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diff --git a/5520.txt b/5520.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e6e5b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/5520.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2088 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Bride of the Nile, by Georg Ebers, v4 +#81 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Bride of the Nile, Volume 4. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5520] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V4 *** + + + +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 4. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Paula's report of the day's proceedings, of Orion's behavior, and of +the results of the trial angered the leech beyond measure; he vehemently +approved the girl's determination to quit this cave of robbers, this +house of wickedness, of treachery, of imbecile judges and false +witnesses, as soon as possible. But she had no opportunity for a quiet +conversation with him, for Philippus soon had his hands full in the care +of the sufferers. + +Rustem, the Masdakite, who till now had been lying unconscious, had been +roused from his lethargy by some change of treatment, and loudly called +for his master Haschim. When the Arab did not appear, and it was +explained to him that he could not hope to see him before the morning, +the young giant sat up among his pillows, propping himself on his arms +set firmly against the couch behind him, looked about him with a +wandering gaze, and shook his big head like an aggrieved lion--but that +his thick mane of hair had been cut off--abusing the physician all the +time in his native tongue, and in a deep, rolling, bass voice that rang +through the rooms though no one understood a word. Philippus, quite +undaunted, was trying to adjust the bandage over his wound, when Rustem +suddenly flung his arms round his body and tried with all his might, and +with foaming lips, to drag him down. He clung to his antagonist, roaring +like a wild beast; even now Philippus never for an instant lost his +presence of mind but desired the nun to fetch two strong slaves. The +Sister hurried away, and Paula remained the eyewitness of a fearful +struggle. The physician had twisted his ancles round those of the +stalwart Persian, and putting forth a degree of strength which could +hardly have been looked for in a stooping student, tall and large-boned +as he was, he wrenched the Persian's hands from his hips, pressed his +fingers between those of Rustem, forced him back on to his pillows, set +his knees against the brazen frame of the couch, and so effectually held +him down that he could not sit up again. Rustem exerted every muscle to +shake off his opponent; but the leech was the stronger, for the Masdakite +was weakened by fever and loss of blood. Paula watched this contest +between intelligent force and the animal strength of a raving giant with +a beating heart, trembling in every limb. She could not help her friend, +but she followed his every movement as she stood at the head of the bed; +and as he held down the powerful creature before whom her frail uncle had +cowered in abject terror, she could not help admiring his manly beauty; +for his eyes sparkled with unwonted fire, and the mean chin seemed to +lengthen with the frightful effort he was putting forth, and so to be +brought into proportion with his wide forehead and the rest of his +features. Her spirit quaked for him; she fancied she could see something +great and heroic in the man, in whom she had hitherto discovered no merit +but his superior intellect. + +The struggle had lasted some minutes before Philip felt the man's arms +grow limp, and he called to Paula to bring him a sheet--a rope--what not +--to bind the raving man. She flew into the next room, quite collected; +fetched her handkerchief, snatched off the silken girdle that bound her +waist, rushed back and helped the leech to tie the maniac's hands. She +understood her friend's least word, or a movement of his finger; and when +the slaves whom the nun had fetched came into the room, they found Rustem +with his hands firmly bound, and had only to prevent him from leaping out +of bed or throwing himself over the edge. Philippus, quite out of +breath, explained to the slaves how they were to act, and when he opened +his medicine-chest Paula noticed that his swollen, purple fingers were +trembling. She took out the phial to which he pointed, mixed the draught +according to his orders, and was not afraid to pour it between the teeth +of the raving man, forcing them open with the help of the slaves. + +The soothing medicine calmed him in a few minutes, and the leech himself +could presently wash the wound and apply a fresh dressing with the +practised aid of the Sister. + +Meanwhile the crazy girl had been waked by the ravings of the Persian, +and was anxiously enquiring if the dog--the dreadful dog--was there. +But she soon allowed herself to be quieted by Paula, and she answered the +questions put to her so rationally and gently, that her nurse called the +physician who could confirm Paula in her hope that a favorable change had +taker place in her mental condition. Her words were melancholy and mild; +and when Paula remarked on this Philippus observed: + +"It is on the bed of sickness that we learn to know our fellow- +creatures. The frantic girl, who perhaps fell on the son of this house +with murderous intent, now reveals her true, sweet nature. And as for +that poor fellow, he is a powerful creature, an honest one too; I would +stake my ten fingers on it!" + +"What makes you so sure of that?" + +"Even in his delirium he did hot once scratch or bite, but only defended +himself like a man.--Thank you, now, for your assistance. If you had not +flung the cord round his hands, the game might have ended very +differently." + +"Surely not!" exclaimed Paula decidedly. "How strong you are, Philip. +I feel quite alarmed!" + +"You?" said the leech laughing. "On the contrary, you need never be +alarmed again now that you have seen by chance that your champion is no +weakling.--Pfooh! I shall be glad now of a little rest." She offered +him her handkerchief, and while he thankfully used it to wipe his brow-- +controlling with much difficulty the impulse to press it to his lips, he +added lightly: + +"With such an assistant everything must go well. There is no merit in +being strong; every one can be strong who comes into the world with +healthy blood and well-knit bones, who keeps all his limbs well +exercised, as I did in my youth, and who does not destroy his inheritance +by dissipated living.--However, I still feel the struggle in my hands; +but there is some good wine in the next room yet, and two or three cups +of it will do me good." They went together into the adjoining room +where, by this time, most of the lamps were extinguished. Paula poured +out the wine, touched the goblet with her lips, and he emptied it at a +draught; but he was not to be allowed to drink off a second, for he had +scarcely raised it, when they heard voices in the Masdakite's room, and +Neforis came in. The governor's careful wife had not quitted her +husband's couch--even Rustem's storming had not induced her to leave +her post; but when she was informed by the slaves what had been going on, +and that Paula was still up-stairs with the leech, she had come to the +strangers' rooms as soon as her husband could spare her to speak to +Philippus, to represent to Paula what the proprieties required, and to +find out what the strange noises could be which still seemed to fill the +house--at this hour usually as silent as the grave. They proceeded from +the sick-rooms, but also from Orion, who had just come in, and from Nilus +the treasurer, who had been called by the former into his room, though +the night was fast drawing on to morning. To the governor's wife +everything seemed ominous at the close of this terrible day, marked in +the calendar as unlucky; so she made her way up-stairs, escorted by her +husband's night watcher, and holding in her hand a small reliquary to +which she ascribed the power of banning vile spirits. + +She came into the sick-room swiftly and noiselessly, put the nun through +a strict cross-examination with the fretful sharpness of a person +disturbed in her night's rest. Then she went into the sitting-room where +Philippus was on the point of pledging Paula in his second cup of wine, +while she stood before him with dishevelled hair and robe ungirt. All +this was an offence against good manners such as she would not suffer in +her house, and she stoutly ordered her husband's niece to go to bed. +After all the offences that had been pardoned her this day--no, +yesterday--she exclaimed, it would have been more becoming in the girl +to examine herself in silence, in her own room, to exorcise the lying +spirits which had her in their power, and implore her Saviour for +forgiveness, than to pretend to be nursing the sick while she was +carrying on, with a young man, an orgy which, as the Sister had just told +her, had lasted since mid-day. + +Paula spoke not a word, though the color changed in her face more than +once as she listened to this speech. But when Neforis finally pointed to +the door, she said, with all the cold pride she had at her command when +she was the object of unworthy suspicions: + +"Your aim is easily seen through. I should scorn to reply, but that you +are the wife of the man who, till you set him against me, was glad to +call himself my friend and protector, and who is also related to me. As +usual, you attribute to me an unworthy motive. In showing me the door of +this room consecrated by suffering, you are turning me out of your house, +which you and your son--for I must say it for once--have made a hell to +me." + +"I! And my--No! this is indeed--" exclaimed the matron in panting rage. +She clasped her hands over her heaving bosom and her pale face was dyed +crimson, while her eyes flashed wrathful lightnings. "That is too much; +a thousand times too much--a thousand times--do you hear?--And I--I +condescend to answer you! We picked her up in the street, and have +treated her like a daughter, spent enormous sums on her, and now. . . ." + +This was addressed to the leech rather than to Paula; but she took up the +gauntlet and replied in a tone of unqualified scorn: + +"And now I plainly declare, as a woman of full age, free to dispose of +myself, that to-morrow morning I leave this house with everything that +belongs to me, even if I should go as a beggar;--this house, where I have +been grossly insulted, where I and my faithful servant have been falsely +condemned, and where he is even now about to be murdered." + +"And where you have been dealt with far too mildly," Neforis shrieked at +her audacious antagonist, "and preserved from sharing the fate of the +robber you smuggled into the house. To save a criminal--it is unheard +of:--you dared to accuse the son of your benefactor of being a corrupt +judge." + +"And so he is," exclaimed Paula furious. "And what is more, he has +inveigled the child whom you destine to be his wife into bearing false +witness. More--much more could I say, but that, even if I did not +respect the mother, your husband has deserved that I should spare him." + +"Spare him-spare!" cried Neforis contemptuously. "You--you will spare +us! The accused will be merciful and spare the judge! But you shall be +made to speak;--aye, made to speak! And as to what you, a slanderer, can +say about false witness. . ." + +"Your own granddaughter," interrupted the leech, "will be compelled to +repeat it before all the world, noble lady, if you do not moderate +yourself." + +Neforis laughed hysterically. + +"So that is the way the wind blows!" she exclaimed, quite beside +herself. "The sick-room is a temple of Bacchus and Venus; and this +disgraceful conduct is not enough, but you must conspire to heap shame +and disgrace on this righteous house and its masters." + +Then, resting her left hand which held the reliquary on her hip, she +added with hasty vehemence: + +"So be it. Go away; go wherever you please! If I find you under this +roof to-morrow at noon, you thankless, wicked girl, I will have you +turned out into the streets by the guard. I hate you--for once I will +ease my poor, tormented heart--I loathe you; your very existence is an +offence to me and brings misfortune on me and on all of us; and besides +--besides, I should prefer to keep the emeralds we have left." + +This last and cruelest taunt, which she had brought out against her +better feelings, seemed to have relieved her soul of a hundred-weight of +care; she drew a deep breath, and turning to Philippus, went on far more +quietly and rationally: + +"As for you, Philip, my husband needs you. You know well what we have +offered you and you know George's liberal hand. Perhaps you will think +better of it, and will learn to perceive. . ." + +"I! . . ." said the leech with a lofty smile. "Do you really know me +so little? Your husband, I am ready to admit, stands high in my esteem, +and when he wants me he will no doubt send for me. But never again will +I cross this threshold uninvited, or enter a house where right is trodden +underfoot, where defenceless innocence is insulted and abandoned to +despair. + +"You may stare in astonishment! Your son has desecrated his father's +judgment-seat, and the blood of guiltless Hiram is on his head.