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+Project Gutenberg's The Bride of the Nile, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Bride of the Nile, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Last Updated: March 9, 2009
+Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #5529]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRIDE OF THE NILE, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF THE NILE
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated from the German by Clara Bell
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+The "Bride of the Nile" needs no preface. For the professional student I
+may observe that I have relied on the authority of de Goeje in adhering
+to my own original opinion that the word Mukaukas is not to be regarded
+as a name but as a title, since the Arab writers to which I have made
+reference apply it to the responsible representatives of the Byzantine
+Emperor in antagonism to the Moslem power. I was unfortunately unable to
+make further use of Karabacek's researches as to the Mukaukas.
+
+I shall not be held justified in placing the ancient Horus Apollo
+(Horapollo) in the seventh century after Christ by any one who
+regards the author of the Hieroglyphica as identical with the Egyptian
+philosopher of the same name who, according to Suidas, lived under
+Theodosius, and to whom Stephanus of Byzantium refers, writing so
+early as at the end of the fifth century. But the lexicographer Suidas
+enumerates the works of Horapollo, the philologer and commentator
+on Greek poetry, without naming the Hieroglyphica, which is the only
+treatise alluded to by Stephanus. Besides, all the other ancient writers
+who mention Horapollo at all leave us quite free to suppose that there
+may have been two sages of the same name--as does C. Leemans, who is
+most intimately versed in the Hieroglyphica--and the second certainly
+cannot have lived earlier than the VIIth century, since an accurate
+knowledge of hieroglyphic writing must have been lost far more
+completely in his time than we can suppose possible in the IVth century.
+It must be remembered that we still possess well-executed hieroglyphic
+inscriptions dating from the time of Decius, 250 years after Christ.
+Thus the Egyptian commentator on Greek poetry could hardly have needed a
+translator, whereas the Hieroglyphica seems to have been first rendered
+into Greek by Philippus. The combination by which the author called
+in Egyptian Horus (the son of Isis) is supposed to have been born in
+Philae, where the cultus of the Egyptian heathen was longest practised,
+and where some familiarity with hieroglyphics must have been preserved
+to a late date, takes into due account the real state of affairs at the
+period I have selected for my story.
+
+                       GEORG EBERS.
+   October 1st, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Half a lustrum had elapsed since Egypt had become subject to the
+youthful power of the Arabs, which had risen with such unexampled vigor
+and rapidity. It had fallen an easy prey, cheaply bought, into the
+hands of a small, well-captained troop of Moslem warriors; and the fair
+province, which so lately had been a jewel of the Byzantine Empire and
+the most faithful foster-mother to Christianity, now owned the sway of
+the Khalif Omar and saw the Crescent raised by the side of the Cross.
+
+It was long since a hotter season had afflicted the land; and the Nile,
+whose rising had been watched for on the Night of Dropping--the 17th of
+June--with the usual festive preparations, had cheated the hopes of the
+Egyptians, and instead of rising had shrunk narrower and still narrower
+in its bed.--It was in this time of sore anxiety, on the 10th of July,
+A.D. 643, that a caravan from the North reached Memphis.
+
+It was but a small one; but its appearance in the decayed and deserted
+city of the Pyramids--which had grown only lengthwise, like a huge
+reed-leaf, since its breadth was confined between the Nile and the
+Libyan Hills--attracted the gaze of the passers-by, though in former
+years a Memphite would scarcely have thought it worth while to turn his
+head to gaze at an interminable pile of wagons loaded with merchandise,
+an imposing train of vehicles drawn by oxen, the flashing maniples of
+the imperial cavalry, or an endless procession wending its way down the
+five miles of high street.
+
+The merchant who, riding a dromedary of the choicest breed, conducted
+this caravan, was a lean Moslem of mature age, robed in soft silk. A
+vast turban covered his small head and cast a shadow over his delicate
+and venerable features.
+
+The Egyptian guide who rode on a brisk little ass by his side, looked
+up frequently and with evident pleasure at the merchant's face--not in
+itself a handsome one with its hollow cheeks, meagre beard and large
+aquiline nose--for it was lighted up by a pair of bright eyes, full
+of attractive thoughtfulness and genuine kindness. But that this
+fragile-looking man, in whose benevolent countenance grief and
+infirmities had graven many a furrow, could not only command but compel
+submission was legible alike in his thin, firmly-closed lips and in the
+zeal with which his following of truculent and bearded fighting men,
+armed to the teeth, obeyed his slightest sign.
+
+His Egyptian attendant, the head of the Hermeneutai--the guild of the
+Dragomans of that period--was a swarthy and surly native of Memphis;
+whenever he accidentally came too close to the fierce-looking riders of
+the dromedaries he shrunk his shoulders as if he expected a blow or a
+push, while he poured out question and answer to the Merchant Haschim,
+the owner of the caravan, without timidity and with the voluble
+garrulity of his tribe.
+
+"You seem very much at home here in Memphis," he observed, when the old
+man had expressed his surprise at the decadence and melancholy change in
+the city.
+
+"Thirty years ago," replied the merchant, "my business often brought me
+hither. How many houses are now empty and in ruins where formerly only
+heavy coin could secure admittance! Ruins on all sides!--Who has so
+cruelly mutilated that fine church? My fellow-believers left every
+Christian fane untouched--that I know from our chief Amru himself."
+
+"It was the principal church of the Melchites, the Emperor's minions,"
+cried the guide, as if that were ample explanation of the fact. The
+merchant, however, did not take it so.
+
+"Well," he said, "and what is there so dreadful in their creed?"
+
+"What?" said the Egyptian, and his eye flashed wrathfully. "What?--They
+dismember the divine person of the Saviour and attribute to it two
+distinct natures. And then!--All the Greeks settled here, and encouraged
+by the protection of the emperor, treated us, the owners of the land,
+like slaves, till your nation came to put an end to their oppression.
+They drove us by force into their churches, and every true-born Egyptian
+was punished as a rebel and a leper. They mocked at us and persecuted us
+for our faith in the one divine nature of our Lord."
+
+"And so," interrupted the merchant, "as soon as we drove out the
+Greeks you behaved more unmercifully to them and their sanctuaries than
+we--whom you scorn as infidels--did to you!"
+
+"Mercy?--for them!" cried the Egyptian indignantly, as he cast an evil
+eye on the demolished edifice. "They have reaped what they sowed; and
+now every one in Egypt who does not believe in your One God--blessed be
+the Saviour!--confesses the one sole nature of our Lord Jesus Christ.
+You drove out the Melchite rabble, and then it was our part to demolish
+the temples of their wretched Saviour, who lost His divine Unity at the
+synod of Chalcedon--damnation wait upon it!"
+
+"But still the Melchites are fellow-believers with you--they are
+Christians," said the merchant.
+
+"Christians?" echoed the guide with a contemptuous shrug. "They may
+regard themselves as Christians; but I, with every one else great and
+small in this land, am of opinion that they have no right whatever to
+call themselves our fellow-believers and Christians. They all are
+and shall be for ever accursed with their hundreds--nay thousands of
+devilish heresies, by which they degrade our God and Redeemer to the
+level of that idol on the stone pillar. Half a cow and half a man! Why,
+what rational being, I ask you, could pray to such a mongrel thing? We
+Jacobites or Monophysites or whatever they choose to call us will not
+yield a jot or tittle of the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour; and
+if the old faith must die out, I will turn Moslem and be converted
+to your One Omnipotent God; for before I confess the heresies of the
+Melchites I will be hewn in pieces, and my wife and children with me.
+Who knows what may be coming to pass? And there are many advantages in
+going over to your side: for the power is in your hands, and long may
+you keep it! We have got to be ruled by strangers; and who would not
+rather pay small tribute to the wise and healthy Khalif at Medina than
+a heavy one to the sickly imperial brood of Melchites at Constantinople.
+The Mukaukas George, to be sure, is not a bad sort of man, and as he so
+soon gave up all idea of resisting you he was no doubt of my opinion.
+Regarding you as just and pious folks, as our next neighbors, and
+perhaps even of our own race and blood, he preferred you--my brother
+told me so--to those Byzantine heretics, flayers of men and thirsting
+for blood, but yet, the Mukaukas is as good a Christian as breathes."
+
+The Arab had listened attentively and with a subtle smile to the
+Memphite, whose duties as guide now compelled him to break off. The
+Egyptian made the whole caravan turn down an alley that led into a
+street running parallel to the river, where a few fine houses still
+stood in the midst of their gardens. When men and beasts were making
+their way along a better pavement the merchant observed: "I knew the
+father of the man you were speaking of, very well. He was wealthy
+and virtuous; of his son too I hear nothing but good. But is he
+still allowed to bear the title of governor, or, what did you call
+him?--Mukaukas?"
+
+"Certainly, Master," said the guide. "There is no older family than his
+in all Egypt, and if old Menas was rich the Mukaukas is richer, both
+by inheritance and by his wife's dower. Nor could we wish for a more
+sensible or a juster governor! He keeps his eye on his underlings too;
+still, business is not done now as briskly as formerly, for though he
+is not much older than I am--and I am not yet sixty--he is always ailing
+and has not been seen out of the house for months. Even when your chief
+wants to see him he comes over to this side of the river. It is a pity
+with such a man as he; and who was it that broke down his stalwart
+strength? Why, those Melchite dogs; you may ask all along the Nile, long
+as it is, who was at the bottom of any misfortune, and you will always
+get the same answer: Wherever the Melchite or the Greek sets foot the
+grass refuses to grow."
+
+"But the Mukaukas, the emperor's representative... the Arab began. The
+Egyptian broke in however:
+
+"He, you think, must be safe from them? They did not certainly injure
+his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against
+our party--it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus
+had a finger in that pie--they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid
+men--killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely."
+
+"Poor man!" sighed the Arab. "And has he no child left?"
+
+"Oh, yes. One son, and the widow of his eldest. She went into a convent
+after her husband's death, but she left her child, her little Mary--she
+must be ten years old now--to live with her grandparents."
+
+"That is well," said the old man, "that will bring some sunshine into
+the house."
+
+"No doubt, Master. And just lately they have had some cause for
+rejoicing. The only surviving son--Orion is his name--came home only the
+day before yesterday from Constantinople where he has been for a long
+time. There was a to-do! Half the city went crazy. Thousands went out to
+meet him, as though he were the Saviour; they erected triumphal arches,
+even folks of my creed--no one thought of hanging back. One and all
+wanted to see the son of the great Mukaukas, and the women of course
+were first and foremost!"
+
+"You speak, however," said the Arab, "as though the returning hero were
+not worthy of so much honor."
+
+"That is as folks think," replied the Egyptian shrugging his shoulders.
+"At any rate he is the only son of the greatest man in the land."
+
+"But he does not promise to be like the old man?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed," said the guide. "My brother, a priest, and the head
+of one of our great schools, was his tutor, and he never met such a
+clever head as Orion's, he tells me. He learnt everything without any
+trouble and at the same time worked as hard as a poor man's son. We may
+expect him to win fame and honor--so Marcus says--for his parents and
+for the city of Memphis: but for my part, I can see the shady side, and
+I tell you the women will turn his head and bring him to a bad end. He
+is handsome, taller even than the old man in his best days, and he knows
+how to make the most of himself when he meets a pretty face--and pretty
+faces are always to be met in his path..."
+
+"And the young rascal takes what he finds!" said the Moslem laughing.
+"If that is all you are alarmed at I am glad for the youth. He is young
+and such things are allowable."
+
+"Nay, Sir, even my brother--he lives now in Alexandria, and is blind and
+foolish enough still in all that concerns his former pupil--and even
+he thinks this is a dangerous rock ahead. If he does not change in this
+respect he will wander further and further from the law of the Lord,
+and imperil his soul, for dangers surround him on all sides like roaring
+lions. The noble gifts of a handsome and engaging person will lead him
+to his ruin; and though I do not desire it, I suspect...."
+
+"You look on the dark side and judge hardly," replied the old man. "The
+young...."
+
+"Even the young, or at least the Christian young, ought to control
+themselves, though I, if any one, am inclined to make the utmost
+allowance for the handsome lad--nay, and I may confess: when he smiles
+at me I feel at once as if I had met with some good-luck; and there are
+a thousand other men in Memphis who feel the same, and still more the
+women you may be sure--but many a one has shed bitter tears on his
+account for all that.--But, by all the saints!--Talk of the wolf and you
+see his tail! Look, there he is!--Halt! Stop a minute, you men; it is
+worth while, Sir, to tarry a moment."
+
+"Is that his fine quadriga in front of the high garden gate yonder?"
+
+"Those are the Pannonian horses he brought with him, as swift as
+lightning and as.... But look! Ah, now they have disappeared behind the
+hedge; but you, high up on your dromedary, must be able to see them. The
+little maid by his side is the widow Susannah's daughter. This garden
+and the beautiful mansion behind the trees belong to her."
+
+"A very handsome property!" said the Arab.
+
+"I should think so indeed!" replied the Memphite. "The garden goes down
+to the Nile, and then, what care is taken of it!"
+
+"Was it not here that Philommon the corn-merchant lived formerly?" asked
+the old man, as though some memories were coming back to him.
+
+"To be sure. He was Susannah's husband and must have been a man of fifty
+when he first wooed her. The little girl is their only child and the
+richest heiress in the whole province; but she is not altogether grown
+up though she is sixteen years old--an old man's child, you understand,
+but a pretty, merry creature, a laughing dove in human form, and so
+quick and lively. Her own people call her the little water-wagtail."
+
+"Good!--Good and very appropriate," said the merchant well pleased. "She
+is small too, a child rather than a maiden; but the graceful, gladsome
+creature takes my fancy. And the governor's son--what is his name?"
+
+"Orion, Sir," replied the guide.
+
+"And by my beard," said the old man smiling. "You have not over-praised
+him, man! Such a youth as this Orion is not to be seen every day. What
+a tall fellow, and how becoming are those brown curls. Such as he are
+spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the other women
+follow suit. And he has a frank, shrewd face with something behind it.
+If only he had left his purple coat and gold frippery in Constantinople!
+Such finery is out of place in this dismal ruinous city."
+
+While he was yet speaking the Memphite urged his ass forward, but the
+Arab held him back, for his attention was riveted by what was taking
+place within the enclosure. He saw handsome Orion place a small white
+dog, a silky creature of great beauty that evidently belonged to him--in
+the little maiden's arms saw her kiss it and then put a blade of grass
+round its neck as if to measure its size. The old man watched them as,
+both laughing gaily, they looked into each other's eyes and presently
+bid each other farewell. The girl stood on tiptoe in front of some rare
+shrub to reach two exquisite purple flowers that blossomed at the top,
+hastily plucked them and offered them to him with a deep blush; she
+pushed away the hand he had put out to support her as she stretched
+up for the flowers with a saucy slap; and a bright glance of happiness
+lighted up her sweet face as the young man kissed the place her fingers
+had hit, and then pressed the flowers to his lips. The old man looked on
+with sympathetic pleasure, as though it roused the sweetest memories in
+his mind; and his kind eyes shone as Orion, no less mischievously happy
+than the young girl, whispered something in her ear; she drew the long
+stem of grass out of her waist-belt to administer immediate and condign
+punishment withal, struck it across his face, and then fled over
+grass-plot and flower-bed, as swift as a roe, without heeding his
+repeated shouts of "Katharina! bewitching, big damsel, Katharina!" till
+she reached the house.
+
+It was a charming little interlude. Old Haschim was still pondering it
+in his memory with much satisfaction when he and his caravan had gone
+some distance further. He felt obliged to Orion for this pretty scene,
+and when he heard the young man's quadriga approaching at an easy trot
+behind him, he turned round to gaze. But the Arab's face had lost its
+contentment by the time the four Pannonians and the chariot, overlaid
+with silver ornamentation and forming, with its driver, a picture of
+rare beauty and in perfect taste, had slowly driven past, to fly on
+like the wind as soon as the road was clear, and to vanish presently
+in clouds of dust. There was something of melancholy in his voice as he
+desired his young camel-driver to pick up the flowers, which now lay in
+the dust of the road, and to bring them to him. He himself had observed
+the handsome youth as, with a glance and a gesture of annoyance with
+himself, he flung the innocent gift on the hot, sandy highway.
+
+"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite. "Women are
+indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life--and he in theirs, I
+fear! Poor little girl!"
+
+"The little water-wagtail do you mean? Oh! with her it may perhaps turn
+to real earnest. The two mothers have settled the matter already. They
+are both rolling in gold, and where doves nest doves resort.--Thank God,
+the sun is low down over the Pyramids! Let your people rest at the
+large inn yonder; the host is an honest man and lacks nothing, not even
+shade!"
+
+"So far as the beasts and drivers are concerned," said the merchant,
+"they may stop here. But I, and the leader of the caravan, and some of
+my men will only take some refreshment, and then you must guide us to
+the governor; I have to speak with him. It is growing late..."
+
+"That does not matter," said the Egyptian. "The Mukaukas prefers to
+see strangers after sundown on such a scorching day. If you have any
+dealings with him I am the very man for you. You have only to make
+play with a gold piece and I can obtain you an audience at once through
+Sebek, the house-steward he is my cousin. While you are resting here
+I will ride on to the governor's palace and bring you word as to how
+matters stand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The caravansary into which Haschim and his following now turned off
+stood on a plot of rising ground surrounded by palm-trees. Before the
+destruction of the heathen sanctuaries it had been a temple of Imhotep,
+the Egyptian Esculapius, the beneficient god of healing, who had had
+his places of special worship even in the city of the dead. It was half
+relined, half buried in desert sand when an enterprising inn-keeper had
+bought the elegant structure with the adjacent grove for a very moderate
+sum. Since then it had passed to various owners, a large wooden building
+for the accommodation of travellers had been added to the massive
+edifice, and among the palm-trees, which extended as far as the
+ill-repaired quay, stables were erected and plots of ground fenced in
+for beasts of all kinds. The whole place looked like a cattle-fair, and
+indeed it was a great resort of the butchers and horse-dealers of the
+town, who came there to purchase. The palm-grove, being one of the
+few remaining close to the city, also served the Memphites as a
+pleasure-ground where they could "sniff fresh air" and treat themselves
+in a pleasant shade. 'Tables and seats had been set out close to the
+river, and there were boats on hire in mine host's little creek; and
+those who took their pleasure in coming thither by water were glad to
+put in and refresh themselves under the palms of Nesptah.
+
+Two rows of houses had formerly divided this rendezvous for the sober
+and the reckless from the highroad, but they had long since been pulled
+down and laid level with the ground by successive landlords. Even now
+some hundreds of laborers might be seen, in spite of the scorching heat,
+toiling under Arab overseers to demolish a vast ruin of the date of the
+Ptolemies and transporting the huge blocks of limestone and marble, and
+the numberless columns which once had supported the roof of the temple
+of Zeus, to the eastern shore of the Nile-loading them on to trucks
+drawn by oxen which hauled them down to the quay to cross the river in
+flat-bottomed boats.
+
+Amru, the Khaliff's general and representative, was there building his
+new capital. For this the temples of the old gods were used as quarries,
+and they supplied not only finely-squared blocks of the most durable
+stone, but also myriads of Greek columns of every order, which had only
+to be ferried over and set up again on the other shore; for the Arabs
+disdained nothing in the way of materials, and made indiscriminate use
+of blocks and pillars in their own sanctuaries, whether they took them
+from heathen temples or Christian churches.
+
+The walls of the temple of Imhotep had originally been completely
+covered with pictures of the gods, and hieroglyphic inscriptions; but
+the smoke of reeking hearths had long since blackened them, fanatical
+hands had never been wanting to deface them, and in many places they had
+been lime-washed and scrawled with Christian symbols or very unchristian
+mottoes, in Greek and the spoken dialect of the Egyptians. The Arab
+and his men took their meal in what had been the great hall of the
+temple--none of them drinking wine excepting the captain of the caravan,
+who was no Moslem but belonged to the Parsee sect of the Masdakites.
+
+When the old merchant, sitting at a table by himself, had satisfied his
+hunger, he called this chief and desired him to load the bale containing
+the hanging on a litter between the two largest baggage camels, and to
+fasten it securely but so that it could easily be removed.
+
+"It is done," replied the Persian, as he wiped his thick moustache--he
+was a magnificent man as tall and stalwart as an oak, with light flowing
+hair like a lion's mane.
+
+"So much the better," said Haschim. "Then come out with me." And he led
+the way to the palmgrove.
+
+The sun had sunk to rest behind the pyramids, the Necropolis, and the
+Libyan hills; the eastern sky, and the bare limestone rock of Babylon on
+the opposite shore were shining with hues of indescribable diversity and
+beauty. It seemed as though every variety of rose reared by the skilled
+gardeners of Arsinoe or Naukratis had yielded its hues, from golden buff
+to crimson and the deepest wine-tinted violet, to shed their magic glow
+on the plains, the peaks and gorges of the hills, with the swiftness of
+thought.
+
+The old man's heart beat high as he gazed at the scene; he drew a deep
+breath, and laying his slender hand on the Persian's mighty arm he said:
+"Your prophet, Masdak, taught that it was God's will that no one should
+think himself more or less chosen than another, and that there should be
+neither rich nor poor on earth, but that every possession should belong
+to all in common. Well, look around you here as I do. The man who has
+not seen this has seen nothing. There is no fairer scene here below and
+to whom does it belong? To poor simple Salech yonder, whom we allowed to
+tramp half naked at our camels' heels out of pity.--It is his as much
+as it is yours or mine or the Khaliff's. God has given us all an equal
+share in the glory of his works, as your prophet would have it. How much
+beauty is the common possession of our race! Let us be thankful for it,
+Rustem, for indeed it is no small matter.--But as to property, such as
+man may win or lose, that is quite a different matter. We all start on
+the same race-course, and what you Masdakites ask is that lead should
+be tied to the feet of the swift so that no one should outstrip another;
+but that would be.... Well, well! Let us feast our eyes now on the
+marvellous beauty before us. Look: What just now was the purple of this
+flower is now deep ruby red; what before was a violet gleam now is the
+richest amethyst. Do you see the golden fringe to those clouds? It is
+like a setting.--And all this is ours--is yours and mine--so long as we
+have eyes and heart to enjoy and be uplifted by it!"
+
+The Masdakite laughed, a fresh, sonorous laugh, and said: "Yes, Master,
+for those who see as you see. The colors are bright no doubt over the
+sky and the hills, and we do not often see such a red as that at home in
+my country; but of what use is all that magic show? You see rubies and
+amethysts--but as for me! The gems in your hanging stand for something
+more than that shining show. I mean no harm, Master, but I would give
+all the sunsets that ever glowed on earth for your bales and never
+repent of the bargain!" He laughed more heartily than before and added:
+"But you, worthy Father, would think twice before you signed it.--As to
+what we Masdakites hope for, our time is not yet come."
+
+"And suppose it were, and that the hanging were yours?"
+
+"I should sell it and add the price to my savings, and go home and buy
+some land, and take a pretty wife, and breed camels and horses."
+
+"And next day would come the poorer men who had laid nothing by, and
+had made no bargain over hangings and sunsets; and they would ask for
+a share of your land, and a camel and a foal each, and you would not
+be able ever to see a sunset again but must wander about the world, and
+your pretty wife with you to help you share everything with others.--Let
+us abide by the old order, my Rustem, and may the Most High preserve you
+your good heart, for you have but a foolish and crotchety head."
+
+The big man bent over his master and gratefully kissed his arm; at this
+moment the guide rejoined them, but with a long face for he had promised
+more than he could perform. The Mukaukas George had set out--a quite
+unheard of event--for an excursion on the river in his barge, with
+his son and the ladies of the house just as he was hoping to secure an
+audience for the Arab. Orion's return--the steward had explained--had
+made the old man quite young again. Haschim must now wait till the
+morrow, and he, the guide, would counsel him to pass the night in the
+city at an inn kept by one Moschion, where he would be well cared for.
+
+But the merchant preferred to remain where he was. He did not care
+about the delay, more particularly as he wished to consult an Egyptian
+physician with regard to an old standing complaint he suffered from,
+and there was no more skilful or learned leech in the whole land, the
+Egyptian guide assured him, than the famous Philip of Memphis. The
+situation here, outside the town, was very pleasant, and from the
+river's bank he might observe the comet which had been visible for some
+nights past--a portent of evil no doubt. The natives of the city
+had been paralysed with terror; that indeed was evident even here in
+Nesptah's caravansary, for usually as the evening grew cool, the tables
+and benches under the palms were crowded with guests; but who would care
+to think of enjoyment in those days of dread?
+
+So he remounted his ass to fetch the physician, while old Haschim,
+leaning on the Masdakite's arm, betook himself to a bench by the river.
+There he sat gazing thoughtfully at the starry sky, and his companion
+dreamed of home and of buying a meadow, even without the price of the
+gorgeous hanging, of building a house, and of choosing a pretty little
+wife to manage it. Should she be fair or dark? He would rather she
+should be fair.
+
+But his castle in the air was shattered at this point, for an object was
+approaching across the Nile which attracted his attention, and which he
+pointed out to his chief. The stream lay before them like a broad belt
+of black and silver brocade. The waxing moon was mirrored in the almost
+unruffled surface and where a ripple curled it the tiny crest glittered
+like white flame. Bats swooped to and fro in the gloom from the city of
+the dead to the river, and flitted above it like shadows blown about by
+the wind. A few lateen sails moved like pale, gigantic birds over the
+dark waters; but now from the north--and from the city--a larger mass
+came towards the palm-grove with bright, gleaming eyes of light.
+
+"A fine boat,--the governor's no doubt," said the merchant, as it slowly
+came towards the grove from the middle of the stream. At the same
+time the clatter of hoofs became audible from the road behind the inn.
+Haschim turned round and was aware of torchbearers running ahead of a
+chariot.
+
+"The sick man has come so far by water," said the Arab, "and now, he is
+to be driven home.--Strange! this is the second time to-day that I have
+met his much-talked-of son!"
+
+The governor's pleasure-barge was nearing the palm-grove. It was a large
+and handsome boat, built of cedar-wood and richly gilt, with an image
+of John, the patron-saint of the family, for a figure-head. The nimbus
+round the head was a crown of lamps, and large lanterns shone both at
+the bows and stern of the vessel. The Mukaukas George was reclining
+under an awning, his wife Neforis by his side. Opposite to them sat
+their son and a tall young girl, at whose feet a child of ten sat on the
+ground, leaning her pretty head against her knees. An older Greek woman,
+the child's governess, had a place by the side of a very tall man, on an
+ottoman beyond the verge of the awning. This man was Philip the leech.
+The cheerful sound of the lute accompanied the barge, and the performer
+was the returned wanderer Orion, who touched the strings with skill and
+deep feeling.
+
+It was altogether a pleasing scene--a fair picture of a wealthy and
+united family. But who was the damsel sitting by Orion's side? He was
+devoting his whole attention to her; as he struck the strings with
+deeper emphasis his eyes sought hers, and it seemed as though he were
+playing for her alone. Nor did she appear unworthy of such homage, for
+when the barge ran into the little haven and Haschim could distinguish
+her features he was startled by her noble and purely Greek beauty.
+
+A few handsomely-dressed slaves, who must have come with the vehicle by
+the road, now went on board the boat to carry their invalid lord to his
+chariot; and it then became apparent that the seat in which he reclined
+was provided with arms by which it could be lifted and moved. A burly
+negro took this at the back, but just as another was stooping to lift it
+in front Orion pushed him away and took his place, raised the couch with
+his father on it, and carried him across the landing-stage between the
+deck and the shore, past Haschim to the chariot. The young man did the
+work of bearer with cheerful ease, and looked affectionately at his
+father while he shouted to the ladies--for only his mother and the
+physician accompanied the invalid after carefully wrapping him in
+shawls--to get out of the barge and wait for him. Then he went forward,
+lighted by the torches which were carried before them.
+
+"Poor man!" thought the merchant as he looked after the Mukaukas. "But
+to a man who has such a son to carry him the saddest and hardest lot
+floats by like a cloud before the wind."
+
+He was now ready to forgive Orion even the rejected flowers; and when
+the young girl stepped on shore, the child clinging fondly to her arm,
+he confessed to himself that Dame Susannah's little daughter would find
+it hard indeed to hold her own by the side of this tall and royal vision
+of beauty. What a form was this maiden's, and what princely bearing;
+and how sweet and engaging the voice in which she named some of the
+constellations to her little companion, and pointed out the comet which
+was just rising!
+
+Haschim was sitting in shadow; he could see without being seen, and
+note all that took place on the bench, which was lighted by one of the
+barge's lanterns. The unexpected entertainment gave him pleasure, for
+everything that affected the governor's son roused his sympathy and
+interest. The idea of forming an opinion of this remarkable young man
+smiled on his fancy, and the sight of the beautiful girl who sat on the
+bench yonder warmed his old heart. The child must certainly be Mary, the
+governor's granddaughter.
+
+Then the chariot started off, clattering away down the road, and in a
+few minutes Orion came back to the rest of the party.
+
+Alas! Poor little heiress of Susannah's wealth! How different was his
+demeanor to this beautiful damsel from his treatment of that little
+thing! His eyes rested on her face in rapture, his speech failed him now
+and again as he addressed her, and what he said must be sometimes grave
+and captivating and sometimes witty, for not she alone but the little
+maid's governess listened to him eagerly, and when the fair one laughed
+it was in particularly sweet, clear tones. There was something so
+lofty in her mien that this frank expression of contentment was almost
+startling; like a breath of perfume from some gorgeous flower which
+seems created to rejoice the eye only. And she, to whom all that Orion
+had to say was addressed, listened to him not only with deep attention,
+but in a way which showed the merchant that she cared even more for
+the speaker than for what he was so eager in expressing. If this maiden
+wedded the governor's son, they would indeed be a pair! Taus, the
+innkeeper's wife, now came out, a buxom and vigorous Egyptian woman of
+middle age, carrying some of the puffs for which she was famous, and
+which she had just made with her own hands. She also served them with
+milk, grapes and other fruit, her eyes sparkling with delight and
+gratified ambition; for the son of the great Mukaukas, the pride of the
+city, who in former years had often been her visitor, and not only for
+the sake of her cakes, in water parties with his gay companions--mostly
+Greek officers who now were all dead and gone or exiles from the
+country--now did her the honor to come here so soon after his return.
+Her facile tongue knew no pause as she told him that she and her husband
+had gone forth with the rest to welcome him at the triumphal arch near
+Menes' Gate, and Emau with them, and the little one. Yes, Emau was
+married now, and had called her first child Orion. And when the young
+man asked Dame Taus whether Emau was as charming as ever and as like her
+mother as she used to be, she shook her finger at him and asked in her
+turn, as she pointed towards the young lady, whether the fickle bird at
+whose departure so many had sighed, was to be caged at last, and whether
+yon fair lady....
+
+But Orion cut her short, saying that he was still his own master though
+he already felt the noose round his neck; and the fair lady blushed even
+more deeply than at the good woman's first question. He however soon
+got over his awkwardness and gaily declared that the worthy Taus' little
+daughter was one of the prettiest girls in Memphis, and had had quite as
+many admirers as her excellent mother's puff-pastry. Taus was to greet
+her kindly from him.
+
+The landlady departed, much touched and flattered; Orion took up his
+lute, and while the ladies refreshed themselves he did the maiden's
+bidding and sang the song by Alcaeus which she asked for, in a rich
+though subdued voice to the lute, playing it like a master. The young
+girl's eyes were fixed on his lips, and again, he seemed to be making
+music for her alone. When it was time to start homewards, and the ladies
+returned to the barge, he went up to the inn to pay the reckoning. As
+he presently returned alone the Arab saw him pick up a handkerchief that
+the young lady had left on the table, and hastily press it to his lips
+as he went towards the barge.
+
+The gorgeous red blossoms had fared worse in the morning. The young
+man's heart was given to that maiden on the water. She could not be his
+sister; what then was the connection between them?
