bring forward anything he could in
+his own defence.  But the accused could only stammer out that he was not
+guilty.  He was not able to defend himself, but his mistress could no
+doubt give evidence that would justify him.
+
+Orion pushed the hair from his forehead, proudly raised his aching head,
+and addressed the judges:
+
+"His mistress is a lady of rank allied to our house.  Let us keep her
+out of this odious affair as is but seemly.  Her nurse gave Nilus some
+information which may perhaps avail to save this unhappy man.  We will
+neglect nothing to that end; but you, who are less familiar with the
+leading circumstances, must bear this in mind to guard yourselves against
+being misled:  This lady is much attached to the accused; she clings to
+him and Perpetua as the only friends remaining to her from her native
+home.  Moreover, there is nothing to surprise me or you in the fact that
+a noble woman, as she is, should assume the onus of another's crime, and
+place herself in a doubtful light to save a man who has hitherto been
+honest and faithful.  The nurse is here; shall she be called, or have
+you, Nilus, heard from her everything that her mistress can say in favor
+of her freedman?"
+
+"Perpetua told me, and told you, too, my lord, certain credible facts,"
+replied the treasurer.  "But I could not repeat them so exactly as she
+herself, and I am of opinion that the woman should be brought before the
+court."
+
+"Then call her," said Orion, fixing his eyes on vacancy above the heads
+of the assembly, with a look of sullen dignity.
+
+After a long and anxious pause the old woman was brought in.  Confident
+in her righteous cause she came forward boldly; she blamed Hiram somewhat
+sharply for keeping silence so long, and then explained that Paula, to
+procure money for her search for her father, had made the freedman take a
+costly emerald out of its setting in her necklace, and that it was the
+sale of this gem that had involved her fellow-countryman in this
+unfortunate suspicion.
+
+The nurse's deposition seemed to have biased the greater part of the
+council in favor of the accused; but Orion did not give them time to
+discuss their impressions among themselves.  Hardly had Perpetua ceased
+speaking, when Orion took up the emerald, which was lying on the table
+before him, exclaiming excitedly, nay, angrily:
+
+"And the stone which is recognized by the man who sold it--an expert in
+gems--as being that which was taken from the hanging, and unique of its
+kind, is supposed, by some miracle of nature, to have suddenly appeared
+in duplicate?--Malignant spirits still wander through the world, but
+would hardly dare to play their tricks in this Christian house.  You all
+know what 'old women's tales' are; and the tale that old woman has told
+us is one of the most improbable of its class.  'Tell that to Apelles the
+Jew,' said Horace the Roman; but his fellow-Israelite, Gamaliel'--and he
+turned to the jeweller who was sitting with the other witnesses will
+certainly not believe it; still less I, who see through this tissue of
+falsehood.  The daughter of the noble Thomas has condescended to weave it
+with the help of that woman--a skilled weaver, she--to spread it before
+us in order to mislead us, and so to save her faithful servant from
+imprisonment, from the mines, or from death.  These are the facts.--Do I
+err, woman, or do you still adhere to your statement?"
+
+The nurse, who had hoped to find in Orion her mistress' advocate, had
+listened to his speech with growing horror.  Her eyes flashed as she
+looked at him, first with mockery and then with vehement disgust; but,
+though they filled with tears at this unlooked-for attack, she preserved
+her presence of mind, and declared she had spoken the truth, and nothing
+but the truth, as she always did.  The setting of her mistress' emerald
+would prove her statement.
+
+Orion shrugged his shoulders, desired the woman to fetch her mistress,
+whose presence was now indispensable, and called to the treasurer:
+
+"Go with her, Nilus!  And let a servant bring the trunk here that the
+owner may open it in the presence of us all and before any one else
+touches the contents.  I should not be the right person to undertake it
+since no one in this Jacobite household--hardly even one of yourselves--
+has found favor in the eyes of the Melchite.  She has unfortunately a
+special aversion for me, so I must depute to others every proceeding that
+could lead to a misunderstanding.--Conduct her hither, Nilus; of course
+with the respect due to a maiden of high rank."
+
+While the envoy was gone Orion paced the room with swift, restless steps,
+Once only he paused and addressed the judges:
+
+"But supposing the empty setting should be found, how do you account for
+the existence of two--two gems, each unique of its kind?  It is
+distracting.  Here is a soft-hearted girl daring to mislead a serious
+council of justice for the sake, for the sake of. . . ."  he stamped his
+foot with rage and continued his silent march.
+
+"He is as yet but a beginner," thought the assembled officials as they
+watched his agitation.  "Otherwise how could he allow such an absurd
+attempt to clear an accused thief to affect him so deeply, or disturb
+his temper?"