--You-- +well, you may still cling to your emeralds. Paula will not touch them; +she is too high-souled to tell you who it is that you would indeed do +well to lock up in the deepest dungeon-cell! What I have heard from your +lips breaks every tie that time had knit between us. I do not demand +that my friends should be wealthy, that they should have any attractions +or charm, any special gifts of mind or body; but we must meet on common +ground: that of honorable feeling. That you did not bring into the +world, or you have lost it; and from this hour I am a stranger to you and +never wish to see you again, excepting by the side of your husband when +he requires me." + +He spoke the last words with such immeasurable dignity that Neforis was +startled and bereft of all self-control. She had been treated as a +wretch worthy of utter scorn by a man beneath her in rank, but whom she +always regarded as one of the most honest, frank and pure-minded she had +ever known; a man indispensable to her husband, because he knew how to +mitigate his sufferings, and could restrain him from the abuse of his +narcotic anodyne. He was the only physician of repute, far and wide. +She was to be deprived of the services of this valuable ally, to whom +little Mary and many of the household owed their lives, by this Syrian +girl; and she herself, sure that she was a good and capable wife and +mother, was to stand there like a thing despised and avoided by every +honest man, through this evil genius of her house! + +It was too much. Tortured by rage, vexation, and sincere distress, she +said in a complaining voice, while the tears started to her eyes: + +"But what is the meaning of all this? You, who know me, who have seen me +ruling and caring for my family, you turn your back upon me in my own +house and point the finger at me? Have I not always been a faithful +wife, nursing my husband for years and never leaving his sick-bed, never +thinking of anything but how to ease his pain? I have lived like a +recluse from sheer sense of duty and faithful lose, while other wives, +who have less means than I, live in state and go to entertainments.--And +whose slaves are better kept and more often freed than ours? Where is +the beggar so sure of an alms as in our house, where I, and I alone, +uphold piety?--And now am I so fallen that the sun may not shine on me, +and that a worthy man like you should withdraw his friendship all in a +moment, and for the sake of this ungrateful, loveless creature--because, +because, what did you call it--because the mind is wanting in me--or what +did you call it that I must have before you....?" + +"It is called feeling," interrupted the leech, who was sorry for the +unhappy woman, in whom he knew there was much that was good. "Is the +word quite new to you, my lady Neforis?--It is born with us; but a firm +will can elevate the least noble feeling, and the best that nature can +bestow will deteriorate through self-indulgence. But, in the day of +judgment, if I am not very much mistaken, it is not our acts but our +feeling that will be weighed. It would ill-become me to blame you, but I +may be allowed to pity you, for I see the disease in your soul which, +like gangrene in the body. . ." + +"What next!" cried Neforis. + +"This disease," the physician calmly went on--"I mean hatred, should be +far indeed from so pious a Christian. It has stolen into your heart like +a thief in the night, has eaten you up, has made bad blood, and led you +to treat this heavily-afflicted orphan as though you were to put stocks +and stones in the path of a blind man to make him fall. If, as it would +seem, my opinion still weighs with you a little, before Paula leaves +your house you will ask her pardon for the hatred with which you have +persecuted her for years, which has now led you to add an intolerable +insult--in which you yourself do not believe--to all the rest." + +At this Paula, who had been watching the physician all through his +speech, turned to Dame Neforis, and unclasped her hands which were lying +in her lap, ready to shake hands with her uncle's wife if she only +offered hers, though she was still fully resolved to leave the house. + +A terrible storm was raging in the lady's soul. She felt that she had +often been unkind to Paula. That a painful doubt still obscured the +question as to who had stolen the emerald she had unwillingly confessed +before she had come up here. She knew that she would be doing her +husband a great service by inducing the girl to remain, and she would +only too gladly have kept the leech in the house;--but then how deeply +had she, and her son, been humiliated by this haughty creature! + +Should she humble herself to her, a woman so much younger, offer her +hand, make.... + +At this moment they heard the tinkle of the silver bowl, into which her +husband threw a little ball when he wanted her. His pale, suffering face +rose before her inward eye, she could hear him asking for his opponent +at draughts, she could see his sad, reproachful gaze when she told him +to-morrow that she, Neforis, had driven his niece, the daughter of the +noble Thomas, out of the house--, with a swift impulse she went towards +Paula, grasping the reliquary in her left hand and holding out her right, +and said in a low voice. + +"Shake hands, girl. I often ought to have behaved differently to you; +but why have you never in the smallest thing sought my love? God is my +witness that at first I was fully disposed to regard you as a daughter, +but you--well, let it pass. I am sorry now that I should--if I have +distressed you." + +At the first words Paula had placed her hand in that of Neforis. Hers +was as cold as marble, the elder woman's was hot and moist; it seemed as +though their hands were typical of the repugnance of their hearts. They +both felt it so, and their clasp was but a brief one. When Paula +withdrew hers, she preserved her composure better than the governor's +wife, and said quite calmly, though her cheeks were burning: + +"Then we will try to part without any ill-will, and I thank you for +having made that possible. To-morrow morning I hope I may be permitted +to take leave of my uncle in peace, for I love him; and of little Mary." + +"But you need not go now! On the contrary, I urgently request you to +stay," Neforis eagerly put in. + +"George will not let you leave. You yourself know how fond he is of +you." + +"He has often been as a father to me," said Paula, and even her eyes +shone through tears. "I would gladly have stayed with him till the end. +Still, it is fixed--I must go." + +"And if your uncle adds his entreaties to mine?" + +"It will be in vain." + +Neforis took the maiden's hand in her own again, and tried with genuine +anxiety to persuade her,--but Paula was firm. She adhered to her +determination to leave the governor's house in the morning. + +"But where will you find a suitable house?" cried Neforis. "A residence +that will be fit for you?" + +"That shall be my business," replied the physician. "Believe me, noble +lady, it would be best for all that Paula should seek another home. But +it is to be hoped that she may decide on remaining in Memphis." + +At this Neforis exclaimed: + +"Here, with us, is her natural home!--Perhaps God may turn your heart +for your uncle's sake, and we may begin a new and happier life." Paula's +only reply was a shake of the head; but Neforis did not see it the metal +tinkle sounded for the third time, and it was her duty to respond to its +call. + +As soon as she had left the room Paula drew a deep breath, exclaiming: + +"O God! O God! How hard it was to refrain from flinging in her teeth +the crime her wicked son.... No, no; nothing should have made me do +that. But I cannot tell you how the mere sight of that woman angers me, +how light-hearted I feel since I have broken down the bridge that +connected me with this house and with Memphis." + +"With Memphis?" asked Philippus. + +"Yes," said Paula gladly. "I go away--away from hence, out of the +vicinity of this woman and her son!--Whither? Oh! back to Syria, or to +Greece--every road is the right one, if it only takes me away from this +place." + +"And I, your friend?" asked Philippus. + +"I shall bear the remembrance of you in a grateful heart." + +The physician smiled, as though something had happened just as he +expected; after a moment's reflection he said: + +"And where can the Nabathaean find you, if indeed he discovers your +father in the hermit of Sinai?" + +The question startled and surprised Paula, and Philippus now adduced +every argument to convince her that it was necessary that she should +remain in the City of the Pyramids. In the first place she must liberate +her nurse--in this he could promise to help her--and everything he said +was so judicious in its bearing on the circumstances that had to be +reckoned with, and the facts actual or possible, that she was astonished +at the practical good sense of this man, with whom she had generally +talked only of matters apart from this world. Finally she yielded, +chiefly for the sake of her father and Perpetua; but partly in the hope +of still enjoying his society. She would remain in Memphis, at any rate +for the present, under the roof of a friend of the physician's--long +known to her by report--a Melchite like herself, and there await the +further development of her fate. + +To be away from Orion and never, never to see him again was her heartfelt +wish. All places were the same to her where she had no fear of meeting +him. She hated him; still she knew that her heart would have no peace so +long as such a meeting was possible. Still, she longed to free herself +from a desire to see what his further career would be, which came over +her again and again with overwhelming and terrible power. For that +reason, and for that only, she longed to go far, far away, and she was +hardly satisfied by the leech's assurance that her new protector would be +able to keep away all visitors whom she might not wish to receive. And +he himself, he added, would make it his business to stand between her and +all intruders the moment she sent for him. + +They did not part till the sun was rising above the eastern hills; as +they separated Paula said: + +"So this morning a new life begins for me, which I can well imagine will, +by your help, be pleasanter than that which is past." + +And Philippus replied with happy emotion: "The new life for me began +yesterday." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Between morning and noon Mary was sitting on a low cane seat under the +sycamores which yesterday had shaded Katharina's brief young happiness; +by her side was her governess Eudoxia, under whose superintendence she +was writing out the Ten Commandments from a Greek catechism. + +The teacher had been lulled to sleep by the increasing heat and the +pervading scent of flowers, and her pupil had ceased to write. Her eyes, +red with tears, were fixed on the shells with which the path was strewn, +and she was using her long ruler, at first to stir them about, and then +to write the words: "Paula," and "Paula, Mary's darling," in large +capital letters. Now and again a butterfly, following the motion of the +rod, brought a smile to her pretty little face from which the dark spirit +"Trouble" had not wholly succeeded in banishing gladness. Still, her +heart was heavy. Everything around her, in the garden and in the house, +was still; for her grandfather's state had become seriously worse at +sunrise, and every sound must be hushed. Mary was thinking of the poor +sufferer: what pain he had to bear, and how the parting from Paula would +grieve him, when Katharina came towards her down the path. + +The young girl did little credit to-day to her nickname of "the water- +wagtail;" her little feet shuffled through the shelly gravel, her head +hung wearily, and when one of the myriad insects, that were busy in the +morning sunshine, came within her reach she beat it away angrily with her +fan. As she came up to Mary she greeted her with the usual "All +hail!" but the child only nodded in response, and half turning her back +went on with her inscription. + +Katharina, however, paid no heed to this cool reception, but said in +sympathetic tones: + +"Your poor grandfather is not so well, I hear?" Mary shrugged her +shoulders. + +"They say he is very dangerously ill. I saw Philippus himself." + +"Indeed?" said Mary without looking up, and she went on writing. + +"Orion is with him," Katharina went on. "And Paula is really going +away?" + +The child nodded dumbly, and her eyes again filled with tears. + +Katharina now observed how sad the little girl was looking, and that she +intentionally refused to answer her. At any other time she would not +have troubled herself about this, but to-day this taciturnity provoked +her, nay it really worried her; she stood straight in front of Mary, who +was still indefatigably busy with the ruler, and said loudly and with +some irritation: + +"I have fallen into disgrace with you, it would seem, since yesterday. +Every one to his liking; but I will not put up with such bad manners, I +can tell you!" + +The last words were spoken loud enough to wake Eudoxia, who heard them, +and drawing herself up with dignity she said severely: + +"Is that the way to behave to a kind and welcome visitor, Mary?" + +"I do not see one," retorted the child with a determined pout. + +"But I do," cried the governess. "You are behaving like a little +barbarian, not like a little girl who has been taught Greek manners. +Katharina is no longer a child, though she is still often kind enough to +play with you. Go to her at once and beg her pardon for being so rude." + +"I!" exclaimed Mary, and her tone conveyed the most positive refusal to +obey this behest. She sprang to her feet, and with flashing eyes, she +cried: "We are not Greeks, neither she nor I, and I can tell you once +for all that she is not my kind and welcome visitor, nor my friend any +more! We have nothing, nothing whatever to do with each other any more!" + +"Are you gone mad?" cried Eudoxia, and her long face assumed a +threatening expression, while she rose from her easy-chair in spite of +the increasing heat, intending to capture her pupil and compel her to +apologize; but Mary was more nimble than the middle-aged damsel and fled +down the alley towards the river, as nimble as a gazelle. + +Eudoxia began to run after her; but the heat was soon too much for her, +and when she stopped, exhausted and panting, she perceived that +Katharina, worthy once more of her name of "water-wagtail," had flown +past her and was chasing the little girl at a pace that she shuddered to +contemplate. Mary soon saw that no one but Katharina was in pursuit; she +moderated her pace, and awaited her cast-off friend under the shade of a +tall shrub. In a moment Katharina was facing her; with a heightened +color she seized both her hands and exclaimed passionately: + +"What was it you said? You--you-- If I did not know what a wrong-headed +little simpleton you were, I could . . . ." + +"You could accuse me falsely!--But now, leave go of my hands or I will +bite you. And as Katharina, at this threat, released her she went on +vehemently. + +"Oh! I know you now--since yesterday! And I tell you, once for all, +I say thank you for nothing for such friends. You ought to sink into the +earth for shame of the sin you have committed. I am only ten years old, +but rather than have done such a thing I would have let myself be shut up +in that hot hole with poor, innocent Perpetua, or I would have let myself +be killed, as you want poor, honest Hiram to be! Oh, shame!" + +Katharina's crimson cheeks bad turned pale at this address and, as she +had no answer ready, she could only toss her head and say, with as much +pride and dignity as she could assume: + +"What can a child like you know about things that puzzle the heads of +grown-up people?" + +"Grown-up people!" laughed Mary, who was not three inches shorter than +her antagonist. "You must be a great deal taller before I call you grown +up! In two years time, you will scarcely be up to my eyes." At this the +irascible Egyptian fired up; she gave the child a slap in the face with +the palm of her hand. Mary only stood still as if petrified, and after +gazing at the ground for a minute or two without a cry, she turned her +back on her companion and silently went back into the shaded walk. + +Katharina watched her with tears in her eyes. She felt that Mary was +justified in disapproving of what she had done the day before; for she +herself had been unable to sleep and had become more and more convinced +that she had acted wrongly, nay, unpardonably. And now again she had +done an inexcusable thing. She felt that she had deeply hurt the child's +feelings, and this sincerely grieved her. She followed Mary in silence, +at some little distance, like a maid-servant. She longed to hold her +back by her dress, to say something kind to her, nay, to ask her pardon. +As they drew near to the spot where the governess had dropped into her +chair again, a hapless victim to the heat of Egypt, Katharina called Mary +by her name, and when the child paid no heed, laid her hand on her +shoulder, saying in gentle entreaty: "Forgive me for having so far +forgotten myself. But how can I help being so little? You know very +well when any one laughs at me for it......" + +"You get angry and slap!" retorted the child, walking on. "Yesterday, +perhaps, I might have laughed over a box on the ear--it is not the first +--or have given it to you back again; but to-day!--Just now," and she +shuddered involuntarily, "just now I felt as if some black slave had laid +his dirty hand on my cheek. You are not what you were. You walk quite +differently, and you look--depend upon it you do not look as nice and as +bright as you used, and I know why: You did a very bad thing last +evening." + +"But dear pet," said the other, "you must not be so hard. Perhaps I did +not really tell the judges everything I knew, but Orion, who loves me so, +and whose wife I am to be. . . ." + +"He led you into sin!--Yes; and he was always merry and kind till +yesterday; but since--Oh, that unlucky day!" + +Here she was interrupted by Eudoxia, who poured out a flood of +reproaches and finally desired her to resume her task. The child obeyed +unresistingly; but she had scarcely settled to her wax tablets again when +Katharina was by her side, whispering to her that Orion would certainly +not have asserted anything that he did not believe to be true, and that +she had really been in doubt as to whether a gem with a gold back, or a +mere gold frame-work, had been hanging to Paula's chain. At this Mary +turned sharply and quickly upon her, looked her straight in the eyes and +exclaimed--but in Egyptian that the governess might not understand, for +she had disdained to learn a single word of it: + +"A rubbishy gold frame with a broken edge was hanging to the chain, and, +what is more, it caught in your dress. Why, I can see it now! And, when +you bore witness that it was a gem, you told a lie--Look here; here are +the laws which God Almighty himself gave on the sacred Mount of Sinai, +and there it stands written: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against +thy neighbor.' And those who do, the priest told me, are guilty of +mortal sin, for which there is no forgiveness on earth or in Heaven, +unless after bitter repentance and our Saviour's special mercy. So it is +written; and you could actually declare before the judges a thing that +was false, and that you knew would bring others to ruin?" + +The young criminal looked down in shame and confusion, and answered +hesitatingly: + +"Orion asserted it so positively and clearly, and then--I do not know +what came over me--but I was so angry, so--I could have murdered her!" + +"Whom?" asked Mary in surprise. "You know very well: Paula." + +"Paula!" said Mary, and her large eyes again filled with tears. "Is it +possible? Did you not love her as much as I do? Have not you often and +often clung about her like a bur?" + +"Yes, yes, very true. But before the judges she was so intolerably +proud, and then.--But believe me, Mary you really and truly cannot +understand anything of all this." + +"Can I not?" asked the child folding her arms. + +"Why do you think me so stupid?" + +"You are in love with Orion--and he is a man whom few can match, over +head and ears in love; and because Paula looks like a queen by the side +of you, and is so much handsomer and taller than you are, and Orion, till +yesterday--I could see it all--cared a thousand times more for her than +for you, you were jealous and envious of her. Oh, I know all about it. +--And I know that all the women fall in love with him, and that Mandaile +had her ears cut off on his account, and that it was a lady who loved him +in Constantinople that gave him the little white dog. The slave-girls +tell me what they hear and what I like.--And after all, you may well be +jealous of Paula, for if she only made a point of it, how soon Orion +would make up his mind never to look at you again! She is the handsomest +and the wisest and the best girl in the whole world, and why should she +not be proud? The false witness you bore will cost poor Hiram his life: +but the merciful Saviour may forgive you at last. It is your affair, and +no concern of mine; but when Paula is forced to leave the house and all +through you, so that I shall never, never, never see her any more--I +cannot forget it, and I do not think I ever shall; but I will pray God to +make me." + +She burst into loud sobs, and the governess had started up to put an end +to a dialogue which she could not understand, and which was therefore +vexatious and provoking, when the water-wagtail fell on her knees before +the little girl, threw her arms round her, and bursting into tears, +exclaimed: + +"Mary--darling little Mary forgive me. + + [The German has the diminutive 'Mariechen'. To this Dr. Ebers + appends this note. "An ignorant critic took exception to the use of + the diminutive form of names (as for instance 'Irenchen', little + Irene) in 'The Sisters,' as an anachronism. It is nevertheless a + fact that the Greeks settled in Egypt were so fond of using the + diminutive form of woman's names that they preferred them, even in + the tax-rolls. This form was common in Attic Greek,"] + +Oh, if you could but know what I endured before I came out here! Forgive +me, Mary; be my sweet, dear little Mary once more. Indeed and indeed you +are much better than I am. Merciful Saviour, what possessed me last +evening? And all through him, through the man no one can help loving-- +through Orion!