+
+The merchant soon gained this information, for the guide on his return
+could give it him. She was Paula, the daughter of Thomas, the famous
+Greek general who had defended the city of Damascus so long and so
+bravely against the armies of Islam. She was Mukaukas George's niece,
+but her fortune was small; she was a poor relation of the family, and
+after her father's disappearance--for his body had never been
+found--she had been received into the governor's house out of pity
+and charity--she, a Melchite! The interpreter had little to say in her
+favor, by reason of her sect; and though he could find no flaw in
+her beauty, he insisted on it that she was proud and ungracious, and
+incapable of winning any man's love; only the child, little Mary--she,
+to be sure, was very fond of her. It was no secret that even her uncle's
+wife, worthy Neforis, did not care for her haughty niece and only
+suffered her to please the invalid. And what business had a Melchite
+at Memphis, under the roof of a good Jacobite? Every word the dragoman
+spoke breathed the scorn which a mean and narrow-minded man is always
+ready to heap on those who share the kindness of his own benefactors.
+
+But this beautiful and lofty-looking daughter of a great man had
+conquered the merchant's old heart, and his opinion of her was quite
+unmoved by the Memphite's strictures. It was ere long confirmed indeed,
+for Philip, the leech whom the guide had been to find, and whose
+dignified personality inspired the Arab with confidence, was a daily
+visitor to the governor, and he spoke of Paula as one of the most
+perfect creatures that Heaven had ever formed in a happy hour. But the
+Almighty seemed to have forgotten to care for his own masterpiece; for
+years her life had been indeed a sad one.
+
+The physician could promise the old man some mitigation of his
+sufferings, and they liked each other so well that they parted the best
+of friends, and not till a late hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Mukaukas' barge, urged forward by powerful rowers, made its way
+smoothly down the river. On board there was whispering, and now and
+again singing. Little Mary had dropped asleep on Paula's shoulder; the
+Greek duenna gazed sometimes at the comet which filled her with terrors,
+sometimes at Orion, whose handsome face had bewitched her mature heart,
+and sometimes at the young girl whom she was ill-pleased to see thus
+preferred by this favorite of the gods. It was a deliciously warm, still
+night, and the moon, which makes the ocean swell and flow, stirs the
+tide of feeling to rise in the human breast.
+
+Whatever Paula asked for Orion sang, as though nothing was unknown to
+him that had ever sounded on a Greek lute; and the longer they went on
+the clearer and richer his voice grew, the more melting and seductive
+its expression, and the more urgently it appealed to the young girl's
+heart. Paula gave herself up to the sweet enchantment, and when he laid
+down the lute and asked in low tones if his native land was not lovely
+on such a night as this, or which song she liked best, and whether she
+had any idea of what it had been to him to find her in his parents'
+house, she yielded to the charm and answered him in whispers like his
+own.
+
+Under the dense foliage of the sleeping garden he pressed her hand to
+his lips, and she, tremulous, let him have his way.--Bitter, bitter
+years lay behind her. The physician had spoken only too truly. The
+hardest blows of fate had brought her--the proud daughter of a noble
+father--to a course of cruel humiliations. The life of a friendless
+though not penniless relation, taken into a wealthy house out of
+charity, had proved a thorny path to tread, but now-since the day before
+yesterday--all was changed. Orion had come. His home and the city had
+held high festival on his return, as at some gift of Fortune, in
+which she too had a goodly share. He had met her, not as the dependent
+relative, but as a beautiful and high-born woman. There was sunshine in
+his presence which warmed her very heart, and made her raise her head
+once more like a flower that is brought out under the open sky after
+long privation of light and air. His bright spirit and gladness of
+life refreshed her heart and brain; the respect he paid her revived her
+crushed self-confidence and filled her soul with fervent gratitude. Ah!
+and how delightful it was to feel that she might be grateful, devotedly
+grateful.--And then, then this evening had been hers, the sweetest, most
+blessed that she had known for years. He had reminded her of what she
+had almost forgotten: that she was still young, that she was
+still lovely, that she had a right to be happy, to enchant and be
+enchanted--perhaps even to love and to be loved.
+
+Her hand was still conscious of his burning kiss as she entered the
+cool room where the Lady Neforis sat awaiting the return of the party,
+turning her spinning-wheel by the couch of her invalid husband who
+always went to rest at late hours. It was with an overflowing heart that
+Paula raised her uncle's hand to her lips--Orion's father, might she not
+say HER Orion's?--Then she kissed her aunt--his mother, and it was
+long since she had done so--as she and little Mary bid her good-night.
+Neforis accepted the kiss coolly but with some surprise, and looked
+up enquiringly at the girl and at her son. No doubt she thought many
+things, but deemed it prudent to give them no utterance for the present.
+She allowed the girl to retire as though nothing unusual had occurred,
+superintended the servants who came to carry her husband into his
+bedroom, gave him the white globule which was to secure him sleep, and
+with indefatigable patience turned and moved his pillows till his
+couch was to his mind. Not till then, nor till she was satisfied that a
+servant was keeping watch in the adjoining room, did she leave him; and
+then--for there was danger in delay--she went to seek her son.
+
+This tall, large and rather too portly woman had been in her youth
+a slender and elegant girl; a graceful creature though her calm and
+expressionless features had never been strikingly beautiful. Age had
+altered them but little; her face was now that of a good-looking, plump,
+easy-going matron, which had lost its freshness through long and devoted
+attendance on the sick man. Her birth and position gave her confidence
+and self-reliance, but there was nothing gracious or captivating in
+her individuality. The joys and woes of others were not hers; still she
+could be moved and stirred by them, even to self-denial, and was very
+capable of feeling quite a passionate interest for others; only, those
+others must be her own immediate belongings and no one else. Thus a more
+devoted and anxious wife, or a more loving mother would have been hard
+to find; but, if we compare her faculty for loving with a star, its rays
+were too short to reach further than to those nearest to her, and these
+regarded it as an exceptional state of grace to be included within the
+narrow circle of those beloved by her somewhat grudging soul.
+
+She knocked at Orion's sitting-room, and he hailed her late visit with
+surprise and pleasure. She had come to speak of a matter of importance,
+and had done so promptly, for her son's and Paula's conduct just now
+urged her to lose no time. Something was going on between these two
+and her husband's niece was far outside the narrow limits of her loving
+kindness.
+
+This, she began by saying, would not allow her to sleep. She had but one
+heart's desire and his father shared it: Orion must know full well what
+she meant; she had spoken to him about it only yesterday. His father had
+received him with warm affection, had paid his debts unhesitatingly and
+without a word of reproach, and now it was his part to turn over a new
+leaf: to break with his former reckless life and set up a home of his
+own. The bride, as he knew, was chosen for him. "Susannah was here just
+now," she said. "You scapegrace, she confessed that you had quite turned
+her Katharina's little head this morning."
+
+"I am sorry for it," he interrupted in a tone of annoyance. "These ways
+with women have grown upon me as a habit; but I have done with them
+henceforth. They are unworthy of me now, and I feel, my dear Mother...."
+
+"That life is beginning in earnest," Neforis threw in. "The wish which
+brings me to you now entirely accords with that. You know what it is,
+and I cannot imagine what you can have to say against it. In short, you
+must let me settle the matter to-morrow with Dame Susannah. You are sure
+of her daughter's affection, she is the richest heiress in the country,
+well brought up, and as I said before, she has quite lost her little
+heart to you."
+
+"And she had better have kept it!" said Orion with a laugh.
+
+Then his mother waxed wroth and exclaimed: "I must beg you to reserve
+your mirth for a more fitting season and for laughable things. I am very
+much in earnest when I say: The girl is a sweet, good little creature
+and will be a faithful and loving wife to you, under God. Or have
+you left your heart in Constantinople? Has the Senator Justinus' fair
+relation.--But nonsense! You can hardly suppose that that volatile Greek
+girl...."
+
+Orion clasped her in his arms, and said tenderly, "No, dearest mother,
+no. Constantinople lies far, far behind me, in grey mist beyond the
+farthest Thule; and here, close here, under my father's roof, I have
+found something far more lovely and more perfect than has ever been
+beheld by the dwellers on the Bosphorus. That little girl is no
+match for a son of our stalwart and broad-shouldered race. Our future
+generations must still tower proudly above the common herd in every
+respect; I want no plaything for a wife, but a woman, such as you
+yourself were in youth--tall, dignified and handsome. My heart goes
+forth to no gold-crested wren but to a really royal maiden.--Of what use
+to waste words! Paula, the noble daughter of a glorious father, is my
+choice. It came upon me just now like a revelation; I ask your blessing
+on my union with her!"
+
+So far had Neforis allowed her son to speak. He had frankly and
+boldly uttered what she had indeed feared to hear. And so long she had
+succeeded in keeping silence!--But now her patience gave way. Trembling
+with anger she abruptly broke in, exclaiming, as her face grew crimson:
+
+"No more, no more! Heaven grant that this which I have been compelled
+to hear may be no more than a fleeting and foolish whim! Have you
+quite forgotten who and what we are? Have you forgotten that those were
+Melchites who slew your two dear brothers--our two noble sons? Of what
+account are we among the orthodox Greeks? While among the Egyptians and
+all who confess the saving doctrine of Eutyches, among the Monophysites
+we are the chief, and we will remain so, and close our ears and hearts
+against all heretics and their superstitions. What! A grandson of
+Menas, the brother of two martyrs for our glorious faith, married to
+a Melchite! The mere idea is sacrilege, is blasphemy; I can give it no
+milder name! I and your father will die childless before we consent! And
+it is for the love of this woman, whose heart is so cold that I shiver
+only to think of it--for this waif and stray, who has nothing but her
+ragged pride and the mere scrapings of a lost fortune, which never could
+compare with ours--for this thankless creature, who can hardly bring
+herself to bid me, your mother, such a civil good-morning--by Heaven it
+is the truth--as I can say to a slave--for her that I, that your parents
+are to be bereft of their son, the only child that a gracious Providence
+has left to be their joy and comfort? No, no, never! Far be it from me!
+You, Orion, my heart's darling, you have been a wilful fellow all your
+life, but you cannot have such a perverse heart as to bring your old
+mother, who has kept you in her heart these four and twenty years, in
+sorrow to the grave and embitter your father's few remaining days--for
+his hours are numbered!--And all for the sake of this cold beauty, whom
+you have seen for a few hours these last two days. You cannot have
+the heart to do this, my heart's treasure, no, you cannot!--But if
+you should in some accursed hour, I tell you--and I have been a tender
+mother to you all your life-but as surely as God shall be my stay and
+your father's in our last hour, I will tear all love for you out of my
+heart like a poisonous weed--I will, though that heart should break!"
+
+Orion put his arms round the excited woman, who lead freed herself from
+his embrace, laid his hand lightly on her lips and kissed her eyes,
+whispering in her ear:
+
+"I have not the heart indeed, and could scarcely find it." Then, taking
+both her hands, he looked straight into her face.
+
+"Brrr!" he exclaimed, "your daredevil son was never so much frightened
+in his life as by your threats. What dreadful words are these--and even
+worse were at the tip of your tongue! Mother--Mother Neforis! Your name
+means kindness, but you can be cruel, bitterly cruel!"
+
+Still he drew her fondly to him, and kissed her hair and brow and cheeks
+with eager haste, in a vehemence of feeling which came over him like a
+revulsion after the shock he had gone through; and when they parted
+he had given her leave to negotiate for little Katharina's hand on his
+behalf, and she had promised in return that it should be not on the
+morrow but the day after at soonest. This delay seemed to him a sort
+of victory and when he found himself alone and reflected on what he had
+done in yielding to his mother, though his heart bled from the wounds of
+which he himself knew not the depth, he rejoiced that he had not bound
+Paula by any closer tie. His eyes had indeed told her much, but the word
+"Love" had not passed his lips--and yet that was what it came to.--But
+surely a cousin might be allowed to kiss the hand of a lovely relation.
+She was a desirable woman--ah, how desirable!--and must ever be: but
+to quarrel with his parents for the sake of a girl, were she Aphrodite
+herself, or one of the Muses or the Graces--that was impossible! There
+were thousands of pretty women in the world, but only one mother; and
+how often had his heart beat high and won another heart, taken all it
+had to give, and then easily and quickly recovered its balance.
+
+This time however, it seemed more deeply hit than on former occasions;
+even the lovely Persian slave for whose sake he had committed the
+wildest follies while yet scarcely more than a school-boy--even the
+bewitching Heliodora at Constantinople for whom he still had a tender
+thought, had not agitated him so strongly. It was hard to give up this
+Paula; but there was no help for it. To-morrow he must do his best to
+establish their intercourse on a friendly and fraternal footing; for he
+could have no hope that she would be content to accept his love only,
+like the gentle Heliodora, who was quite her equal in birth. Life would
+have been fair, unutterably fair, with this splendid creature by his
+side! If only he could take her to the Capital he felt sure that all the
+world would stand still to turn round and gaze at her. And if she loved
+him--if she met him open-armed.... Oh, why had spiteful fate made her
+a Melchite? But then, alas, alas! There must surely be something wrong
+with her nature and temper; would she not otherwise have been able in
+two years to gain the love, instead of the dislike, of his excellent and
+fond mother?--Well, after all, it was best so; but Paula's image haunted
+him nevertheless and spoilt his sleep, and his longing for her was not
+to be stilled.
+
+Neforis, meanwhile, did not return at once to her husband but went to
+find Paula. This business must be settled on all sides and at once.
+If she could have believed that her victory would give the invalid
+unqualified pleasure she would have hastened to him with the good news,
+for she knew no higher joy than to procure him a moment's happiness; but
+the Mukaukas had agreed to her choice very reluctantly. Katharina
+seemed to him too small and childish for his noble son, whose mental
+superiority had been revealed to him unmistakably and undeniably, in
+many long discussions since his return, to the delight of his father's
+heart. "The water-wagtail," though he wished her every happiness, did
+not satisfy him for Orion. To him, the father, Paula would have been
+a well-beloved daughter-in-law, and he had often found pleasure in
+picturing her by Orion's side. But she was a Melchite; he knew too how
+ill-affected his wife was towards her, so he kept his wish locked in
+his own breast in order not to vex the faithful companion who lived,
+thought, and felt for him alone; and Dame Neforis knew or guessed all
+this, and said to herself that it would cost him his night's rest if he
+were to be told at once what a concession Orion had made.
+
+With Paula it was different. The sooner she learnt that she had nothing
+to expect from their son, the better for her.
+
+That very morning she and Orion had greeted each other like a couple
+of lovers and just now they had parted like a promised bride and
+bridegroom. She would not again be witness to such vexatious doings;
+so she went to the young girl's room and confided to her with much
+satisfaction the happy prospects her son had promised them,--only Paula
+must say nothing about it till the day after to-morrow.
+
+The moment she entered the room Paula inferred from her beaming
+expression that she had something to say unpleasant to herself, so she
+preserved due composure. Her face wore a look of unmoved indifference
+while she submitted to the overflow of a too-happy mother's heart; and
+she wished the betrothed couple joy: but she did so with a smile that
+infuriated Neforis.
+
+She was not on the whole spiteful; but face to face with this girl, her
+nature was transformed, and she rather liked the idea of showing her,
+once more in her life, that in her place humility would beseem her. All
+this she said to herself as she quitted Paula's room; but perhaps this
+woman, who had much that was good in her, might have felt some ruth, if
+in the course of the next few hours she could but have looked into the
+heart of the orphan entrusted to her protection. Only once did Paula
+sob aloud; then she indignantly dried her tears, and sat for a long time
+gazing at the floor, shaking her pretty head again and again as though
+something unheard-of and incredible had befallen her.
+
+At last, with a bitter sigh, she went to bed; and while she vainly
+strove for sleep, and for strength to pray and be silently resigned,
+Time seemed to her a wild-beast chase, Fate a relentless hunter, and the
+quarry he was pursuing was herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+On the following evening Haschim, the merchant, came to the governor's
+house with a small part of his caravan. A stranger might have taken
+the mansion for the home of a wealthy country-gentleman rather than the
+official residence of a high official; for at this hour, after sunset,
+large herds of beasts and sheep were being driven into the vast
+court-yard behind the house, surrounded on three sides by out-buildings;
+half a hundred horses of choice breed came, tied in couples, from
+the watering-place; and in a well-sanded paddock enclosed by hurdles,
+slaves, brown and black, were bringing fodder to a large troop of
+camels.
+
+The house itself was well-fitted by its unusually palatial size and
+antique splendor to be the residence of the emperor's viceroy, and the
+Mukaukas, to whom it all belonged, had in fact held the office for a
+long time. After the conquest of the country by the Arabs they had left
+him in possession, and at the present date he managed the affairs of
+his Egyptian fellow-countrymen, no more in the name of the emperor at
+Byzantium, but under the authority of the Khaliff at Medina and his
+great general, Amru. The Moslem conquerors had found him a ready and
+judicious mediator; while his fellow-Christians and country-men obeyed
+him as being the noblest and wealthiest of their race and the descendant
+of ancestors who had enjoyed high distinction even under the Pharaohs.
+
+Only the governor's residence was Greek--or rather Alexandrian-in style;
+the court-yards and out-buildings on the contrary, looked as though
+they belonged to some Oriental magnate-to some Erpaha (or prince of a
+province) as the Mukaukas' forefathers had been called, a rank which
+commanded respect both at court and among the populace.
+
+The dragoman had not told the merchant too much beforehand of the
+governor's possessions: he had vast estates, in both Upper and Lower
+Egypt, tilled by thousands of slaves under numerous overseers. Here in
+Memphis was the centre of administration of his property, and besides
+the offices for his private affairs were those he needed as a state
+official.
+
+Well-kept quays, and the wide road running along the harbor side,
+divided his large domain from the river, and a street ran along the wall
+which enclosed it on the north. On this side was the great gate, always
+wide open by day, by which servants or persons on business-errands
+made their entrance; the other gate, a handsome portal with Corinthian
+columns opening from the Nile-quay, was that by which the waterparty had
+returned the evening before. This was kept closed, and only opened
+for the family, or for guests and distinguished visitors. There was
+a guardhouse at the north gate with a small detachment of Egyptian
+soldiers, who were entrusted with the protection of the Mukaukas'
+person.
+
+As soon as the refreshing evening breeze came up from the river after
+the heat of the day there was a stir in the great court-yard. Men, women
+and girls came trooping out of the retainers' dwellings to breathe the
+cooler air. Waiting-maids and slaves dipped for water into enormous
+earthen vessels and carried it away in graceful jars; the free-men of
+the household rested in groups after the fatigues of the day, chatting,
+playing and singing. From the slaves' quarters in another court-yard
+came confused sounds of singing hymns, with the shrill tones of the
+double pipe and duller noise of the tabor--an invitation to dance;
+scolding and laughter; the jubilant shouts of a girl led out to dance,
+and the shrieks of a victim to the overseer's rod.
+
+The servant's gateway, still hung with flowers and wreaths in honor of
+Orion's recent return, was wide open for the coming and going of the
+accountants and scribes, or of such citizens as came very willingly to
+pay an evening call on their friends in the governor's household; for
+there were always some officials near the Mukaukas' person who knew more
+than other folks of the latest events in Church and State.
+
+Ere long a considerable number of men had assembled to sit under the
+deep wooden porch of the head-steward's dwelling, all taking eager part
+in the conversation, which they would have found very enjoyable even
+without the beer which their host offered them in honor of the great
+event of his young lord's return; for what was ever dearer to Egyptians
+than a brisk exchange of talk, at the same time heaping ridicule or
+scorn on their unapproachable superiors in rank, and on all they deem
+enemies to their creed or their country.
+
+Many a trenchant word and many a witty jest must have been uttered this
+evening, for hearty laughter and loud applause were incessant in the
+head steward's porch; the captain of the guard at the gate cast envious
+and impatient glances at the merry band, which he would gladly have
+joined; but he could not yet leave his post. The messengers' horses were
+standing saddled while their riders awaited their orders, there were
+supplicants and traders to be admitted or turned away, and there were
+still a number of persons lingering in the large vestibule of the
+governor's palace and craving to speak with him, for it was well known
+in Memphis that during the hot season the ailing Mukaukas granted
+audience only in the evening.
+
+The Egyptians had not yet acquired full confidence in the Arab
+government, and every one tried to avoid being handed over to its
+representative; for none of its officials could be so wise or so just
+as their old Mukaukas. How the suffering man found strength and time to
+keep an eye on everything, it was hard to imagine; but the fact remained
+that he himself looked into every decision. At the same time no one
+could be sure of his affairs being settled out of hand unless he could
+get at the governor himself.
+
+Business hours were now over; the anxiety caused both by the delay in
+the rising of the Nile and by the advent of the comet had filled the
+waiting-rooms with more petitioners than usual. Deputations from town
+and village magistrates had been admitted in parties; supplicants on
+private business had gone in one by one; and most of them had come forth
+content, or at any rate well advised. Only one man still lingered,--a
+countryman whose case had long been awaiting settlement--in the hope
+that a gift to the great man's doorkeeper, of a few drachmae out of his
+poverty might at length secure him the fruit of his long patience--when
+the chamberlain, bidding him return on the morrow, officiously flung
+open the high doors that led to the Mukaukas' apartments, to admit the
+Arab merchant, in consideration of Haschim's gold piece which had come
+to him through his cousin the dragoman. Haschim, however, had observed
+the countryman, and insisted on his being shown in first. This was done,
+and a few minutes later the peasant came out satisfied, and gratefully
+kissed the Arab's hand.
+
+Then the chamberlain led the old merchant, and the men who followed him
+with a heavy bale, into a magnificent anteroom to wait; and his patience
+was put to a severe test before his name was called and he could show
+the governor his merchandise.
+
+The Mukaukas, in fact, after signifying by a speechless nod that he
+would presently receive the merchant--who came well recommended--had
+retired to recreate himself, and was now engaged in a game of draughts,
+heedless of those whom he kept waiting. He reclined on a divan covered
+with a sleek lioness' skin, while his young antagonist sat opposite on
+a low stool, The doors of the room, facing the Nile, where he received
+petitioners were left half open to admit the fresher but still warm
+evening-air. The green velarium or awning, which during the day had
+screened off the sun's rays where the middle of the ceiling was open to
+the sky, was now rolled back, and the moon and stars looked down into
+the room. It was well adapted to its purpose as a refuge from the
+heat of the summer day, for the walls were lined with cool, colored
+earthenware tiles, the floor was a brightly-tinted mosaic of patterns
+on a ground of gold glass, and in the circular central ornament of this
+artistic pavement stood the real source of freshness: a basin, two
+man's length across, of brown porphyry flecked with white, from which
+a fountain leaped, filling the surrounding air with misty spray. A few
+stools, couches and small tables, all of cool-looking metal, formed the
+sole furniture of this lofty apartment which was brilliantly lighted by
+numerous lamps.
+
+A light air blew in through the open roof and doors, made the lamps
+flicker, and played with Paula's brown hair as she sat absorbed, as
+it seemed, in the game. Orion, who stood behind her, had several times
+endeavored to attract her attention, but in vain. He now eagerly offered
+his services to fetch her a handkerchief to preserve her from a chill;
+this, however, she shortly and decidedly declined, though the breeze
+came up damp from the river and she had more than once drawn her peplos
+more closely across her bosom.
+
+The young man set his teeth at this fresh repulse. He did not know that
+his mother had told Paula what he had yesterday agreed to, and could
+not account for the girl's altered behavior. All day she had treated him
+with icy coldness, had scarcely answered his questions with a distant
+"Yes," or "No;" and to him, the spoilt favorite of women, this conduct
+had become more and more intolerable. Yes, his mother had judged her
+rightly: she allowed herself to be swayed in a most extraordinary
+manner by her moods; and now even he was to feel the insolence of
+her haughtiness, of which he had as yet seen nothing. This repellent
+coldness bordered on rudeness and he had no mind to submit to it for
+long. It was with deep vexation that he watched every turn of her hand,
+every movement of her body, and the varying expression of her face; and
+the more the image of this proud maiden sank into his heart the more
+lovely and perfect he thought her, and the greater grew his desire to
+see her smile once more, to see her again as sweetly womanly as she
+had been but yesterday. Now she was like nothing so much as a splendid
+marble statue, though he knew indeed that it had a soul--and what a
+glorious task it would be to free this fair being from herself, as
+it were, from the foolish tempers that enslaved her, to show her--by
+severity if need should be--what best beseems a woman, a maiden.
+
+He became more and more exclusively absorbed in watching the young girl,
+as his mother--who was sitting with Dame Susannah on a couch at some
+little distance from the players--observed with growing annoyance, and
+she tried to divert his attention by questions and small errands, so as
+to give his evident excitement a fresh direction.
+
+Who could have thought, yesterday morning, that her darling would so
+soon cause her fresh vexation and anxiety.
+
+He had come home just such a man as she and his father could have
+wished: independent and experienced in the ways of the great world. In
+the Capital he had, no doubt, enjoyed all that seems pleasant in the
+eyes of a wealthy youth, but in spite of that he had remained fresh
+and open-hearted even to the smallest things; and this was what most
+rejoiced his father. In him there was no trace of the satiety, the
+blunted faculty for enjoyment, which fell like a blight on so many men
+of his age and rank. He could still play as merrily with little Mary,
+still take as much pleasure in a rare flower or a fine horse, as before
+his departure. At the same time he had gained keen insight into the
+political situation of the time, into the state of the empire and the
+court, into administration, and the innovations in church matters; it
+was a joy to his father to hear him discourse; and he assured his wife
+that he had learnt a great deal from the boy, that Orion was on the high
+road to be a great statesman and was already quite capable of taking his
+father's place.
+
+When Neforis confessed how large a sum in debts Orion had left in
+Constantinople the old man put his hand in his purse with a sort of
+pride, delighted to find that his sole remaining heir knew how to
+spend the immense wealth which to him was now a burden rather than a
+pleasure--to make good use of it, as he himself had done in his day, and
+display a magnificence of which the lustre was reflected on him and on
+his name.
+
+"With him, at any rate," said the old man, "one gets something for the
+money. His horses cost a great deal but he knows how to win with them;
+his entertainments swallow up a pretty sum, but they gain him respect
+wherever he goes. He brought me a letter from the Senator Justinus, and
+the worthy man tells me what a leading part he plays among the gilded
+youth of the Capital. All this is not to be had for nothing, and it will
+be cheap in the end. What need we care about a hundred talents more or
+less! And there is something magnanimous in the lad that has given him
+the spirit to feel that."
+
+And it was not a hale old grey-beard who spoke thus, but a broken man,
+whose only joy it was to lavish on his son the riches which he had long
+been incapable of enjoying. The high-spirited and gifted youth, scarcely
+more than a boy in years, whom he had sent to the Capital with no small
+misgivings, must have led a far less lawless life than might have been
+expected; of this the ruddy tinge in his sunburnt cheeks was ample
+guarantee, the vigorous solidity of his muscles, and the thick waves
+of his hair, which was artificially curled and fell in a fringe, as was
+then the fashion, over his high brow, giving him a certain resemblance
+to the portraits of Antinous, the handsomest youth in the time of
+the Emperor Hadrian. Even his mother owned that he looked like health
+itself, and no member of the Imperial family could be more richly,
+carefully and fashionably dressed than her darling. But even in the
+humblest garb he would have been a handsome--a splendid youth, and
+his mother's pride! When he left home there was still a smack of the
+provincial about him; but now every kind of awkwardness had vanished,
+and wherever he might go--even in the Capital, he was certain to be one
+of the first to attract observation and approval.
+
+And what had he not known in his city experience? The events of half a
+century had followed each other with intoxicating rapidity in the course
+of the thirty months he had spent there. The greater the excitement, the
+greater the pleasure was the watchword of his time; and though he had
+rioted and revelled on the shores of the Bosphorus if ever man did,
+still the pleasures of feasting and of love, or of racing with his own
+victorious horses--all of which he had enjoyed there to the full--were
+as child's play compared with the nervous tension to which he had been
+strung by the appalling events he had witnessed on all sides. How
+petty was the excitement of an Alexandrian horse-race! Whether Timon
+or Ptolemy or he himself should win--what did it matter? It was a fine
+thing no doubt to carry off the crown in the circus at Byzantium, but
+there were other and soul-stirring crises there beyond those which were
+bound up with horses or chariots. There a throne was the prize, and
+might cost the blood and life of thousands!--What did a man bring home
+from the churches in the Nile valley? But if he crossed the threshold of
+St. Sophia's in Constantinople he often might have his blood curdled,
+or bring home--what matter?--bleeding wounds, or even be carried home--a
+corpse.
+
+Three times had he seen the throne change masters. An emperor and an
+empress had been stripped of the purple and mutilated before his eyes.
+
+Aye, then and there he had had real and intense excitement to thrill
+him to the marrow and quick. As for the rest! Well, yes, he had had more
+trivial pleasures too. He had not been received as other Egyptians were:
+half-educated philosophers--who called themselves Sages and assumed
+a mystic and pompously solemn demeanor, Astrologers, Rhetoricians,
+poverty-stricken but witty and venemous satirists, physicians making
+a display of the learning of their forefathers, fanatical
+theologians--always ready to avail themselves of other weapons than
+reason and dogma in their bitter contests over articles of faith,
+hermits and recluses--as foul in mind as they were dirty in their
+persons, corn-merchants and usurers with whom it was dangerous to
+conclude a bargain without witnesses. Orion was none of these. As
+the handsome, genial, and original-minded son of the rich and noble
+Governor, Mukaukas George, he was welcomed as a sort of ambassador;
+whatever the golden youth of the city allowed themselves was permitted
+to him. His purse was as well lined as theirs, his health and vigor far
+more enduring; and his horses had beaten theirs in three races, though
+he drove them himself and did not trust them to paid charioteers. The
+"rich Egyptian," the "New Antinous," "handsome Orion," as he was called,
+could never be spared from feast or entertainment. He was a welcome
+guest at the first houses in the city, and in the palace and the villa
+of the Senator Justinus, an old friend of his father, he was as much at
+home as a son of the house.
+
+It was under his roof, and the auspices of his kindhearted wife Martina,
+that he made acquaintance with the fair Heliodora, the widow of a nephew
+of the Senator; and the whole city had been set talking of the tender
+intimacy Orion had formed with the beautiful young woman whose rigid
+virtue had hitherto been a subject of admiration no less than her fair
+hair and the big jewels with which she loved to set off her simple
+but costly dress. And many a fair Byzantine had striven for the young
+Egyptian's good graces before Heliodora had driven them all out of the
+field. Still, she had not yet succeeded in enslaving Orion deeply and
+permanently; and when, last evening, he had assured his mother that she
+was not mistress of his heart he spoke truly.
+
+His conduct in the Capital had not certainly been exemplary, but he had
+never run wild, and had enjoyed the respect not only of his companions
+in pleasure, but of grave and venerable men whom he had met in the house
+of Justinus, and who sang the praises of his intelligence and eagerness
+to learn. As a boy he had been a diligent scholar, and here he let no
+opportunity slip. Not least had he cultivated his musical talents in the
+Imperial city, and had acquired a rare mastery in singing and playing
+the lute.
+
+He would gladly have remained some time longer at the Capital, but at
+last the place grew too hot to hold him-mainly on his father's account.
+The conviction that George had largely contributed to the disaffection
+of Egypt for the Byzantine Empire and had played into the hands of the
+irresistible and detested upstart Arabs, had found increasing acceptance
+in the highest circles, especially since Cyrus--the deposed and now
+deceased Patriarch of Alexandria--had retired to Constantinople. Orion's
+capture was in fact already decided on, when the Senator Justinus and
+some other friends had hinted a warning which he had acted on just in
+time.
+
+His father's line of conduct had placed him in great peril; but he owed
+him no grudge for it--indeed, he most deeply approved of it. A thousand
+times had he witnessed the contempt heaped on the Egyptians by the
+Greeks, and the loathing and hatred of the Orthodox for the Monophysite
+creed of his fellow-countrymen.