+
+Paula's arrival presently put an end to Orion's pacing the room.  He
+received her with a respectful bow and signed to her to be seated.  Then
+he bid Nilus recapitulate the results of the proceedings up to the
+present stage, and what he and his colleagues supposed to be her motive
+for asserting that the stolen emerald was her property.  He would as far
+as possible leave it to the others to question her, since she knew full
+well on what terms she was with himself.  Even before he had come into
+the council-room she had offered her explanation of the robbery to Nilus,
+through her nurse Perpetua; but it would have seemed fairer and more
+friendly in his eyes--and here he raised his voice--if she had chosen to
+confide to him, Orion, her plan for helping the freedman.  Then he might
+have been able to warn her.  He could only regard this mode of action,
+independently of him, as a fresh proof of her dislike, and she must hold
+herself responsible for the consequences.  Justice must now take its
+course with inexorable rigor.
+
+The wrathful light in his eyes showed her what she had to expect from
+him, and that he was prepared to fight her to the end.  She saw that he
+thought that she had broken the promise she had but just now given him;
+but she had not commissioned Perpetua to interfere in the matter; on the
+contrary, she had desired the woman to leave it to her to produce her
+evidence only in the last extremity.  Orion must believe that she had
+done him a wrong; still, could that make him so far forget himself as to
+carry out his threats, and sacrifice an innocent man--to divert suspicion
+from himself, while he branded her as a false witness?  Aye, even from
+that he would not shrink!  His flaming glance, his abrupt demeanor, his
+laboring breath, proclaimed it plainly enough.--Then let the struggle
+begin!  At this moment she would have died rather than have tried to
+mollify him by a word of excuse.  The turmoil in his whole being vibrated
+through hers.  She was ready to throw herself at his feet and implore him
+to control himself, to guard himself against further wrong-doing--but she
+maintained her proud dignity, and the eyes that met his were not less
+indignant and defiant than his own.
+
+They stood face to face like two young eagles preparing to fight, with
+feathers on end, arching their pinions and stretching their necks.  She,
+confident of victory in the righteousness of her cause, and far more
+anxious for him than for herself; he, almost blind to his own danger,
+but, like a gladiator confronting his antagonist in the arena, far more
+eager to conquer than to protect his own life and limb.
+
+While Nilus explained to her what, in part, she already knew, and
+repeated their suspicion that she had been tempted to make a false
+declaration to save the life of her servant, whose devotion, no doubt,
+to his missing master had led him to commit the robbery; she kept her
+eye on Orion rather than on the speaker.  At last Nilus referred to the
+trunk, which had been brought from Paula's room under her own eyes,
+informing her that the assembly were ready to hear and examine into
+anything she had to say in her own defence.
+
+Orion's agitation rose to its highest pitch.  He felt that the blood had
+fled from his cheeks, and his thoughts were in utter confusion.  The
+council, the accused, his enemy Paula--everything in the room lay before
+him shrouded in a whirl of green mist.  All he saw seemed to be tinted
+with light emerald green.  The hair, the faces, the dresses of those
+present gleamed and floated in a greenish light; and not till Paula went
+up to the chest with a firm, haughty step, drew out a small key, gave it
+to the treasurer, and answered his speech with three words: "Open the
+box!"--uttering them with cold condescension as though even this were too
+much--not till then did he see clearly once more: her bright brown hair,
+the fire of her blue eyes, the rose and white of her complexion, the
+light dress which draped her fine figure in noble folds, and her
+triumphant smile.  How beautiful, how desirable was this woman!  A few
+minutes and she would be worsted in this contest; but the triumph had
+cost him not only herself, but all that was good and pure in his soul,
+and worthy of his forefathers.  An inward voice cried it out to him, but
+he drowned it in the shout of "Onwards," like a chariot-driver.  Yes--on;
+still on towards the goal; away over ruins and stones, through blood and
+dust, till she bowed her proud neck, crushed and beaten, and sued for
+mercy.
+
+The lid of the trunk flew open.  Paula stooped, lifted the necklace, held
+it out to the judges, pulling it straight by the two ends....  Ah! what
+a terrible, heartrending cry of despair!  Orion even, never, never wished
+to hear the like again.  Then she flung the jewel on the table,
+exclaiming: "Shameful, shameful!  atrocious!"  she tottered backwards and
+clung to her faithful Betta; for her knees were giving way, and she felt
+herself in danger of sinking to the ground.
+
+Orion sprang forward to support her, but she thrust him aside, with a
+glance so full of anguish, rage and intense contempt that he stood
+motionless, and clasped his hand over his heart.--And this deed, which
+was to work such misery for two human beings, he had smiled in doing!
+This practical joke which concealed a death-warrant--to what fearful
+issues might it not lead?
+
+Paula had sunk speechless on to a seat, and he stood staring in silence,
+till a burst of laughter broke from the assembly and old Psamtik, the
+captain of the guard, who had long been a member of the council of
+justice, exclaimed:
+
+"By my soul, a splendid stone!  There is the heathen god Eros with his
+winged sweetheart Psyche smiling in his face.  Did you never read that
+pretty story by Apuleius--'The Golden Ass' it is called?  The passage is
+in that.  Holy Luke!  how finely it is carved.  The lady has taken out
+the wrong necklace.  Look, Gamaliel, where could your green pigeon's egg
+have found a place in that thing?"  and he pointed to the gem.