--And would you believe it: I do not even know why he led +me into this sin. But I must try to care for him no more, to forget him +entirely, although, although,--only think, he called me his betrothed; +but now that he has betrayed me into sin, can I dare to become his wife? +It has given me no peace all night. I love him, yes I love him, you +cannot think how dearly; still, I cannot be his! Sooner will I go into a +convent, or drown myself in the Nile!--And I will say all this to my +mother, this very day." + +The Greek governess had looked on in astonishment, for it was indeed +strange to see the young girl kneeling in front of the child. She +listened to her eager flow of unintelligible words, wondering whether she +could ever teach her pupil--with her grandmother's help if need should +be--to cultivate a more sedate and Greek demeanor. + +At this juncture Paula came down the path. Some slaves followed her, +carrying several boxes and bundles and a large litter, all making their +way to the Nile, where a boat was waiting to ferry her up the river to +her new home. + +As she lingered unobserved, her eye rested on the touching picture of the +two young things clasped in each other's arms, and she overheard the last +words of the gentle little creature who had done her such cruel wrong. +She could only guess at what had occurred, but she did not like to be a +listener, so she called Mary; and when the child started up and flew to +throw her arms round her neck with vehement and devoted tenderness, she +covered her little face and hair with kisses. Then she freed herself +from the little girl's embrace, and said, with tearful eyes: + +"Good-bye, my darling! In a few minutes I shall no longer belong here; +another and a strange home must be mine. Love me always, and do not +forget me, and be quite sure of one thing: you have no truer friend on +earth than I am." + +At this, fresh tears flowed; the child implored her not to go away, not +to leave her; but Paula could but refuse, though she was touched and +astonished to find that she had reaped so rich a harvest of love, here +where she had sown so little. Then she gave her hand at parting to the +governess, and when she turned to Katharina, to bid farewell, hard as it +was, to the murderer of her happiness, the young girl fell at her feet +bathed in tears of repentance, covered her knees and hands with kisses, +and confessed herself guilty of a terrible sin. Paula, however, would +not allow her to finish; she lifted her up, kissed her forehead, and said +that she quite understood how she had been led into it, and that she, +like Mary, would try to forgive her. + +Standing by the governor's many-oared barge, to which the young girls now +escorted her, she found Orion. Twice already this morning he had tried +in vain to get speech with her, and he looked pale and agitated. He had +a splendid bunch of flowers in his hand; he bestowed a hasty greeting on +Mary and his betrothed, and did not heed the fact that Katharina returned +it hesitatingly and without a word. + +He went close up to Paula, told her in a low voice that Hiram was safe, +and implored her, as she hoped to be forgiven for her own sins, to grant +him a few minutes. When she rejected his prayer with a silent shrug, +and went on towards the boat he put out his hand to help her, but she +intentionally overlooked it and gave her hand to the physician. At this +he sprang after her into the barge, saying in her ear in a tremulous +whisper: + +"A wretch, a miserable man entreats your mercy. I was mad yesterday. I +love you, I love you--how deeply!--you will see!" + +"Enough," she broke in firmly, and she stood up in the swaying boat. +Philippus supported her, and Orion, laying the flowers in her lap, cried +so that all could hear: "Your departure will sorely distress my father. +He is so ill that we did not dare allow you to take leave of him. If you +have anything to say to him. . ." + +"I will find another messenger," she replied sternly. + +"And if he asks the reason for your sudden departure?" + +"Your mother and Philippus can give him an answer." + +"But he was your guardian, and your fortune, I know. . ." + +"In his hands it is safe." + +"And if the physician's fears should be justified?" + +"Then I will demand its restitution through a new Kyrios." + +"You will receive it without that! Have you no pity, no forgiveness?" +For all answer she flung the flowers he had given her into the river; +he leaped on shore, and regardless of the bystanders, pushed his fingers +through his hair, clasping his hands to his burning brow. + +The barge was pushed off, the rowers plied their oars like men; Orion +gazed after it, panting with laboring breath, till a little hand grasped +his, and Mary's sweet, childish voice exclaimed: + +"Be comforted, uncle. I know just what is troubling you." + +"What do you know?" he asked roughly. + +"That you are sorry that you and Katharina should have spoken against her +last evening, and against poor Hiram." + +"Nonsense!" he angrily broke in. "Where is Katharina?" + +"I was to tell you that she could not see you today. She loves you +dearly, but she, too, is so very, very sorry." + +"She may spare herself!" said the young man. "If there is anything to +be sorry for it falls on me--it is crushing me to death. But what is +this!--The devil's in it! What business is it of the child's? Now, be +off with you this minute. Eudoxia, take this little girl to her tasks." + +He took Mary's head between his hands, kissed her forehead with impetuous +affection, and then pushed her towards her governess, who dutifully led +her away. + +When Orion found himself alone, he leaned against a tree and groaned like +a wounded wild beast. His heart was full to bursting. + +"Gone, gone! Thrown away, lost! The best on earth!" He laid his hands +on the tree-stem and pressed his head against it till it hurt him. He +did not know how to contain himself for misery and self-reproach. He +felt like a man who has been drunk and has reduced his own house to ashes +in his intoxication. How all this could have come to pass he now no +longer knew. After his nocturnal ride he had caused Nilus the treasurer +to be waked, and had charged him to liberate Hiram secretly. But it was +the sight of his stricken father that first brought him completely to his +sober senses. By his bed-side, death in its terrible reality had stared +him in the face, and he had felt that he could not bear to see that +beloved parent die till he had made his peace with Paula, won her +forgiveness, brought her whom his father loved so well into his presence, +and besought his blessing on her and on himself. + +Twice he had hastened from the chamber of suffering to her room, to +entreat her to hear him, but in vain; and now, how terrible had their +parting been! She was hard, implacable, cruel; and as he recalled her +person and individuality as they had struck him before their quarrel, +he was forced to confess that there was something in her present behavior +which was not natural to her. This inhuman severity in the beautiful +woman whose affection had once been his, and who, but now, had flung his +flowers into the water, had not come from her heart; it was deliberately +planned to make him feel her anger. What had withheld her, under such +great provocation, from betraying that she had detected him in the theft +of the emerald? All was not yet lost; and he breathed more freely as he +went back to the house where duty, and his anxiety for his father, +required his presence. There were his flowers, floating on the stream. + +"Hatred cast them there," thought he, "but before they reach the sea many +blossoms will have opened which were mere hard buds when she flung them +away. She can never love any man but me, I feel it, I know it. The +first time we looked into each other's eyes the fate of our hearts was +sealed. What she hates in me is my mad crime; what first set her against +me was her righteous anger at my suit for Katharina. But that sin was +but a dream in my life, which can never recur; and as for Katharina--I +have sinned against her once, but I will not continue to sin through a +whole, long lifetime. I have been permitted to trifle with love +unpunished so often, that at last I have learnt to under-estimate its +power. I could laugh as I sacrificed mine to my mother's wishes; but +that, and that alone, has given rise to all these horrors. But no, all +is not yet lost! Paula will listen to me; and when she sees what my +inmost feelings are--when I have confessed all to her, good and evil +alike--when she knows that my heart did but wander, and has returned to +her who has taught me that love is no jest, but solemn earnest, swaying +all mankind, she will come round--everything will come right." + +A noble and rapturous light came into his face, and as he walked on, his +hopes rose: + +"When she is mine I know that everything good in me that I have inherited +from my forefathers will blossom forth. When my mother called me to my +father's bed-side, she said: 'Come, Orion, life is earnest for you and me +and all our house, your father. . .' Yes, it is earnest indeed, however +all this may end! To win Paula, to conciliate her, to bring her near to +me, to have her by my side and do something great, something worthy of +her--this is such a purpose in life as I need! With her, only with her I +know I could achieve it; without her, or with that gilded toy Katharina, +old age will bring me nothing but satiety, sobering and regrets--or, +to call it by its Christian designation: bitter repentance. As Antaeus +renewed his strength by contact with mother earth, so, father do I feel +myself grow taller when I only think of her. She is salvation and honor; +the other is ruin and misery in the future. My poor, dear Father, you +will, you must survive this stroke to see the fulfilment of all your +joyful hopes of your son. You always loved Paula; perhaps you may be the +one to appease her and bring her back to me; and how dear will she be to +you, and, God willing, to my mother, too, when you see her reigning by my +side an ornament to this house, to this city, to this country--reigning +like a queen, your son's redeeming and guardian angel!" + +Uplifted, carried away by these thoughts, he had reached the viridarium. +He there found Sebek the steward waiting for his young master: "My lord +is asleep now," he whispered, "as the physician foretold, but his face... +Oh, if only we had Philippus here again!" + +"Have you sent the chariot with the fast horses to the Convent of St. +Cecilia?" asked Orion eagerly; and when Sebek had replied in the +affirmative and vanished again indoors, the young man, overwhelmed with +painful forebodings, sank on his knees near a column to which a crucifix +was hung, and lifted up his hands and soul in fervent prayer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The physician had installed Paula in her new home, and had introduced her +to the family who were henceforth to be her protectors, and to enable her +to lead a happier life. + +He had but a few minutes to devote to her and her hosts; for scarcely had +he