+
+He had with difficulty controlled his wrath as he had listened again
+and again to the abuse and scorn poured out on his country and people by
+gentle and simple, laymen and priests, even in his presence; regarding
+him no doubt as one of themselves--a Greek in whose eyes everything
+"Barbarian" was as odious and as contemptible as in their own.
+
+But the blood of his race flowed in the veins of the "new Antinous" who
+could sing Greek songs so well and with so pure an accent; every insult
+to his people was stamped deep in his heart, every sneer at his faith
+revived his memory of the day when the Melchites had slain his two
+brothers. And these bloody deeds, these innumerable acts of oppression
+by which the Greek; had provoked and offended the schismatic Egyptian
+and hunted them to death, were now avenged by his father. It lifted up
+his heart and made him proud to think of it. He showed his secret soul
+to the old man who was as much surprised as delighted at what he found
+there; for he had feared that Orion might not be able wholly to escape
+the powerful influences of Greek beguilements;--nay, he had often felt
+anxious lest his own son might disapprove of his having surrendered to
+the Arab conquerors the province entrusted to his rule, and concluded a
+peace with them.
+
+The Mukaukas now felt himself as one with Orion, and from time to time
+looked tenderly up at him from the draught-board. Neforis was doing her
+best to entertain the mother of her son's future bride, and divert her
+attention from his strange demeanor. She seemed indeed to be successful,
+for Dame Susannah agreed to everything she said; but she betrayed the
+fact that she was keeping a sharp watch by suddenly asking: "Does your
+husband's lofty niece not think us worthy of a single word?"
+
+"Oh no!" said Neforis bitterly. "I only hope she may soon find some
+other people to whom she can behave more graciously. You may depend upon
+it I will put no obstacle in her way."
+
+Then she brought the conversation round to Katharina, and the widow told
+her that her brother-in-law, Chrysippus, was now in Memphis with his two
+little daughters. They were to go away on the morrow, so the young girl
+had been obliged to devote herself to them: "And so the poor child is
+sitting there at this minute," she lamented, "and must keep those two
+little chatter-boxes quiet while she is longing to be here instead."
+
+Orion quite understood these last words; he asked after the young girl,
+and then added gaily:
+
+"She promised me a collar yesterday for my little white keepsake from
+Constantinople. Fie! Mary, you should not tease the poor little beast."
+
+"No, let the dog go," added the widow, addressing the governor's little
+granddaughter, who was trying to make the recalcitrant dog kiss her
+doll. "But you know, Orion, this tiny creature is really too delicate
+for such a big man as you are! You should give him to some pretty young
+lady and then he would fulfil his destiny! And Katharina is embroidering
+him a collar; I ought not to tell her little secret, but it is to have
+gold stars on a blue ground."
+
+"Because Orion is a star," cried the little girl. "So she is working
+nothing but Orions."
+
+"But fortunately there is but one star of my name," observed he. "Pray
+tell her that Dame Susa."
+
+The child clapped her hands. "He does not choose to have any other star
+near him!" she exclaimed.
+
+The widow broke in: "Little simpleton! I know people who cannot even
+bear to have a likeness traced between themselves and any one else.--But
+this you must permit, Orion--you were quite right just now, Neforis; his
+mouth and brow might have been taken from his father's face."
+
+The remark was quite accurate; and yet it would have been hard to
+imagine two men more unlike than the bright youth full of vitality, and
+the languid old man on the couch, to whom even the small exertion of
+moving the men was an effort. The Mukaukas might once have been like his
+son, but in some long past time. Thin grey locks now only covered one
+half of his bald head, and of his eyes, which, thirty years since, had
+sparkled perhaps as keenly as Orion's, there was usually nothing, or
+very little to be seen; for the heavy lids always drooped over them as
+though they had lost the power to open, and this gave his handsome but
+deathly-pale face a somewhat owl-like look. It was not morose, however;
+on the contrary the mingled lines of suffering and of benevolent
+kindliness resulted in an expression only of melancholy. The mouth
+and flabby cheeks were as motionless as though they were dead. Grief,
+anxiety and alarms seemed to have passed over them with a paralysing
+hand and had left their trace there. He looked like a man weary unto
+death, and still living only because fate had denied him the grace to
+die. Indeed, he had often been taken for dead by his family when he had
+dipped too freely into a certain little blood-stone box to take too many
+of the white opium-pills, one of which he placed between his colorless
+lips at long intervals, even during his game of draughts.
+
+He lifted each piece slowly, like a sleeper with his eyes half shut; and
+yet his opponent could not hold her own against his wary tactics and was
+defeated by him now for the third time, though her uncle himself called
+her a good player. It was easy to read in her high, smooth brow and
+dark-blue eyes with their direct gaze, that she could think clearly
+and decisively, and also feel deeply. But she seemed wilful too, and
+contradictory--at any rate to-day; for when Orion pointed out some move
+to her she rarely took his advice, but with set lips, pushed the piece
+according to her own, rarely wiser, judgment. It was quite plain that
+she was refractory under the guidance of this--especially of this
+counsellor.
+
+The bystanders could not fail to see the girl's repellent manner and
+Orion's eager attempts to propitiate her; and for this reason Neforis
+was glad when, just as her husband had finished the third game, and
+had pushed the men together on the board with the back of his hand,
+his chamberlain reminded him that the Arab was without, awaiting his
+pleasure with growing impatience. The Mukaukas answered only by a sign,
+drew his long caftan of the finest wool closer around him, and pointed
+to the doors and the open roof. The rest of the party had long felt the
+chill of the damp night air that blew through the room from the river,
+but knowing that the father suffered more from heat than from anything,
+they had all willingly endured the draught. Now, however, Orion called
+the slaves, and before the strangers were admitted the doors were closed
+and the roof covered.
+
+Paula rose; the governor lay motionless and kept his eyes apparently
+closed; he must, however, have seen what was going forward through an
+imperceptible slit, for he turned first to Paula and then to the other
+women saying: "Is it not strange?--Most old folks, like children,
+seek the sun, and love to sit, as the others play, in its heat. While
+I--something that happened to me years ago--you know;--and it seemed to
+freeze my blood. Now it never gets warm, and I feel the contrast between
+the coolness in here and the heat outside most acutely, almost as a
+pain. The older we grow the more ready we are to abandon to the young
+the things we ourselves used most to enjoy. The only thing which we old
+folks do not willingly relinquish is personal comfort, and I thank you
+for enduring annoyances so patiently for the sake of securing mine.--It
+is a terrific summer! You, Paula, from the heights of Lebanon, know what
+ice is. How often have I wished that I could have a bed of snow. To feel
+myself one with that fresh, still coldness would be all I wish for! The
+cold air which you dread does me good. But the warmth of youth rebels
+against everything that is cool."
+
+This was the first long sentence the Mukaukas had uttered since the
+beginning of the game. Orion listened respectfully to the end, but then
+he said with a laugh: "But there are some young people who seem to take
+pleasure in being cool and icy--for what cause God alone knows!"
+
+As he spoke he looked the girl at whom the words were aimed, full in
+the face; but she turned silently and proudly away, and an angry shade
+passed over her lovely features.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+When the Arab was at last admitted to the governor's presence his
+attendants unfolded a hanging before him. The giant Masdakite did the
+chief share of the work; but as soon as the Mukaukas caught sight of the
+big man, with his bushy, mane-like hair, and a dagger and a battle-axe
+stuck through his belt, he cried out:
+
+"Away, away with him! That man--those weapons--I will not look at the
+hanging till he is gone."
+
+His hands were trembling, and the merchant at once desired his faithful
+Rustem, the most harmless of mortals, to quit the room. The governor,
+whose sensitive nerves had been liable to such attacks of panic ever
+since an exiled Greek had once attempted to murder him, now soon
+recovered his composure, and looked with great admiration at the hanging
+round which the family were standing. They all confessed they had never
+seen anything like it, and the vivacious Dame Susannah proposed to send
+for her daughter and her visitors; but it was already late, and her
+house was so far from the governor's that she gave that up. The father
+and son had already heard of this marvellous piece of work, which had
+formed part of the plunder taken by the Arab conquerors of the Persian
+Empire at the sack of the "White Tower"--the royal palace of Madam, the
+capital of the Sassanidze. They knew that it had been originally 300
+ells long and 60 ells wide, and had heard with indignation that the
+Khaliff Omar, who always lived and dressed and ate like the chief of a
+caravan, and looked down with contempt on all such objects of luxury,
+had cut this inestimable treasure of art into pieces and divided it
+among the Companions of the Prophet.
+
+Haschim explained to them that this particular fragment had been the
+share of the booty allotted to Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law. Haschim
+himself had seen the work before its dismemberment at Madain, where it
+hung on the wall of the magnificent throne-room, and subsequently, at
+Medina.
+
+His audience eagerly requested him to describe the other portions; he,
+however, seemed somewhat uneasy, looking down at his bare feet which
+were standing on the mosaic pavement, damp from the fountain; for, after
+the manner of his nation, he had left his shoes in the outer room. The
+governor had noticed the old man's gestures as he repeatedly put
+his hand to his mouth, and while his wife, Orion, and the widow were
+besieging the merchant with questions, he whispered a few words to
+one of the slaves. The man vanished, and returned bringing in, by his
+master's orders, a long strip of carpet which he laid in front of the
+Arab's brown and strong but delicately-formed feet.
+
+A wonderful change came over the merchant's whole being as this was
+done. He drew himself up with a dignity which none of those present
+had suspected in the man who had so humbly entered the room and so
+diligently praised his wares; an expression of satisfaction overspread
+his calm, mild features, a sweet smile parted his lips, and his kind
+eyes sparkled through tears like those of a child unexpectedly pleased.
+Then he bowed before the Mukaukas, touching his brow, lips and breast
+with the finger-tips of the right hand to express: "All my thoughts,
+words and feelings are devoted to you,"--while he said: "Thanks, Son of
+Menas. That was the act of Moslem."
+
+"Of a Christian!" cried Orion hastily. But his father shook his head
+gently, and said, slowly and impressively: "Only of a man."
+
+"Of a man," repeated the merchant, and then he added thoughtfully: "Of a
+man! Yes, that is the highest mark so long as we are what we ought to be
+The image of the one God. Who is more compassionate than He? And every
+mother's son who is likewise compassionate, is like him."
+
+"Another Christian rule, thou strange Moslem!" said Orion interrupting
+him.
+
+"And yet," said Haschim, with tranquil dignity, "it corresponds word
+for word with the teaching of the Best of men--our Prophet. I am one of
+those who knew him here on earth. His brother's smallest pain filled
+his soft heart with friendly sympathy; his law insists on charity, even
+towards the shrub by the wayside; he pronounces it mortal sin to injure
+it, and every Moslem must obey him. Compassion for all is the command
+of the Prophet...." Here the Arab was suddenly and roughly interrupted;
+Paula, who, till now, had been leaning against a pilaster, contemplating
+the hanging and silently listening to the conversation, hastily stepped
+nearer to the old man, and with flaming cheeks and flashing eyes pointed
+at him wrathfully, while she exclaimed in a trembling voice-heedless
+alike of the astonished and indignant bystanders, and of the little dog
+which flew at the Arab, barking furiously:
+
+"You--you, the followers of the false prophet--you, the companions of
+the bloodhound Khalid--you and Charity! I know you! I know what you did
+in Syria. With these eyes have I seen you, and your bloodthirsty women,
+and the foam on your raging lips. Here I stand to bear witness against
+you and I cast it in your teeth: You broke faith in Damascus, and the
+victims of your treachery--defenceless women and tender infants as well
+as men--you killed with the sword or strangled with your hands. You--you
+the Apostle of Compassion?--have you ever heard of Abyla? You, the
+friend of your Prophet--I ask you what did you, who so tenderly spare
+the tree by the wayside, do to the innocent folk of Abyla, whom you
+fell upon like wolves in a sheepfold? You--you and Compassionate!" The
+vehement girl, to whom no one had ever shown any pity, and on whose
+soul the word had fallen like a mockery, who for long hours had been
+suffering suppressed and torturing misery, felt it a relief to give free
+vent to the anguish of her soul; she ended with a hard laugh, and waved
+her hand round her head as though to disperse a swarm of gadflies.
+
+What a woman!
+
+Orion's gaze was fixed on her in horror--but in enchantment. Yes, his
+mother had judged her rightly. No gentle, tender-hearted woman laughed
+like that; but she was grand, splendid, wonderful in her wrath. She
+reminded him of the picture of the goddess of vengeance, by Apelles,
+which he had seen in Constantinople. His mother shrugged her shoulders
+and cast a meaning glance at the widow, and even his father was startled
+at the sight. He knew what had roused her; still he felt that he could
+not permit this, and he recalled the excited girl to her senses by
+speaking her name, half-reproachfully and half-regretfully, at first
+quite gently but then louder and more severely.
+
+She started like a sleep-walker suddenly awaked from her trance, passed
+her hand over her eyes, and said, as she bowed her head before the
+governor:
+
+"Forgive me, Uncle, I am sorry for what has occurred--but it was
+too much for me. You know what my past has been, and when I am
+reminded--when I must listen to the praises even of the wretches to whom
+my father and brother...."
+
+A loud sob interrupted her; little Mary was clinging to her and weeping.
+Orion could hardly keep himself from hastening to her and clasping her
+in his arms. Ah, how well her woman's weakness became the noble girl!
+How strongly it drew him to her!
+
+But Paula soon recovered from it; even while the governor was soothing
+her with kind words she mastered her violent agitation, and said gently,
+though her tears still quietly flowed: "Let me go to my room, I beg...."
+
+"Good-night, then, child," said the Mukaukas affectionately, and Paula
+turned towards the door with a silent greeting to the rest of the party;
+but the Moslem detained her and said:
+
+"I know who you are, noble daughter of Thomas, and I have heard that
+your brother was the bridegroom who had come to Abyla to solemnize his
+marriage with the daughter of the prefect of Tripolis. Alas, alas! I
+myself was there with my merchandise at the fair, when a maddened horde
+of my fellow-believers fell upon the peaceful town. Poor child, poor
+child! Your father was the greatest and most redoubtable of our foes.
+Whether still on earth or in heaven he yet, no doubt honors our sword
+as we honor his. But your brother, whom we sent to his grave as a
+bridegroom--he cursed us with his dying breath. You have inherited his
+rancor; and when it surges up against me, a Moslem, I can do no more
+than bow my head and do penance for the guilt of those whose blood runs
+in my veins and whose faith I confess. I have nothing to plead--no,
+noble maiden, nothing that can excuse the deed of Abyla. There--there
+alone it was the fate of my grey hairs to be ashamed of my
+fellow-Moslems--believe me, maiden, it was grievous to me. War, and
+the memory of many friends slain and of wealth lightly plundered had
+unchained men's passion; and where passion's pinions wave, whether in
+the struggle for mine and thine or for other possessions, ever since the
+days of Cain and Abel, it is always and everywhere the same."
+
+Paula, who till now had stood motionless in front of the old man, shook
+her head and said bitterly:
+
+"But all this will not give me back my father and brother. You yourself
+look like a kind-hearted man; but for the future--if you are as just as
+you are kind--find out to whom you are speaking before you talk of the
+compassion of the Moslems!"
+
+She once more bowed good-night and left the room. Orion followed her;
+come what might he must see her. But he returned a few minutes after,
+breathing hard and with his teeth set. He had taken her hand, had tried
+to tell her all a loving heart could find to say; but how sharply, how
+icily had he been repulsed, with what an air of intolerable scorn had
+she turned her back upon him! And now that he was in their midst again
+he scarcely heard his father express his regrets that so painful a scene
+should have occurred under his roof, while the Arab said that he could
+quite understand why the daughter of Thomas should have been betrayed to
+anger: the massacre of Abyla was quite inexcusable.
+
+"But then," the old man went on, "in what war do not such things take
+place? Even the Christian is not always master of himself: you
+yourself I know, lost two promising sons--and who were the murderers?
+Christians--your own fellow-believers..."
+
+"The bitterest foes of my beliefs," said the governor slowly, and every
+syllable was a calm and dignified reproof to the Moslem for supposing
+that the creed of those who had killed his sons could be his. As
+he spoke he opened his eyes wide with the look of those hard,
+opaquely-glittering stones which his ancestors had been wont to set for
+eyes in their portrait statues. But he suddenly closed them again and
+said indifferently:
+
+"At what price do you value your hanging? I have a fancy to buy it. Name
+your lowest terms: I cannot bear to bargain."
+
+"I had thought of asking five hundred thousand drachmae," said the
+dealer. "Four hundred thousand drachmae, and it is yours."
+
+The governor's wife clasped her hands at such a sum and made warning
+signals to her husband, shaking her head disapprovingly, when Orion,
+making a great effort to show that he too took an interest in this
+important transaction, said: "It may be worth three hundred thousand."
+
+"Four hundred thousand," repeated the merchant coolly. "Your father
+wished to know the lowest price, and I am asking no more than is
+right. The rubies and garnets in these grapes, the pearls in the myrtle
+blossoms, the turquoises in the forget-me-nots, the diamonds hanging
+as dew on the grass, the emeralds which give brilliancy to the green
+leaves--this one especially, which is an immense stone--alone are worth
+more."
+
+"Then why do you not cut them out of the tissue?" asked Neforis.
+
+"Because I cannot bear to destroy this noble work," replied the Arab. "I
+will sell it as it is or not at all." At these words the Mukaukas
+nodded to his son, heedless of the disapprobation his wife persisted in
+expressing, asked for a tablet which lay near the chessboard, and on it
+wrote a few words.
+
+"We are agreed," he said to the merchant. "The treasurer, Nilus, will
+hand you the payment to-morrow morning on presenting this order."
+
+A fresh emotion now took possession of Orion, and crying: "Splendid!
+Splendid!" he rushed up to his father and excitedly kissed his hand.
+Then, turning to his mother, whose eyes were full of tears of vexation,
+he put his hand under her chin, kissed her brow, and exclaimed with
+triumphant satisfaction: "This is how we and the emperor do business!
+When the father is the most liberal of men the son is apt to look small.
+Meaning no harm, worthy merchant! As far as the hanging is concerned,
+it may be more precious than all the treasures of Croesus; but you have
+something yet to give us into the bargain before you load your camels
+with our gold: Tell us what the whole work was like before it was
+divided."
+
+The Moslem, who had placed the precious tablet in his girdle, at once
+obeyed this request.
+
+"You know how enormous were its length and breadth," he began. "The hall
+it decorated could hold several thousand guests, besides space for
+a hundred body guards to stand on each side of the throne. As many
+weavers, embroiderers and jewellers as there are days in the year
+worked on it, they say, for the years of a man's life. The woven picture
+represented paradise as the Persians imagine it--full of green trees,
+flowers and fruits. Here you can still see a fragment of the sparkling
+fountain which, when seen from a distance, with its sprinkling of
+diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, looked like living water. Here the
+pearls represent the foam on a wave. These leaves, cut across here,
+belonged to a rose-bush which grew by the fountain of Eden before the
+evil of the first rain fell on the world.
+
+"Originally all roses were white, but as the limbs of the first woman
+shone with more dazzling whiteness they blushed for shame, and since
+then there are crimson as well as white roses. So the Persians say."
+
+"And this--our piece?" asked Orion.
+
+"This," replied the merchant, with a pleasant glance at the young man,
+"was the very middle of the hanging. On the left you see the judgment
+at the bridge of Chinvat. The damned were not represented, but only the
+winged, Fravashi, Genii who, as the Persians believe, dwell one with
+each mortal as his guardian angel through life, united to him but
+separable. They were depicted in stormy pursuit of the damned--the
+miscreant followers of Angramainjus, the evil Spirit, of whom you must
+imagine a vast multitude fleeing before them. The souls in bliss, the
+pure and faithful servants of the Persian divinity Auramazda, enter with
+songs of triumph into the flower-decked pleasure-garden, while at their
+feet the spirits were shown of those who were neither altogether cursed
+nor altogether blessed, vanishing in humble silence into a dusky grove.
+The pure enjoyed the gifts of paradise in peace and contentment.--All
+this was explained to me by a priest of the Fire-worshippers. Here, you
+see, is a huge bunch of grapes which one of the happy ones is about to
+pluck; the hand is uninjured--the arm unfortunately is cut through; but
+here is a splendid fragment of the wreath of fruit and flowers which
+framed the whole. That emerald forming a bud--how much do you think it
+is worth?"
+
+"A magnificent stone!" cried Orion. "Even Heliodora has nothing to equal
+it.--Well, father, what do you say is its value?"
+
+"Great, very great," replied the Mukaukas. "And yet the whole
+unmutilated work would be too small an offering for Him to whom I
+propose to offer it."
+
+"To the great general, Amru?" asked Orion.
+
+"No child," said the governor decidedly. "To the great, indivisible and
+divine Person of Jesus Christ and his Church."
+
+Orion looked down greatly disappointed; the idea of seeing this splendid
+gem hidden away in a reliquary in some dim cupboard did not please him:
+He could have found a much more gratifying use for it.
+
+Neither his father nor his mother observed his dissatisfaction, for
+Neforis had rushed up to her husband's couch, and fallen on her knees
+by his side, covering his cold, slender hand with kisses, as joyful as
+though this determination had relieved her of a heavy burden of dread:
+"Our souls, our souls, George! For such a gift--only wait--you will be
+forgiven all, and recover your lost peace!"
+
+The governor shrugged his shoulders and said nothing; the hanging was
+rolled up and locked into the tablinum by Orion; then the Mukaukas bid
+the chamberlain show the Arab and his followers to quarters for the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Pangs of soul and doubtings of conscience had, in fact, prompted the
+governor to purchase the hanging and he therefore might have been glad
+if it had cost him still dearer. The greater the gift the better founded
+his hope of grace and favor from the recipient! And he had grounds
+for being uneasy and for asking himself whether he had acted rightly.
+Revenge was no Christian virtue, but to let the evil done to him by the
+Melchites go unpunished when the opportunity offered for crushing them
+was more than he could bring himself to. Nay, what father whose two
+bright young sons had been murdered, but would have done as he did? That
+fearful blow had struck him in a vital spot. Since that day he had
+felt himself slowly dying; and that sense of weakness, those desperate
+tremors, the discomforts and suffering which blighted every hour of his
+life, were also to be set down to the account of the Melchite tyrants.
+
+His waning powers had indeed only been kept up by his original vigor and
+his burning thirst for revenge, and fate had allowed him to quench it
+in a way which, as time went on, seemed too absolute to his peace-loving
+nature. Though not indeed by his act, still with his complicity he
+saw the Byzantine Empire bereft of the rich province which Caesar had
+entrusted to his rule, saw the Greeks and everything that bore the name
+of Melchite driven out of Egypt with ignominy--though he would gladly
+have prevented it--in many places slain like dogs by the furious
+populace who hailed the Moslems as their deliverers.
+
+Thus all the evil he had invoked on the murderers of his children and
+the oppressors and torturers of his people had come upon them; his
+revenge was complete. But, in the midst of his satisfaction at this
+strange fulfilment of the fervent wish of years, his conscience had
+lifted up its voice; new, and hitherto unknown terrors had come upon
+him. He lacked the strength of mind to be a hero or a reformer. Too
+great an event had been wrought through his agency, too fearful a doom
+visited on thousands of men! The Christian Faith--to him the highest
+consideration--had been too greatly imperilled by his act, for the
+thought that he had caused all this to be calmly endurable. The
+responsibility proved too heavy for his shoulders; and whenever he
+repeated to himself that it was not he who had invited the Arabs into
+the land, and that he must have been crushed in the attempt to repel
+them, he could hear voices all round him denouncing him as the man
+who had surrendered his native land to them, and he fancied himself
+environed by dangers--believing those who spoke to him of assassins sent
+forth by the Byzantines to kill him.--But even more appalling, was
+his dread of the wrath of Heaven against the man who had betrayed a
+Christian country to the Infidels. Even his consciousness of having
+been, all his life long, a right-minded, just man could not fortify
+him against this terror; there was but one thing which could raise his
+quelled spirit: the white pillules which had long been as indispensable
+to him as air and water. The kind-hearted old bishop of Memphis,
+Plotinus, and his clergy had forgiveness for all; the Patriarch
+Benjamin, on the contrary, had treated him as a reprobate sentenced to
+eternal damnation, though at the time of this prelate's exile in the
+desert he had hailed the Arabs as their deliverers from the tyranny
+of the Melchites, and though George had principally contributed to his
+recall and reinstatement, and had therefore counted on his support. And,
+although the Mukaukas could clearly see through the secondary motives
+which influenced the Patriarch, he nevertheless believed that Benjamin's
+office as Shepherd of souls gave him power to close the Gates of Heaven
+against any sheep in his flock.
+
+The more firmly the Arabs took root in his land, the wiser their rule,
+and the more numerous the Egyptian converts from the Cross to the
+Crescent, the greater he deemed his guilt; and when, after the
+accomplishment of his work of vengeance--his double treason as the
+Greeks called it--instead of the wrath of God, everything fell to
+his lot which men call happiness and the favors of fortune, the
+superstitious man feared lest this was the wages of the Devil, into
+whose clutches his hasty compact with the Moslems had driven so many
+Christian souls.
+
+He had unexpectedly fallen heir to two vast estates, and his excavators
+in the Necropolis had found more gold in the old heathen tombs than all
+the others put together. The Moslem Khaliff and his viceroy had left
+him in office and shown him friendship and respect; the bulaites--[Town
+councillors]--of the town had given him the cognomen of "the Just"
+by acclamation of the whole municipality; his lands had never yielded
+greater revenues; he received letters from his son's widow in her
+convent full of happiness over the new and higher aims in life that she
+had found; his grandchild, her daughter, was a creature whose bright
+and lovely blossoming was a joy even to strangers; his son's frequent
+epistles from Constantinople assured him that he was making progress in
+all respects; and he did not forget his parents; for he was never weary
+of reporting to them, of his own free impulse, every pleasure he enjoyed
+and every success he won.
+
+Thus even in a foreign land he had lived with the father and mother who
+to him were all that was noblest and dearest.
+
+And Paula! Though his wife could not feel warmly towards her the old man
+regarded her presence in the house as a happy dispensation to which he
+owed many a pleasant hour, not only over the draughts-board.
+
+All these things might indeed be the wages of Satan; but if indeed it
+were so, he--George the Mukaukas--would show the Evil One that he was
+no servant of his, but devoted to the Saviour in whose mercy he trusted.
+With what fervent gratitude to the Almighty was his soul filled for
+the return of such a son! Every impulse of his being urged him to give
+expression to this feeling; his terrors and gratitude alike prompted
+him to spend so vast a sum in order to dedicate a matchless gift to the
+Church of Christ. He viewed himself as a prisoner of war whose ransom
+has just been paid, as he handed to the merchant the tablet with the
+order for the money; and when he was carried to bed, and his wife was
+not yet weary of thanking him for his pious intention, he felt happier
+and more light-hearted than he had done for many years. Generally he
+could hear Paula walking up and down her room which was over his; for
+she went late to rest, and in the silence of the night would indulge
+in sweet and painful memories. How many loved ones a cruel fate had
+snatched from her! Father, brother, her nearest relations and friends;
+all at once, by the hand of the Moslems to whom he had abandoned her
+native land almost without resistance.
+
+"I do not hear Paula to-night," he remarked, glancing up as though he
+missed something. "The poor child has no doubt gone to bed early after
+what passed."
+
+"Leave her alone!" said Neforis who did not like to be interrupted in
+her jubilant effusiveness, and she shrugged her shoulders angrily. "How
+she behaved herself again! We have heard a great deal too much about
+charity, and though I do not want to boast of my own I am very ready to
+exercise it--indeed, it is no more than my duty to show every kindness
+to a destitute relation of yours. But this girl! She tries me too far,
+and after all I am no more than human. I can have no pleasure in her
+presence; if she comes into the room I feel as though misfortune had
+crossed the threshold. Besides!--You never see such things; but Orion
+thinks of her a great deal more than is good. I only wish she had been
+safe out of the house!"
+
+"Neforis!" her husband said in mild reproach; and he would have reproved
+her more sharply but that since he had become a slave to opium he had
+lost all power of asserting himself vigorously whether in small matters
+or great.
+
+Ere long the Mukaukas had fallen into an uneasy sleep; but he opened his
+eyes more frequently than usual. He missed the light footfall overhead
+to which he had been accustomed for these two years past; but she who
+was wont to pace the floor above half the night through had not gone
+to rest as he supposed. After the events of the evening she had indeed
+retired to her room with tingling cheeks and burning eyes; but the
+slave-girls, who paid little attention to a guest who was no more than
+endured and looked on askance by their mistress, had neglected to open
+her window-shutters after sundown, as she had requested, and the room
+was oppressively sultry and airless. The wooden shutters felt hot to the
+touch, so did the linen sheets over the wool mattrasses. The water in
+her jug, and even the handkerchief she took up were warm. To an Egyptian
+all this would have been a matter of course; but the native of Damascus
+had always passed the summer in her father's country house on the
+heights of Lebanon, in cool and lucent shade, and the all-pervading heat
+of the past day had been to her intolerable.
+
+Outside it was pleasant now; so without much reflection she pushed open
+the shutter, wrapped a long, dark-hued kerchief about her head and
+stole down the steep steps and out through a little side door into the
+court-yard.
+
+There she drew a deep breath and spread out her arms longingly, as
+though she would fain fly far, far from thence; but then she dropped
+them again and looked about her. It was not the want of fresh air alone
+that had brought her out; no, what she most craved for was to open her
+oppressed and rebellious heart to another; and here, in the servants'
+quarters, there were two souls, one of which knew, understood and loved
+her, while the other was as devoted to her as a faithful dog, and did
+errands for her which were to be kept hidden from the governor's house
+and its inhabitants.
+
+The first was her nurse who had accompanied her to Egypt; the other was
+a freed slave, her father's head groom, who had escorted the women with
+his son, a lad, giving them shelter when, after the massacre of Abyla,
+they had ventured out of their hiding-place, and after lurking for some
+time in the valley of Lebanon, had found no better issue than to fly
+to Egypt and put themselves under the protection of the Mukaukas, whose
+sister had been Paula's father's first wife. She herself was the child
+of his second marriage with a Syrian of high rank, a relation of the
+Emperor Heraclius, who had died, quite young, shortly after Paula's
+birth.
+
+Both these servants had been parted from her. Perpetua, the nurse, had
+been found useful by the governor's wife, who soon discovered that size
+was particularly skilled in weaving and who had made her superintendent
+of the slave-girls employed at the loom; the old woman had willingly
+undertaken the duties though she herself was free-born, for her first
+point in life was to remain near her beloved foster-child. Hiram
+too, the groom, and his son had found their place among the Mukaukas'
+household; in the first instance to take charge of the five horses
+from her father's stable which had brought the fugitives to Egypt, but
+afterwards--for the governor was not slow to discern his skill in
+such matters--as a leech for all sorts of beasts, and as an adviser is
+purchasing horses.
+
+Paula wanted to speak with them both, and she knew exactly where to find
+them; but she could not get to them without exposing herself to much
+that was unpleasant, for the governor's free retainers and their
+friends, not to mention the guard of soldiers who, now that the gates
+were closed, were still sitting in parties to gossip; they would
+certainly not break up for some time yet, since the slaves were only now
+bringing out the soldiers' supper.
+
+The clatter in the court-yard was unceasing, for every one who was free
+to come out was enjoying the coolness of the night. Among them there
+were no slaves; these had been sent to their quarters when the gates
+were shut; but even in their dwellings voices were still audible.
+
+With a beating heart Paula tried to see and hear all that came within
+the ken of her keen eyes and ears. The growing moon lighted up half the
+enclosure, the rest, so far as the shadow fell, lay in darkness. But in
+the middle of a large semi-circle of free servants a fire was blazing,
+throwing a fitful light on their brown faces; and now and again, as
+fresh pine-cones were thrown in, it flared up and illuminated even the
+darker half of the space before her. This added to her trepidation;
+she had to cross the court-yard, as she hoped, unseen; for innocent and
+natural as her proceedings were, she knew that her uncle's wife would
+put a wrong construction on her nocturnal expedition.