+
+"Nowhere," said the Jew.  "The noble lady.  .  ."  But Orion roughly bid
+the witness to be silent, and Nilus, taking up the engraved gem, examined
+it closely.  Then he--he the grave, just man, on whose support Paula had
+confidently reckoned--went up to her and with a regretful shrug asked her
+whether the other necklace with the setting of which she had spoken was
+in the trunk.
+
+The blood ran cold in her veins.  This thing that had happened was as
+startling as a miracle.  But no!  No higher Power had anything to do with
+this blow.  Orion believed that she had failed in her promise of
+screening him by her silence, and this, this was his revenge.  By what
+means--how he had gone to work, was a mystery.  What a trick!--and it had
+succeeded!  But should she take it like a patient child?  No.  A thousand
+times no!  Suddenly all her old powers of resistance came back; hatred
+steeled her wavering will; and, as in fancy, he had seen himself in the
+circus, driving in a race, so she pictured herself seated at the chess-
+board.  She felt herself playing with all her might to win; but not, as
+with his father, for flowers, trifling presents or mere glory; nay, for a
+very different stake Life or Death!
+
+She would do everything, anything to conquer him; and yet, no--come what
+might--not everything.  Sooner would she succumb than betray him as the
+thief or reveal what she had discovered in the viridarium.  She had
+promised to keep the secret; and she would repay the father's kindness
+by screening the son from this disgrace.  How beautiful, how noble had
+Orion's image been in her heart.  She would not stain it with this
+disgrace in her own eyes and in those of the world.  But every other
+reservation must be cast far, far away, to snatch the victory from him
+and to save Hiram.  Every fair weapon she might use; only this treachery
+she could not, might not have recourse to.  He must be made to feel that
+she was more magnanimous than he; that she, under all conceivable
+circumstances, kept her word.  That was settled; her bosom once more rose
+and fell, and her eye brightened again; still it was some little time
+before she could find the right words with which to begin the contest.
+
+Orion could see the seething turmoil in her soul; he felt that she was
+arming herself for resistance, and he longed to spur her on to deal the
+first blow.  Not a word had she uttered of surprise or anger, not a
+syllable of reproach had passed her lips.  What was she thinking of, what
+was she plotting?  The more startling and dangerous the better; the more
+bravely she bore herself, the more completely in the background might he
+leave the painful sense of fighting against a woman.  Even heroes had
+boasted of a victory over Amazons.
+
+At last, at last!--She rose and went towards Hiram.  He had been tied to
+the stake to which criminals were bound, and as an imploring glance from
+his honest eyes met hers, the spell that fettered her tongue was
+unloosed; she suddenly understood that she had not merely to protect
+herself, but to fulfil a solemn duty.  With a few rapid steps she went up
+to the table at which her judges sat in a semi-circle, and leaning on it
+with her left hand, raised her right high in the air, exclaiming:
+
+"You are the victims of a cruel fraud; and I of an unparalleled and
+wicked trick, intended to bring me to ruin!--Look at that man at the
+stake.  Does he look like a robber?  A more honest and faithful servant
+never earned his freedom, and the gratitude Hiram owed to his master, my
+father, he has discharged to the daughter for whose sake he quitted his
+home, his wife and child.  He followed me, an orphan, here into a strange
+land.--But that matters not to you.--Still, if you will hear the truth,
+the strict and whole. . . ."
+
+"Speak!"  Orion put in; but she went on, addressing herself exclusively
+to Nilus, and his peers, and ignoring him completely:
+
+"Your president, the son of the Mukaukas, knows that, instead of the
+accused, I might, if I chose, be the accuser.  But I scorn it--for love
+of his father, and because I am more high-minded than he.  He will
+understand!--With regard to this particular emerald Hiram, my freedman,
+took it out of its setting last evening, under my eyes, with his knife;
+other persons besides us, thank God! have seen the setting, empty, on the
+chain to which it belonged.  This afternoon it was still in the place to
+which some criminal hand afterwards found access, and attached that gem
+instead.  That I have just now seen for the first time--I swear it by
+Christ's wounds.  It is an exquisite work.  Only a very rich man--the
+richest man here, can give away such a treasure, for whatever purpose he
+may have in view--to destroy an enemy let us say.--Gamaliel," and she
+turned to the Jew--"At what sum would you value that onyx?"
+
+The Israelite asked to see the gem once more; he turned it about, and
+then said with a grin: "Well, fair lady, if my black hen laid me little
+things like that I would feed it on cakes from Arsinoe and oysters from
+Canopus.  The stone is worth a landed estate, and though I am not a rich
+man, I would pay down two talents for it at any moment, even if I had to
+borrow the money."
+
+This statement could not fail to make a great impression on the judges.
+Orion, however, exclaimed: "Wonders on wonders mark this eventful day!