taken her into the spacious rooms, gay with flowers, of which she now +took possession, when he was enquired for by two messengers, both anxious +to speak with him. Paula knew how critical her uncle's state was, and +now, contemplating the probability of losing him, she first understood +what he had been to her. Thus sorrow was her first companion in her new +abode--a sorrow to which the comfort of her pretty, airy rooms added +keenness. + +One of the messengers was a young Arab from the other side of the river, +who handed to Philippus a letter from the merchant Haschim. The old man +informed him that, in consequence of a bad fall his eldest son had had, +he was forced to start at once for Djiddah on the Red Sea. He begged the +physician to take every care of his caravan-leader, to whom he was much +attached, to remove him when he thought fit from the governor's house, +and to nurse him till he was well, in some quiet retreat. He would bear +in mind the commission given him by the daughter of the illustrious +Thomas. He sent with this letter a purse well-filled with gold pieces. + +The other messenger was to take the leech back again in the light chariot +with the fast horses to the suffering Mukaukas. He at once obeyed the +summons, and the steeds, which the driver did not spare, soon carried him +back to the governor's house. + +A glance at his patient told him that this was the beginning of the end; +still, faithful to his principle of never abandoning hope till the heart +of the sufferer had ceased to beat, he raised the senseless man, heedless +of Orion, who was on his knees by his father's pillow, signed to the +deaconess in attendance, an experienced nurse, and laid cool, wet cloths +on the head and neck of the sufferer, who was stricken with apoplexy. +Then he bled him. + +Presently the Mukaukas wearily opened his eyes, turned uneasily from side +to side, and recognizing his kneeling son and his wife, bathed in tears, +he murmured, almost inarticulately, for his paralyzed tongue no longer +did his will: "Two pillules, Philip!" + +The physician unhesitatingly acceded to the request of the dying man, who +again closed his eyes; but only to reopen them, and to say, with the same +difficulty, but with perfect consciousness: "The end is at hand! The +blessing of the Church--Orion, the Bishop." + +The young man hastened out of the room to fetch the prelate, who was +waiting in the viridarium with two deacons, an exorcist, and a sacristan +bearing the sacred vessels. + +The governor listened in devout composure to the service of the last +sacrament, looked on at the ceremonies performed by the exorcist as, with +waving of hands and pious ejaculations he banned the evil spirits and +cast out from the dying man the devil that might have part in him; but +he could no longer swallow the bread which, in the Jacobite rite, was +administered soaked in the wine. Orion took the holy elements for him, +and the dying man, with a smile, murmured to his son: + +"God be with thee, my son! The Lord, it seems, denies me His precious +Blood--and yet--let me try once more." + +This time he succeeded in swallowing the wine and a few crumbs of bread; +and the bishop Ptolimus, a gentle old man of a beautiful and dignified +presence, spoke comfort to him, and asked him whether he felt that he was +dying penitent and in perfect faith in the mercy of his Lord and Saviour, +and whether he repented of his sins and forgave his enemies. + +The sick man bowed his head with an effort and murmured: + +"Even the Melchites who murdered my sons--and even the head of our +Church, the Patriarch, who was only too glad to leave it to me to achieve +things which he scrupled to do himself. That--that--But you, Ptolimus-- +a wise and worthy servant of the Lord--tell me to the best of your +convictions: May I die in the belief that it was not a sin to conclude a +peace with the Arab conquerors of the Greeks?--May I, even at this hour, +think of the Melchites as heretics?" + +The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, and his +mild features assumed a determined--nay a stern expression as he +exclaimed: + +"You know the, decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus--the words +which should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marble +and brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ--and this is what the +Melchites do--be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burnt +alive!'--No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at the +Moslems who adore the One God!" + +The sufferer drew a deep breath, but he presently added with a sigh: + +"But Benjamin the Patriarch, and John of Niku have tormented my soul with +fears! Still, you too, Ptolimus, bear the crosier, and to you I will +confess that your brethren in office, the shepherds of the Jacobite fold, +have ruined my peace for hundreds of days and nights, and I have been +near to cursing them. But before the night fell the Lord sent light into +my soul, and I forgave them, and now, through you, I crave their pardon +and their blessing. The Church has but reluctantly opened the doors to +me in these last years; but what servant can be allowed to complain of +the Master from whom he expects grace? So listen to me. I close my eyes +as a faithful and devoted adherent of the Church, and in token thereof I +will endow her to the best of my power and adorn her with rich and costly +gifts; I will--but I can say no more.--Speak for me, Orion. You know-- +the gems--the hanging. . . ." + +His son explained to the bishop what a splendid gift, in priceless +jewels, the dying man intended to offer to the Church. He desired to be +buried in the church of St. John at Alexandria by his father's side, and +to be prayed for in front of the mortuary chapel of his ancestors in the +Necropolis; he had set aside a sum of money, in his will, to pay for the +prayers to be offered for his soul. The priests were well pleased to +hear this, and they absolved him unconditionally and completely; then, +after blessing him fervently, they quitted the room. + +Philippus heaved a sigh of relief when the ecclesiastics had departed, +and constantly renewed the wet compress, while the dying governor lay for +a long time in silence with his eyes shut. Presently he rubbed them as +though he felt revived, raised his head a little with the physician's +help, and looking up, said: + +"Draw the ring off my finger, Orion, and wear it worthily.--Where is +little Mary, where is Paula? I should wish to bid them farewell too." + +The young man and his mother exchanged uneasy glances, but Neforis +collected herself at once and replied: + +"We have sent for Mary; but Paula--you know she never was happy with +us--and since the events of yesterday. . . ." + +"Well?" asked the invalid. + +"She hastily quitted the house; but we parted friends, I can assure you +of that; she is still in Memphis, and she spoke of you most +affectionately and wished to see you, and charged me with many loving +messages for you; so, if you really care to see her. . . ." + +The sick man tried to nod his head, but in vain. He did not, however, +insist on her being sent for, but his face wore an expression of deep +melancholy and the words came faintly from his lips. + +"Thomas' daughter! The noblest and loveliest of all." + +"The noblest and loveliest," echoed Orion, in a voice that was tremulous +with strong, deep and sincere emotion; then he begged the leech and the +deaconess to leave him alone with his parents. As soon as they had left +the room the young man spoke softly but urgently into his father's ear: + +"You are quite right, Father," he said. "She is better and more noble, +more beautiful and more highminded than any girl living. I love her, +and will stake everything to win her heart. Oh, God! Oh, God! Merciful +Heaven!--Are you glad, do you give your consent, Father? You dearest and +best of men; I see it in your face." + +"Yes, yes, yes," murmured the governor; his yellow, bloodshot eyes looked +up to Heaven, and with a terrible effort he stammered out: "Blessing--my +blessing, on you and Paula.--Tell her from me.... If she had confided in +her old uncle, as she used to do, the freedman would never have robbed +us.--She is a brave soul; how she fought for the poor fellow. I will +hear more about it if my strength holds out.--Why is she not here?" + +"She wished so much to bid you farewell," replied Neforis, "but you were +asleep." + +"Was she in such a hurry to be gone?" asked her husband with a bitter +smile. "Fear about the emerald may have had something to do with it? +But how could I be angry with her? Hiram acted without her knowledge, +I suppose? Yes, I knew it!--Ah; that dear, sweet face! If I could but +see it once more. The joy--of my eyes, and my companion at draughts! +A faithful heart too; how she clung to her father! she was ready to +sacrifice everything for him.--And you, you, my old.... But no--no +reproaches at such a time. You, Mother--you, my Neforis, thanks, +a thousand thanks for all your love and kindness. What a mystical and +magic bond is that of a Christian marriage like ours? Mark that, Orion. +And you, Mother: I am anxious about this. You--do not hurt the girl's +feelings again. Say--say you bless this union; it will make me happier +at the last.--Paula and Orion; both of them-both.--I never dared before +--but what better could we wish?" + +The matron clasped her hands and sobbed out: + +"Anything, everything you wish! But Father, Orion, our faith!-- +And then, merciful Saviour, that poor little Katharina!" + +"Katharina!" repeated the sick man, and his feeble lips parted in a +compassionate smile. "Our boy and the water--water--you know what I +would say." + +Then his eyes began to sparkle more brightly and he said in a low voice, +but still eagerly, as though death were yet far from him: + +"My name is George, the son of the Mukaukas; I am the great Mukaukas and +our family--all fine men of a proud race; all: My father, my uncle, our +lost sons, and Orion here--all palms and oaks! And shall a dwarf, a mere +blade of rice be grafted on to the grand old stalwart stock? What would +come of that?--Oh, ho! a miserable little brood! But Paula! The cedar +of Lebanon--Paula; she would give new life to the grand old race." + +"But our faith, our faith," moaned Neforis. "And you, Orion, do you even +know what her feeling is towards you?" + +"Yes and no. Let that rest for the present," said the youth, who was +deeply moved. "Oh Father! if I only knew that your blessing. . ." + +"The Faith, the Faith," interrupted the Mukaukas in a broken voice. + +"I will be true to my own!" cried Orion, raising his father's hand to +his lips. "But think, picture to yourself, how Paula and I would reign +in this house, and how another generation would grow up in it worthy of +the great Mukaukas and his ancestors!" + +"I see it, I see it," murmured the sick man sinking back on his pillows, +unconscious. + +Philippus was immediately called in, and, with him, little Mary came +weeping into the room. The physician's efforts to revive the sufferer +were presently successful; again the sick man opened his eyes, and spoke +more distinctly and loudly than before: + +"There is a perfume of musk. It is the fragrance that heralds the Angel +of Death." + +After this he lay still and silent for a long time. His eyes were +closed, but his brows were knit and showed that he was thinking with a +painful effort. At length, with a sigh, he said, almost inaudibly: +"So it was and so it is: The Greek oppressed my people with arbitrary +cruelty as if we were dogs; the Moslem, too, is a stranger, but he is +just. That which happened it was out of my power to prevent; and it is +well, it is very well that it turned out so.