+
+At first Neforis had begged her husband to assist Paula in her search
+for her father, of whose death no one had any positive assurance. But
+his wife's urgency had not been needed: the Mukaukas, of his own free
+will, had for a whole year done everything in his power to learn the
+truth as to the lost man's end, from Christian or Moslem, till, many
+months since, Neforis had declared that any further exertions in the
+matter were mere folly, and her weak-willed husband had soon been
+brought to share her views and give up the search for the missing hero.
+He had secured for Paula, not without some personal sacrifice, much
+of her father's property, had sold the landed estates to advantage,
+collected outstanding debts wherever it was still possible, and was
+anxious to lay before her a statement of what he had recovered for her.
+But she knew that her interests were safe in his hands and was satisfied
+to learn that, though she was not rich in the eyes of this Egyptian
+Croesus, she was possessed of a considerable fortune. When once and
+again she had asked for a portion of it to prosecute her search, the
+Mukaukas at once caused it to be paid to her; but the third time he
+refused, with the best intentions but quite firmly, to yield to her
+wishes. He said he was her Kyrios and natural guardian, and explained
+that it was his duty to hinder her from dissipating a fortune which
+she might some day find a boon or indeed indispensable, in pursuit of a
+phantom--for that was what this search had long since become.
+
+   [Kyrios: The woman's legal proxy, who represented her in courts of
+   justice. His presence gave her equal rights with a man in the eyes
+   of the Law.]
+
+The money she had already spent he had replaced out of his own coffers.
+
+This, she felt, was a noble action; still she urged him again and
+again to grant her wish, but always in vain. He laid his hand with
+firm determination on the wealth in his charge and would not allow her
+another solidus for the sole and dearest aim of her life.
+
+She seemed to submit; but her purpose of spending her all to recover any
+trace of her lost parent never wavered in her determined soul. She had
+sold a string of pearls, and for the price, her faithful Hiram had been
+able first to make a long journey himself and then to send out a number
+of messengers into various lands. By this time one at least might very
+well have reached home with some news, and she must see the freed-man.
+
+But how could she get to him undetected? For some minutes she stood
+watching and listening for a favorable moment for crossing the
+court-yard. Suddenly a blaze lighted up a face--it was Hiram's.
+
+At this moment the merry semi-circle laughed loudly as with one voice;
+she hastily made up her mind--drew her kerchief closer over her face,
+ran quickly along the darker half of the quadrangle and, stooping low,
+hurried across the moonlight towards the slaves' quarters.
+
+At the entrance she paused; her heart throbbed violently. Had she been
+observed? No.--There was not a cry, not a following footstep--every dog
+knew her; the soldiers who were commonly on guard here had quitted their
+posts and were sitting with their comrades round the fire.
+
+The long building to the left was the weaving shop and her nurse
+Perpetua lived there, in the upper story. But even here she must be
+cautious, for the governor's wife often came out to give her orders to
+the workwomen, and to see and criticise the produce of the hundred looms
+which were always in motion, early and late. If she should be seen, one
+of the weavers might only too probably betray the fact of her nocturnal
+visit. They had not yet gone to rest, for loud laughter fell upon her
+ear from the large sheds, open on all sides, which stood over the dyers'
+vats. This class of the governor's people were also enjoying the cool
+night after the fierce heat of the day, and the girls too had lighted a
+fire.
+
+Paula must pass them in full moonshine--but not just yet; and she
+crouched close to the straw thatch which stretched over the huge clay
+water-jars placed here for the slave-girls to get drink from. It cast
+a dark triangular shadow on the dusty ground that gleamed in the
+moonlight, and thus screened her from the gaze of the girls, while she
+could hear and see what was going on in the sheds.
+
+The dreadful day of torture ending in a harsh discord was at end; and
+behind it she looked back on a few blissful hours full of the promise
+of new happiness;--beyond these lay a long period of humiliation, the
+sequel of a terrible disaster. How bright and sunny had her childhood
+been, how delightful her early youth! For long years of her life she
+had waked every morning to new joys, and gone to rest every evening
+with sincere and fervent thanksgivings, that had welled from her soul
+as freely and naturally as perfume from a rose. How often had she shaken
+her head in perplexed unbelief when she heard life spoken of as a vale
+of sorrows, and the lot of man bewailed as lamentable. Now she knew
+better; and in many a lonely hour, in many a sleepless night, she had
+asked herself whether He could, indeed, be a kind and fatherly-loving
+God who could let a child be born and grow up, and fill its soul
+with every hope, and then bereave it of everything that was dear and
+desirable--even of hope.
+
+But the hapless girl had been piously brought up; she could still
+believe and pray; and lately it had seemed as though Heaven would grant
+that for which her tender heart most longed: the love of a beloved and
+love-worthy man. And now--now?
+
+There she stood with an inconsolable sense of
+bereavement--empty-hearted; and if she had been miserable before Orion's
+return, now she was far more so; for whereas she had then been lonely
+she was now defrauded--she, the daughter of Thomas, the relation and
+inmate of the wealthiest house in the country; and close to her, from
+the rough hewn, dirty dyers' sheds such clear and happy laughter rang
+out from a troop of wretched slave wenches, always liable to the blows
+of the overseer's rod, that she could not help listening and turning
+to look at the girls on whom such an overflow of high spirits and
+light-heartedness was bestowed.
+
+A large party had collected under the wide palm-thatched roof of the
+dyeing shed-pretty and ugly, brown and fair, tall and short; some
+upright and some bent by toil at the loom from early youth, but all
+young; not one more than eighteen years old. Slaves were capital,
+bearing interest in the form of work and of children. Every slave girl
+was married to a slave as soon as she was old enough. Girls and married
+women alike were employed in the weaving shop, but the married ones
+slept in separate quarters with their husbands and children, while
+the maids passed the night in large sleeping-barracks adjoining the
+worksheds. They were now enjoying the evening respite and had gathered
+in two groups. One party were watching an Egyptian girl who was
+scribbling sketches on a tablet; the others were amusing themselves with
+a simple game. This consisted in each one in turn flinging her shoe over
+her head. If it flew beyond a chalk-line to which she turned her back
+she was destined soon to marry the man she loved; if it fell between
+her and the mark she must yet have patience, or would be united to a
+companion she did not care for.
+
+The girl who was drawing, and round whom at least twenty others were
+crowded, was a designer of patterns for weaving; she had too the gift
+which had characterized her heathen ancestors, of representing faces
+in profile, with a few simple lines, in such a way that, though often
+comically distorted, they were easily recognizable. She was executing
+these works of art on a wax tablet with a copper stylus, and the others
+were to guess for whom they were meant.
+
+One girl only sat by herself by the furthest post of the shed, and gazed
+silently into her lap.
+
+Paula looked on and could understand everything that was going forward,
+though no coherent sentence was uttered and there was nothing to be
+heard but laughter--loud, hearty, irresistible mirth. When a girl threw
+the shoe far enough the youthful crowd laughed with all their might,
+each one shouting the name of some one who was to marry her successful
+companion; if the shoe fell within the line they laughed even louder
+than before, and called out the names of all the oldest and dirtiest
+slaves. A dusky Syrian had failed to hit the mark, but she boldly seized
+the chalk and drew a fresh line between herself and the shoe so that
+it lay beyond, at any rate; and their merriment reached a climax when a
+number of them rushed up to wipe out the new line, a saucy, crisp-haired
+Nubian tossed the shoe in the air and caught it again, while the rest
+could not cease for delight in such a good joke and cried every name
+they could think of as that of the lover for whom their companion had so
+boldly seized a spoke in Fortune's wheel.
+
+Some spirit of mirth seemed to have taken up his quarters in the
+draughty shed; the group round the sketcher was not less noisy than the
+other. If a likeness was recognized they were all triumphant, if not
+they cried the names of this or that one for whom it might be intended.
+A storm of applause greeted a successful caricature of the severest of
+the overseers. All who saw it held their sides for laughing, and great
+was the uproar when one of the girls snatched away the tablet and the
+rest fell upon her to scuffle for it.
+
+Paula had watched all this at first with distant amazement, shaking
+her head. How could they find so much pleasure in such folly, in such
+senseless amusements? When she was but a little child even she, of
+course, could laugh at nothing, and these grown-up girls, in their
+ignorance and the narrow limitations of their minds, were they not one
+and all children still? The walls of the governor's house enclosed their
+world, they never looked beyond the present moment--just like children;
+and so, like children, they could laugh.
+
+"Fate," thought she, "at this moment indemnifies them for the misfortune
+of their birth and for a thousand days of misery, and presently they
+will go tired and happy to bed. I could envy these poor creatures! If it
+were permissible I would join them and be a child again."
+
+The comic portrait of the overseer was by this time finished, and a
+short, stout wench burst into a fit of uproarious and unquenchable
+laughter before any of the rest. It came so naturally, too, from the
+very depths of her plump little body that Paula, who had certainly not
+come hither to be gay, suddenly caught the infection and had to laugh
+whether she would or no. Sorrow and anxiety were suddenly forgotten,
+thought and calculation were far from her; for some minutes she felt
+nothing but that she, too, was laughing heartily, irrepressibly, like
+the young healthful human creature that she was. Ah, how good it was
+thus to forget herself for once! She did not put this into words, but
+she felt it, and she laughed afresh when the girl who had been
+sitting apart joined the others, and exclaimed something which was
+unintelligible to Paula, but which gave a new impetus to their mirth.
+
+The tall slight form of this maiden was now standing by the fire. Paula
+had never seen her before and yet she was by far the handsomest of them
+all; but she did not look happy and perhaps was in some pain, for she
+had a handkerchief over her head which was tied at the top over the
+thick fair hair as though she had the toothache. As she looked at her
+Paula recovered herself, and as soon as she began to think merriment was
+at an end. The slave-girls were not of this mind; but their laughter
+was less innocent and frank than it had been; for it had found an object
+which they would have done better to pass by.
+
+The girl with the handkerchief over her head was a slave too, but she
+had only lately come into the weaving-sheds after being employed for a
+long time at needle work under two old women, widows of slaves. She had
+been brought as an infant from Persia to Alexandria with her mother, by
+the troops of Heraclius, after the conquest of Chosroes II.; and they
+had been bought together for the Mukaukas. When her little one was but
+thirteen the mother died under the yoke to which she was not born; the
+child was a sweet little girl with a skin as white as the swan and thick
+golden hair, which now shone with strange splendor in the firelight.
+Orion had remarked her before his journey, and fascinated by the beauty
+of the Persian girl, had wished to have her for his own. Servants and
+officials, in unscrupulous collusion, had managed to transport her to a
+country-house belonging to the Mukaukas on the other side of the Nile,
+and there Orion had been able to visit her undisturbed as often as
+fancy prompted him. The slave-girl, scarcely yet sixteen, ignorant and
+unprotected, had not dared nor desired to resist her master's handsome
+son, and when Orion had set out for Constantinople--heedless and weary
+already of the girl who had nothing to give him but her beauty--Dame
+Neforis found out her connection with her son and ordered the head
+overseer to take care that the unhappy girl should not "ply her
+seductive arts" any more. The man had carried out her instructions by
+condemning the fair Persian, according to an ancient custom, to have her
+ears cut off. After this cruel punishment the mutilated beauty sank into
+a state of melancholy madness, and although the exorcists of the Church
+and other thaumaturgists had vainly endeavored to expel the demon of
+madness, she remained as before: a gentle, good-humored creature, quiet
+and diligent at her work, under the women who had charge of her, and
+now in the common work-shop. It was only when she was idle that her
+craziness became evident, and of this the other girls took advantage for
+their own amusement.
+
+They now led Mandane to the fire, and with farcical reverence requested
+her to be seated on her throne--an empty color cask, for she suffered
+under the strange permanent delusion that she was the wife of the
+Mukaukas George. They laughingly did her homage, craved some favor or
+made enquiries as to her husband's health and the state of her affairs.
+Hitherto a decent instinct of reserve had kept these poor ignorant
+creatures from mentioning Orion's name in her presence, but now a
+woolly-headed negress, a lean, spiteful hussy, went up to her, and said
+with a horrible grimace:
+
+"Oh, mistress, and where is your little son Orion?" The crazy girl did
+not seem startled by the question; she replied very gravely: "I have
+married him to the emperor's daughter at Constantinople."
+
+"Hey day! A splendid match!" exclaimed the black girl. "Did you know
+that the young lord was here again? He has brought home his grand wife
+to you no doubt, and we shall see purple and crowns in these parts!"
+
+These words brought a deep flush into the poor creature's face. She
+anxiously pressed her hands on the bandage that covered her ears and
+said: "Really Has he really come home?"
+
+"Only quite lately," said another and more good-natured girl, to soothe
+her.
+
+"Do not believe her!" cried the negress. "And if you want to know the
+latest news of him: Last night he was out boating on the Nile with the
+tall Syrian. My brother, the boatman, was among the rowers; and he went
+on finely with the lady I can tell you, finely...."
+
+"My husband, the great Mukaukas?" asked Mandane, trying to collect her
+ideas.
+
+"No. Your son Orion, who married the emperor's daughter," laughed the
+negress.
+
+The crazy girl stood up, looked about with a restless glance, and
+then, as though she had not fully understood what had been said to her,
+repeated: "Orion? Handsome Orion?"
+
+"Aye, your sweet son, Orion!" they all shouted, as loud as though she
+were deaf. Then the usually placable girl, holding her hand over her
+ear, with the other hit her tormentor such a smack on her thick lips
+that it resounded, while she shrieked out loud, in shrill tones:
+
+"My son, did you say? My son Orion?--As if you did not know! Why, he was
+my lover; yes, he himself said he was, and that was why they came and
+bound me and cut my ears.--But you know it. But I do not love him--I
+could, I might wish, I...." She clenched her fists, and gnashed her
+white teeth, and went on with panting breath:
+
+"Where is he?--You will not tell me? Wait a bit--only wait. Oh, I am
+sharp enough, I know you have him here.--Where is be? Orion, Orion,
+where are you?"
+
+She sprang away, ran through the sheds and lifted the lids of all the
+color-vats, stooping low to look down into each as if she expected to
+find him there, while the others roared with laughter.
+
+Most of her companions giggled at this witless behavior; but some, who
+felt it somewhat uncanny and whom the unhappy girl's bitter cry
+had struck painfully, drew apart and had already organized some new
+amusement, when a neat little woman appeared on the scene, clapping her
+plump hands and exclaiming:
+
+"Enough of laughter--now, to bed, you swarm of bees. The night is
+over too soon in the morning, and the looms must be rattling again by
+sunrise. One this way and one that, just like mice when the cat appears.
+Will you make haste, you night-birds? Come, will you make haste?"
+
+The girls had learnt to obey, and they hurried past the matron to their
+sleeping-quarters. Perpetua, a woman scarcely past fifty, whose face
+wore a pleasant expression of mingled shrewdness and kindness, stood
+pricking up her ears and listening; she heard from the water-shed a
+peculiar low, long-drawn Wheeuh!--a signal with which she was familiar
+as that by which the prefect Thomas had been wont to call together his
+scattered household from the garden of his villa on Mount Lebanon. It
+was now Paula who gave the whistle to attract her nurse's attention.
+
+Perpetua shook her head anxiously. What could have brought her beloved
+child to see her at so late an hour? Something serious must have
+occurred, and with characteristic presence of mind she called out, to
+show that she had heard Paula's signal: "Now, make haste. Will you be
+quick? Wheeuh! girls--wheeuh! Hurry, hurry!"
+
+She followed the last of the slave-girls into the sleeping-room, and
+when she had assured herself that they were all there but the crazy
+Persian she enquired where she was. They had all seen her a few minutes
+ago in the shed; so she bid them good-night and left them, letting it be
+understood that she was about to seek the missing girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Paula went into her nurse's room, and Perpetua, after a short and vain
+search for the crazy girl, abandoned her to her fate, not without some
+small scruples of conscience.
+
+A beautifully-polished copper lamp hung from the ceiling and the little
+room exactly suited its mistress both were neat and clean, trim and
+spruce, simple and yet nice. Snowy transparent curtains enclosed the
+bed as a protection against the mosquitoes, a crucifix of delicate
+workmanship hung above the head of the couch, and the seats were covered
+with good cloth of various colors, fag-ends from the looms. Pretty straw
+mats lay on the floor, and pots of plants, filling the little room with
+fragrance, stood on the window-sill and in a corner of the room where a
+clay statuette of the Good Shepherd looked down on a praying-desk.
+
+The door had scarcely closed behind them when Perpetua exclaimed: "But
+child, how you frightened me! At so late an hour!"
+
+"I felt I must come," said Paula. "I could contain myself no longer."
+
+"What, tears?" sighed the woman, and her own bright little eyes twinkled
+through moisture. "Poor soul, what has happened now?"
+
+She went up to the young girl to stroke her hair, but Paula rushed into
+her arms, clung passionately round her neck, and burst into loud and
+bitter weeping. The little matron let her weep for a while; then she
+released herself, and wiped away her own tears and those of her tall
+darling, which had fallen on her smooth grey hair. She took Paula's chin
+in a firm hand and turned her face towards her own, saying tenderly but
+decidedly: "There, that is enough. You might cry and welcome, for
+it eases the heart, but that it is so late. Is it the old story:
+home-sickness, annoyances, and so forth, or is there anything new?"
+
+"Alas, indeed!" replied the girl. She pressed her handkerchief in
+her hands as she went on with excited vehemence: "I am in the last
+extremity, I can bear it no longer, I cannot--I cannot! I am no longer
+a child, and when in the evening you dread the night and in the morning
+dread the day which must be so wretched, so utterly unendurable...."
+
+"Then you listen to reason, my darling, and say to yourself that of two
+evils it is wise to choose the lesser. You must hear me say once more
+what I have so often represented to you before now: If we renounce our
+city of refuge here and venture out into the wide world again, what
+shall we find that will be an improvement?"
+
+"Perhaps nothing but a hovel by a well under a couple of palm-trees;
+that would satisfy me, if I only had you and could be free--free from
+every one else!"
+
+"What is this; what does this mean?" muttered the elder woman shaking
+her head. "You were quite content only the day before yesterday.
+Something must have...."
+
+"Yes, must have happened and has," interrupted the girl almost beside
+herself. "My uncle's son.--You were there when he arrived--and
+I thought, even I firmly believed that he was worthy of such a
+reception.--I--I--pity me, for I... You do not know what influence that
+man exercises over hearts.--And I--I believed his eyes, his words, his
+songs and--yes, I must confess all--even his kisses on this hand! But it
+was all false, all--a lie, a cruel sport with a weak, simple heart, or
+even worse--more insulting still! In short, while he was doing all in
+his power to entrap me--even the slaves in the barge observed it--he was
+in the very act--I heard it from Dame Neforis, who is only too glad when
+she can hurt me--in the very act of suing for the hand of that little
+doll--you know her--little Katharina. She is his betrothed; and yet
+the shameless wretch dares to carry on his game with me; he has the
+face...."
+
+Again Paula sobbed aloud; but the older woman did not know how to help
+in the matter and could only mutter to herself: "Bad, bad--what, this
+too!--Merciful Heaven!..." But she presently recovered herself and said
+firmly: "This is indeed a new and terrible misfortune; but we have known
+worse--much, much worse! So hold up your head, and whatever liking you
+may have in your heart for the traitor, tear it out and trample on it.
+Your pride will help you; and if you have only just found out what my
+lord Orion is, you may thank God that things had gone no further between
+you!" Then she repeated to Paula all that she knew of Orion's misconduct
+to the frenzied Mandane, and as Paula gave strong utterance to her
+indignation, she went on:
+
+"Yes, child, he is a man to break hearts and ruin happiness, and perhaps
+it was my duty to warn you against him; but as he is not a bad man in
+other things--he saved the brother of Hathor the designer--you know
+her--from drowning, at the risk of his own life--and as I hoped you
+might be on friendly terms with him at least, on his return home, I
+refrained.... And besides, old fool that I am, I fancied your proud
+heart wore a breastplate of mail, and after all it is only a foolish
+girl's heart like any other, and now in its twenty-first year has given
+its love to a man for the first time."
+
+But Paula interrupted her: "I love the traitor no more! No, I hate him,
+hate him beyond words! And the rest of them! I loathe them all!"
+
+"Alas! that it should be so!" sighed the nurse. "Your lot is no doubt a
+hard one. He--Orion--of course is out of the question; but I often ask
+myself whether you might not mend matters with the others. If you had
+not made it too hard for them, child, they must have loved you; they
+could not have helped it; but ever since you have been in the house you
+have only felt miserable and wished that they would let you go your own
+way, and they--well they have done so; and now you find it ill to bear
+the lot you chose for yourself. It is so indeed, child, you need not
+contradict me. This once we will put the matter plainly: Who can hope
+to win love that gives none, but turns away morosely from his
+fellow-creatures? If each of us could make his neighbors after his own
+pattern--then indeed! But life requires us to take them just as we find
+them, and you, sweetheart, have never let this sink into your mind!"
+
+"Well, I am what I am!"
+
+"No doubt, and among the good you are the best--but which of them all
+can guess that? Every one to some extent plays a part. And you! What
+wonder if they never see in you anything but that you are unhappy? God
+knows it is ten thousand times a pity that you should be! But who can
+take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face?"
+
+"I have never uttered a single word of complaint of my troubles to any
+one of them!" cried Paula, drawing herself up proudly.
+
+"That is just the difficulty," replied Perpetua. "They took you in, and
+thought it gave them a claim on your person and also on your sorrows.
+Perhaps they longed to comfort you; for, believe me, child, there is
+a secret pleasure in doing so. Any one who is able to show us sympathy
+feels that it does him more good than it does us. I know life! Has it
+never occurred to you that you are perhaps depriving your relations
+in the great house of a pleasure, perhaps even doing them an injury by
+locking up your heart from them? Your grief is the best side of you, and
+of that you do indeed allow them to catch a glimpse; but where the pain
+is you carefully conceal. Every good man longs to heal a wound when he
+sees it, but your whole demeanor cries out: 'Stay where you are, and
+leave me in peace.'--If only you were good to your uncle!"
+
+"But I am, and I have felt prompted a hundred times to confide in
+him--but then..."
+
+"Well--then?"
+
+"Only look at him, Betta; see how he lies as cold as marble, rigid and
+apathetic, half dead and half alive. At first the words often rose to my
+lips..."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"Now all the worst is so long past; I feel I have forfeited the right to
+complain to him of all that weighs me down."
+
+"Hm," said Perpetua who had no answer ready. "But take heart, my child.
+Orion has at any rate learnt how far he may venture. You can hold your
+head high enough and look cool enough. Bear all that cannot be mended,
+and if an inward voice does not deceive me, he whom we seek..."
+
+"That was what brought me here. Are none of our messengers returned
+yet?"
+
+"Yes, the little Nabathaean is come," replied her nurse with some
+hesitation, "and he indeed--but for God's sake, child, form no vain
+hopes! Hiram came to me soon after sun-down..."
+
+"Betta!" screamed the girl, clinging to her nurse's arm. "What has he
+heard, what news does he bring?"
+
+"Nothing, nothing! How you rush at conclusions! What he found out
+is next to nothing. I had only a minute to speak to Hiram. To-morrow
+morning he is to bring the man to me. The only thing he told me..."
+
+"By Christ's Wounds! What was it?"
+
+"He said that the messenger had heard of an elderly recluse, who had
+formerly been a great warrior."
+
+"My father, my father!" cried Paula. "Hiram is sitting by the fire with
+the others. Fetch him here at once--at once; I command you, Perpetua, do
+you hear? Oh best, dearest Betta! Come with me; we will go to him."
+
+"Patience, sweetheart, a little patience!" urged the nurse. "Ah, poor
+dear soul, it will turn out to be nothing again; and if we again follow
+up a false clue it will only lead to fresh disappointment."
+
+"Never mind: you are to come with me."
+
+"To all the servants round the fire, and at this time of night? I should
+think so indeed!--But do you wait here, child. I know how it can be
+managed.
+
+"I will wake Hiram's Joseph. He sleeps in the stable yonder--and then
+he will fetch his father. Ah! what impatience! What a stormy, passionate
+little heart it is! If I do not do your bidding, I shall have you awake
+all night, and wandering about to-morrow as if in a dream.--There, be
+quiet, be quiet, I am going."
+
+As she spoke she wrapped her kerchief round her head and hurried out;
+Paula fell on her knees before the crucifix over the bed, and prayed
+fervently till her nurse returned, Soon after she heard a man's steps on
+the stairs and Hiram came in.
+
+He was a powerful man of about fifty, with a pair of honest blue eyes in
+his plain face. Any one looking at his broad chest would conclude that
+when he spoke it would be in a deep bass voice; but Hiram had stammered
+from his infancy; and from constant companionship with horses he had
+accustomed himself to make a variety of strange, inarticulate noises in
+a high, shrill voice. Besides, he was always unwilling to speak. When
+he found himself face to face with the daughter of his master and
+benefactor, he knelt at her feet, looked up at her with faithful,
+dog-like eyes full of affection, and kissed first her dress, and then
+her hand which she held out to him. Paula kindly but decidedly cut
+short the expressions of delight at seeing her again which he painfully
+stammered out; and when he at length began to tell his story his words
+came far too slowly for her impatience.
+
+He told her that the Nabathaean who had brought the rumor that had
+excited her hopes, was not unwilling to follow up the trace he had
+found, but he would not wait beyond noon the next day and had tried to
+bid for high terms.
+
+"He shall have them--as much as he wants!" cried Paula. "But Hiram
+entreated her, more by looks and vague cries than by articulate words,
+not to hope for too much. Dusare the Nabathaean--Perpetua now took up
+the tale--had heard of a recluse, living at Raithu on the Red Sea, who
+had been a great warrior, by birth a Greek, and who for two years
+had been leading a life of penance in great seclusion among the pious
+brethren on the sacred Mount of Sinai. The messenger had not been able
+to learn what his name in the world had been, but among the hermits he
+was known as Paulus."
+
+"Paulus!" interrupted the girl with panting breath. "A name that must
+remind him of my mother and of me, yes, of me! And he, the hero of
+Damascus, who was called Thomas in the world, believing that I was dead,
+has no doubt dedicated himself to the service of God and of Christ, and
+has taken the name of Paulus, as Saul, the other man of Damascus did
+after his con version,--exactly like him! Oh! Betta, Hiram, you will
+see: it is he, it must be! How can you doubt it?"
+
+The Syrian shook his head doubtfully and gave vent to a long-drawn
+whistle, and Perpetua clasped her hands exclaiming distressfully: "Did
+I not say so? She takes the fire lighted by shepherds at night to warm
+their hands for the rising sun--the rattle of chariots for the thunders
+of the Almighty!--Why, how many thousands have called themselves Paulus!
+By all the Saints, child, I beseech you keep quiet, and do not try to
+weave a holiday-robe out of airy mist! Be prepared for the worst; then
+you are armed against failure and preserve your right to hope! Tell her,
+tell her, Hiram, what else the messenger said; it is nothing positive;
+everything is as uncertain as dust in the breeze."
+
+The freedman then explained that this Nabathaean was a trustworthy man,
+far better skilled in such errands than himself, for he understood both
+Syriac and Egyptian, Greek and Aramaic; and nevertheless he had failed
+to find out anything more about this hermit Paulus at Tor, where
+the monks of the monastery of the Transfiguration had a colony.
+Subsequently, however, on the sea voyage to Holzum, he had been informed
+by some monks that there was a second Sinai. The monastery there--but
+here Perpetua again was the speaker, for the hapless stammerer's
+brow was beaded with sweat--the monastery at the foot of the peaked,
+heaven-kissing mountain, had been closed in consequence of the heresies
+of its inhabitants; but in the gorges of these great heights there
+were still many recluses, some in a small Coenobium, some in Lauras and
+separate caves, and among these perchance Paulus might be found. This
+clue seemed a good one and she and Hiram had already made up their minds
+to follow it up; but the warrior monk was very possibly a stranger,
+and they had thought it would be cruel to expose her to so keen a
+disappointment.
+
+Here Paula interrupted her, crying in joyful excitement:
+
+"And why should not something besides disappointment be my portion for
+once? How could you have the heart to deprive me of the hope on which my
+poor heart still feeds?--But I will not be robbed of it. Your Paulus
+of Sinai is my lost father. I feel it, I know it! If I had not sold my
+pearls, the Nabathaean.... But as it is. When can you start, my good
+Hiram?"
+
+"Not before a fort--a fortnight at--at--at--soonest," said the man. "I
+am in the governor's service now, and the day after to-morrow is the
+great horse-fair at Niku. The young master wants some stallions bought
+and there are our foals to...."
+
+"I will implore my uncle to-morrow, to spare you," cried Paula. "I will
+go on my knees to him."
+
+"He will not let him go," said the nurse. "Sebek the steward told him
+all about it from me before the hour of audience and tried to have Hiram
+released."
+
+"And he said...?"
+
+"The lady Neforis said it was all a mere will-o'-the-wisp, and my lord
+agreed with her. Then your uncle forbade Sebek to betray the matter to
+you, and sent word to me that he would possibly send Hiram to Sinai
+when the horse-fair was over. So take patience, sweetheart. What are two
+weeks, or at most three--and then...."
+
+"But I shall die before then!" cried Paula. "The Nabathaean, you say, is
+here and willing to go."
+
+"Yes, Mistress."
+
+"Then we will secure him," said Paula resolutely. Perpetua, however, who
+must have discussed the matter fully with her fellow-countryman, shook
+her head mournfully and said: "He asks too much for us!"
+
+She then explained that the man, being such a good linguist, had already
+been offered an engagement to conduct a caravan to Ctesiphon. This
+would be a year's pay to him, and he was not inclined to break off his
+negotiations with the merchant Hanno and search the deserts of Arabia
+Petraea for less than two thousand drachmae.
+
+"Two thousand drachmae!" echoed Paula, looking down in distress
+and confusion; but she presently looked up and exclaimed with angry
+determination: "How dare they keep from me that which is my own? If my
+uncle refuses what I have to ask, and will ask, then the inevitable must
+happen, though for his sake it will grieve me; I must put my affairs in
+the hands of the judges."
+
+"The judges?" Perpetua smiled. "But you cannot lay a complaint without
+your kyrios, and your uncle is yours. Besides: before they have settled
+the matter the messenger may have been to Ctesiphon and back, far as it
+is."
+
+Again her nurse entreated her to have patience till the horse-fair
+should be over. Paula fixed her eyes on the ground. She seemed quite
+crushed; but Perpetua started violently and Hiram drew back a step when
+she suddenly broke out in a loud, joyful cry of "Father in Heaven, I
+have what we need!"
+
+"How, child, what?" asked the nurse, pressing her hand to her heart. But
+Paula vouchsafed no information; she turned quickly to the Syrian:
+
+"Is the outer court-yard clear yet? Are the people gone?" she asked.
+
+The reply was in the affirmative. The freed servants had retired when
+Hiram left them. The officials would not break up for some time yet, but
+there was less difficulty in passing them.
+
+"Very good," said the girl. "Then you, Hiram, lead the way and wait for
+me by the little side door. I will give you something in my room
+which will pay the Nabathaean's charges ten times over. Do not look so
+horrified, Betta. I will give him the large emerald out of my mother's
+necklace." The woman clasped her hands, and cried out in dismay and
+warning.
+
+"Child, child! That splendid gem! an heirloom in the family--that stone
+which came to you from the saintly Emperor Theodosius--to sell that of
+all things! Nay-to throw it away; not to rescue your father either,
+but merely--yes child, for that is the truth, merely because you lack
+patience to wait two little weeks!"
+
+"That is hard, that is unjust, Betta," Paula broke in reprovingly. "It
+will be a question of a month, and we all know how much depends on
+the messenger. Do you forget how highly Hiram spoke of this very man's
+intelligence? And besides--must I, the younger, remind you?--What is the
+life of man? An instant may decide his life or death; and my father is
+an old man, scarred from many wounds even before the siege. It may make
+just the difference between our meeting, or never meeting again."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the old woman in subdued tones, "perhaps you are right,
+and if I..." But Paula stopped her mouth with a kiss, and then desired
+Hiram to carry the gem, the first thing in the morning, to Gamaliel the
+Jew, a wealthy and honest man, and not to sell it for less than twelve
+thousand drachmae. If the goldsmith could not pay so much for it at
+once, he might be satisfied to bring away the two thousand drachmae for
+the messenger, and fetch the remainder at another season.