+The prodigal generosity which had become an empty name has revived again
+among us!  Some lavish demon has turned a worthless plate of gold into a
+costly gem.--And may I ask who it was that saw the empty setting hanging
+to your chain?"  Paula was in danger of forgetting even that last reserve
+she had imposed on herself; she answered with trembling accents:
+
+"Apparently your confederates or you yourself did.  You, and you alone,
+have any cause. . . ."
+
+But he would not allow her to proceed.  He abruptly interrupted her,
+exclaiming: "This is really too much!  Oh, that you were a man!  How far
+your generosity reaches I have already seen.  Even hatred, the bitterest
+hostility. . . ."
+
+"They would have every right to ruin you completely!"  she cried, roused
+to the utmost.  "And if I were to charge you with the most horrible
+crime. . . ."
+
+"You yourself would be committing a crime, against me and against this
+house," he said menacingly.  "Beware!  Can self-delusion go so far that
+you dare to appeal to me to testify to the fable you have trumped up...."
+
+"No.  Oh, no!  That would be counting on some honesty in you yet," she
+loudly broke in.  "I have other witnesses: "Mary, the granddaughter of
+the Mukaukas," and she tried to catch his eye.
+
+"The child whose little heart you have won, and who follows you about
+like a pet dog!"  he cried.
+
+"And besides Mary, Katharina, the widow Susannah's daughter," she added,
+sure of her triumph, and the color mounted to her cheeks.  "She is no
+longer a child, but a maiden grown, as you know.  I therefore demand of
+you--" and she again turned to the assembly--"that you will fulfil your
+functions worthily and promote justice in my behalf by calling in both
+these witnesses and hearing their evidence."
+
+On this Orion interposed with forced composure: "As to whether a soft-
+hearted child ought to be exposed to the temptation to save the friend
+she absolutely worships by giving evidence before the judges, be it what
+it may, only her grandparents can decide.  Her tender years would at any
+rate detract from the validity of her evidence, and I am averse to
+involving a child of this house in this dubious affair.  With regard to
+Katharina, it is, on the contrary, the duty of this court to request her
+presence, and I offer myself to go and fetch her."
+
+He resolutely resisted Paula's attempts to interrupt him again: she
+should have a patient hearing presently in the presence of her witness.
+The gem no doubt had come to her from her father.  But at this her
+righteous indignation was again too much for her; she cried out quite
+beside herself:
+
+"No, and again no.  Some reprobate scoundrel, an accomplice of yours--
+yes, I repeat it--made his way into my room while I was in the sick-room,
+and either forced the lock of my trunk or opened it with a false key."
+
+"That can easily be proved," said Orion.  In a confident tone he desired
+that the box should be placed on the table, and requested one of the
+council, who understood such matters, to give his opinion.  Paula knew
+the man well.  He was one of the most respected members of the household,
+the chief mechanician whose duty it was to test and repair the water-
+clocks, balances, measures and other instruments.  He at once proceeded
+to examine the lock and found it in perfect order, though the key, which
+was of peculiar form, could certainly not have found a substitute in any
+false key; and Paula was forced to admit that she had left the trunk
+locked at noon and had worn the key round her neck ever since.  Orion
+listened to his opinion with a shrug, and before going to seek Katharina
+gave orders that Paula and the nurse should be conducted to separate
+rooms.  To arrive at any clear decision in this matter, it was necessary
+that any communication between these two should be rendered impossible.
+As soon as the door was shut on them he hastened into the garden, where
+he hoped to find Katharina.
+
+The council looked after him with divided feelings.  They were here
+confronted by riddles that were hard to solve.  No one of them felt that
+he had a right to doubt the good intentions of their lord's son, whom
+they looked up to as a talented and high-minded youth.  His dispute with
+Paula had struck them painfully, and each one asked himself how it was
+that such a favorite with women should have failed to rouse any sentiment
+but that of hatred in one of the handsomest of her sex.  The marked
+hostility she displayed to Orion injured her cause in the eyes of her
+judges, who knew only too well how unpleasant her relations were with
+Neforis.  It was more than audacious in her to accuse the Mukaukas' son
+of having broken open her trunk; only hatred could have prompted her to
+utter such a charge.  Still, there was something in her demeanor which
+encouraged confidence in her assertions, and if Katharina could really
+testify to having seen the empty medallion on the chain there would be no
+alternative but to begin the enquiry again from a fresh point of view,
+and to inculpate another robber.  But who could have lavished such a
+treasure as this gem in exchange for mere rubbish?  It was inconceivable;
+Ammonius the mechanician was right when he said that a woman full of
+hatred was capable of anything, even the incredible and impossible.
+
+Meanwhile it was growing dusk and the scorching day had turned to the
+tempered heat of a glorious evening.  The Mukaukas was still in his room
+while his wife with Susannah and her daughter, Mary and her governess,
+were enjoying the air and chatting in the open hall looking out on the
+garden and the Nile.  The ladies had covered their heads with gauze veils
+as a protection against the mosquitoes, which were attracted in swarms
+from the river by the lights, and also against the mists that rose from
+the shallowing Nile; they were in the act of drinking some cooling fruit-
+syrup which had just been brought in, when Orion made his appearance.