--Very well," he repeated +several times, and then he shivered and said with a groan: + +"My feet are so cold! But never mind, never mind, I like to be cool." + +The leech and the deaconess at once set to work to heat blocks of wood to +warm his feet; the sick man looked up gratefully and went on: "At church, +in the House of God, I have often found it deliciously cool and to-day it +is the Church that eases my death-bed by her pardon. Do you, my Son, be +faithful to her. No member of our house should ever be an apostate. As +to the new faith--it is overspreading land after land with incredible +power; ambition and covetousness are driving thousands into its fold. +But we--we are faithful to Christ Jesus, we are no traitors. If I, I the +Mukaukas, had consented to go over to the Khaliff I might have been a +prince in purple, and have governed my own country in his name. How many +have deserted to the Moslems! And the temptation will come to you, too, +and their faith offers much that is attractive to the crowd. They +imagine a Paradise full of unspeakably alluring joys--but we, my son-- +we shall meet again in our own, shall we not?" + +"Yes, yes, Father!" cried the young man. "I will remain a Christian, +staunch and true. . ." + +"That is right," interrupted the sick man. He was determined to forget +that his son wished to marry a Melchite and went on quickly: "Paula... +But no more of that. Remain faithful to your own creed--otherwise... +However, child, seek your own road; you are--but you will walk in the +right way, and it is because I know that, know it surely, that I can die +so calmly. + +"I have provided abundantly for your temporal welfare. I have been a +good husband, a faithful father, have I not, O Saviour?--Have I not, +Neforis? And that which is my best and surest comfort is that for many +long years I have administered justice in this land, and never, never +once--and Thou my Refuge and Comforter art my witness!--never once +consciously or willingly have I been an unrighteous judge. Before me the +poor were equal with the rich, the powerful with the helpless widow. Who +would have dared..." Here he broke off; his eyes, wandering feebly round +the room, fell on Mary who had sunk on her knees, opposite to Orion on +the other side of the bed. The dying man, who had thus summed up the +outcome of a long and busy life, ceased his reflections, and when the +child saw that he was vainly trying to turn his powerless head towards +her, she threw her arms round him with passionate grief; unscared by his +fixed gaze or the altered hue of his beloved face, she kissed his lips +and cheeks, exclaiming: + +"Grandfather, dear grandfather, do not leave us; stay with us, pray, pray +stay with us!" + +Something faintly resembling a smile parted his parched lips, and all the +tenderness with which his soul was overflowing for this sweet young bud +of humanity would have found expression in his voice but that he could +only mutter huskily: + +"Mary, my darling! For your sake I should be glad to live a long while +yet, a very long while; but the other world--I am standing already on its +threshold. Good-bye--I must indeed say good-bye." + +"No, no--I will pray; oh! I will pray so fervently that you may get well +again!" cried the child. But he replied: + +"Nay, nay. The Saviour is already taking me by the hand. Farewell, and +again farewell. Did you bring Paula? I do not see her. Did you bring +Paula with you, sweetheart? She--did she leave us in anger? If she only +knew; ah! your Paula has treated us ill." The child's heart was still +full of the horrible crime which had so revolted her truthful nature, and +which had deprived her of rest all through an evening, a long night and +a morning; she laid her little head close to that of the old man--her +dearest and best friend. For years he had filled her father's place, and +now he was dying, leaving her forever! But she could not let him depart +with a false idea of the woman whom she worshipped with all the fervor of +her child's heart; in a subdued voice, but with eager feeling, she said, +close to his ear: + +"But Grandfather, there is one thing you must know before the Saviour +takes you away to be happy in Heaven. Paula told the truth, and never, +never told a lie, not even for Hiram's sake. An empty gold frame hung to +her necklace and no gem at all. Whatever Orion may say, I saw it myself +and cannot be mistaken, as truly as I hope to see you and my poor father +in heaven! And Katharina, too, thought better of it, and confessed to me +just now that she had committed a great sin and had borne false witness +before the judges to please her dear Orion. I do not know what Hiram had +done to offend him; but on the strength of Katharina's evidence the +judges condemned him to death. But Paula--you must understand that Paula +had nothing, positively nothing whatever to do with the stealing of the +emerald." + +Orion, kneeling there, was condemned to hear every word the little girl +so vehemently whispered, and each one pierced his heart like a dagger- +thrust. Again and again he felt inclined to clutch at her across the bed +and fling her on the ground before his father's eyes; but grief and +astonishment seemed to have paralyzed his whole being; he had not even +the power to interrupt her with a single word. + +She had spoken, and all was told. + +He clung to the couch like a shattered wretch; and when his father turned +his eyes on him and gasped out: "Then the Court--our Court of justice +pronounced an unrighteous sentence?" he bowed his head in contrition. + +The dying man murmured even less articulately and incoherently than +before: "The gem--the hanging--you, you perhaps--was it you? that +emerald--I cannot. . ." + +Orion helped his father in his vain efforts to utter the dreadful words. +Sooner would he have died with the old man than have deceived him in such +a moment; he replied humbly and in a low voice: + +"Yes, Father--I took it. But as surely as I love you and my mother this, +the first reckless act of my life, which has brought such horrors in its +train. . . Shall be the last," he would have said; but the words "I took +it," had scarcely passed his lips when his father was shaken by a violent +trembling, the expression of his eyes changed fearfully, and before the +son had spoken his vow to the end the unhappy father was, by a tremendous +effort, sitting upright. Loud sobs of penitence broke from the young +man's heaving breast, as the Mukaukas wrathfully exclaimed, in thick +accents, as quickly as the heavy, paralyzed tongue would allow: + +"You, you! A disgrace to our ancient and blameless Court! You?--Away +with you! A thief, an unjust judge, a false witness,--and the only +descendant of Menas! If only these hands were able--you--you--Go, +villain!" And with this wild outcry, George, the gentle and just +Mukaukas, sank back on his pillows; his bloodshot eyes were staring, +fixed on vacancy; his gasping lips repeated again and again, but less and +less audibly the one word "Villain;" his swollen fingers clutched at the +light coverlet that lay over him; a strange, shrill wheezing came through +his open mouth, and the heavy corpse of the great dignitary fell, like a +falling palm-tree, into Orion's arms. + +Orion started up, his eyes inflamed, his hair all dishevelled, and shook +the dead man as though to compel him back to life again, to hear his oath +and accept his vow, to see his tears of repentance, to pardon him and +take back the name of infamy which had been his parting word to his loved +and spoilt child. + +In the midst of this wild outbreak the physician came back, glanced at +the dead man's distorted features, laid a hand on his heart, and said +with solemn regret as he led little Mary away from the couch: + +"A good and just man is gone from the land of the living." + +Orion cried aloud and pushed away Mary, who had stolen close to him; for, +young as she was, she felt that it was she who had brought the worst woe +on her uncle, and that it was her part to show him some affection. + +She ran then to her grandmother; but she, too, put her aside and fell on +her knees by the side of her wretched son to weep with him; to console +him who was inconsolable, and in whom, a few minutes since, she had hoped +to find her own best consolation; but her fond words of motherly comfort +found no echo in his broken spirit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +When Philippus had parted from Paula he had told her that the Mukaukas +might indeed die at any moment, but that it was possible that he might +yet struggle with death for weeks to come. This hope had comforted her; +for she could not bear to think that the only true friend she had had in +Memphis, till she had become more intimate with the physician, should +quit the world forever without having heard her justification. Nothing +could be more unlikely than that any one in Neforis' household--excepting +her little grandchild should ever remember her with kindness; and she +scarcely desired it; but she rebelled against the idea of forfeiting the +respect she had earned, even in the governor's house. If her friend +should succeed in prolonging her uncle's life, by a confidential +interview with him she might win back his old affection and his good +opinion. + +Her new home she felt was but a resting-place, a tabernacle in the +desert-journey of her solitary pilgrimage, and she here meant to avail +herself of the information she had gathered from her Melchite dependents. +Hope had now risen supreme in her heart over grief and disappointment. +Orion's presence alone hung like a threatening hail-cloud over the +sprouting harvest of her peace of mind. And yet, next to the necessity +of waiting at Memphis for the return of her messenger, nothing tied her +to the place so strongly as her interest in watching the future course of +his life, at any rate from a distance. What she felt for him-and she +told herself it was deep aversion-nevertheless constituted a large share +of her inner life, little as she would confess it to herself. + +Her new hosts had received her as a welcome guest, and they certainly did +not seem to be poor. The house was spacious, and though it was old and +unpretentious it was comfortable and furnished with artistic taste. The +garden had amazed her by the care lavished on it; she had seen a hump- +backed gardener and several children at work in it. A strange party-for +every one of them, like their chief, was in some way deformed or +crippled. + +The plot of ground--which extended towards the river to the road-way for +foot passengers, vehicles and the files of men towing the Nile-boats--was +but narrow, and bounded on either side by extensive premises. Not far +from the spot where it lay nearest to the river was the bridge of boats +connecting Memphis with the island of Rodah. To the right was the +magnificent residence--a palace indeed--belonging to Susannah; to the +left was an extensive grove, where tall palms, sycamores with spreading +foliage, and dense thickets of blue-green tamarisk trees cast their +shade. Above this bower of splendid shrubs and ancient trees rose a +long, yellow building crowned with a turret; and this too was not unknown +to her, for she had often heard it spoken of in her uncle's house, and +had even gone there now and then escorted by Perpetua. It was the +convent of St. Cecilia, the refuge of the last nuns of the orthodox creed +left in Memphis; for, though all the other sisterhoods of her confession +had long since been banished, these had been allowed to remain in their +old home, not only because they were famous sick-nurses, a distinction +common to all the Melchite orders, but even more because the decaying +municipality could not afford to sacrifice the large tax they annually +paid to it. This tax was the interest on a considerable capital +bequeathed to the convent by a certain