+
+The Syrian led the way, and when, after a long leave-taking, she quitted
+her nurse's pleasant little room, Hiram had done her bidding and was
+waiting for her at the little side door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+As Hiram had supposed, the better class of the household were still
+sitting with their friends, and they had been joined by the guide and
+by the Arab merchant's head man: Rustem the Masdakite, as well as his
+secretary and interpreter.
+
+With the exception only of Gamaliel the Jewish goldsmith, and the Arab's
+followers, the whole of the party were Christians; and it had gone
+against the grain to admit the Moslems into their circle--the Jew had
+for years been a welcome member of the society. However, they had done
+so, and not without marked civility; for their lord had desired that
+the strangers should be made welcome, and they might expect to hear much
+that was new from wanderers from such a distance. In this, to be sure,
+they were disappointed, for the dragoman was taciturn and the Masdakite
+could speak no Egyptian, and Greek very ill. So, after various futile
+attempts to make the new-comers talk, they paid no further heed to them,
+and Orion's secretary became the chief speaker. He had already told them
+yesterday much that was fresh and interesting about the Imperial court;
+to-day he entered into fuller details of the brilliant life his young
+lord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. He
+described the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses;
+gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followers
+through a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St.
+Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion's successes among the beauties of the
+Capital.
+
+"The queen of them all," he went on in boastful accents, "was
+Heliodora--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, but
+a rich, elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus,
+nephew to Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. All
+Constantinople was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to win
+her, but of course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers in
+all Egypt, not even in Alexandria. The governor's residence here--for
+I think nothing of mere size--is a peasant's hut--a wretched barn by
+comparison! I will tell you another time what that casket of treasures
+is like. Its door was besieged day and night by slaves and freedmen
+bringing her offerings of flowers and fruit, rare gifts, and tender
+verses written on perfumed, rose-colored silk; but her favors were not
+to be purchased till she met Orion. Would you believe it: from the first
+time she saw him in Justinus' villa she fell desperately in love with
+him; it was all over with her; she was his as completely as the ring on
+my finger is mine!"
+
+And in his vanity he showed his hearers a gold ring, with a gem of some
+value, which he owed to the liberality of his young master. "From that
+day forth," he eagerly went on, "the names of Orion and Heliodora were
+in every mouth, and how often have I seen men quite beside themselves
+over the beauty of this divine pair. In the Circus, in the theatre, or
+sailing about the Bosphorus--they were to be seen everywhere together;
+and through the hideous, bloody struggle for the throne they lived in a
+Paradise of their own. He often took her out in his chariot; or she took
+him in hers."
+
+"Such a woman has horses too?" asked the head groom contemptuously.
+
+"A woman!" cried the secretary. "A lady of rank!--She has none but
+bright chestnuts; large horses of Armenian breed, and small, swift
+beasts from the island of Sardinia, which fly on with the chariot, four
+abreast, like hunted foxes. Her horses are always decked with flowers
+and ribbons fluttering from the gold harness, and the grooms know how
+to drive them too!--Well, every one thought that our young lord and the
+handsome widow would marry; and it was a terrible blow to the hapless
+Heliodora when nothing came of it--she looks like a saint and is as soft
+as a kitten. I was by when they parted, and she shed such bitter tears
+it was pitiable to see. Still, she could not be angry with her idol,
+poor, gentle, tender kitten. She even gave him her lap-dog for a
+keepsake--that little silky thing you have seen here. And take my word
+for it, that was a true love-token, for her heart was as much set on
+that little beast as if it had been her favorite child. And he felt the
+parting too, felt it deeply; however, I am his confidential secretary,
+and it would never do for me to tell tales out of school. He clasped the
+little dog to his heart as he bid her farewell, and he promised her to
+send some keepsake in return which should show her how precious her love
+had been--and it will be no trifle, that any one may swear who knows
+my master. You, Gamaliel, I daresay he has been to you about it by this
+time."
+
+The man thus addressed--the same to whom Hiram was to offer Paula's
+emerald--was a rich Alexandrian of a happy turn of mind; as soon as the
+incursion of the Saracens had made Alexandria an unsafe residence, so
+that the majority of his fellow Israelites had fled from the great port,
+he had found his way to Memphis, where he could count on the protection
+of his patron, the Mukaukas George.
+
+He shook his grizzled curls at this question, but he presently whispered
+in the secretary's ear. "We have the very thing he wants. You bring me
+the cow and you shall have a calf--and a calf with twelve legs too. Is
+it a bargain?"
+
+"Twelve per cent on the profits? Done!" replied the secretary in the
+same tone, with a sly smile of intelligence.
+
+When, by-and-bye, an accountant asked him why Orion had not brought home
+this fair dame, the bearer too of a noble name, to his parents as their
+daughter-in-law, he replied that, being a Greek, she was of course a
+Melchite. Those present asked no better reason; as soon as the question
+of creed was raised the conversation, as usual in these convivial
+evenings, became a squabble over dogmatic differences; in the course of
+it a legal official ventured to opine that if the case had been that of
+a less personage than a son of the Mukaukas--for whom it was, of
+course, out of the question--of a mere Jacobite citizen and his Melchite
+sweetheart, for instance, some compromise might have been effected. They
+need only have made up their minds each, respectively, to subscribe to
+the Monothelitic doctrine--though, he, for his part, could have nothing
+to say to anything of the kind; it was warmly upheld by the Imperial
+court, and by Cyrus, the deceased patriarch of Alexandria, and was based
+on the assumption that there were indeed two natures in Christ, but both
+under the control of one and the same will. By this dogma there were
+in the Saviour two persons no doubt; still it asserted His unity in a
+certain qualified sense, and this was the most important point.
+
+Such an heretical proposition was of course loudly disapproved of by the
+assembled Jacobites; differences of opinion were more and more strongly
+asserted, and a calm interchange of views turned to a riotous quarrel
+which threatened to end in actual violence.
+
+This discussion was already beginning when Paula succeeded in slipping
+unseen across the court-yard.
+
+She silently beckoned to Hiram to follow her; he cautiously took off
+his shoes, pushed them under the steep servants' stairs, and in a few
+minutes was standing in the young girl's room. Paula at once opened a
+chest, and took out a costly and beautifully-wrought necklace set with
+pearls. This she handed to the Syrian, desiring him to wrench from
+its setting a large emerald which hung from the middle. The freedman's
+strong hand, with the aid of a knife, quickly and easily did the work;
+and he stood weighing the gem, as it lay freed from the gold hemisphere
+that had held it, larger than a walnut, shining and sparkling on his
+palm, while Paula repeated the instructions she had already given him in
+her nurse's room.
+
+The faithful soul had no sooner left his beloved mistress than she
+proceeded to unplait her long thick hair, smiling the while with happy
+hope; but she had not yet begun to undress when she heard a knock. She
+started, flew to the door and hastily bolted it, while she enquired:
+
+"Who is there?"--preparing herself for the worst. "Hiram," was the
+whispered reply. She opened the door, and he told her that meanwhile the
+side door had been locked, and that he knew no other way out from the
+great rambling house whither he rarely had occasion to come.
+
+What was to be done? He could not wait till the door was opened again,
+for he must carry out her commission quite early in the morning, and if
+he were caught and locked up for only half the day the Nabathaean would
+take some other engagement.
+
+With swift decision she twisted up her hair, threw a handkerchief over
+her head, and said: "Then come with me; the moon is still up; it would
+not be safe to carry a lamp. I will lead the way and you must keep
+behind me If only the kitchen is empty, we can reach the Viridarium
+unseen. If the upper servants are still sitting in the court-yard the
+great door will be open, for several of them sleep in the house. At any
+rate you must go through the vestibule; you cannot miss your way out
+of the viridarium. But stay! Beki generally lies in front of the
+tablinum--the fierce dog from Herrionthis in Thebais; and he does not
+know you, for he never goes out of the house, but he will obey me.
+
+"When I lift my hand, hang back a little. He is quite quiet with his
+masters, and does not hurt a stranger if they are by. Now, we must not
+utter another word.--If we are discovered, I will confess the truth; if
+you alone are seen, you can say--well, say you were waiting for Orion,
+to speak to him very early about the horse-fair at Niku."
+
+"A horse was off--off--offered me for sale this very day."
+
+"Good, very good; then you lingered in the vestibule to speak of
+that--to ask the master about it before he should go out. It must be
+daylight in a few hours.--Now, come."
+
+Paula went down the stairs with a sure and rapid step. At the bottom
+Hiram again took off his shoes, holding them in his hand, so as to lose
+no time in following his mistress. They went on in silence through the
+darkness till they reached the kitchen. Here Paula turned and said to
+the Syrian:
+
+"If there is any one here, I will say I came to fetch some water; if
+there is no one I will cough and you can follow. At any rate I will
+leave the door open, and then you will hear what happens. If I am
+obliged to return, do you hurry on before me back by the way we came. In
+that case I will return to my room where you must wait outside till
+the side door is opened again, and if you are found there leave the
+explanation to me.--Shrink back, quite into that corner."
+
+She softly opened the door into the kitchen; the roof was open to the
+light of the declining moon and myriad stars. The room was quite empty:
+only a cat lay on a bench by the wide hearth, and a few bats flitted
+to and fro on noiseless wings; a few live coals still glowed among the
+ashes under the spits, like the eyes of lurking beasts of prey. Paula
+coughed gently, and immediately heard Hiram's step behind her; then,
+with a beating heart and agonizing fears, she proceeded on her way.
+First down a few steps, then through a dark passage, where the bats in
+their unswerving flight shot by close to her head. At last they had
+to cross the large, open dining-hall. This led into the viridarium, a
+spacious quadrangle, paved at the edges and planted in the middle, where
+a fountain played; round this square the Governor's residence was built.
+All was still and peaceful in this secluded space, vaulted over by the
+high heavens whose deep blue was thickly dotted with stars. The moon
+would soon be hidden behind the top of the cornice which crowned the
+roof of the building. The large-leaved plants in the middle of the
+quadrangle threw strange, ghostly shadows on the dewy grass-plot; the
+water in the fountain splashed more loudly than by day, but with a
+soothing, monotonous gurgle, broken now and then by a sudden short
+pause. The marble pillars gleamed as white as snow, and filmy mists,
+which were beginning to rise from the damp lawn, floated languidly
+hither and thither on the soft night breeze, like ghosts veiled in
+flowing crape. Moths flitted noiselessly round and over the clumps of
+bushes, and the whole quiet and restful enclosure was full of sweetness
+from the Lotos flowers in the marble basin, from the blossoms of the
+luxuriant shrubs and the succulent tropical herbs at their feet. At any
+other time it would have been a joy to pause and look round, only to
+breathe and let the silent magic of the night exert its spell; but
+Paula's soul was closed against these charms. The sequestered silence
+lent a threatening accent to the furious wrangling in the court-yard,
+which was audible even here in bursts of uproar; and it was with an
+anxious heart that she observed that everything was not in its usual
+order; for her sharp eyes could discern no one, nothing, at the entrance
+to the tablinum, which was usually guarded by an armed sentinel or by
+the watch-dog; and surely--yes, she was not mistaken--the bronze doors
+were open, and the moon shone on the bright metal of one half which
+stood ajar.
+
+She stopped, and Hiram behind her did the same. They both listened with
+such tension that the veins in their foreheads swelled; but from the
+tablinum, which was hardly thirty paces from them, came only very faint
+and intermittent sounds, indistinct in character and drowned by the
+tumult without.
+
+A few long and anxious minutes, and then the half-closed door was
+suddenly opened and a man came forth. Paula's heart stood still, but
+she did not for an instant lose her keenness of vision; she at once and
+positively recognized the man who came out of the tablinum as Orion
+and none other, and the big, long-haired dog too came out and past him,
+sniffed the air and then, with a loud bark, rushed on the two watchers.
+Trembling and with clenched teeth, but still mistress of herself, she
+let him come close to her, and then, calling him by his name: "Beki" in
+low, caressing tones, as soon as he recognized her, she laid her hand on
+his shaggy head to scratch his ears, as he loved it done.
+
+Paula and her companion were standing behind a column in the deepest
+shadow. Thus Orion could not see her, and the dog's loud bark had
+prevented his hearing her coaxing call; so when Beki was quiet and stood
+still, Orion whistled to him. The obedient and watchful beast, ran
+back, wagging his tail; and his master, greeting him as "a stupid old
+cat-hunter," let him spring over his arm, hugged the creature and then
+pushed him off again in play. Then he closed the door and went into the
+apartments leading to the courtyard.
+
+"But he must come back this way to go to his own rooms," said Paula to
+her companion with a sigh of relief. "We must wait. But now we must not
+lose a minute. Come over to the door of the tablinum. The dog will know
+me now and will not bark again." They hastened on, and when they had
+reached the door, which lay in shadow within a deep doorway, Paula asked
+her companion: "Did you see who the man was who came out?"
+
+"My lord Orion," said Hiram. "He was co--co--coming home from the town
+when I preceded you across the yard."
+
+"Indeed?" she said with apparent indifference, and as she leaned against
+the cold metal door-panels she looked back into the garden and thought
+she was now free to return. She would describe to the freedman the way
+he must now go--it was quite simple; but she had not had time to do so
+when, from a room dividing the viridarium from the vestibule she heard
+first a woman's shrill voice; then the deeper tones of a man; and hardly
+had they exchanged a few sentences, when every sound was lost in the
+furious barking of the hound, and immediately after a loud shriek of
+pain from a woman fell upon her ear, and the noise of a heavy object
+falling to the ground.
+
+What had happened? It must be something portentous and terrible; of that
+there could be no doubt; and ere long Paula's fears were justified. Out
+from the room where the scene had taken place rushed Orion, and with him
+the dog, across the grass-plot which was usually respected and cherished
+as holy ground, towards the side of the house facing the river, which
+was where he and all the family had their rooms.
+
+"Now!" cried Paula, quickly leading the way.
+
+She flew in breathless haste through the first room and into the
+unguarded hall; but she had not reached the middle of it when she gave a
+scream, for before her in the moonlight, lay a body, motionless, at full
+length, on the hard, marble floor.
+
+"Run, Hiram, fly!" she cried to her companion. "The door is
+ajar--open--I can see it is."
+
+She fell on her knees by the side of the lifeless form, raised the head,
+and saw--the beautiful, deathlike face of the crazy Persian slave. She
+felt her hand wet with the blood that had soaked the hapless girl's
+thick, fair hair, and she shuddered; but she resisted her impulse of
+horror and loathing, and perceiving some dark stains on the torn peplos
+she pulled it aside and saw that the white bosom was bleeding from deep
+wounds made in the tender flesh by the cruel fangs of the hound.
+
+Paula's heart thrilled with indignation, grief and pity. He--he whom
+she had only yesterday held to be the epitome of every manly
+perfection--Orion, was guilty of so foul a deed! He, of whose
+unflinching, dauntless courage she had heard so much, had fled like a
+coward, and had left the victim to her fate--twice a victim to him!
+
+But something must be done besides lamenting and raging, and wondering
+how in one human soul there could be room for so much that was noble and
+fine with so much that was shameful and cruel. She must save the girl,
+she must seek help, for Mandane's bosom still faintly rose and fell
+under Paula's tremulous fingers.
+
+The freedman's brave heart would not allow him to fly to leave her with
+the injured girl; he flung his shoes on the floor, raised the senseless
+form, and propped it against one of the columns that stood round the
+hall. It was not till his mistress had repeated her orders that he
+hurried away. Paula watched him depart; as soon as she heard the
+heavy door of the atrium close upon him, heedless of her own
+suspicious-looking position, she shouted for help, so loudly that her
+cries rang through the nocturnal silence of the house, and in a few
+minutes, from this side and that, a slave, a maid, a clerk, a cook, a
+watchman, came hurrying in.
+
+Foremost of all--so soon indeed that he must have been on his way when
+he heard her cry--came Orion. He wore a light night-dress, intended, so
+she said to herself, to give the wretch the appearance of having sprung
+out of bed. But was this indeed he? Was this man with a flushed face,
+staring eyes, disordered hair and hoarse voice, that favorite of fortune
+whose happy nature, easy demeanor, sunny gaze and enchanting song had
+bewitched her soul? His hand shook as he came close to her and the
+injured slave; and how forced and embarrassed was his enquiry as to what
+had happened; how scared he looked as he asked her what had brought her
+into this part of the house at such an hour.
+
+She made no reply; but when his mother repeated the question soon after,
+in a sharp voice, she--she who had never in her life told a lie--said
+with hasty decision: "I could not sleep, and the bark of the dog and a
+cry for help brought me here."
+
+"I call that having sharp ears!" retorted Neforis with an incredulous
+shrug. "For the future, at any rate, under similar circumstances
+you need not be so prompt. How long, pray, have young girls trusted
+themselves alone when murder is cried?"
+
+"If you had but armed yourself, fair daughter of heroes!" added Orion;
+but he had no sooner spoken than he bitterly regretted it. What a glance
+Paula cast at him! It was more than she could bear to hear him address
+her in jest, almost in mockery: him of all men, and at this moment for
+the first time--and to be thus reminded of her father! She answered
+proudly and with cutting sharpness: "I leave weapons to fighting men and
+murderers!"
+
+"To fighting men, and murderers!" repeated Orion, pretending not to
+understand the point of her words. He forced a smile; but then, feeling
+that he must make some defence, he added bitterly: "Really, that sounds
+like the utterance of a feeble-hearted damsel! But let me beg you to
+come closer and be calm. These pitiable gashes on the poor creature's
+shoulder--I care more about her than you do, take my word for it--were
+inflicted by a four-footed assassin, whose weapons were given by nature.
+Yes, that is what happened. Rough old Beki keeps watch at the door of
+the tablinum. What brought the poor child here I know not, but he caught
+scent of her and pulled her down."
+
+"Or nothing of the kind!" interrupted Neforis, picking up a pair of
+man's shoes which lay on the ground by the sufferer.
+
+Orion turned as pale as death and hastily took the shoes from his
+mother's hand; he would have liked to fling them up and away through the
+open roof. How came they here? Whose were they? Who had been here this
+night? Before going into the tablinum he had locked the outer door on
+that side, and had returned subsequently to open it again for the people
+in the court-yard. It was not till after he had done this that the crazy
+girl had rushed upon him; she must have been lurking somewhere about
+when he first went through the atrium but had not then found courage
+enough to place herself in his way. When she had thrown herself upon
+him, the dog had pulled her down before he could prevent it: he would
+certainly have sprung past her and have come to the rescue but that he
+must thus have betrayed his visit to the tablinum.
+
+It had required all his presence of mind to hurry to his room, fling on
+his night garments, and rush back to the scene of disaster. When Paula
+had first called for help he was already on his way, and with what
+feelings! Never had he felt so bewildered, so confused, so deeply
+dissatisfied with himself; for the first time in his life, as he stood
+face to face with Paula, he dared not look straight into the eyes of his
+fellow-man.
+
+And now these shoes! The owner must have come there with the crazy girl,
+and if he had seen him in the tablinum and betrayed what he was doing
+there, how could he ever again appear in his parents' presence? He had
+looked upon it as a good joke, but now it had turned to bitter earnest.
+At any cost he must and would prevent his nocturnal doings from becoming
+known! Some new wrong-doing-nay, the worst was preferable to a stain on
+his honor.--Whose could the shoes be? He suddenly held them up on high,
+crying with a loud voice: "Do these shoes belong to any of you, you
+people? To the gate-keeper perhaps?"
+
+When all were silent, and the porter denied the ownership, he stood
+thinking; then he added with a defiant glare, and in a husky voice:
+"Then some one who had broken into the house has been startled and
+dropped them. Our house-stamp is here on the leather: they were made in
+our work-shop, and they still smell of the stable-here, Sebek, you
+can convince yourself. Take them into your keeping, man; and tomorrow
+morning we will see who has left this suspicious offering in our
+vestibule.--You were the first to reach the spot, fair Paula. Did you
+see a man about?"
+
+"Yes," she replied with a hostile and challenging stare.
+
+"And which way did he go?"
+
+"He fled across the viridarium like a coward, running across the
+poor, well-kept grass-plot to save time, and vanished upstairs in the
+dwelling-rooms."
+
+Orion ground his teeth, and a mad hatred surged up in him of this
+mystery in woman's form in whose power, as it seemed, his ruin lay, and
+whose eyes mashed with revenge and the desire to undo him. What was
+she plotting against him? Was there a being on earth who would dare to
+accuse him, the spoilt favorite of great and small...? And her look had
+meant more than aversion, it had expressed contempt.... How dare she
+look so at him? Who in the wide world had a right to accuse him of
+anything that could justify such a feeling? Never, never had he met with
+enmity like this, least of all from a girl. He longed to annihilate the
+high-handed, cold-hearted, ungrateful creature who could humble him so
+outrageously after he had allowed her to see that his heart was hers,
+and who could make him quail--a man whose courage had been proved a
+hundred times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forget
+that she was a woman.--What had happened? What demon had been playing
+tricks on him--What had so completely altered him within this half-hour
+that his whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any one
+dared to treat him so?
+
+His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her son's
+face when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms;
+but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm:
+"Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? Merciful
+Heaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Run--fly, Sebek.
+
+"Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to
+bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down the
+grass--you must find him--you must not let him escape."
+
+The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who had
+come in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, which
+must yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heart
+beat wildly, and again she tried to catch the young man's eye. Orion,
+however, started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as he
+went: "That is my concern."
+
+But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight was
+throttling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in the
+act, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that he
+was indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fatal
+deed in the tablinum.
+
+Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as to
+falsify the evidence, and to declare that the groom's broad sole fitted
+the tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet she
+could have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he might
+not do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he could
+not be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks,
+she drew a breath of relief and turned again to the wounded girl and the
+physician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed her
+example she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, he
+looked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: "That poor
+girl's fate..." and he pointed to the Persian slave.--"It troubles me."
+
+"You are so soft-hearted--you were as a boy!" said his mother
+soothingly. She had seen the moisture sparkling in his eyes; but his
+tears were not for the Persian, but for the mysterious something--he
+himself knew not what to call it--that he had forfeited in this last
+hour, and of which the loss gave him unspeakable pain.
+
+But their dialogue was interrupted: the first misfortune of this
+luckless night had brought its attendant: the body of Rustem, the
+splendid and radiantly youthful Rustem, the faithful Persian leader
+of the caravan, was borne into the hall, senseless. He had made some
+satirical remark on the quarrel over creeds, and a furious Jacobite had
+fallen upon him with a log of wood, and dealt him a deep and perhaps
+mortal wound. The leech at once gave him his care, and several of the
+crowd of muttering and whispering men, who had made their way in out of
+curiosity or with a wish to be of use, now hurried hither and thither in
+obedience to the physician's orders.
+
+As soon as he saw the Masdakite's wound he exclaimed angrily:
+
+"A true Egyptian blow, dealt from behind!--What does this mob want here?
+Out with every man who does not belong to the place! The first things
+needed are litters. Will you, Dame Neforis, desire that two rooms may
+be got ready; one for that poor, gentle creature, and one for this fine
+fellow, though all will soon be over with him, short of a miracle."
+
+"To the north of the viridarium," replied the lady, "there are two rooms
+at your service."
+
+"Not there!" cried the leech. "I must have rooms with plenty of fresh
+air, looking out upon the river."
+
+"There are none but the handsome rooms in the visitor's quarters, where
+my husband's niece has hers, Sick persons of the family have often lain
+there, but for such humble folk--you understand?"
+
+"No--I am deaf," replied the physician.
+
+"Oh, I know that," laughed Neforis. "But those rooms are really just
+refurnished for exalted guests."
+
+"It would be hard to find any more exalted than such as these, sick unto
+death," replied Philippus. "They are nearer to God in Heaven than you
+are; to your advantage I believe. Here, you people! Carry these poor
+souls up to the guests' rooms."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"It is impossible, impossible, impossible!" cried Orion, jumping up from
+his writing-table. He thought of what he had done as a misfortune, and
+not as a crime; he himself hardly knew how it had all come about. Yes,
+there must be demons, evil, spiteful demons--and it was they who had led
+him to so mad a deed.
+
+Yesterday evening, after the buying of the hanging, he had yielded to
+his mother's request that he should escort the widow Susannah home. At
+her house he had met her husband's brother, a jovial old fellow named
+Chrysippus; and when the conversation turned on the tapestry, and the
+Mukaukas' purpose of dedicating this work of art with all the gems
+worked into it, to the Church, the old man had clasped his hands, fully
+sharing Orion's disapproval, and had exclaimed laughing "What, you
+the son, and is not even a part of the precious stones to fall to your
+share? Why Katharina? Just a little diamond, a tiny opal might well
+add to the earthly happiness of the young, though the old must lay up
+treasure in heaven.--Do not be a fool! The Church's maw is full enough,
+and really a mouthful is your due."
+
+And then they drank a good deal of fine wine, till at last the older man
+had accompanied Orion home, to stretch his limbs in the cool night air.
+A litter was carried behind him for him to return in, and all the way
+he had continued to persuade the youth to induce his father not to fling
+the whole treasure into the jaws of the Church, but to spare him a few
+stones at least for a more pleasing use. They had laughed over it a good
+deal, and Orion in his heart had thought Chrysippus very right, and
+had remembered Heliodora, and her love of large, handsome gems, and the
+keepsake he owed her. But that neither his father nor his mother would
+remove a single stone, and that the whole hanging would be dedicated,
+was beyond a doubt; at the same time, some of this superfluous splendor
+was in fact his due as their son, and a prettier gift to Heliodora than
+the large emerald could not be imagined. Yes--and she should have it!
+How delighted she would be! He even thought of the chief idea for the
+verses to accompany the gift.
+
+He had the key of the tablinum, in which the work was lying, about his
+person; and when, on his return, he found the servants still sitting
+round the fire, he shut the door of the out-buildings while a feeling
+came over him which he remembered having experienced last on occasions
+when he and his brothers had robbed a forbidden fruit-tree. He was
+on the point of giving up his mad project; and when, in the tablinum
+itself, a horrible inward tremor again came over him he had actually
+turned to retreat--but he remembered old Chrysippus and his prompts.
+To turn and fly now would be cowardice. Heliodora must have the large
+emerald, and with his verses; his father might give away all the rest as
+he pleased. When he was kneeling in front of the work with his knife in
+his hand, that sickening terror had come over him for the third time; if
+the large emerald had not come off into his hand at the first effort he
+would certainly have rolled the bale up again and have left the tablinum
+clean-handed. But the evil demon had been at his elbow, had thrust
+the gem into his hand, as it were, so that two cuts with the knife had
+sufficed to displace it from its setting. It rolled into his hand and he
+felt its noble weight; he cast aside all care, and had thought no more
+with anything but pleasure of this splendid trick, which he would relate
+to-morrow to old Chrysippus--of course under seal of secrecy.
+
+But now, in the sober light of day, how different did this mad, rash
+deed appear; how heavily had he already been punished; what consequences
+might it not entail? His hatred of Paula grew every minute: she had
+certainly seen all that had happened and would not hesitate to betray
+him--that she had shown last night. War, as it were, was declared
+between them, and he vowed to himself, with fire in his eyes, that he
+would not shirk it! At the same time he could not deny that she had
+never looked handsomer than when she stood, with hair half undone,
+confronting him--threatening him. "It is to be love or hate between
+us." he muttered to himself. "No half-measures: and she has chosen hate!
+Good! Hitherto I have only had to fight against men; but this bold,
+hard, and scornful maiden, who rejects every gentle feeling, is no
+despicable foe. She has me at bay. If she does her worst by me I will
+return it in kind!--And who is the owner of the shoes? I have taken all
+possible means to find him. Shameful, shameful! that I cannot hold up
+my head to look boldly at my own face in the glass. Heliodora is a sweet
+creature, an angel of kindness. She loved me truly; but this--this--Ah;
+even for her, this is too great a sacrifice!"
+
+He pressed his hand to his brow and flung himself on a divan. He might
+well be weary, for he had not closed his eyes for more than thirty hours
+and had already done much business that morning. He had given orders to
+Sebek the house-steward and to the captain of the Egyptian guard to hunt
+out the owner of the sandals by the aid of the dogs, and to cast him
+into prison; next he had of his own accord--since his father generally
+did not fall asleep till the morning and had not yet left his
+room--tried to pacify the Arab merchant with regard to the mishap that
+had befallen his head man under the governor's roof; but with small
+success.
+
+Finally the young man had indulged his desire to compose a few lines
+addressed to the fair Heliodora--for there was no form of physical or
+mental effort to which he was not trained. He had not lost the idea that
+had occurred to him yesterday before his theft in the tablinum, and
+to put it into verse was in his present mood an easy task. He wrote as
+follows:
+
+   "'Like liketh like' saith the saw; and like to like is but fitting.
+   Yet, in the hardest of gems thy soft nature rejoices?
+   Nay, but if noble and rare, if its beauty is priceless,
+   Then, Heliodora, the stone is like thee--akin to thy beauty.
+   Thus let this emerald please thee;--and know that the fire
+   That fills it with light burns more fierce in the heart of thy
+                              Friend."
+
+He penned the lines rapidly; and as he did so he felt, he knew not why,
+an excited thrill, as though every word he threw off was a blow aimed
+at Paula. Last night he had intended to send the costly jewel to
+the handsome widow in a suitable setting; but now it would be madly
+imprudent to order such a thing. He must send it away at once; he had
+hastened to pack it up with the verses, with his own hand, and entrusted
+it to Chusar, a horsedealer's groom from Constantinople, who had
+brought his Pannonian steeds to Memphis. He had himself seen off this
+trustworthy messenger, who could speak no Egyptian and very little
+Greek, and when his horse was lost to sight in the dust of the road
+leading to Alexandria he had returned home in a calmer mood. Ships were
+constantly putting to sea from that port for Constantinople, and Chusar
+was enjoined to sail by the first that should be leaving. At least the
+odious deed should not have been committed in vain; and yet he would
+have given a year of his life if now he could but know that it had never
+been done.
+
+"Impossible!" and "Curse it!" were the words he had most frequently
+repeated in the course of his retrospect during the past night and
+morning. How he had had to rush and hurry under the broiling sun! and
+the sense of being compelled to do so for mere concealment's sake seemed
+to him--who had never in his life before done anything that he could not
+justify in the eyes of honest men--so humiliating, that it brought the
+sweat to his burning brow. He--Orion--to dread discovery as a thief! It
+was inconceivable, and he was afraid, positively afraid for the first
+time since his boyhood. His fortunate star, which in the Capital
+had shone on him so brightly and benevolently, seemed to have proved
+faithless in this ruinous hole! What had that Persian girl taken into
+her crazy head that she must rush upon him like some furious beast
+of prey? He had been bound to her once, no doubt, by a transient
+passion--and what youth of his age was blind to the charms of a pretty
+slave-girl? She had been a lovely child, and it was a vexation, nay a
+grief to him, that she should have been so shamefully punished. If she
+should recover, and he could have prayed that she might, it would of
+course be his part to provide for her--of course. To be just, he could
+not but confess that she indeed had good reason to hate him: but Paula?
+He had shown her nothing but kindness and yet how unhesitatingly, how
+openly she had displayed her enmity. He could see her now with the
+name "murderer" on her quivering lips; the word had stung him like a
+lance-thrust. What a hideous, degrading and unjust accusation lay in
+that exclamation! Should he submit to it unrevenged?