+
+"What has happened?"  cried his mother in some anxiety, for she concluded
+from his dishevelled hair and heated cheeks that the meeting had gone
+anything rather than smoothly.
+
+"Incredible things," he replied.  "Paula fought like a lioness for her
+father's freedman. . ."
+
+"Simply to annoy us and put us in a difficulty," replied Neforis.
+
+"No, no, Mother," replied Orion with some warmth.  "But she has a will of
+iron; a woman who never pauses at anything when she wants to carry her
+point; and at the same time she goes to work with a keen wit that is
+worthy of the greatest lawyer that I ever heard defend a cause in the
+high court of the capital.  Besides this her air of superiority, and her
+divine beauty turn the heads of our poor household officers.  It is fine
+and noble, of course, to be so zealous in the cause of a servant; but it
+can do no good, for the evidence against her stammering favorite is
+overwhelming, and when her last plea is demolished the matter is ended.
+She says that she showed a necklace to the child, and to you, charming
+Katharina."
+
+"Showed it?"  cried the young girl.  "She took it away from us--did not
+she, Mary?"
+
+"Well, we had taken it without her leave," replied the child.
+
+"And she wants our children to appear in a court of justice to bear
+witness for her highness?"  asked Neforis indignantly.
+
+"Certainly," replied Orion.  "But Mary's evidence is of no value in law."
+
+"And even if it were," replied his mother, "the child should not be mixed
+up with this disgraceful business under any circumstances."
+
+"Because I should speak for Paula!"  cried Mary, springing up in great
+excitement.
+
+"You will just hold your tongue," her grandmother exclaimed.
+
+"And as for Katharina," said the widow, "I do not at all like the notion
+of her offering herself to be stared at by all those gentlemen."
+
+"Gentlemen!"  observed the girl.  "Men--household officials and such
+like.  They may wait long enough for me!"
+
+"You must nevertheless do their bidding, haughty rosebud," said Orion
+laughing.  "For you, thank God, are no longer a child, and a court of
+justice has the right of requiring the presence of every grown person as
+a witness.  No harm will come to you, for you are under my protection.
+Come with me.  We must learn every lesson in life.  Resistance is vain.
+Besides, all you will have to do will be to state what you have seen, and
+then, if I possibly can, I will bring you back under the tender escort of
+this arm, to your mother once more.  You must entrust your jewel to me
+to-day, Susannah, and this trustworthy witness shall tell you afterwards
+how she fared under my care."
+
+Katharina was quite capable of reading the implied meaning of these
+words, and she was not ill-pleased to be obliged to go off alone with the
+governor's handsome son, the first man for whom her little heart had beat
+quicker; she sprang up eagerly; but Mary clung to her arm, and insisted
+so vehemently and obstinately on being taken with them to bear witness in
+Paula's behalf, that her governess and Dame Neforis had the greatest
+difficulty in reducing her to obedience and letting the pair go off
+without her.  Both mothers looked after them with great satisfaction, and
+the governor's wife whispered to Susannah: "Before the judges to-day, but
+ere long, please God, before the altar at Church!"
+
+To reach the hall of judgment they could go either through the house or
+round it.  If the more circuitous route were chosen, it lay first through
+the garden; and this was the course taken by Orion.  He had made a very
+great effort in the presence of the ladies to remain master of the
+agitation that possessed him; he saw that the battle he had begun, and
+from which he, at any rate, could not and would not now retire, was
+raging more and more fiercely, obliging him to drag the young creature
+who must become his wife--the die was already cast--into the course of
+crime he had started on.
+
+When he had agreed with his mother that he was not to prefer his suit for
+Katharina till the following day, he had hoped to prove to her in the
+interval that this little thing was no wife for him; and now--oh!  Irony
+of Fate--he found himself compelled to the very reverse of what he longed
+to do: to fight the woman he loved--Yes, still loved--as if she were his
+mortal foe, and pay his court to the girl who really did not suit him.
+It was maddening, but inevitable; and once more spurring himself with the
+word "Onwards!"  be flung himself into the accomplishment of the unholy
+task of subduing the inexperienced child at his elbow into committing
+even a crime for his sake.  His heart was beating wildly; but no pause,
+no retreat was possible: he must conquer.  "Onwards, then, onwards!"
+
+When they had passed out of the light of the lamps into the shade he took
+his young companion's slender hand-thankful that the darkness concealed
+his features--and pressed the delicate fingers to his lips.
+
+"Oh!--Orion!"  she exclaimed shyly, but she did not resist.
+
+"I only claim my due, sunshine of my soul!"  he said insinuatingly.
+"If your heart beat as loud as mine, our mothers might hear them!"
+
+"But it does!"  she joyfully replied, her curly head bent on one side.
+
+"Not as mine does," he said with a sigh, laying her little hand on his
+heart.  He could do so in all confidence, for its spasmodic throbbing
+threatened to suffocate him.