wise predecessor of the Mukaukas', +with the prudent proviso, ratified under the imperial seal of Theodosius +II., that if the convent were at any time broken up, this endowment, with +the land and buildings which it likewise owed to the generosity of the +same benefactor, should become the property of the Christian emperor at +that time reigning. + +Mukaukas George, notwithstanding his well-founded aversion for everything +Melchite, had taken good care not to press this useful Sisterhood too +hardly, or to deprive his impoverished capital of its revenues only to +throw them into the hands of the wealthy Moslems. The title-deed on +which the Sisters relied was good; and the governor, who was a good +lawyer as well as a just man, had not only left them unmolested, but in +spite of his fears--during the last few years--for his own safety, had +shown himself no respecter of persons by defending their rights firmly +and resolutely against the powerful patriarch of the Jacobite Church. +The Senate of the ancient capital naturally, approved his course, and had +not merely suffered the heretic Sisterhood to remain, but had helped and +encouraged it. + +The Jacobite clergy of the city shut their eyes, and only opened them to +watch the convent at Easter-tide; for on the Saturday before Easter, the +nuns, in obedience to an agreement made before the Monophysite Schism, +were required to pay a tribute of embroidered vestments to the head of +the Christian Churches, with wine of the best vintages of Kochome near +the Pyramid of steps, and a considerable quantity of flowers and +confectionary. So the ancient coenobium of women was maintained, and +though all Egypt was by this time Jacobite or Moslem, and many of the +older Sisters had departed this life within the last year, no one had +thought of enquiring how it was that the number of the nuns remained +still the same, till the Jacobite archbishop Benjamin filled the +patriarchal throne of Alexandria in the place of the Melchite Cyrus. + +To Benjamin the heretical Sisters at Memphis--the hawks in a dove-cote, +as he called them--were an offence, and he thought that the deed might +bear a new interpretation: that as there was no longer a Christian +emperor, and as the word "Christian" was used in the document, if the +convent were broken up the property should pass into the hands of the +only Christian magnate then existing in the country: himself, namely, +and his Church. The ill-feeling which the Patriarch fostered against the +Mukaukas had been aggravated to hostility by their antagonism on this +matter. + +A musical dirge now fell on Paula's ear from the convent chapel. Was the +worthy Mother Superior dead? No, this lament must be for some other +death, for the strange skirling wail of the Egyptian women came up to her +corner window from the road, from the bridge, and from the boats on the +river. No Jacobite of Memphis would have dared to express her grief so +publicly for the death of a Melchite; and as the chorus of voices +swelled, the thought struck her with a chill that it must be her uncle +and friend who had closed his weary eyes in death. + +It was with deep emotion and many tears that she perceived how sincerely +the death of this righteous man was bewailed by all his fellow-citizens. +Yes, he only, and no other Egyptian, could have called forth this great +and expressive regret. The wailing women in the road were daubing the +mud of the river on their foreheads and bosoms; men were standing in +large groups and beating their heads and breasts with passionate +gestures. On the bridge of boats the men would stop others, and from +thence, too, piercing shrieks came across to her. + +At last Philippus came in and confirmed her fears. The governor's death +had shocked him no less than it did her, and he had to tell Paula all he +knew of the dead man's last hours. + +"Still, one good thing has come out of this misery," he said. "There is +nothing so comforting as the discovery that we have been deceived in +thinking ill of a man and of his character. This Orion, who has sinned +so basely against himself and against you, is not utterly reprobate." + +"Not?" interrupted Paula. "Then he has taken you in too!" + +"Taken me in?" said the leech. "Hardly, I think. I have, alas! stood +by many a death-bed; for I am too often sent for when Death is already +beckoning the sick man away. I have met thousands of mourners in these +melancholy scenes, which, I can assure you, are the very best school for +training any one who desires to search the hearts of his fellow- +creatures. By the bed of death, or in the mart, where everything is a +question of Mine and Thine, it is easy to see how some--we for instance +--are as careful to hide from the world all that is great and noble in us +as others are to conceal what is petty and mean--we read men's hearts as +an open page. From my observations of the dying and of those who sorrow +for them, I, who am not Menander not Lucian, could draw a series of +portraits which should be as truthful likenesses as though the men had +turned themselves inside out before me." + +"That a dying man should show himself as he really is I can well +believe," replied Paula. "He need have no further care for the opinions +of others; but the mourners? Why, custom requires them to assume an air +of grief and to shed tears." + +"Very true; regret repeats itself by the side of the dead," replied the +physician. "But the chamber of the dying is like a church. Death +consecrates it, and the man who stands face to face with death often +drops the mask by which he cheats his fellows. There we may see faces +which you would shudder to look on, but others, too, which merely to see +is enough to make us regard the degenerate species to which we belong +with renewed respect." + +"And you found such a comforting vision in Orion,--the thief, the false +witness, the corrupt judge!" exclaimed Paula, starting up in indignant +astonishment. + +"There! you see," laughed Philippus. "Just like a woman! A little +juggling, and lo! what was only rose color is turned to purple. No. +The son of the Mukaukas has not yet undergone such a dazzling change of +hue; but he has a feeling and impressible heart--and I hold even that in +high esteem. I have no doubt that he loved his father deeply, nay +passionately; though I have ample reason to believe him capable of the +very worst. So long as I was present at the scene of death the father +and son were parting in all friendship and tenderness, and when the good +old man's heart had ceased to beat I found Orion in a state which is only +possible to have when love has lost what it held dearest." + +"All acting!" Paula put in. + +"But there was no audience, dear friend. Orion would not have got up +such a performance for his mother and little Mary." + +"But he is a poet--and a highly-gifted one too. He sings beautiful songs +of his own invention to the lyre; his ecstatic and versatile mind works +him up into any frame of feeling; but his soul is perverted; it is soaked +in wickedness as a sponge drinks up water. He is a vessel full of +beautiful gifts, but he has forfeited all that was good and noble in him +--all!" + +The words came in eager haste from her indignant lips. Her cheeks glowed +with her vehemence, and she thought she had won over the physician; but +he gravely shook his head, and said: + +"Your righteous anger carries you too far. How often have you blamed me +for severity and suspicions but now I have to beg you to allow me to ask +your sympathy for an experience to which you would probably have raised +no objection the day before yesterday: + +"I have met with evil-doers of every degree. Think, for instance, how +many cases of wilful poisoning I have had to investigate." + +"Even Homer called Egypt the land of poison," exclaimed Paula. "And it +seems almost incredible that Christianity has not altered it in the +least. Kosmas, who had seen the whole earth, could nowhere find more +malice, deceit, hatred, and ill-will than exist here." + +"Then you see in what good schools my experience of the wickedness of men +has ripened," said Philippus smiling, "and they have taught me chiefly +that there is never a criminal, a sinner, or a scapegrace, however +infamous he may be, however cruel or lost to virtue, in whom some good +quality or other may not be discovered.--Do you remember Nechebt, the +horrible woman who poisoned her two brothers and her own father? She was +captured scarcely three weeks ago; and that very monster in human form +could almost die of hunger and thirst for the sake of her rascally son, +who is a common soldier in the imperial army; at last she took to +concocting poisons, not to improve her own wretched condition, but to +send the shameless wretch means for a fresh debauch. I have known a +thousand similar cases, but I will only mention that of one of the +wildest and blood-thirstiest of robbers, who had evaded the vigilance +of the watch again and again, but at last fell into their hands--and how? +Because he had heard that his old mother was ill and he longed to see the +withered old woman once more and give her a kiss, since he was her own +child! In the same way Orion, however reprobate we may think him, has at +any rate one characteristic which we must approve of: a tender affection +for his father and mother. Your sponge is not utterly steeped in +wickedness; there are still some pores, some cells which resist it; and +if in him, as in so many others, the heart is one of them, then I say +hopefully, like Horace the Roman: 'Nil desperandum.' It would be unjust +to give him up altogether for lost." + +To this assurance Paula found no answer; indeed, it struck her that--if +Orion had told her the truth--it was only to please his mother that he +had asked Katharina to marry him, while she herself occupied his heart. +--The physician, wishing to change the subject, was about to speak again +of the death of the Mukaukas, when one of the crippled serving girls came +to announce a woman who asked to speak with Paula. A few minutes later +she was clasped in the embrace of her faithful old friend and nurse, who +rejoiced as heartily, laughing and crying for sheer delight, as if no +tidings of misfortune had reached her; while Paula, though so much +younger, was cut to the heart, and could not shake off the spell of her +grief. + +Perpetua understood this and owed her no grudge for the coolness with +which she met her joyful excitement. + +She told Paula that she had been well treated in her hot cell, and that +about half an hour since Orion himself, the young Master now, had opened +the door of her prison. He had been very gracious to her, but looked so +pale and sad. The overbearing young man was quite altered; his eyes, +which were dim with weeping, had moved her, Perpetua, to tears. She +trusted that God would forgive him for his sins against herself and +Paula; he must have been possessed by some evil demon; he had not been at +all like himself; for he had a kind, warm heart, and though he had been +so hard and unjust yesterday to poor Hiram he had made it up to him the +first thing this morning, and had not only let him out of prison but had +sent him and his son home to Damascus with large gifts and two horses. +Nilus had told her this. He who hoped to be forgiven by his neighbor +must also be ready to forgive. The great Augustine, even, had been no +model of virtue in his youth and yet he had become a shining light in the +Church; and now the son of the Mukaukas would tread in his father's +footsteps. He was a handsome, engaging man, who would be the joy of +their hearts yet, they might be very sure. Why, he had been as grave and +as solemn as a bishop to-day; perhaps he had already turned over a new +leaf. He himself had put her into his mother's chariot and desired the +charioteer to drive her hither: what would Paula say to that? Her things +were to be given over to her to-morrow morning, and packed under her own +eyes, and sent after her. Nilus, the treasurer, had come with her to +deliver a message to Paula; but he had gone first to the convent. + +Paula desired the old woman to go thither and fetch him; as soon as +Perpetua had left the room, she exclaimed: + +"There, you see, is some one who is quite of your opinion. What +creatures we are! Last evening my good Betta would have thought no pit +of hell too deep for our enemy, and now? To be led to a chariot by such +a fine gentleman in person is no doubt flattering; and how quickly the +old body has forgotten all her grievances, how soothed and satisfied she +is by the gracious permission to pack her precious and cherished +possessions with her own hands.