+
+Was she as innocent as she was haughty and cold? What was she doing in
+the viridarium at midnight?--For she must have been there before that
+ill-starred dog flew at Mandane. An assignation with the owner of the
+shoes his mother had found was out of the question, for they belonged to
+some man about the stables. Love, thought he, for a wonder had nothing
+to do with it; but as he came in he had noticed a man crossing the
+court-yard who looked like Paula's freedman, Hiram the trainer. Probably
+she had arranged a meeting with her stammering friend in order--in
+order?--Well, there was but one thing that seemed likely: She
+was plotting to fly from his parents' house and needed this man's
+assistance.
+
+He had seen within a few hours of his return that his mother did not
+make life sweet to the girl, and yet his father had very possibly
+opposed her wish to seek another home. But why should she avoid and hate
+him? In that expedition on the river and on their way home he could have
+sworn that she loved him, and the remembrance of those hours brought her
+near to him again, and wiped out his schemes of vengeance against her,
+of punishment to be visited on her. Then he thought of little Katharina
+whom his mother intended him to marry, and at the thought he laughed
+softly to himself. In the Imperial gardens at Constantinople he had once
+seen a strange Indian bird, with a tiny body and head and an immensely
+long tail, shining like silver and mother of pearl. This was Katharina!
+She herself a mere nothing; but then her tail! vast estates and immense
+sums of money; and this--this was all his mother saw. But did he need
+more than he had? How rich his father must be to spend so large a sum on
+an offering to the Church as heedlessly as men give alms to a beggar.
+
+Katharina--and Paula!
+
+Yes, the little girl was a bright, brisk creature; but then Thomas'
+daughter--what power there was in her eye, what majesty in her gait,
+how--how--how enchanting her--her voice could be--her voice....
+
+He was asleep, worn out by heat and fatigue; and in a dream he saw Paula
+lying on a couch strewn with roses while all about her sounded wonderful
+heart-ensnaring music; and the couch was not solid but blue water,
+gently moving: he went towards her and suddenly a large black
+eagle swooped down on him, flapped his wings in his face and when,
+half-blinded, he put his hand to his eyes the bird pecked the roses as a
+hen picks millet and barley. Then he was angry, rushed at the eagle, and
+tried to clutch him with his hands; but his feet seemed rooted to the
+ground, and the more he struggled to move freely the more firmly he was
+dragged backwards. He fought like a madman against the hindering force,
+and suddenly it released him. He was still under this impression when
+he woke, streaming with perspiration, and opened his eyes. By his couch
+stood his mother who had laid her hand on his feet to rouse him.
+
+She looked pale and anxious and begged him to come quickly to his father
+who was much disturbed, and wished to speak with him. Then she hurried
+away.
+
+While he hastily arranged his hair and had his shoes clasped he felt
+vexed that, under the influence of that foolish dream, and still
+half asleep, he had let his mother go before ascertaining what the
+circumstances were that had given rise to his father's anxiety. Had it
+anything to do with the incidents of the past night? No.--If he had been
+suspected his mother would have told him and warned him. It must refer
+to something else. Perhaps the old merchant's stalwart headman had died
+of his wounds, and his father wished to send him--Orion--across the Nile
+to the Arab viceroy to obtain forgiveness for the murder of a Moslem,
+actually within the precincts of the governor's house. This fatal blow
+might indeed entail serious consequences; however, the matter might very
+likely be quite other than this.
+
+When he left his room the brooding heat that filled the house struck
+him as peculiarly oppressive, and a painful feeling, closely resembling
+shame, stole over him as he crossed the viridarium, and glanced at the
+grass from which--thanks to Paula's ill-meant warning--he had carefully
+brushed away his foot-marks before daybreak. How cowardly, how base,
+it all was The best of all in life: honor, self-respect, the proud
+consciousness of being an honest man--all staked and all lost for
+nothing at all! He could have slapped his own face or cried aloud like
+a child that has broken its most treasured toy. But of what use was all
+this? What was done could not be undone; and now he must keep his wits
+about him so as to remain, in the eyes of others at least, what he had
+always been, low as he had fallen in his own.
+
+It was scorchingly hot in the enclosed garden-plot, surrounded by
+buildings, and open to the sun; not a human creature was in sight;
+the house seemed dead. The gaudy flag-staffs and trellis-work, and the
+pillars of the verandah, which had all been newly painted in honor of
+his return and were still wreathed with garlands, exhaled a smell, to
+him quite sickening, of melting resin, drying varnish and faded flowers.
+Though there was no breath of air the atmosphere quivered, as it seemed
+from the fierce rays of the sun, which were reflected like arrows from
+everything around him. The butterflies and dragonflies appeared to Orion
+to move their wings more languidly as they hovered over the plants and
+flowers, the very fountain danced up more lazily and not so high as
+usual: everything about him was hot, sweltering, oppressive; and the man
+who had always been so independent and looked up to, who for years had
+been free to career through life uncontrolled, and guarded by every good
+Genius now felt trammelled, hemmed in and harassed.
+
+In his father's cool fountain-room he could breathe more freely; but
+only for a moment. The blood faded from his cheeks, and he had to make a
+strong effort to greet his father calmly and in his usual manner; for in
+front of the divan where the governor commonly reclined, lay the Persian
+hanging, and close by stood his mother and the Arab merchant. Sebek, the
+steward awaited his master's orders, in the background in the attitude
+of humility which was torture to his old back, but in which he was never
+required to remain: Orion now signed to him to stand up:
+
+The Arab's mild features wore a look of extreme gravity, and deep
+vexation could be read in his kindly eyes. As the young man entered he
+bowed slightly; they had already met that morning. The Mukaukas, who was
+lying deathly pale with colorless lips, scarcely opened his eyes at his
+son's greeting. It might have been thought that a bier was waiting in
+the next room and that the mourners had assembled here.
+
+The piece of work was only half unrolled, but Orion at once saw the spot
+whence its crowning glory was now missing--the large emerald which, as
+he alone could know, was on its way to Constantinople. His theft had
+been discovered. How fearful, how fatal might the issue be!
+
+"Courage, courage!" he said to himself. "Only preserve your presence
+of mind. What profit is life with loss of honor? Keep your eyes open;
+everything depends on that, Orion!"
+
+He succeeded in hastily collecting his thoughts, and exclaimed in a
+voice which lacked little of its usual eager cheerfulness:
+
+"How dismal you all look! It is indeed a terrible disaster that the dog
+should have handled the poor girl so roughly, and that our people should
+have behaved so outrageously; but, as I told you this morning, worthy
+Merchant, the guilty parties shall pay for it with their lives. My
+father, I am sure, will agree that you should deal with them according
+to your pleasure, and our leech Philippus, in spite of his youth, is
+a perfect Hippocrates I can assure you! He will patch up the fine
+fellow--your head-man I mean, and as to any question of compensation, my
+father--well, you know he is no haggler."
+
+"I beg you not to add insult to the injury that I have suffered under
+your roof," interrupted Haschim. "No amount of money can buy off my
+wrath over the spilt blood of a friend--and Rustem was my friend--a free
+and valiant youth. As to the punishment of the guilty: on that I insist.
+Blood cries for blood. That is our creed; and though yours, to be sure,
+enjoins the contrary, so far as I know you act by the same rule as we.
+All honor to your physician; but it goes to my heart, and raises my
+gall to see such things take place in the house of the man to whom
+the Khaliff has confided the weal or woe of Egyptian Christians. Your
+boasted tolerance has led to the death of an honest though humble man
+in a time of perfect peace--or at least maimed him for life. As to your
+honesty, it would seem..."
+
+"Who dares impugn it?" cried Orion.
+
+"I, young man," replied the merchant with the calm dignity of age.
+"I, who sold this piece of work last evening, and find it this morning
+robbed of its most precious ornament."
+
+"The great emerald has been cut from the hanging during the night." Dame
+Neforis explained. "You yourself went with the man who carried it to the
+tablinum and saw it laid there."
+
+"And in the very cloth in which your people had wrapped it," added
+Orion. "Our good old Sebek there was with me. Who fetched away the bale
+this morning; who brought it here and opened it?"
+
+"Happily for us," said the Arab, "it was your lady mother herself, with
+that man--your steward if I mistake not--and your own slaves."
+
+"Why was it not left where it was?" asked Orion, giving vent to the
+annoyance which at this moment he really felt.
+
+"Because I had assured your father, and with good reason, that the
+beauty of this splendid work and of the gems that decorate it show to
+much greater advantage by daylight and in the sunshine than under the
+lamps and torches."
+
+"And besides, your father wished to see his new purchase once more,"
+Neforis broke in, "and to ask the merchant how the gems might be removed
+without injury to the work itself. So I went to the tablinum myself with
+Sebek."
+
+"But I had the key!" cried Orion putting his hand into the breast of his
+robe.
+
+"That I had forgotten," replied his mother. "But unfortunately we did
+not need it. The tablinum was open."
+
+"I locked it yesterday; you saw me do it, Sebek..."
+
+"So I told the mistress," replied the steward. "I perfectly recollect
+hearing the snap of the strong lock."
+
+Orion shrugged his shoulders, and his mother went on:
+
+"But the bronze doors must have been opened during the night with a
+false key, or by some other means; for part of the hanging had been
+pulled out of the wrapper, and when we looked closely we saw that the
+large emerald had been wrenched out of the setting."
+
+"Shameful!" exclaimed Orion.
+
+"Disgraceful!" added the governor, vehemently starting up. He had
+fallen a prey to fearful unrest and horror: he thought that his Lord and
+Saviour, to whom he had dedicated the precious jewel, regarded him as so
+sinful and worthless that He would not accept the gift at his hands. But
+perhaps it was only Satan striving to hinder him from approaching the
+Most High with so noble an offering. At any rate, human cunning had been
+at work, so he said with stern resolution:
+
+"The matter shall be enquired into, and in the name of Jesus Christ,
+to whom the stone already belongs, I will never rest nor cease till the
+criminal is in my hands."
+
+"And in the name of Allah and the Prophet," added the Arab, "I will
+aid thee, if I have to appeal for help to the great chief Amru, the
+Khaliff's representative in this country.--A word was spoken here just
+now that I cannot and will not forget. And the tone you have chosen to
+adopt, young man, seems to spring from the same fount: the old fox, you
+think, put a false gem of impossible size into the hanging, and has had
+it stolen that his fraud may not be detected when a jeweller examines
+the work by daylight. This is too much! I am an honest man, Sirs, and I
+am fain to add a rich one; and the man who tries to cast a stain on the
+character I have borne through a long life shall learn, to his ruing,
+that old Haschim has greater and more powerful friends to back him than
+you may care to meet!"
+
+As he uttered this threat the merchant's eyes glistened through tears;
+it grieved him to be unjustly suspected and to be forced to express
+himself so hardly to the Mukaukas for whom he felt both reverence and
+pity. It was clear from the tone of his speech that he was in fact a
+determined and a powerful personage, and Orion interrupted him with the
+eager enquiry: "Who has dared to think so basely of you?"
+
+"Your own mother, I regret to say," replied the Moslem sadly, with an
+oriental shrug of distress and annoyance--his shoulders up to his ears.
+
+"Forget it, I beg of you," said the governor. "God knows women have
+softer hearts than men, and yet they more readily incline to think evil
+of their fellow-creatures, and particularly of the enemies of their
+faith. On the other hand they are more sensitive to kindness. A woman's
+hair is long and her wits short, says the saw."
+
+"You have plenty to say against us women!" retorted Neforis. "But
+scold away--scold if it is a comfort to you!" But she added, while she
+affectionately turned her husband's pillows and gave him another of
+his white pillules: "I will submit to the worst to-day for I am in the
+wrong. I have already asked your pardon, worthy Haschim, and I do so
+again, with all my heart."
+
+As she spoke, she went up to the Arab and held out her hand; he took it,
+but lightly, however, and quickly released it, saying:
+
+"I do not find it hard to forgive. But I find it impossible, here or
+anywhere, to let so much as a grain of dust rest on my bright good name.
+I shall follow up this affair, turning neither to the right hand nor to
+the left.--And now, one question: Is the dog that guarded the tablinum a
+watchful, savage beast?"
+
+"How savage he is he unfortunately proved on the person of the poor
+Persian slave; and his watchfulness is known to all the household,"
+cried Orion.
+
+"But I would beg you, worthy merchant," said Neforis, "and in the name
+of all present, to give us the help of your experience. I myself--wait a
+little wait: in spite of her long hair and her short wits a woman often
+has a happy idea. I, probably, was the first to come on the robber's
+track. It is clear that he must belong to the household since the dog
+did not attack him. Paula, who was so wonderfully quick in coming to the
+rescue of the Persian, is of course not to be thought of..."
+
+Here her husband interrupted her with an angry exclamation: "Leave the
+girl quite out of the question wife!"
+
+"As if I supposed her to be the thief!" retorted Neforis indignantly,
+and she shrugged her shoulders as Orion, in mild reproach, also cried:
+"Mother! consider..." and the merchant asked:
+
+"Do you mean the young girl from whom I had to take such hard words last
+night?--Well, then, I will stake my whole fortune on her innocence. That
+beautiful, passionate creature is incapable of any underhand dealings."
+
+"Passionate!" Neforis smiled. "Her heart is as cold and as hard as the
+lost emerald; we have proved that by experience."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Orion, "she is incapable of baseness."
+
+"How zealous men can be for a pair of fine eyes!" interrupted his
+mother. "But I have not the most remote suspicion of her; I have
+something quite different in my mind. A pair of man's shoes were found
+lying by the wounded girl. Did you do what my lord Orion ordered,
+Sebek?"
+
+"At once, Mistress," replied the steward, "and I have been expecting the
+captain of the watch for some time; for Psamtik...."
+
+But here he was interrupted: the officer in question, who for more than
+twenty years had commanded the Mukaukas' guard of honor, was shown
+into the room; after answering a few preliminary enquiries he began his
+report in a voice so loud that it hurt the governor, and his wife was
+obliged to request the soldier to speak more gently.
+
+The bloodhounds and terriers had been let out after being allowed to
+smell at the shoes, and a couple of them had soon found their way to the
+side-door where Hiram had waited for Paula. There they paused, sniffing
+about on all sides, and had then jumped up a few steps.
+
+"And those stairs lead to Paula's room," observed Neforis with a shrug.
+
+"But they were on a false scent," the officer eagerly added. "The
+little toads might have thrown suspicion on an innocent person. The
+curs immediately after rushed into the stables, and ran up and down like
+Satan after a lost soul. The pack had soon pulled down the boy--the son
+of the freedman who came here from Damascus with the daughter of the
+great Thomas--and they went quite mad in his father's room: Heaven and
+earth! what a howling and barking and yelping. They poked their noses
+into every old rag, and now we knew where the hole in the wine-skin
+was.--I am sorry for the man. He stammered horribly, but as a trainer,
+and in all that has to do with horses, all honor to him!--The shoes are
+Hiram's as surely as my eyes are in my head; but we have not caught him
+yet. He is across the river, for a boat is missing and where it had been
+lying the dogs began again. Unless the unbelievers over there give him
+shelter we are certain to have him."
+
+"Then we know who is the criminal!" cried Orion, with a sigh as deep as
+though some great burden were lifted from his soul. Then he went on in a
+commanding tone--and his voice rang so fiercely that the color which had
+mounted to his cheeks could hardly be due to satisfaction at this last
+good news....
+
+"As it is not yet two hours after noon, send all your men out to search
+for him and deliver him up. My father will give you a warrant, and the
+Arabs on the other shore will assist you. Perhaps the thief may fall
+into our hands even sooner and with him the emerald, unless the rogue
+has succeeded in hiding it or selling it." Then his voice sank, and he
+added in a tone of regret. "It is a pity as concerns the man, we had
+not one in our stables who knew more about horses! Fresh proof of your
+maxim, mother: if you want to be well served you must buy rascals!"
+
+"Strictly speaking," said Neforis meditatively, "Hiram is not one of our
+people. He was a freedman of Thomas' and came here with his daughter.
+Every one speaks highly of his skill in the stable; but for this robbery
+we might have kept him for the rest of his life still, if the girl had
+ever taken it into her head to leave us and to take him with her, we
+could not have detained him.--You may say what you will, and abuse me
+and mock me; I have none of what you call imagination; I see things
+simply as they are: but there must be some understanding between that
+girl and the thief."
+
+"You are not to say another word of such monstrous nonsense!" exclaimed
+her husband; and he would have said more, but that at that moment the
+groom of the chambers announced that Gamaliel, the Jewish goldsmith,
+begged an audience. The man had come to give information with regard to
+the fate of the lost emerald.
+
+At this statement Orion changed color, and he turned away from the
+merchant as the slave admitted the same Israelite who had been sitting
+over the fire with the head-servants. He at once plunged into his story,
+telling it in his peculiar light-hearted style. He was so rich that the
+loss he might suffer did not trouble him enough to spoil his good-humor,
+and so honest that it was a pleasure to him to restore the stolen
+property to its rightful owner. Early that morning, so he told them,
+Hiram the groom had been to him to offer him a wonderfully large and
+splendid emerald for sale. The freedman had assured him that the stone
+was part of the property left by the famous Thomas, his former master.
+It had decorated the head-stall of the horse which the hero of Damascus
+had last ridden, and it had come to him with the steed.
+
+"I offered him what I thought fair," the Jew went on, "and paid him two
+thousand drachmae on account; the remainder he begged me to take charge
+of for the present. To this I agreed, but ere long a fly began to hum
+suspicion in my ear. Then the police rushed through the town with the
+bloodhounds. Good Heavens, what a barking! The creatures yelped as if
+they would bark my poor house down, like the trumpets round the walls of
+Jericho--you know. 'What is the matter now,' I asked of the dog-keepers,
+and behold! my suspicions about the emerald were justified; so here, my
+lord Governor, I have brought you the stone, and as every suckling
+in Memphis hears from its nurse--unless it is deaf--what a just man
+Mukaukas George is, you will no doubt make good to me what I advanced
+to that stammering scoundrel. And you will have the best of the bargain,
+noble Sir; for I make no demand for interest or even maintenance for the
+two hours during which it was mine."
+
+"Give me the stone!" interrupted the Arab, who was annoyed by the Jew's
+jesting tone; he snatched the emerald from him, weighed it in his hand,
+put it close to his eyes, held it far off, tapped it with a small hammer
+that he took out of his breast-pocket, slipped it into its place in the
+work, examining it keenly, suspiciously, and at last with satisfaction.
+During all this, Orion had more than once turned pale, and the sweat
+broke out on his handsome, pale face. Had a miracle been wrought here?
+How could this gem, which was surely on its way to Alexandria, have
+found its way into the Jew's hands? Or could Chusar have opened the
+little packet and have sold the emerald to Hiram, and through him to
+the jeweller? He must get to the bottom of it, and while the Arab
+was examining the gem he went up to Gamaliel and asked him: "Are you
+positively certain--it is a matter of freedom or the dungeon--certain
+that you had this stone from Hiram the Syrian and from no one else? I
+mean, is the man so well-known to you that no mistake is possible?"
+
+"God preserve us!" exclaimed the Jew drawing back a step from Orion, who
+was gazing at him with a sinister light in his eyes. "How can my lord
+doubt it? Your respected father has known me these thirty years, and do
+you suppose that I--I do not know the Syrian? Why, who in Memphis can
+stammer to compare with him? And has he not killed half my children
+with your wild young horses?--Half killed every one of my children I
+mean--half killed them, I say, with fright. They are all still alive and
+well, God preserve them, but none the better for your horsebreaker; for
+fresh air is good for children and my little Rebecca would stop indoors
+till he was at home again for fear of his terrifying pranks."
+
+"Well, well!" Orion broke in. "And at what hour did he bring you the
+emerald for sale? Exactly. Now, recollect: when was it? You surely must
+remember."
+
+"Adonai! How should I?" said the Jew. "But wait, Sir, perhaps I may be
+able to tell you. In this hot weather we are up before sunrise; then we
+said our prayers and had our morning broth; then...."
+
+"Senseless chatter!" urged Orion. But Gamaliel went on without allowing
+himself to be checked. "Then little Ruth jumped into my lap to pull out
+the white hairs that will grow under my nose and, just as the child was
+doing it and I cried out: 'Oh, you hurt me!' the sun fell upon the earth
+bank on which I was sitting."
+
+"And at what time does it reach the bank?" cried the young man.
+
+"Exactly two hours after sunrise," replied the Jew, "at this time of
+year. Do me the honor of a visit tomorrow morning; you will not regret
+it, for I can show you some beautiful, exquisite things--and you can
+watch the shadow yourself."
+
+"Two hours after sunrise," murmured Orion to himself, and then with
+fresh qualms he reflected that it was fully four hours later when he
+had given the packet to Chusar. It was impossible to doubt the Jew's
+statement. The man was rich, honest and content: he did not lie. The
+jewel Orion had sent away and that purchased from Hiram could not in any
+case be identical. But how could all this be explained? It was enough
+to turn his brain. And not to dare to speak when mere silence was
+falsehood--falsehood to his father and mother!--If only the hapless
+stammerer might escape! If he were caught; then--then merciful Heaven!
+But no; it was not to be thought of.--On, then, on; and if it came to
+the worst the honor of a hundred stablemen could not outweigh that of
+one Orion; horrible as it was, the man must be sacrificed. He would see
+that his life was spared and that he was soon set at liberty!
+
+The Arab meanwhile had concluded his examination; still he was not
+perfectly satisfied. Orion longed to interpose; for if the merchant
+expressed no doubts and acknowledged the recovered gem to be the stolen
+one, much would be gained; so he turned to him again and said: "May I
+ask you to show me the emerald once more? It is quite impossible, do you
+think, that a second should be found to match it?"
+
+"That is too much to assert," said the Arab gravely. "This stone
+resembles that on the hanging to a hair; and yet it has a little
+inequality which I do not remember noticing on it. It is true I had
+never seen it out of the setting, and this little boss may have been
+turned towards the stuff, and yet, and yet.--Tell me, goldsmith, did the
+thief give you the emerald bare--unset?"
+
+"As bare as Adam and Eve before they ate the apple," said the Jew.
+
+"That is a pity--a great pity!--And still I fancy that the stone in
+the work was a trifle longer. In such a case it is almost folly and
+perversity to doubt, and yet I feel--and yet I ask myself: Is this
+really the stone that formed that bud?"
+
+"But Heaven bless us!" cried Orion, "the twin of such an unique gem
+would surely not drop from the skies and at the same moment into one and
+the same house. Let us be glad that the lost sheep has come back to us.
+Now, I will lock it into this iron casket, Father, and as soon as the
+robber is caught you send for me: do you understand, Psamtik?" He nodded
+to his parents, offered his hand to the Arab, and that in a way which
+could not fail to satisfy any one, so that even the old man was won
+over; and then he left the room.
+
+The merchant's honor was saved; still his conscientious soul was
+disturbed by a doubt that he could not away with. He was about to take
+leave but the Mukaukas was so buried in pillows, and kept his eyes
+so closely shut, that no one could detect whether he were sleeping
+or waking; so the Arab, not wishing to disturb him, withdrew without
+speaking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+After the great excitement of the night Paula had thrown herself on her
+bed with throbbing pulses. Sleep would not come to her, and so at rather
+more than two hours after sunrise she went to the window to close the
+shutters. As she did so she looked out, and she saw Hiram leap into a
+boat and push the light bark from the shore. She dared neither signal
+nor call to him; but when the faithful soul had reached open water he
+looked back at her window, recognized her in her white morning dress
+and flourished the oar high in the air. This could only mean that he
+had fulfilled his commission and sold her jewel. Now he was going to the
+other side to engage the Nabathaean.
+
+When she had closed the shutters and darkened the room she again lay
+down. Youth asserted its rights the weary girl fell into deep, dreamless
+slumbers.
+
+When she woke, with the heat drops on her forehead, the sun was nearly
+at the meridian, only an hour till the Ariston would be served, the
+Greek breakfast, the first meal in the morning, which the family eat
+together as they also did the principal meal later in the clay. She had
+never yet failed to appear, and her absence would excite remark.
+
+The governor's household, like that of every Egyptian of rank, was
+conducted more on the Greek than the Egyptian plan; and this was the
+case not merely as regarded the meals but in many other things, and
+especially the language spoken. From the Mukaukas himself down to the
+youngest member of the family, all spoke Greek among themselves, and
+Coptic, the old native dialect, only to the servants. Nay, many borrowed
+and foreign words had already crept into use in the Coptic.
+
+The governor's granddaughter, pretty little Mary, had learnt to speak
+Greek fluently and correctly before she spoke Coptic, but when Paula
+had first arrived she could not as yet write the beautiful language
+of Greece with due accuracy. Paula loved children; she longed for some
+occupation, and she had therefore volunteered to instruct the little
+girl in the art. At first her hosts had seemed pleased that she should
+render this service, but ere long the relation between the Lady Neforis
+and her husband's niece had taken the unpleasant aspect which it was
+destined to retain. She had put a stop to the lessons, and the reason
+she had assigned for this insulting step was that Paula had dictated to
+her pupil long sentences out of her Orthodox Greek prayerbook. This, it
+was true, she had done; but without the smallest concealment; and the
+passages she had chosen had contained nothing but what must elevate the
+soul of every Christian, of whatever confession.
+
+The child had wept bitterly over her grandmother's fiat, though Paula
+had always taken the lessons quite seriously, for Mary loved her older
+companion with all the enthusiasm of a half-grown girl--as a child
+of ten really is in Egypt; her passionate little heart worshipped the
+beautiful maiden who was in every respect so far above her, and Paula's
+arms had opened wide to embrace the child who brought sunshine into the
+gloomy, chill atmosphere she breathed in her uncle's house. But
+Neforis regarded the child's ardent love for her Melchite relation as
+exaggerated and morbid, imperilling perhaps her religious faith; and she
+fancied that under Paula's influence Mary had transferred her affections
+from her to the younger woman with added warmth. Nor was this idea
+wholly fanciful; the child's strong sense of justice could not bear to
+see her friend misunderstood and slighted, often simply and entirely
+misjudged and hardly blamed, so Mary felt it her duty, as far as in her
+lay, to make up for her grandmother's delinquencies in regard to the
+guest who in the child's eyes was perfection.
+
+But Neforis was not the woman to put up with this demeanor in a child.
+Mary was her granddaughter, the only child of her lost son, and no one
+should come between them. So she forbid the little girl to go to Paula's
+room without an express message, and when a Greek teacher was engaged
+for her, her instructions were that she should keep her pupil as much
+as possible out of the Syrian damsel's way. All this only fanned the
+child's vehement affection; and tenderly as her grandmother would
+sometimes caress her--while Mary on her part never failed in dutiful
+obedience--neither of them ever felt a true and steady warmth of heart
+towards the other; and for this Paula was no doubt to blame, though
+against her will and by her mere existence.
+
+Often, indeed, and by a hundred covert hints Dame Neforis gave Paula to
+understand that she it was who had alienated her grandchild; there
+was nothing for it but to keep the child for whom she yearned, at a
+distance, and only rarely reveal to her the abundance of her love. At
+last her life was so full of grievance that she was hardly able to be
+innocent with the innocent--a child with the child; Mary was not slow to
+note this, and ascribed Paula's altered manner to the suffering caused
+by her grandmother's severity.
+
+Mary's most frequent opportunities of speaking to her friend were
+just before meals; for at that time no one was watching her, and her
+grandmother had not forbidden her calling Paula to table. A visit to
+her room was the child's greatest delight--partly because it was
+forbidden--but no less because Paula, up in her own room, was quite
+different from what she seemed with the others, and because they could
+there look at each other and kiss without interference, and say what
+ever they pleased. There Mary could tell her as much as she dared of the
+events in their little circle, but the lively and sometimes hoydenish
+little girl was often withheld from confessing a misdemeanor, or even
+an inoffensive piece of childishness, by sheer admiration for one who to
+her appeared nobler, greater and loftier than other beings.
+
+Just as Paula had finished putting up her hair, Mary, who would rush
+like a whirlwind even into her grandmother's presence, knocked humbly
+at the door. She did not fly into Paula's arms as she did into those of
+Susannah or her daughter Katharina, but only kissed her white arm with
+fervent devotion, and colored with happiness when Paula bent down to
+her, pressed her lips to her brow and hair, and wiped her wet, glowing
+cheeks. Then she took Mary's head fondly between her hands and said:
+
+"What is wrong with you, madcap?"
+
+In fact the sweet little face was crimson, and her eyes swelled as if
+she had been crying violently.
+
+"It is so fearfully hot," said Mary. "Eudoxia"--her Greek
+governess--"says that Egypt in summer is a fiery furnace, a hell upon
+earth. She is quite ill with the heat, and lies like a fish on the sand;
+the only good thing about it is..."
+
+"That she lets you run off and gives you no lessons?"
+
+Mary nodded, but as no lecture followed the confession she put her head
+on one side and looked up into Paula's face with large roguish eyes.
+
+"And yet you have been crying!--a great girl like you?"
+
+"I--I crying?"
+
+"Yes, crying. I can see it in your eyes. Now confess: what has
+happened?"
+
+"You will not scold me?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Well then. At first it was fun, such fun you cannot think, and I do not
+mind the heat; but when the great hunt had gone by I wanted to go to
+my grand mother and I was not allowed. Do you know, something very
+particular had been going on in the fountain-room; and as they all
+came out again I crept behind Orion into the tablinum--there are such
+wonderful things there, and I wanted just to frighten him a little; we
+have often played games together before. At first he did not see me,
+and as he was bending over the hanging, from which the gem was stolen--I
+believe he was counting the stones in the faded old thing--I just jumped
+on to his shoulder, and he was so frightened--I can tell you, awfully
+frightened! And he turned upon me like a fighting-cock and--and he gave
+me a box on the ear; such a slap, it is burning now--and all sorts of
+colors danced before my eyes. He always used to be so nice and kind to
+me, and to you, too, and so I used to be fond of him--he is my uncle
+too--but a box on the ears, a slap such as the cook might give to the
+turnspit--I am too big for that; that I will certainly not put up with
+it! Since my last birthday all the slaves and upper servants, too, have
+had to treat me as a lady and to bow down to me! And now!--it was just
+here.--How dare he?" She began to cry again and sobbed out: "But that
+was not all. He locked me into the dark tablinum and left--left me...."
+her tears flowed faster and faster, "left me sitting there! It was so
+horrible; and I might have been there now if I had not found a gold
+plate; I seized my great-grandfather--I mean the silver image of Menas,
+and hammered on it, and screamed Fire! Then Sebek heard me and fetched
+Orion, and he let me out, and made such a fuss over me and kissed me.
+But what is the good of that; my grandfather will be angry, for in my
+terror I beat his father's nose quite flat on the plate."
+
+Paula had listened, now amused and now grave, to the little girl's
+story; when she ceased, she once more wiped her eyes and said:
+
+"Your uncle is a man, and you must not play with him as if he were a
+child like yourself. The reminder you got was rather a hard one, no
+doubt, but Orion tried to make up for it.--But the great hunt, what was
+that?"
+
+At this question Mary's eyes suddenly sparkled again. In an instant all
+her woes were forgotten, even her ancestor's flattened nose, and with a
+merry, hearty laugh she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! you should have seen it! You would have been amused too. They
+wanted to catch the bad man who cut the emerald out of the hanging. He
+had left his shoes and they had held them under the dogs' noses and
+then off they went! First they rushed here to the stairs; then to the
+stables, then to the lodgings of one of the horse-trainers, and I kept
+close behind, after the terriers and the other dogs. Then they stopped
+to consider and at last they all ran out at the gate towards the town. I
+ought not to have gone beyond the court-yard, but--do not be cross
+with me--it was such fun!--Out they went, along Hapi Street, across the
+square, and at last into the Goldsmith's Street, and there the whole
+pack plunged into Gamaliel's shop--the Jew who is always so merry. While
+he was talking to the others his wife gave me some apricot tartlets; we
+do not have such good ones at home."
+
+"And did they find the man?" asked Paula, who had changed color
+repeatedly during the child's story.
+
+"I do not know," said Mary sadly. "They were not chasing any one in
+particular. The dogs kept their noses to the ground, and we ran after
+them."