+
+"Yes indeed," she said.  "It is beating. . ."
+
+"So that they can hear it indoors," he added with a forced laugh.
+"Do you think your dear mother has not long since read our feelings?"
+
+"Of course she has," whispered Katharina.  "I have rarely seen her in
+such good spirits as since your return."
+
+"And you, you little witch?"
+
+"I?  Of course I was glad--we all were.--And your parents!"
+
+"Nay, nay, Katharina!  What you yourself felt when we met once more, that
+is what I want to know."
+
+"Oh, let that pass!  How can I describe such a thing?"
+
+"Is that quite impossible?"  he asked and clasped her arm more closely
+in his own.  He must win her over, and his romantic fancy helped him to
+paint feelings he had never had, in glowing colors.  He poured out sweet
+words of love, and she was only too ready to believe them.  At a sign
+from him she sat down confidingly on a wooden bench in the old avenue
+which led to the northern side of the house.  Flowers were opening on
+many of the shrubs and shedding rich, oppressive perfume.  The moonlight
+pierced through the solemn foliage of the sycamores, and shimmering
+streaks and rings of light played in the branches, on the trunks, and on
+the dark ground.  The heat of the day still lingered in the leafy roofs
+overhead, sultry and heavy even now; and in this alley he called her for
+the first time his own, his betrothed, and enthralled her heart in chains
+and bonds.  Each fervent word thrilled with the wild and painful
+agitation that was torturing his soul, and sounded heartfelt and sincere.
+The scent of flowers, too, intoxicated her young and inexperienced heart;
+she willingly offered her lips to his kisses, and with exquisite bliss
+felt the first glow of youthful love returned.
+
+She could have lingered thus with him for a lifetime; but in a few
+minutes he sprang up, anxious to put an end to this tender dalliance
+which was beginning to be too much even for him, and exclaimed:
+
+"This cursed, this infernal trial!  But such is the fate of man!  Duty
+calls, and he must return from all the bliss of Paradise to the world
+again.  Give me your arm, my only love, my all!"
+
+And Katharina obeyed.  Dazzled and bewildered by the extraordinary
+happiness that had come to meet her, she allowed him to lead her on,
+listening with suspended breath as he added: "Out of this beatitude back
+to the sternest of duties!--And how odious, how immeasurably loathesome
+is the case in question!  How gladly would I have been a friend to Paula,
+a faithful protector instead of a foe!"
+
+As he spoke he felt the girl's left hand clench tighter on his arm,
+and this spurred him on in his guilty purpose.  Katharina herself had
+suggested to his mind the course he must pursue to attain his end.
+He went on to influence her jealousy by praising Paula's charm and
+loftiness, excusing himself in his own eyes by persuading himself that a
+lover was justified in inducing his betrothed to save his happiness and
+his honor.
+
+Still, as he uttered each flattering word, he felt that he was lowering
+himself and doing a fresh injustice to Paula.  He found it only too easy
+to sing her praises; but as he did so with growing enthusiasm Katharina
+hit him on the arm exclaiming, half in jest and half seriously vexed:
+
+"Oh, she is a goddess!  And pray do you love her or me?  You had better
+not make me jealous!  Do you hear?"
+
+"You little simpleton!"  he said gaily; and then he added soothingly:
+"She is like the cold moon, but you are the bright warming sun.
+Yes, Paula!--we will leave Paula to some Olympian god, some archangel.
+I rejoice in my gladsome little maiden who will enjoy life with me,
+and all its pleasures!"
+
+"That we will!"  she exclaimed triumphantly; the horizon of her future
+was radiant with sunshine.
+
+"Good Heavens!"  he exclaimed as if in surprise.  "The lights are already
+shining in that miserable hall of justice!  Ah, love, love!  Under that
+enchantment we had forgotten the object for which we came out.--Tell me,
+my darling, do you remember exactly what the necklace was like that you
+and Mary were playing with this afternoon?"
+
+"It was very finely wrought, but in the middle hung a rubbishy broken
+medallion of gold."
+
+"You are a pretty judge of works of art!  Then you overlooked the fine
+engraved gem which was set in that modest gold frame?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"I assure you, little wise-head!"
+
+"No, my dearest."  As she spoke she looked up saucily, as though she had
+achieved some great triumph.  "I know very well what gems are.  My father
+left a very fine collection, and my mother says that by his will they are
+all to belong to my future husband."
+
+"Then I can set you, my jewel, in a frame of the rarest gems."
+
+"No, no," she cried gaily.  "Let me have a setting indeed, for I am but a
+fugitive thing; but only, only in your heart."
+
+"That piece of goldsmith's work is already done.--But seriously my child;
+with regard to Paula's necklace: it really was a gem, and you must have
+happened to see only the back of it.  That is just as you describe it: a
+plain setting of gold."
+
+"But Orion. . . ."