--You told me once that the Jacobites had +made a Saint Orion out of the pagan god Osiris, and my old Betta sees a +future Saint Augustine in the governor's son. I can see that she already +regards him as her tutelary patron, and when we get back to Syria, she +will be begging me to join her in a pilgrimage to his shrine!" + +"And you will perhaps consent," replied the physician, to whom Paula at +this moment, for the first time since his heart had glowed with love for +her, did not seem to be quite what a man looks for in the woman he +adores. Hitherto he had seen and heard nothing that was not high-minded +and worthy of her; but her last words had, been spoken with vehement and +indignant irony--and in Philip's opinion irony, blame which was intended +to wound and not to improve its object, was unbecoming in a noble woman. +The scornful laugh, with which she had triumphantly ended her speech, +had opened as it were a wide abyss between his mind and hers. He, as he +freely confessed to himself, was of a coarser and humbler grain than +Paula, and he was apt to be satirical oftener than was right. She had +been wont to dislike this habit in him; he had been glad that she did; it +answered to the ideal he had formed of what the woman he loved should be. +But now she had turned satirical; and her irony was no jest of the lips. +It sprang, full of passion, from her agitated soul; this it was that +grieved the leech who knew human nature, and at the same time roused his +apprehensions. Paula read his disapproval in his face, and felt that +there was a deep significance in his words And you will perhaps consent." + +"Men are vexed," thought she, "when, after they have decisively expressed +an opinion, we women dare unhesitatingly to assert a different one," so, +as she would on no account hurt the feelings of the friend to whom she +owed so much, she said kindly: + +"I do not care to enquire into the meaning of your strange +prognostication. Thank God, by your kindness and care I have severed +every tie that could have bound me to my poor uncle's son!--Now we will +drop the subject; we have said too much about him already." + +"That is quite my opinion," replied Philippus. "And, indeed, I would beg +you quite to forget my 'perhaps.' I live wholly in the present and am no +prophet; but I foresee, nevertheless, that Orion will make every effort, +cost what it may. . . ." + +"Well?" + +"To approach you again, to win your forgiveness, to touch your heart, +to......" + +"Let him dare" exclaimed Paula lifting her hand with a threatening +gesture. + +"And when he, gifted as he is in every way, has found his better self +again and can come forward purified and worthy of the approbation of the +best. . . ." + +"Still I will never, never forget how he has sinned and what he brought +upon me!--Do you think that I have already forgotten your conversation +with Neforis? You ask nothing of your friends but honest feeling akin to +your own,--and what is it that repels me from Orion but feeling? +Thousands have altered their behavior, but--answer me frankly--surely not +what we mean by their feeling?" + +"Yes, that too," said the leech with stern gravity. "Feeling, too, may +change. Or do you range yourself on the side of the Arab merchant and +his fellow-Moslems, who regard man as the plaything of a blind Fate?-- +But our spiritual teachers tell us that the evil to which we are +predestined, which is that born into the world with us, may be averted, +turned and guided to good by what they call spiritual regeneration. But +who that lives in the tumult of the world can ever succeed in 'killing +himself' in their sense of the word, in dying while yet he lives, to be +born again, a new man? The penitent's garb does not suit the stature of +an Orion; however, there is for him another way of returning to the path +he has lost. Fortune has hitherto offered her spoilt favorite so much +pleasure, that sheer enjoyment has left him no time to think seriously on +life itself; now she is showing him its graver side, she is inviting him +to reflect; and if he only finds a friend to give him the counsel which +my father left in a letter for me, his only child, as a youth--and if he +is ready to listen, I regard him as saved." + +"And that word of counsel--what is it?" asked Paula with interest. + +"To put it briefly, it is this: Life is not a banquet spread by fate for +our enjoyment, but a duty which we are bound to fulfil to the best of our +power. Each one must test his nature and gifts, and the better he uses +them for the weal and benefit of the body of which he was born a member, +the higher will his inmost gladness be, the more certainly will he attain +to a beautiful peace of mind, the less terrors will Death have for him. +In the consciousness of having sown seed for eternity he will close his +eyes like a faithful steward at the end of each day, and of the last hour +vouchsafed to him on earth. If Orion recognizes this, if he submits to +accept the duties imposed on him by existence, if he devotes himself to +them now for the first time to the best of his powers, a day may come +when I shall look up to him with respect--nay, with admiration. The +shipwreck of which the Arab spoke has overtaken him. Let us see how he +will save himself from the waves, and behave when he is cast on shore." + +"Let us see!" repeated Paula, "and wish that he may find such an +adviser! As you were speaking it struck me that it was my part.--But no, +no! He has placed himself beyond the pale of the compassion which I +might have felt even for an enemy after such a frightful blow. He! He +can and shall never be anything to me till the end of time. I have to +thank you for having found me this haven of rest. Help me now to keep +out everything that can intrude itself here to disturb my peace. If +Orion should ever dare, for whatever purpose, to force or steal a way +into this house, I trust to you, my friend and deliverer!" + +She held out her hand to Philippus, and as he took it the blood seethed +in his veins with tender emotion. + +"My strength, like my heart, is wholly yours!" he exclaimed ardently. +"Command them, and if the devoted love of a faithful, plain-spoken man--" + +"Say no more, no, no!" Paula broke in with anxious vehemence. "Let us +remain closely bound together by friendship-as brother and sister." + +"As brother and sister?" he dully echoed with a melancholy smile. "Aye, +friendship too is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But yet--let me speak-- +I have dreamed of love, the tossing sea of passion; I have felt its +surges here--in here; I feel them still.... But man, man," and he struck +his forehead with his fist, "have you forgotten, like a fool, what your +image is in the mirror; have you forgotten that you are an ugly, clumsy +fellow, and that the gorgeous flower you long for. . . ." + +Paula had shrunk back, startled by her friend's vehemence; but she now +went up to him, and taking his hand with frank spirit, she said +impressively: + +"It is not so, Philippus, my dear, kind, only friend. The gorgeous +flower you desire I can no longer give you--or any one. It is mine no +longer; for when it had opened, once for all, cruel feet trod it down. +Do not abuse your mirrored image; do not call yourself a clumsy fellow. +The best and fairest might be proud of your love, just as you are. +Am I not proud, shall I not always be proud of your friendship?" + +"Friendship, friendship!" he retorted, snatching away his hand. +"This burning, longing heart thirsts for other feelings! Oh, woman! +I know the wretch who has trodden down the flower of flowers in your +heart, and I, madman that I am, can sing his praises, can take his part; +and cost what it may, I will still do so as long as you.... But perhaps +the glorious flower may strike new roots in the soil of hatred and I, the +hapless wretch who water it, may see it." + +At this, Paula again took both his hands, and exclaimed in deep and +painful agitation of mind: + +"Say no more, I beg and entreat you. How can I live in peace here, under +your protection and in constant intercourse with you, without knowing +myself guilty of a breach of propriety such as the most sacred feelings +of a young girl bid her avoid, if you persist in overstepping the limits +which bound true and faithful friendship? I am a lonely girl and should +give myself up to despair, as lost, if I could not take refuge in the +belief that I can rely upon myself. Be satisfied with what I have to +offer you, my friend, and may God reward you! Let us both remain worthy +of the esteem which, thank Heaven! we are fully justified in feeling for +each other." + +The physician, deeply moved, bent his head; scarcely able to control +himself, he pressed her firm white hand to his lips, while, just at this +moment, Perpetua and the treasurer came into the room. + +This worthy official--a perfectly commonplace man, neither tall nor +short, neither old nor young, with a pale, anxious face, furrowed by work +and responsibility, but shrewd and finely cut-glanced keenly at the pair, +and then proceeded to lay a considerable sum in gold pieces before Paula. +His young master had sent it, in obedience to his deceased father's +wishes, for her immediate needs; the rest, the larger part of her +fortune, with a full account, would be given over to her after the +Mukaukas was buried. Nilus could, however, give her an approximate idea +of the sum, and it was so considerable that Paula could not believe her +ears. She now saw herself secure against external anxiety, nay, in such +ease that she was justified in living at some expense. + +Philippus was present throughout the interview, and it cut him to the +heart. It had made him so happy to think that he was all in all to the +poor orphan, and could shelter her against pressing want. He had been +prepared to take upon himself the care of providing Paula with the home +she had found and everything she could need; and now, as it turned out, +his protege was not merely higher in rank than himself, but much richer. + +He felt as though Orion's envoy had robbed him of the best joy in life. +After introducing Paula to her worthy host and his family, he quitted the +house of Rufinus with a very crushed aspect. + +When night came Perpetua once more enjoyed the privilege of assisting her +young mistress to undress; but Paula could not sleep, and when she joined +her new friends next morning she told herself that here, if anywhere, was +the place where she might recover her lost peace, but that she must still +have a hard struggle and a long pilgrimage before she could achieve this. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +In whom some good quality or other may not be discovered +Life is not a banquet + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V4 *** + +********** This file should be named 5520.txt or 5520.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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