+
+"And only to catch a man, who certainly had nothing whatever to do with
+the theft.--Reflect a little, Mary. The shoes gave the dogs the scent
+and they were set on to seize the man who had worn them, but whom no
+judge had examined. The shoes were found in the hall; perhaps he had
+dropped them by accident, or some one else may have carried them there.
+Now think of yourself in the place of an innocent man, a Christian
+like ourselves, hunted with a pack of dogs like a wild beast. Is it not
+frightful? No good heart should laugh at such a thing!"
+
+Paula spoke with such impressive gravity and deep sorrow, and her whole
+manner betrayed such great and genuine distress that the child looked
+tip at her anxiously, with tearful eyes, threw herself against her, and
+hiding her face in Paula's dress exclaimed: "I did not know that they
+were hunting a poor man, and if it makes you so sad, I wish I had not
+been there! But is it really and truly so bad? You are so often unhappy
+when we others laugh!" She gazed into Paula's face with wide, wondering
+eyes through her tears, and Paula clasped her to her, kissed her fondly,
+and replied with melancholy sweetness:
+
+"I would gladly be as gay as you, but I have gone through so much to
+sadden me. Laugh and be merry to your heart's content; I am glad you
+should. But with regard to the poor hunted man, I fear he is my father's
+freedman, the most faithful, honest soul! Did your exciting hunt drive
+any one out of the goldsmith's shop?"
+
+Mary shook her head; then she asked:
+
+"Is it Hiram, the stammerer, the trainer, that they are hunting?"
+
+"I fear it is."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the child. "Stay--oh, dear! it will grieve you again,
+but I think--I think they said--the shoes belonged--but I did
+not attend. However, they were talking of a groom--a freedman--a
+stammerer...."
+
+"Then they certainly are hunting down an innocent man," cried Paula
+with a deep sigh; and she sat down again in front of her toilet-table to
+finish dressing. Her hands still moved mechanically, but she was lost in
+thought; she answered the child vaguely, and let her rummage in her open
+trunk till Mary pulled out the necklace that had been bereft of its gem,
+and hung it round her neck. Just then there was a knock at the door and
+Katharina, the widow Susannah's little daughter, came into the room.
+The young girl, to whom the governor's wife wished to marry her tall son
+scarcely reached to Paula's shoulder, but she was plump and pleasant to
+look upon; as neat as if she had just been taken out of a box, with a
+fresh, merry lovable little face. When she laughed she showed a gleaming
+row of small teeth, set rather wide apart, but as white as snow; and
+her bright eyes beamed on the world as gladly as though they had nothing
+that was not pleasing to look for, innocent mischief to dream of. She
+too, tried to win Paula's favor; but with none of Mary's devoted and
+unvarying enthusiasm. Often, to be sure, she would devote herself to
+Paula with such stormy vehemence that the elder girl was forced to be
+repellent; then, on the other hand, if she fancied her self slighted,
+or treated more coolly than Mary, she would turn her back on Paula with
+sulky jealousy, temper and pouting. It always was in Paula's power to
+put an end to the "Water-wagtails tantrums"--which generally had their
+comic side--by a kind word or kiss; but without some such advances
+Katharina was quite capable of indulging her humors to the utmost.
+
+On the present occasion she flew into Paula's arm, and when her friend
+begged, more quietly than usual that she would allow her first to finish
+dressing, she turned away without any display of touchiness and took
+the necklace from Mary's hand to put it on herself. It was of fine
+workmanship, set with pearls, and took her fancy greatly; only the
+empty medallion from which Hiram had removed the emerald with his knife
+spoiled the whole effect. Still, it was a princely jewel, and when she
+had also taken from the chest a large fan of ostrich feathers she showed
+off to her play-fellow, with droll, stiff dignity, how the empress and
+princesses at Court curtsied and bowed graciously to their inferiors. At
+this they both laughed a great deal. When Paula had finished her toilet
+and proceeded to take the necklace off Katharina, the empty setting,
+which Hiram's knife had bent, caught in the thin tissue of her dress.
+Mary disengaged it, and Paula tossed the jewel back into the trunk.
+
+While she was locking the box she asked Katharina whether she had met
+Orion.
+
+"Orion!" repeated the younger girl, in a tone which implied that
+she alone had the right to enquire about him. "Yes, we came upstairs
+together; he went to see the wounded man. Have you anything to say to
+him?"
+
+She crimsoned as she spoke and looked suspiciously at Paula, who simply
+replied: "Perhaps," and then added, as she hung the ribbon with the key
+round her neck: "Now, you little girls, it is breakfast time; I am not
+going down to-day."
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Mary disappointed, "my grandfather is ailing and
+grandmother will stay with him; so if you do not come I shall have to
+sit alone with Eudoxia; for Katharina's chariot is waiting and she must
+go home at once. Oh! do come. Just to please me; you do not know how
+odious Eudoxia can be when it is so hot."
+
+"Yes, do go down," urged Katharina. "What will you do up hereby
+yourself? And this evening mother and I will come again."
+
+"Very well," said Paula. "But first I must go to see the invalids."
+
+"May I go with you?" asked the Water wagtail, coaxingly stroking Paula's
+arm. But Mary clapped her hands, exclaiming:
+
+"She only wants to go to Orion--she is so fond of him...."
+
+Katharina put her hand over the child's mouth, but Paula, with quickened
+breath, explained that she had very serious matters to discuss with
+Orion; so Katharina, turning her back on her with a hasty gesture
+of defiance, sulkily went down stairs, while Mary slipped down the
+bannister rail. Not many days since, Katharina, who was but just
+sixteen, would gladly have followed her example.
+
+Paula meanwhile knocked at the first of the sickrooms and entered it as
+softly as the door was opened by a nursing-sister from the convent of
+St. Katharine. Orion, whom she was seeking, had been there, but had just
+left.
+
+In this first room lay the leader of the caravan; in that beyond was the
+crazy Persian. In a sitting-room adjoining the first room, which,
+being intended for guests of distinction, was furnished with royal
+magnificence, sat two men in earnest conversation: the Arab merchant and
+Philippus the physician, a young man of little more than thirty, tall
+and bony, in a dress of clean but very coarse stuff without any kind
+of adornment. He had a shrewd, pale face, out of which a pair of
+bright black eyes shone benevolently but with keen vivacity. His large
+cheek-bones were much too prominent; the lower part of his face was
+small, ugly and, as it were, compressed, while his high broad forehead
+crowned the whole and stamped it as that of a thinker, as a fine cupola
+may crown an insignificant and homely structure.
+
+This man, devoid of charm, though his strongly-characterized
+individuality made it difficult to overlook him even in the midst of a
+distinguished circle, had been conversing eagerly with the Arab, who,
+in the course of their two-days' acquaintance, had inspired him with a
+regard which was fully reciprocated. At last Orion had been the theme of
+their discourse, and the physician, a restless toiler who could not like
+any man whose life was one of idle enjoyment, though he did full justice
+to his brilliant gifts and well-applied studies, had judged him far more
+hardly than the older man. To the leech all forms of human life were
+sacred, and in his eyes everything that could injure the body or soul of
+a man was worthy of destruction. He knew all that Orion had brought upon
+the hapless Mandane, and how lightly he had trifled with the hearts of
+other women; in his eyes this made him a mischievous and criminal member
+of society. He regarded life as an obligation to be discharged by work
+alone, of whatever kind, if only it were a benefit to society as a
+whole. And such youths as Orion not only did not recognize this, but
+used the whole and the parts also for base and selfish ends. The old
+Moslem, on the contrary, viewed life as a dream whose fairest portion,
+the time of youth, each one should enjoy with alert senses, and only
+take care that at the waking which must come with death he might hope to
+find admission into Paradise. How little could man do against the iron
+force of fate! That could not be forefended by hard work; there was
+nothing for it but to take up a right attitude, and to confront and meet
+it with dignity. The bark of Orion's existence lacked ballast; in fine
+weather it drifted wherever the breeze carried it, He himself had taken
+care to equip it well; and if only the chances of life should freight it
+heavily--very heavily, and fling it on the rocks, then Orion might show
+who and what he was; he, Haschim, firmly believed that his character
+would prove itself admirable. It was in the hour of shipwreck that a man
+showed his worth.
+
+Here the physician interrupted him to prove that it was not Fate, as
+imagined by Moslems, but man himself who guided the bark of life--but at
+this moment Paula looked into the room, and he broke off. The merchant
+bowed profoundly, Philippus respectfully, but with more embarrassment
+than might have been expected from the general confidence of his manner.
+For some years he had been a daily visitor in the governor's house, and
+after carefully ignoring Paula on her first arrival, since Dame Neforis
+had taken to treating her so coolly he drew her out whenever he had the
+opportunity. Her conversations with him had now become dear and even
+necessary to her, though at first his dry, cutting tone had displeased
+her, and he had often driven her into a corner in a way that was hard
+to bear. They kept her mind alert in a circle which never busied itself
+with anything but the trivial details of family life in the decayed
+city, or with dogmatic polemics--for the Mukaukas seldom or never took
+part in the gossip of the women.
+
+The leech never talked of daily events, but expressed his views as to
+other and graver subjects in life, or in books with which they were both
+familiar; and he had the art of eliciting replies from her which he met
+with wit and acumen. By degrees she had become accustomed to his bold
+mode of thought, sometimes, it is true, too recklessly expressed; and
+the gifted girl now preferred a discussion with him to any other form of
+conversation, recognizing that a childlike and supremely unselfish soul
+animated this thoughtful reservoir of all knowledge. Almost everything
+she did displeased her uncle's wife, and so, of course, did her familiar
+intercourse with this man, whose appearance certainly had in it nothing
+to attract a young girl.--The physician to a family of rank was there to
+keep its members in good health, and it was unbecoming in one of them
+to converse with him on intimate terms as an equal. She reproached
+Paula--whose pride she was constantly blaming--for her unseemly
+condescension to Philippus; but what chiefly annoyed her was that Paula
+took up many a half-hour which otherwise Philippus would have devoted
+to her husband; and in him and his health her life and thoughts were
+centred.
+
+The Arab at once recognized his foe of the previous evening; but they
+soon came to a friendly understanding--Paula confessing her folly in
+holding a single and kindly-disposed man answerable for the crimes of a
+whole nation. Haschim replied that a right-minded spirit always came
+to a just conclusion at last; and then the conversation turned on her
+father, and the physician explained to the Arab that she was resolved
+never to weary of seeking the missing man.
+
+"Nay, it is the sole aim and end of my life," cried the girl.
+
+"A great mistake, in my opinion," said the leech. But the merchant
+differed: there were things, he said, too precious to be given up for
+lost, even when the hope of finding them seemed as feeble and thin as a
+rotten reed.
+
+"That is what I feel!" cried Paula. "And how can you think differently,
+Philip? Have I not heard from your own lips that you never give up all
+hope of a sick man till death has put an end to it? Well, and I cling to
+mine--more than ever now, and I feel that I am right. My last thought,
+my last coin shall be spent in the search for my father, even without my
+uncle and his wife, and in spite of their prohibition."
+
+"But in such a task a young girl can hardly do without a man's succor,"
+said the merchant. "I wander a great deal about the world, I speak with
+many foreigners from distant lands, and if you will do me the honor,
+pray regard me as your coadjutor, and allow me to help you in seeking
+for the lost hero."
+
+"Thanks--I fervently thank you!" cried Paula, grasping the Moslem's hand
+with hearty pleasure. "Wherever you go bear my lost father in mind; I am
+but a poor, lonely girl, but if you find him..."
+
+"Then you will know that even among the Moslems there are men..."
+
+"Men who are ready to show compassion and to succor friendless women!"
+interrupted Paula.
+
+"And with good success, by the blessing of the Almighty," replied the
+Arab. "As soon as I find a clue you shall hear from me; now, however,
+I must go across the Nile to see Amru the great general; I go in all
+confidence for I know that my poor, brave Rustem is in good hands,
+friend Philippus. My first enquiries shall be made in Fostat, rely upon
+that, my daughter."
+
+"I do indeed," said Paula with pleased emotion. "When shall we meet
+again?"
+
+"To-morrow, or the morning after at latest."
+
+The young girl went up to him and whispered: "We have just heard of a
+clue; indeed, I hope my messenger is already on his way. Have you time
+to hear about it now?"
+
+"I ought long since to have been on the other shore; so not to-day, but
+to-morrow I hope." The Arab shook hands with her and the physician, and
+hastily took his leave.
+
+Paula stood still, thinking. Then it struck her that Hiram was now on
+the further side of the Nile, within the jurisdiction of the Arab ruler,
+and that the merchant could perhaps intercede for him, if she were to
+tell him all she knew. She felt the fullest confidence in the old man,
+whose kind and sympathetic face was still visible to her mind's eye,
+and without paying any further heed to the physician she went quickly
+towards the door of the sick-room. A crucifix hung close by, and the nun
+had fallen on her knees before it, praying for her infidel patient, and
+beseeching the Good Shepherd to have mercy on the sheep that was not
+of His fold. Paula did not venture to disturb the worshipper, who was
+kneeling just in the narrow passage; so some minutes elapsed before the
+leech, observing her uneasiness, came out of the larger room, touched
+the nun on the shoulder, and said in a low voice of genuine kindness:
+
+"One moment, good Sister. Your pious intercession will be heard--but
+this damsel is in haste." The nun rose at once and made way, sending a
+wrathful glance after Paula as she hurried down the stairs.
+
+At the door of the court-yard she looked out and about for the Arab, but
+in vain. Then she enquired of a slave who told her that the merchant's
+horse had waited for him at the gate a long time, that he had just come
+galloping out, and by this time must have reached the bridge of boats
+which connected Memphis with the island of Rodah and, beyond the island,
+with the fort of Babylon and the new town of Fostat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Paula went up-stairs again, distressed and vexed with herself. Was it
+the heat that had enervated her and robbed her of the presence of mind
+she usually had at her command? She herself could not understand how it
+was that she had not at once taken advantage of the opportunity to plead
+to Haschim for her faithful retainer. The merchant might have interested
+himself for Hiram.
+
+The slave at the gate had told her that he had not yet been taken; the
+time to intercede, then, had not yet come. But she was resolved to do
+so, to draw the wrath of her relations down on herself, and, if need
+should be, to relate all she had seen in the course of the night, to
+save her devoted servant. It was no less than her duty: still, before
+humiliating Orion so deeply she would warn him. The thought of charging
+him with so shameful a deed pained her like the need for inflicting an
+injury on herself. She hated him, but she would rather have broken the
+most precious work of art than have branded him--him whose image still
+reigned in her heart, supremely glorious and attractive.
+
+Instead of following Mary to breakfast, or offering herself as usual to
+play draughts with her uncle, she went back to the sick-room. To meet
+Neforis or Orion at this moment would have been painful, indeed odious
+to her. It was long since she had felt so weary and oppressed. A
+conversation with the physician might perhaps prove refreshing; after
+the various agitations of the last few hours she longed for something,
+be it what it might, that should revive her spirits and give a fresh
+turn to her thoughts.
+
+In the Masdakite's room the Sister coldly asked her what she wanted, and
+who had given her leave to assist in tending the sufferers. The leech,
+who at that moment was moistening the bandage on the wounded man's head,
+at this turned to the nun and informed her decidedly that he desired the
+young girl's assistance in attending on both his patients. Then he led
+the way sitting-room, saying in subdued into the adjoining tones:
+
+"For the present all is well. Let us rest here a little while."
+
+She sat down on a divan, and he on a seat opposite, and Philippus began:
+
+"You were seeking handsome Orion just now, but you must...."
+
+"What?" she asked gravely. "And I would have you to know that the son
+of the house is no more to me than his mother is. Your phrase 'Handsome
+Orion' seems to imply something that I do not again wish to hear. But I
+must speak to him, and soon, in reference to an important matter."
+
+"To what, then, do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here again? To
+confess the truth I did not hope for your return."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Excuse me from answering. No one likes to hear unpleasant things. If
+one of my profession thinks any one is not well...."
+
+"If that is meant for me," replied the girl, "all I can tell you is that
+the one thing on which I still can pride myself is my health. Say what
+you will--the very worst for aught I care. I want something to-day to
+rouse me from lethargy, even if it should make me angry."
+
+"Very well then," replied the leech, "though I am plunging into deep
+waters!--As to health, as it is commonly understood, a fish might envy
+you; but the higher health--health of mind: that I fear you cannot boast
+of."
+
+"This is a serious beginning," said Paula. "Your reproof would seem to
+imply that I have done you or some one else a wrong."
+
+"If only you had!" exclaimed he. "No, you have not sinned against us in
+any way.--'I am as I am' is what you think of yourself; and what do you
+care for others?"
+
+"That must depend on whom you mean by 'others!'"
+
+"Nothing less than all and each of those with whom you live--here, in
+this house, in this town, in this world. To you they are mere air--or
+less; for the air is a tangible thing that can fill a ship's sails and
+drive it against the stream, whose varying nature can bring comfort or
+suffering to your body."
+
+"My world is within!" said Paula, laying her hand on her heart.
+
+"Very true. And all creation may find room there; for what cannot the
+human heart, as it is called, contain! The more we require it to take
+and keep, the more ready it is to hold it. It is unsafe to let the
+lock rust; for, if once it has grown stiff, when we want to open it
+no pulling and wrenching will avail. And besides--but I do not want to
+grieve you.--You have a habit of only looking backwards...."
+
+"And what that is pleasurable lies before me? Your blame is harsh and at
+the same time unjust.--Indeed, and how can you tell which way I look?"
+
+"Because I have watched you with the eye of a friend. In truth, Paula,
+you have forgotten how to look around and forward. The life which lies
+behind you and which you have lost is all your world. I once showed
+you on a fragmentary papyrus that belonged to my foster father, Horus
+Apollo, a heathen demon represented as going forwards, while his head
+was turned on his neck so that the face and eyes looked behind him."
+
+"I remember it perfectly."
+
+"Well, you have long been just like him. 'All things move,' says
+Heraclitus, so you are forced to float onwards with the great stream;
+or, to vary the image, you must walk forwards on the high-road of life
+towards the common goal; but your eye is fixed on what lies behind you,
+feasting on the prospect of a handsome and wealthy home, kindness and
+tenderness, noble and loving faces, and a happy, but alas! long-lost
+existence. All the same, on you must go.--What must the result be?"
+
+"I must stumble, you think, and fall?"
+
+The physician's reproof had hit Paula all the harder because she could
+not conceal from herself that there was much truth in it. She had come
+hither on purpose to find encouragement, and these accusations troubled
+even her sense of high health. Why should she submit to be taken to task
+like a school-girl by this man, himself still young? If this went on she
+would let him hear.... But he was speaking again, and his reply calmed
+her, and strengthened her conviction that he was a true and well-meaning
+friend.
+
+"Not that perhaps," he said, "because--well, because nature has blessed
+you with perfect balance, and you go forward in full self-possession as
+becomes the daughter of a hero. We must not forget that it is of your
+soul that I am speaking; and that maintains its innate dignity of
+feeling among so much that is petty and mean."
+
+"Then why need I fear to look back when it gives me so much comfort?"
+she eagerly enquired, as she gazed in his face with fresh spirit.
+
+"Because it may easily lead you to tread on other people's feet! That
+hurts them; then they are annoyed, and they get accustomed to think
+grudgingly of you--you who are more lovable than they are."
+
+"But quite unjustly; for I am not conscious of ever having intentionally
+grieved or hurt any one in my whole life."
+
+"I know that; but you have done so unintentionally a thousand times."
+
+"Then it would be better I should quit them altogether."
+
+"No, and a thousand times no! The man who avoids his kind and lives in
+solitude fancies he is doing some great thing and raising himself above
+the level of the existence he despises. But look a little closer: it is
+self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave and the cloister.
+In any case he neglects his highest duty towards humanity--or let us
+say merely towards the society he belongs to--in order to win what he
+believes to be his own salvation. Society is a great body, and every
+individual should regard himself as a member of it, bound to serve and
+succor it, and even, when necessary, to make sacrifices for it.
+The greatest are not too great. But those who crave isolation,--you
+yourself--nay, hear me out, for I may never again risk the danger of
+incurring your wrath--desire to be a body apart. What Paula has known
+and possessed, she keeps locked in the treasure-house of her memory
+under bolt and key; What Paula is, she feels she still must be--and for
+whom? Again, for that same Paula. She has suffered great sorrow and on
+that her soul lives; but this is evil nourishment, unwholesome and bad
+for her."
+
+She was about to rise; but he bent forward, with a zealous conviction
+that he must not allow himself to be interrupted, and lightly touched
+her arm as though to prevent her quitting her seat, while he went on
+unhesitatingly:
+
+"You feed on your old sorrows! Well and good. Many a time have I seen
+that trial can elevate the soul. It can teach a brave heart to feel the
+woes of others more deeply; it can rouse a desire to assuage the griefs
+of others with beautiful self-devotion. Those who have known pain and
+affliction enjoy ease and pleasure with double satisfaction; sufferers
+learn to be grateful for even the smaller joys of life. But you?--I
+have long striven for courage to tell you so--you derive no benefit from
+suffering because you lock it up in your breast--as if a man were to
+enclose some precious seed in a silver trinket to carry about with him.
+It should be sown in the earth, to sprout and bear fruit! However, I do
+not blame you; I only wish to advise you as a true and devoted friend.
+Learn to feel yourself a member of the body to which your destiny has
+bound you for the present, whether you like it or not. Try to contribute
+to it all that your capacities allow you achieve. You will find that you
+can do something for it; the casket will open, and to your surprise
+and delight you will perceive that the seed dropped into the soil will
+germinate, that flowers will open and fruit will form of which you may
+make bread, or extract from it a balm for yourself or for others! Then
+you will leave the dead to bury the dead, as the Bible has it, and
+dedicate to the living those great powers and gracious gifts which an
+illustrious father and a noble mother--nay, and a long succession of
+distinguished ancestors, have bequeathed to a descendant worthy of them.
+Then you will recover that which you have lost: the joy in existence
+which we ought both to feel and to diffuse, because it brings with it
+an obligation which it which is only granted to us once to fulfil. Kind
+fate has fitted you above a hundred thousand others for being loved;
+and if you do not forget the gratitude you owe for that, hearts will
+be turned to you, though now they shun the tree which has beset itself
+intentionally with thorns, and which lets its branches droop like the
+weeping-willows by the Nile. Thus you will lead a new and beautiful
+life, receiving and giving joy. The isolated and charmless existence you
+drag through here, to the satisfaction of none and least of all to your
+own, you can transform to one of fruition and satisfaction--breathing
+and moving healthily and beneficently in the light of day. It lies
+in your power. When you came up here to give your care to these poor
+injured creatures, you took the first step in the new path I desire to
+show you, to true happiness. I did not expect you, and I am thankful
+that you have come; for I know that as you entered that door you may
+have started on the road to renewed happiness, if you have the will to
+walk in it.--Thank God! That is said and over!"
+
+The leech rose and wiped his forehead, looking uneasily at Paula who
+had remained seated; her breath came fast, and she was more confused and
+undecided than he had ever seen her. She clasped her hand over her brow,
+and gazed, speechless, into her lap as though she wished to smother some
+pain.
+
+The young physician beat his arms together, like a laborer in the winter
+when his hands are frozen, and exclaimed with distressful emotion: "Yes,
+I have spoken, and I cannot regret having done so; but what I foresaw
+has come to pass: The greatest happiness that ever sweetened my daily
+life is gone out of it! To love Plato is a noble rule, but greater than
+Plato is the truth; and yet, those who preach it must be prepared to
+find that truth scares away friends from the unpleasing vicinity of its
+ill-starred Apostles!"
+
+At this Paula rose, and following the impulse of her generous heart,
+offered the leech her hand in all sincerity; he grasped it in both his,
+pressing it so tightly that it almost hurt her, and his eyes glistened
+with moisture as he exclaimed: "That is as I hoped; that is splendid,
+that is noble! Let me but be your brother, high-souled maiden!--Now,
+come. That poor, crazy, lovely girl will heal of her death-wound under
+your hands if under any!"
+
+"I will come!" she replied heartily; and there was something healthy and
+cheerful in her manner as they entered the sick-room; but her expression
+suddenly changed, and she asked pensively:
+
+"And supposing we restore the unhappy girl--what good will she get by
+it?"
+
+"She will breathe and see the sunshine," replied the leech; "she will
+be grateful to you, and finally she will contribute what she can to the
+whole body. She will be alive in short, she will live. For life--feel
+it, understand it as I do--life is the best thing we have." Paula gazed
+with astonishment in the man's unlovely but enthusiastic face. How
+radiantly joyful!
+
+No one could have called it ugly at this moment, or have said that it
+lacked charm.
+
+He believed what he had asserted with such fervent feeling, though it
+was in contradiction to a view he had held only yesterday and often
+defended: that life in itself was misery to all who could not grasp it
+of their own strength, and make something of it worth making. At this
+moment he really felt that it was the best gift.
+
+Paula went forward, and his eyes followed her, as the gaze of the pious
+pilgrim is fixed on the holy image he has travelled to see, over seas
+and mountains, with bruised feet.
+
+They went up to the sick girl's bed. The nun drew back, making her own
+reflections on the physician's altered mien, and his childlike, beaming
+contentment, as he explained to Paula what particular peril threatened
+the sufferer, and by what treatment he hoped to save her; how to make
+the bandages and give the medicines, and how necessary it was to accept
+the poor crazy girl's fancies and treat them as rational ideas so long
+as the fever lasted.
+
+At last he was forced to go and attend to other patients. Paula remained
+sitting at the head of the bed and gazing at the face of the sufferer.
+
+How fair it was! And Orion had snatched this rose in the bud, and
+trodden it under foot! She had, no doubt, felt for him what Paula
+herself felt. And now? Did she feel nothing but hatred of him, or could
+her heart, in spite of her indignation and scorn, not altogether cast
+off the spell that had once bound it?
+
+What weakness was this! She was, she must, she would be his foe!
+
+Her thoughts went back to the idle and futile life that she had led for
+so many years. The physician had hit the mark; and he had been too
+easy rather than severe. Yes, she would begin to make good use of
+her powers--but how, in what way, here and among these people? How
+transfigured poor Philippus had seemed when she had given him her hand;
+with what energy had he poured forth his words.
+
+"And how false," she mused, "is the saying that the body is the mirror
+of the soul! If it were so, Philippus would have the face of Orion, and
+Orion that of Philippus." But could Orion's heart be wholly reprobate?
+Nay, that was impossible; her every impulse resisted the belief. She
+must either love him or hate him, there was no third alternative; but as
+yet the two passions were struggling within her in a way that was quite
+intolerable.
+
+The physician had spoken of being a brother to her, and she could not
+help smiling at the idea. She could, she thought, live very happily and
+calmly with him, with her nurse Betta, and with the learned old friend
+who shared his home, and of whom he had often talked to her; she could
+join him in his studies, help him in his calling, and discuss many
+things well worth knowing. Such a life, she told herself, would be
+a thousand times preferable to this, with Neforis. In him she had
+certainly found a friend; and her glad recognition of the fact was the
+first step towards the fulfilment of his promise, since it showed that
+her heart was still ready to go forth to the kindness of another.
+
+Amid these meditations, however, her anxiety for Hiram constantly
+recurred to her, and it was clear to her mind that, if she and Orion
+should come to extremities, she could no longer dwell under the
+governor's roof. Often she had longed for nothing so fervently as to be
+able to quit it; but to-day it filled her with dread, for parting from
+her uncle necessarily involved parting from his son. She hated him;
+still, to lose sight of him altogether would be very hard to bear. To go
+with Philippus and live with him as his sister would never do; nay, it
+struck her as something inconceivable, strangely incongruous.
+
+Meanwhile she listened to Mandane's breathing and treated her in
+obedience to the leech's orders, longing for his return; presently
+however, not he but the nun came to the bed-side, laid her hand on the
+girl's forehead, and without paying any heed to Paula, whispered kindly:
+"That is right child, sleep away; have a nice long sleep. So long as she
+can be kept quiet; if only she goes on like this!--Her head is cooler.
+Philippus will certainly say there is scarcely any fever. Thank God, the
+worst danger is over!"
+
+"Oh, how glad I am!" cried Paula, and she spoke with such warmth and
+sincerity that the nun gave her a friendly nod and left the sick girl to
+her care, quite satisfied.
+
+It was long since Paula had felt so happy. She fancied that her presence
+had had a good affect on the sufferer, that Mandane had already been
+brought by her nursing to the threshold of a new life. Paula, who
+but just now had regarded herself as a persecuted victim of Fate, now
+breathed more freely in the belief that she too might bring joy to some
+one. She looked into Mandane's more than pretty face with real joy and
+tenderness, laid the bandage which had slipped aside gently over her
+ears, and breathed a soft kiss on her long silken lashes.
+
+She rapidly grew in favor with the shrewd nun; when the hour for prayer
+came round, the sister included in her petitions--Paula--the orphan
+under a stranger's roof, the Greek girl born, by the inscrutable decrees
+of God, outside the pale of her saving creed. At length Philippus
+returned; he was rejoiced at his new friend's brightened aspect, and
+declared that Mandane had, under her care, got past the first and worst
+danger, and might be expected to recover, slowly indeed, but completely.
+
+After Paula had renewed the compress--and he intentionally left her to
+do it unaided, he said encouragingly:
+
+"How quickly you have learnt your business.--Now, the patient is asleep
+again; the Sister will keep watch, and for the present we can be of no
+use to the girl; sleep is the best nourishment she can have. But with
+us--or at any rate with me, it is different. We have still two hours to
+wait for the next meal: my breakfast is standing untouched, and yours
+no doubt fared the same; so be my guest. They always send up enough to
+satisfy six bargemen."
+
+Paula liked the proposal, for she had long been hungry. The nun was
+desired to hasten to fetch some more plates, of drinking-vessels there
+was no lack--and soon the new allies were seated face to face, each at
+a small table. He carved the duck and the roast quails, put the salad
+before her and some steaming artichokes, which the nun had brought up
+at the request of the cook whose only son the physician had saved; he
+invited her attention to the little pies, the fruits and cakes which
+were laid ready, and played the part of butler; and then, while they
+heartily enjoyed the meal, they carried on a lively conversation.
+
+Paula for the first time asked Philippus to tell her something of his
+early youth; he began with an account of his present mode of life, as a
+partner in the home of the singular old priest of Isis, Horus Apollo,
+a diligent student; he described his strenuous activity by day and his
+quiet studies by night, and gave everything such an amusing aspect that
+often she could not help laughing. But presently he was sad, as he told
+her how at an early age he had lost his father and mother, and was
+left to depend solely on himself and on a very small fortune, having no
+relations; for his father had been a grammarian, invited to Alexandria
+from Athens, who had been forced to make a road for himself through
+life, which had lain before him like an overgrown jungle of papyrus
+and reeds. Every hour of his life was devoted to his work, for a rough,
+outspoken Goliath, such as he, never could find it easy to meet with
+helpful patrons. He had managed to live by teaching in the high schools
+of Alexandria, Athens, and Caesarea, and by preparing medicines from
+choice herbs--drinking water instead of wine, eating bread and fruit
+instead of quails and pies; and he had made a friend of many a good man,
+but never yet of a woman--it would be difficult with such a face as his!
+
+"Then I am the first?" said Paula, who felt deep respect for the man who
+had made his way by his own energy to the eminent position which he
+had long held, not merely in Memphis, but among Egyptian physicians
+generally.
+
+He nodded, and with such a blissful smile that she felt as though a
+sunbeam had shone into her very soul. He noticed this at once, raised
+his goblet, and drank to her, exclaiming with a flush on his cheek:
+
+"The joy that comes to others early has come to me late; but then the
+woman I call my friend is matchless!"
+
+"Well, it is to be hoped she may not prove to be so wicked as you just
+now described her.--If only our alliance is not fated to end soon and
+abruptly."
+
+"Ah!" cried the physician, "every drop of blood in my veins...."