+
+"If you love me, sweetheart, contradict me no further.  In the future
+I will always accept your views, but in this case your mistake might
+involve us in a serious misunderstanding, by compelling me to give in to
+Paula and make her my ally.--Here we are!  But wait one moment longer.--
+And once more, as to this gem.  You see we may both be wrong--I as much
+as you; but I firmly believe that I am in the right.  If you make a
+statement contrary to mine I shall appear before the judges as a liar.
+We are now betrothed--we are but one, wholly one; what damages or
+dignifies one of us humiliates or elevates the other.  If you, who love
+me--you, who, as it is already whispered, are soon to be the mistress of
+the governor's house--make a statement opposed to mine they are certain
+to believe it.  You see, your whole nature is pure kindness, but you are
+still too young and innocent quite to understand all the duties of that
+omnipotent love which beareth and endureth all things.  If you do not
+yield to me cheerfully in this case you certainly do not love me as you
+ought.  And what is it to ask?  I require nothing of you but that you
+should state before the court that you saw Paula's necklace at noon
+to-day, and that there was a gem hanging to it--a gem with Love and
+Psyche engraved on it."
+
+"And I am to say that before all those men?"  asked Katharina doubtfully.
+
+"You must indeed, you kind little angel!"  cried Orion tenderly.  "And
+do you think it pretty in a betrothed bride to refuse her lover's first
+request so grudgingly, suspiciously, and ungraciously?  Nay, nay.  If
+there is the tiniest spark of love for me in your heart, if you do not
+want to see me reduced to implore Paula for mercy. . . ."
+
+"But what is it all about?  How can it matter so much to any one whether
+a gem or a mere plate of gold....?"
+
+"All that I will explain later," he hastily replied.
+
+"Tell me now...."
+
+"Impossible.  We have already put the patience of the judges to too
+severe a test.  We have not a moment to lose."
+
+"Very well then; but I shall die of confusion and shame if I have to make
+a declaration. . . ."
+
+"Which is perfectly truthful, and by which you can prove to me that you
+love me," he urged.
+
+"But it is dreadful!"  she exclaimed anxiously.  "At least fasten my veil
+closely over my face.--All those bearded men. . . ."
+
+"Like the ostrich," said Orion, laughing as he complied.  "If you really
+cannot agree with your....  What is it you called me just now?  Say it
+again."
+
+"My dearest!"  she said shyly but tenderly.
+
+She helped Orion to fold her veil twice over her face, and did not thrust
+him aside when he whispered in her ear: "Let us see if a kiss cannot be
+sweet even through all that wrapping!--Now, come.  It will be all over in
+a few minutes."
+
+He led the way into the anteroom to the great hall, begged her to wait
+a moment, and then went in and hastily informed the assembly that Dame
+Susannah had entrusted her daughter to him only on condition that he
+should escort her back again as soon as she had given her testimony.
+Then Paula was brought in and he desired her to be seated.
+
+It was with a sinking and anxious heart that Katharina had entered the
+anteroom.  She had screened herself from a scolding before now by trivial
+subterfuges, but never had told a serious lie; and every instinct
+rebelled against the demand that she should now state a direct falsehood.
+But could Orion, the noblest of mankind, the idol of the whole town, so
+pressingly entreat her to do anything that was wrong?  Did not love--as
+he had said--make it her duty to do everything that might screen him from
+loss or injury?  It did not seem to her to be quite as it should be, but
+perhaps she did not altogether understand the matter; she was so young
+and inexperienced.  She hated the idea, too, that, if she opposed her
+lover, he would have to come to terms with Paula.  She had no lack of
+self-possession, and she told herself that she might hold her own with
+any girl in Memphis; still, she felt the superiority of the handsome,
+tall, proud Syrian, nor could she forget how, the day before yesterday,
+when Paula had been walking up and down the garden with Orion the chief
+officer of Memphis had exclaimed: "What a wonderfully handsome couple!"
+She herself had often thought that no more beautiful, elegant and lovable
+creature than Thomas' daughter walked the earth; she had longed and
+watched for a glance or a kind word from her.  But since hearing those
+words a bitter feeling had possessed her soul against Paula, and there
+had been much to foster it.  Paula always treated her like a child
+instead of a grown-up girl, as she was.  Why, that very morning, had she
+sought out her betrothed--for she might call him so now--and tried to
+keep her away from him?  And how was it that Orion, even while declaring
+his love for her, had spoken more than warmly--enthusiastically of Paula?
+She must be on her guard, and though others should speak of the great
+good fortune that had fallen to her lot, Paula, at any rate, would not
+rejoice in it, for Katharina felt and knew that she was not indifferent
+to Orion.  She had not another enemy in the world, but Paula was one;
+her love had everything to fear from her--and suddenly she asked herself
+whether the gold medallion she had seen might not indeed have been a gem?
+Had she examined the necklace closely, even for a moment?  And why should
+she fancy she had sharper sight than Orion with his large, splendid eyes?
+
+He was right, as he always was.  Most engraved gems were oval in form,
+and the pendant which she had seen and was to give evidence about, was
+undoubtedly oval.  Then it was not like Orion to require a falsehood of
+her.  In any case it was her duty to her betrothed to preserve from evil,
+and prevent him from concluding any alliance with that false Siren.  She
+knew what she had to say; and she was about to loosen a portion of her
+veil from her face that she might look Paula steadfastly in the eyes,
+when Orion came back to fetch her into the hall where the Court was
+sitting.  To his delight--nay almost to his astonishment--she stated with
+perfect confidence that a gem had been hanging to Paula's necklace at
+noon that day; and when the onyx was shown her and she was asked if she
+remembered the stone, she calmly replied:
+
+"It may or it may not be the same; I only remember the oval gold back to
+it: besides I was only allowed to have the necklace in my hands for a
+very short time."
+
+When Nilus, the treasurer, desired her to look more closely at the
+figures of Eros and Psyche to refresh her memory, she evaded it by
+saying: "I do not like such heathen images: we Jacobite maidens wear
+different adornments."
+
+At this Paula rose and stepped towards her with a look of stern reproof;
+little Katharina was glad now that it had occurred to her to cover her
+face with a double veil.  But the utter confusion she felt under the
+Syrian girl's gaze did not last long.  Paula exclaimed reproach fully:
+"You speak of your faith.  Like mine, it requires you to respect the
+truth.  Consider how much depends on your declaration; I implore you,
+child. . ."
+
+But the girl interrupted her rival exclaiming with much irritation and
+vehement excitement:
+
+"I am no longer a child, not even as compared with you; and I think
+before I speak, as I was taught to do."
+
+She threw back her little head with a confident air, and said very
+decidedly:
+
+"That onyx hung to the middle of the chain."
+
+"How dare you, you audacious hussy!"  It was Perpetua, quite unable to
+contain herself, who flung the words in her face.  Katharina started as
+though an asp had stung her and turned round on the woman who had dared
+to insult her so grossly and so boldly.  She was on the verge of tears as
+she looked helplessly about her for a defender; but she had not long to
+wait, for Orion instantly gave orders that Perpetua should be imprisoned
+for bearing false witness.  Paula, however, as she had not perjured
+herself, but had merely invented an impossible tale with a good motive,
+was dismissed, and her chest was to be replaced in her room.
+
+At this Paula once more stepped forth; she unhooked the onyx from the
+chain and flung it towards Gamaliel, who caught it, while she exclaimed:
+
+"I make you a present of it, Jew!  Perhaps the villain who hung it to my
+chain may buy it back again.  The chain was given to my great-grandmother
+by the saintly Theodosius, and rather than defile it by contact with that
+gift from a villain, I will throw it into the Nile!--You--you, poor,
+deluded judges--I cannot be wroth with you, but I pity you!--My Hiram..."
+and she looked at the freedman, "is an honest soul whom I shall remember
+with gratitude to my dying day; but as to that unrighteous son of a most
+righteous father, that man. . ."  and she raised her voice, while she
+pointed straight at Orion's face; but the young man interrupted her with
+a loud:
+
+"Enough!"
+
+She tried to control herself and replied:
+
+"I will submit.  Your conscience will tell you a hundred times over what
+I need not say.  One last word. . ."  She went close up to him and said
+in his ear:
+
+"I have been able to refrain from using my deadliest weapon against you
+for the sake of keeping my word.  Now you, if you are not the basest
+wretch living, keep yours, and save Hiram."
+
+His only reply was an assenting nod; Paula paused on the threshold and,
+turning to Katharina, she added: "You, child--for you are but a child--
+with what nameless suffering will not the son of the Mukaukas repay you
+for the service you have rendered him!"  Then she left the room.  Her
+knees trembled under her as she mounted the stairs, but when she had
+again taken her place by the side of the hapless, crazy girl a merciful
+God granted her the relief of tears.  Her friend saw her and left her to
+weep undisturbed, till she herself called him and confided to him all she
+had gone through in the course of this miserable day.
+
+Orion and Katharina had lost their good spirits; they went back to the
+colonnade in a dejected mood.  On the way she pressed him to explain to
+her why he had insisted on her making this declaration, but he put her
+off till the morrow.  They found Susannah alone, for his mother had been
+sent for by her husband, who was suffering more than usual, and she had
+taken Mary with her.
+
+After bidding the widow good-night and escorting her to her chariot,
+he returned to the hall where the Court was still sitting.  There he
+recapitulated the case as it now stood, and all the evidence against
+the freed man.  The verdict was then pronounced:  Hiram was condemned
+to death with but one dissentient voice that of Nilus the treasurer.
+
+Orion ordered that the execution of the sentence should be postponed; he
+did not go back into the house, however, but had his most spirited horse
+saddled and rode off alone into the desert.  He had won, but he felt as
+though in this race he had rushed into a morass and must be choked in it.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Love has two faces: tender devotion and bitter aversion
+Self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave
+The man who avoids his kind and lives in solitude
+You have a habit of only looking backwards
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V3 ***
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