+
+"You would be ready to shed it for me," Paula broke in, with a pathetic
+gesture, borrowed from a great tragedian she had seen at the theatre in
+Damascus. "But never fear: it will not be a matter of life and death--at
+worst they will but turn me out of the house and of Memphis."
+
+"You?" cried Philippus startled, "but who would dare to do so?"
+
+"They who still regard me as a stranger.--You described the case
+admirably. If they have their way, my dear new friend, our fate will be
+like that of the learned Dionysius of Cyrene."
+
+"Of Cyrene?"
+
+"Yes. It was my father who told me the story. When Dionysius sent his
+son to the High School at Athens, he sat down to write a treatise for
+him on all the things a student should do and avoid. He devoted himself
+to the task with the utmost diligence; but when, at the end of four
+years, he could write on the last leaf of the roll. 'Here this book hath
+a happy ending,' the young man whose studies it was intended to guide
+came home to Cyrene, a finished scholar."
+
+"And we have struck up a friendship...?"
+
+"And made a treaty of alliance, only to be parted ere long."
+
+Philippus struck his fist vehemently on the little table in front of his
+couch and exclaimed: "That I will find means to prevent!--But now, tell
+me in confidence, what has last happened between you and the family
+down-stairs?"
+
+"You will know quite soon enough."
+
+"Whichever of them fancies that you can be turned out of doors
+without more ado and there will be an end between us, may find himself
+mistaken!" cried the physician with an angry sparkle in his eyes. "I
+have a right to put in a word in this house. It has not nearly come to
+that yet, and what is more, it never shall. You shall quit it certainly;
+but of your own free will, and holding your head high...."
+
+As he spoke the door of the outer room was hastily opened and the next
+instant Orion was standing before them, looking with great surprise at
+the pair who had just finished their meal. He said coldly:
+
+"I am disturbing you, I see."
+
+"Not in the least," replied the leech; and the young man, perceiving
+what bad taste it would be and how much out of place to give expression
+to his jealous annoyance, said, with a smile: "If only it had been
+granted to a third person to join in this symposium!"
+
+"We found each other all-sufficient company," answered Philippus.
+
+"A man who could believe in all the doctrines of the Church as readily
+as in that statement would be assured of salvation," laughed Orion. "I
+am no spoilsport, respected friends; but I deeply regret that I must,
+on the present occasion, disturb your happiness. The matter in
+question...." And he felt he might now abandon the jesting tone which so
+little answered to his mood, "is a serious one. In the first instance it
+concerns your freedman, my fair foe."
+
+"Has Hiram come back?" asked Paula, feeling herself turn pale.
+
+"They have brought him in," replied Orion. "My father at once summoned
+the court of judges. Justice has a swift foot here with us; I am sorry
+for the man, but I cannot prevent its taking its course. I must beg of
+you to appear at the examination when you are called."
+
+"The whole truth shall be told!" said Paula sternly and firmly.
+
+"Of course," replied Orion. Then turning to the physician, he added: "I
+would request you, worthy Esculapius, to leave me and my cousin together
+for a few minutes. I want to give her a word of counsel which will
+certainly be to her advantage."
+
+Philippus glanced enquiringly at the girl; she said with clear decision:
+"You and I can have no secrets. What I may hear, Philippus too may
+know."
+
+Orion, with a shrug, turned to leave the room:
+
+On the threshold he paused, exclaiming with some excitement and genuine
+distress:
+
+"If you will not listen to me for your own sake, do so at least,
+whatever ill-feeling you may bear me, because I implore you not to
+refuse me this favor. It is a matter of life or death to one human
+being, of joy or misery to another. Do not refuse me.--I ask nothing
+unreasonable, Philippus. Do as I entreat you and leave us for a moment
+alone."
+
+Again the physician's eyes consulted the young girl's; this time she
+said: "Go!" and he immediately quitted the room.
+
+Orion closed the door.
+
+"What have I done, Paula," he began with panting breath, "that since
+yesterday you have shunned me like a leper--that you are doing your
+utmost to bring me to ruin?"
+
+"I mean to plead for the life of a trusty servant; nothing more," she
+said indifferently.
+
+"At the risk of disgracing me!" he retorted bitterly.
+
+"At that risk, no doubt, if you are indeed so base as to throw your own
+guilt on the shoulders of an honest man."
+
+"Then you watched me last night?"
+
+"The merest chance led me to see you come out of the tablinum...."
+
+"I do not ask you now what took you there so late," he interrupted, "for
+it revolts me to think anything of you but the best, the highest.--But
+you? What have you experienced at my hands but friendship--nay, for
+concealment or dissimulation is here folly--but what a lover...?"
+
+"A lover!" cried Paula indignantly. "A lover? Dare you utter the word,
+when you have offered your heart and hand to another--you...."
+
+"Who told you so?" asked Orion gloomily.
+
+"Your own mother."
+
+"That is it; so that is it?" cried the young man, clasping his hands
+convulsively. "Now I begin to see, now I understand. But stay. For if
+it is indeed that which has roused you to hate me and persecute me, you
+must love me, Paula--you do love me, and then, noblest and sweetest...."
+He held out his hand; but she struck it aside, exclaiming in a tremulous
+voice:
+
+"Be under no delusion. I am not one of the feeble lambs whom you have
+beguiled by the misuse of your gifts and advantages; and who then are
+eager to kiss your hands. I am the daughter of Thomas; and another
+woman's betrothed, who craves my embraces on the way to his wedding,
+will learn to his rueing that there are women who scorn his disgraceful
+suit and can avenge the insult intended them. Go--go to your judges!
+You, a false witness, may accuse Hiram, but I will proclaim you, you the
+son of this house, as the thief! We shall see which they believe."
+
+"Me!" cried Orion, and his eyes flashed as wrathfully and vindictively
+as her own. "The son of the Mukaukas! Oh, that you were not a woman!
+I would force you to your knees and compel you to crave my pardon. How
+dare you point your finger at a man whose life has hitherto been as
+spotless as your own white raiment? Yes, I did go to the tablinum--I
+did tear the emerald from the hanging; but I did it in a fit of
+recklessness, and in the knowledge that what is my father's is mine. I
+threw away the gem to gratify a mere fancy, a transient whim. Cursed be
+the hour when I did it!--Not on account of the deed itself, but of the
+consequences it may entail through your mad hatred. Jealousy, petty,
+unworthy jealousy is at the bottom of it! And of whom are you jealous?"
+
+"Of no one; not even of your betrothed, Katharina," replied Paula with
+forced composure. "What are you to me that, to spare you humiliation,
+I should risk the life of the most honest soul living? I have said: The
+judges shall decide between you."
+
+"No, they shall not!" stormed Orion. "At least, not as you intend!
+Beware, beware, I say, of driving me to extremities! I still see in you
+the woman I loved; I still offer you what lies within my power: to let
+everything end for the best for you...."
+
+"For me! Then I, too, am to suffer for your guilt?"
+
+"Did you hear the barking of hounds just now?"
+
+"I heard dogs yelping."
+
+"Very well.--Your freedman has been brought in, the pack got on his
+scent and have now been let into the house close to the tablinum. The
+dogs would not stir beyond the threshold and on the white marble step,
+towards the right-hand side, the print of a man's foot was found in
+the dust. It is a peculiar one, for instead of five toes there are but
+three. Your Hiram was fetched in, and he was found to have the same
+number of toes as the mark on the marble, neither more nor less. A horse
+trod on his foot, in your father's stable, and two of his toes had to
+be cut off: we got this out of the stammering wretch with some
+difficulty.--On the other side of the door-way there was a smaller
+print, but though the dogs paid no heed to that I examined it, and
+assured myself--how, I need not tell you--that it was you who had stood
+there. He, who has no business whatever in the house, must have made his
+way last night into the tablinum, our treasury. Now, put yourself in the
+judges' place. How can such facts be outweighed by the mere word of a
+girl who, as every one knows, is on anything rather than good terms with
+my mother, and who will leave no stone unturned to save her servant."
+
+"Infamous!" cried Paula. "Hiram did not steal the gem, as you must know
+who stole it. The emerald he sold was my property; and were those stones
+really so much alike that even the seller..."
+
+"Yes, indeed. He could not tell one from the other. Evil spirits have
+been at work all through, devilish, malignant demons. It would be enough
+to turn one's brain, if life were not so full of enigmas! You yourself
+are the greatest.--Did you give the Syrian your emerald to sell in order
+to fly from this house with the money?--You are silent? Then I am
+right. What can my father be to you--you do not love my mother--and the
+son!--Paula, Paula, you are perhaps doing him an injustice--you hate
+him, and it is a pleasure to you to injure him."
+
+"I do not wish to hurt you or any one," replied the girl. "And you have
+guessed wrongly. Your father refused me the means of seeking mine."
+
+"And you wanted to procure money to search for one who is long since
+dead!--Even my mother admits that you speak the truth; if she is right,
+and you really take no pleasure in doing me a mischief, listen to me,
+follow my advice, and grant my prayer! I do not ask any great matter."
+
+"Speak on then."
+
+"Do you know what a man's honor is to him? Need I tell you that I am a
+lost and despised man if I am found guilty of this act of the maddest
+folly by the judges of my own house? It may cost my father his life
+if he hears that the word 'guilty' is pronounced on me; and I--I--what
+would become of me I cannot foresee!--I--oh God, oh God, preserve me
+from frenzy!--But I must be calm; time presses.... How different it is
+for your servant; he seems ready even now to take the guilt on himself,
+for, whatever he is asked, he still keeps silence. Do you do the same;
+and if the judges insist on knowing what you had to do with the Syrian
+last night--for the dogs traced the scent to your staircase--hazard
+a conjecture that the faithful fellow stole the emerald in order to
+gratify your desire to search for your father, his beloved master. If
+you can make up your mind to so great a sacrifice--oh, that I should
+have to ask it of you!--I swear to you by all I hold sacred, by yourself
+and by my father's head, I will set Hiram free within three days,
+unbeaten and unhurt, and magnificently indemnified; and I will myself
+help him on the way whither he may desire to go, or you to send him,
+in search of your father.--Be silent; remain neutral in the background;
+that is all I ask, and I will keep my word--that, at any rate, you do
+not doubt?" She had listened to him with bated breath; she pitied him
+deeply as he stood there, a suppliant in bitter anguish of soul, a
+criminal who still could not understand that he was one, and who relied
+on the confidence that, only yesterday, he still had had the right to
+exact from all the world. He appeared before her like a fine proud tree
+struck by lightning, whose riven trunk, trembling to its fall, must be
+crushed to the earth by the first storm, unless the gardener props it
+up. She longed to be able to forget all he had brought upon her and to
+grasp his hand in friendly consolation; but her deeply aggrieved pride
+helped her to preserve the cold and repellent manner she had so far
+succeeded in assuming.
+
+With much hesitation and reserve she consented to be silent as long as
+he kept his promise. It was for his father's sake, rather than his own,
+that she would so far become his accomplice: at the same time everything
+else was at an end between them, and she should bless the hour which
+might see her severed from him and his for ever.
+
+The end of her speech was in a strangely hard and repellent tone; she
+felt she must adopt it to disguise how deeply she was touched by his
+unhappiness and by the extinction of the sunshine in him which had once
+warmed her own heart too with bliss. To him it seemed that an icy rigor
+breathed in her words--bitter contempt and hostile revulsion. He had
+some difficulty in keeping himself from breaking out again in violent
+wrath. He was almost sorry that he had trusted her with his secret and
+begged her for mercy, instead of leaving things to run their course, and
+if it had come to the worst, dragging her to perdition with him. Sooner
+would he forfeit honor and peace than humble himself again before this
+pitiless and cold-hearted foe. At this moment he really hated her, and
+only wished it were possible to fight her, to break her pride, to see
+her vanquished and crying for quarter at his feet. It was with a great
+effort--with tingling cheeks and constrained utterance that he said:
+
+"Severance from you is indeed best for us all.--Be ready: the judges
+will send for you soon."
+
+"Very well," she replied. "I will be silent; you have only to provide
+for the Syrian's safety. You have given me your word."
+
+"And so long as you keep yours I will keep mine. Or else..." the words
+would come from his quivering lips--"or else war to the knife!"
+
+"War to the knife!" she echoed with flashing eyes. "But one thing more.
+I have proof that the emerald which Hiram sold belonged to me. By all
+the saints--proof!"
+
+"So much the better for you," he said. "Woe to us both, if you force me
+to forget that you are a woman!"
+
+And he left the room with a rapid step.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Orion went down stairs scowling and clenching his fists. His heart ached
+to bursting.
+
+What had he done, what had befallen him? That a woman should dare to
+treat him so!--a woman whom he had deigned to love--the loveliest and
+noblest of women; but at the same time the haughtiest, most vengeful,
+and most hateful.
+
+He had once read this maxim: "When a man has committed a base action, if
+only one other knows of it he carries the death-warrant of his peace in
+the bosom of his garment." He felt the full weight of this sentence; and
+the other--the one who knew--was Paula, the woman of all others whom he
+most wished should look up to him. But yesterday it had been a vision of
+heaven on earth to dream of holding her in his arms and calling her his;
+now he had but one wish: that he could humble and punish her. Oh, that
+his hands should be tied, that he should be dependent on her mercy like
+a condemned criminal! It was inconceivable--intolerable!
+
+But she should be taught to know him. He had passed through life
+hitherto as white as a swan; if this luckless hour and this woman made
+him appear as a vulture, it was not his fault, it was hers. She should
+soon see which was the stronger of the two. He would punish her in every
+way in which a woman can be punished, even if the way to it led
+through crime and misery! He was not afraid that the leech bad won her
+affections, for he knew, with strange certainty that, in spite of the
+hostility she displayed, her heart was his and his alone. "The gold coin
+called love," said he to himself, "has two faces: tender devotion and
+bitter aversion; just now she is showing me the latter. But, however
+different the image and superscription may be on the two sides, if you
+ring it, it always gives out the same tone; and I can hear it even in
+her most insulting words."
+
+When the family met at table he made Paula's excuses; he himself ate
+only a few mouthfuls, for the judges had assembled some time since and
+were waiting for him.
+
+The right of life and death had been placed in the hands of the
+ancestors of the Mukaukas, powerful princes of provinces; they had
+certainly wielded it even in the dynasty of Psammitichus, whose power
+had been put to a terrible end by Cambyses the Persian. And still the
+Uraeus snake--the asp whose bite caused almost instant death, reared its
+head as the time-honored emblem of this privilege, by the side of St.
+George the Dragon-slayer, over the palaces of the Mukaukas at Memphis,
+and at Lykopolis in Upper Egypt. And in both these places the head
+of the family retained the right of arbitrary judgment and capital
+punishment over the retainers of his house and the inhabitants of
+the district he governed, after Justinian first, and then the Emperor
+Heraclius, had confirmed them in their old prerogative. The chivalrous
+St. George was placed between the snakes so as to replace a heathen
+symbol by a Christian one. Formerly indeed the knight himself had had
+the head of a sparrow-hawk: that is to say of the god Horus, who had
+overthrown the evil-spirit, Seth-Typhon, to avenge his father; but about
+two centuries since the heathen crocodile-destroyer had been transformed
+into the Christian conqueror of the dragon.
+
+After the Arab conquest the Moslems had left all ancient customs and
+rights undisturbed, including those of the Mukaukas.
+
+The court which assembled to sit in judgment on all cases concerning
+the adherents of the house consisted of the higher officials of the
+governor's establishment. The Mukaukas himself was president, and his
+grown-up son was his natural deputy. During Orion's absence, Nilus, the
+head of the exchequer, a shrewd and judicious Egyptian, had generally
+represented his invalid master; but on the present occasion Orion was
+appointed to take his place, and to preside over the assembly.
+
+The governor's son hastened to his father's bedroom to beg him to
+lend him his ring as a token of the authority transferred to him; the
+Mukaukas had willingly allowed him to take it off his finger, and had
+enjoined him to exercise relentless severity. Generally he inclined to
+leniency; but breaking into a house was punishable with death, and in
+this instance it was but right to show no mercy, out of deference to the
+Arab merchant. But Orion, mindful of his covenant with Paula, begged his
+father to give him full discretion. The old Moslem was a just man, who
+would agree to a mitigated sentence under the circumstances; besides,
+the culprit was not in strict fact a member of the household, but in the
+service of a relation.
+
+The Mukaukas applauded his son's moderation and judgment. If only he had
+been in rather better health he himself would have had the pleasure of
+being present at the sitting, to see him fulfil for the first time so
+important a function, worthy of his birth and position.
+
+Orion kissed his father's hand with heart-felt but melancholy emotion,
+for this praise from the man he so truly loved was a keen pleasure; and
+yet he felt that it was of ill-omen that his duties as judge, of which
+he knew the sacred solemnity, should be thus--thus begun.
+
+It was in a softened mood, sunk in thought as to how he could best save
+Hiram and leave Paula's name altogether out of the matter, that he went
+to the hall of justice; and there he found the nurse Perpetua in eager
+discussion with Nilus.
+
+The old woman was quite beside herself. In the clatter of her loom she
+had heard nothing of what had been going on till a few minutes ago; now
+she was ready to swear to the luckless Hiram's innocence. The stone he
+had sold had belonged to his young mistress, and thank God there was no
+lack of evidence of the fact; the setting of the emerald was lying
+safe and sound in Paula's trunk. Happily she had had an opportunity of
+speaking to her; and that she, the daughter of Thomas, should be brought
+before the tribunal, like a citizen's daughter or slave-girl, was
+unheard of, shameful!
+
+At this Orion roughly interfered; he desired the old gate-keeper to
+conduct Perpetua at once to the storeroom next to the tablinum, where
+the various stuffs prepared for the use of the household were laid by,
+and to keep her there under safe guard till further notice. The tone
+in which he gave the order was such that even the nurse did not
+remonstrate; and Nilus, for his part obeyed in silence when Orion bid
+him return to his place among the judges.
+
+Nilus went back to the judgment-hall in uneasy consternation. Never
+before had he seen his young lord in this mood. As he heard the nurse's
+statement the veins had swelled in his smooth youthful forehead, his
+nostrils had quivered with convulsive agitation, his voice had lost all
+its sweetness, and his eyes had a sinister gleam.
+
+Orion was now alone; he ground his teeth with rage. Paula had betrayed
+him in spite of her promise, and how mean was her woman's cunning! She
+could be silent before the judges--yes. Silent in all confidence now, to
+the very last; but the nurse, her mouthpiece, had already put Nilus,
+the keenest and most important member of the court, in possession of
+the evidence which spoke for her and against him. It was shocking,
+disgraceful! Base and deliberately malicious treachery. But the end was
+not yet: he still was free to act and to ward off the spiteful stroke
+by a counterthrust. How it should be dealt was clear from Perpetua's
+statement; but his conscience, his instincts and long habits of
+submission to what was right, good, and fitting held him back. Not only
+had he never himself done a base or a mean action; he loathed it in
+another, and the only thing he could do to render Paula's perfidy
+harmless was, as he could not deny, original and bold, but at the same
+time detestable and shameful.
+
+Still, he could not and he would not succumb in this struggle. Time
+pressed. Long reflection was impossible; suddenly he felt carried away
+by a fierce and mad longing to fight it out--he felt as he had felt on a
+race-day in the hippodrome, when he had driven his own quadriga ahead of
+all the rest.
+
+Onwards, then, onwards; and if the chariot were wrecked, if the horses
+were killed, if his wheels maimed his comrades overthrown in the
+arena-still, onwards, onwards!
+
+A few hasty steps brought him to the lodge of the gate-keeper, a sturdy
+old man who had held his post for forty years. He had formerly been a
+locksmith and it still was part of his duty to undertake the repairs of
+the simple household utensils. Orion as a youth had been a beautiful and
+engaging boy and a great favorite with this worthy man; he had delighted
+in sitting in his little room and handing him the tools for his work.
+He himself had remarkable mechanical facility and had been the old man's
+apt pupil; nay, he had made such progress as to be able to carve pretty
+little boxes, prayer-book cases, and such like, and provide them with
+locks, as gifts to his parents on their birth days--a festival always
+kept with peculiar solemnity in Egypt, and marked by giving and
+receiving presents. He understood the use of tools, and he now hastily
+selected such as he needed. On the window-ledge stood a bunch of
+flowers which he had ordered for Paula the day before, and which he had
+forgotten to fetch this terrible morning. With this in one hand, and the
+tools in the breast of his robe he hastened upstairs.
+
+"Onwards, I must keep on!" he muttered, as he entered Paula's room,
+bolted the door inside and, kneeling before her chest, tossed the
+flowers aside. If he was discovered, he would say that he had gone into
+his cousin's chamber to give her the bouquet.
+
+"Onwards; I must go on!" was still his thought, as he unscrewed the
+hinge on which the lid of the trunk moved. His hands trembled, his
+breath came fast, but he did his task quickly. This was the right way
+to work, for the lock was a peculiar one, and could not have been opened
+without spoiling it. He raised the lid, and the first thing his hand
+came upon in the chest was the necklace with the empty medallion--it
+was as though some kind Genius were aiding him. The medallion hung but
+slightly to the elegantly-wrought chain; to detach it and conceal it
+about his person was the work of a minute.
+
+But now the most resolute. "On, on...." was of no further avail. This
+was theft: he had robbed her whom, if she only had chosen it, he was
+ready to load with everything wherewith fate had so superabundantly
+blessed him. No, this--this....
+
+A singular idea suddenly flashed through his brain; a thought which
+brought a smile to his lips even at this moment of frightful tension.
+He acted upon it forth with: he drew out from within his under-garment a
+gem that hung round his neck by a gold chain. This jewel--a masterpiece
+by one of the famous Greek engravers of heathen antiquity--had been
+given him in Constantinople in exchange for a team of four horses to
+which his greatest friend there had taken a fancy. It was in fact of
+greater price than half a dozen fine horses. Half beside himself, and as
+if intoxicated, Orion followed the wild impulse to which he had yielded;
+indeed, he was glad to have so precious a jewel at hand to hang in the
+place of the worthless gold frame-work. It was done with a pinch; but
+screwing up the hinge again was a longer task, for his hands trembled
+violently--and as the moment drew near in which he meant to let Paula
+feel his power, the more quickly his heart beat, and the more difficult
+he found it to control his mind to calm deliberation.
+
+After he had unbolted the door he stood like a thief spying the long
+corridor of the strangers' wing, and this increased his excitement to
+a frenzy of rage with the world, and fate, and most of all with her who
+had compelled him to stoop to such base conduct. But now the charioteer
+had the reins and goad in his hand. Onwards now, onwards!
+
+He flew down stairs, three steps at a time, as he had been wont when
+a boy. In the anteroom he met Eudoxia, Mary's Greek governess, who had
+just brought her refractory pupil into the house, and he tossed her
+the nosegay he still held in his hands; then, without heeding the
+languishing glances the middle-aged damsel sent after him with her
+thanks, he hastened back to the gate-keeper's lodge where he hurriedly
+disburdened himself of the locksmith's tools.
+
+A few minutes later he entered the judgment-hall. Nilus the treasurer
+showed him to the governor's raised seat, but an overpowering
+bashfulness kept him from taking this position of honor. It was with a
+burning brow, and looks so ominously dark that the assembly gazed at
+him with timid astonishment, that he opened the proceedings with a few
+broken sentences. He himself scarcely knew what he was saying, and heard
+his own voice as vaguely as though it were the distant roar of waves.
+However, he succeeded in clearly stating all that had happened: he
+showed the assembly the stone which had been stolen and recovered; he
+explained how the thief had been taken; he declared Paula's freedman to
+be guilty of the robbery, and called upon him to bring forward anything
+he could in his own defence. But the accused could only stammer out that
+he was not guilty. He was not able to defend himself, but his mistress
+could no doubt give evidence that would justify him.
+
+Orion pushed the hair from his forehead, proudly raised his aching head,
+and addressed the judges:
+
+"His mistress is a lady of rank allied to our house. Let us keep her
+out of this odious affair as is but seemly. Her nurse gave Nilus some
+information which may perhaps avail to save this unhappy man. We will
+neglect nothing to that end; but you, who are less familiar with the
+leading circumstances, must bear this in mind to guard yourselves
+against being misled: This lady is much attached to the accused; she
+clings to him and Perpetua as the only friends remaining to her from
+her native home. Moreover, there is nothing to surprise me or you in the
+fact that a noble woman, as she is, should assume the onus of another's
+crime, and place herself in a doubtful light to save a man who has
+hitherto been honest and faithful. The nurse is here; shall she be
+called, or have you, Nilus, heard from her everything that her mistress
+can say in favor of her freedman?"
+
+"Perpetua told me, and told you, too, my lord, certain credible facts,"
+replied the treasurer. "But I could not repeat them so exactly as she
+herself, and I am of opinion that the woman should be brought before the
+court."
+
+"Then call her," said Orion, fixing his eyes on vacancy above the heads
+of the assembly, with a look of sullen dignity.
+
+After a long and anxious pause the old woman was brought in. Confident
+in her righteous cause she came forward boldly; she blamed Hiram
+somewhat sharply for keeping silence so long, and then explained that
+Paula, to procure money for her search for her father, had made the
+freedman take a costly emerald out of its setting in her necklace, and
+that it was the sale of this gem that had involved her fellow-countryman
+in this unfortunate suspicion.
+
+The nurse's deposition seemed to have biased the greater part of the
+council in favor of the accused; but Orion did not give them time to
+discuss their impressions among themselves. Hardly had Perpetua ceased
+speaking, when Orion took up the emerald, which was lying on the table
+before him, exclaiming excitedly, nay, angrily:
+
+"And the stone which is recognized by the man who sold it--an expert in
+gems--as being that which was taken from the hanging, and unique of its
+kind, is supposed, by some miracle of nature, to have suddenly appeared
+in duplicate?--Malignant spirits still wander through the world, but
+would hardly dare to play their tricks in this Christian house. You all
+know what 'old women's tales' are; and the tale that old woman has told
+us is one of the most improbable of its class. 'Tell that to Apelles the
+Jew,' said Horace the Roman; but his fellow-Israelite, Gamaliel'--and
+he turned to the jeweller who was sitting with the other witnesses will
+certainly not believe it; still less I, who see through this tissue of
+falsehood. The daughter of the noble Thomas has condescended to weave it
+with the help of that woman--a skilled weaver, she--to spread it before
+us in order to mislead us, and so to save her faithful servant from
+imprisonment, from the mines, or from death. These are the facts.--Do I
+err, woman, or do you still adhere to your statement?"
+
+The nurse, who had hoped to find in Orion her mistress' advocate, had
+listened to his speech with growing horror. Her eyes flashed as she
+looked at him, first with mockery and then with vehement disgust; but,
+though they filled with tears at this unlooked-for attack, she preserved
+her presence of mind, and declared she had spoken the truth, and nothing
+but the truth, as she always did. The setting of her mistress' emerald
+would prove her statement.
+
+Orion shrugged his shoulders, desired the woman to fetch her mistress,
+whose presence was now indispensable, and called to the treasurer:
+
+"Go with her, Nilus! And let a servant bring the trunk here that the
+owner may open it in the presence of us all and before any one else
+touches the contents. I should not be the right person to undertake
+it since no one in this Jacobite household--hardly even one of
+yourselves--has found favor in the eyes of the Melchite. She has
+unfortunately a special aversion for me, so I must depute to others
+every proceeding that could lead to a misunderstanding.--Conduct her
+hither, Nilus; of course with the respect due to a maiden of high rank."
+
+While the envoy was gone Orion paced the room with swift, restless
+steps, Once only he paused and addressed the judges:
+
+"But supposing the empty setting should be found, how do you account
+for the existence of two--two gems, each unique of its kind? It is
+distracting. Here is a soft-hearted girl daring to mislead a serious
+council of justice for the sake, for the sake of...." he stamped his
+foot with rage and continued his silent march.
+
+"He is as yet but a beginner," thought the assembled officials as they
+watched his agitation. "Otherwise how could he allow such an absurd
+attempt to clear an accused thief to affect him so deeply, or disturb
+his temper?"
+
+Paula's arrival presently put an end to Orion's pacing the room. He
+received her with a respectful bow and signed to her to be seated.
+Then he bid Nilus recapitulate the results of the proceedings up to the
+present stage, and what he and his colleagues supposed to be her motive
+for asserting that the stolen emerald was her property. He would as far
+as possible leave it to the others to question her, since she knew full
+well on what terms she was with himself. Even before he had come into
+the council-room she had offered her explanation of the robbery to
+Nilus, through her nurse Perpetua; but it would have seemed fairer and
+more friendly in his eyes--and here he raised his voice--if she had
+chosen to confide to him, Orion, her plan for helping the freedman. Then
+he might have been able to warn her. He could only regard this mode of
+action, independently of him, as a fresh proof of her dislike, and she
+must hold herself responsible for the consequences. Justice must now
+take its course with inexorable rigor.
+
+The wrathful light in his eyes showed her what she had to expect from
+him, and that he was prepared to fight her to the end. She saw that he
+thought that she had broken the promise she had but just now given him;
+but she had not commissioned Perpetua to interfere in the matter; on the
+contrary, she had desired the woman to leave it to her to produce her
+evidence only in the last extremity. Orion must believe that she had
+done him a wrong; still, could that make him so far forget himself as
+to carry out his threats, and sacrifice an innocent man--to divert
+suspicion from himself, while he branded her as a false witness? Aye,
+even from that he would not shrink! His flaming glance, his abrupt
+demeanor, his laboring breath, proclaimed it plainly enough.--Then let
+the struggle begin! At this moment she would have died rather than have
+tried to mollify him by a word of excuse. The turmoil in his whole being
+vibrated through hers. She was ready to throw herself at his feet
+and implore him to control himself, to guard himself against further
+wrong-doing--but she maintained her proud dignity, and the eyes that met
+his were not less indignant and defiant than his own.
+
+They stood face to face like two young eagles preparing to fight, with
+feathers on end, arching their pinions and stretching their necks. She,
+confident of victory in the righteousness of her cause, and far more
+anxious for him than for herself; he, almost blind to his own danger,
+but, like a gladiator confronting his antagonist in the arena, far more
+eager to conquer than to protect his own life and limb.
+
+While Nilus explained to her what, in part, she already knew, and
+repeated their suspicion that she had been tempted to make a false
+declaration to save the life of her servant, whose devotion, no doubt,
+to his missing master had led him to commit the robbery; she kept her
+eye on Orion rather than on the speaker. At last Nilus referred to the
+trunk, which had been brought from Paula's room under her own eyes,
+informing her that the assembly were ready to hear and examine into
+anything she had to say in her own defence.
+
+Orion's agitation rose to its highest pitch. He felt that the blood
+had fled from his cheeks, and his thoughts were in utter confusion. The
+council, the accused, his enemy Paula--everything in the room lay before
+him shrouded in a whirl of green mist. All he saw seemed to be tinted
+with light emerald green. The hair, the faces, the dresses of those
+present gleamed and floated in a greenish light; and not till Paula went
+up to the chest with a firm, haughty step, drew out a small key, gave
+it to the treasurer, and answered his speech with three words: "Open the
+box!"--uttering them with cold condescension as though even this were
+too much--not till then did he see clearly once more: her bright brown
+hair, the fire of her blue eyes, the rose and white of her complexion,
+the light dress which draped her fine figure in noble folds, and her
+triumphant smile. How beautiful, how desirable was this woman! A few
+minutes and she would be worsted in this contest; but the triumph had
+cost him not only herself, but all that was good and pure in his soul,
+and worthy of his forefathers. An inward voice cried it out to him, but
+he drowned it in the shout of "Onwards," like a chariot-driver. Yes--on;
+still on towards the goal; away over ruins and stones, through blood and
+dust, till she bowed her proud neck, crushed and beaten, and sued for
+mercy.
+
+The lid of the trunk flew open. Paula stooped, lifted the necklace, held
+it out to the judges, pulling it straight by the two ends.... Ah! what
+a terrible, heartrending cry of despair! Orion even, never, never
+wished to hear the like again. Then she flung the jewel on the table,
+exclaiming: "Shameful, shameful! atrocious!" she tottered backwards and
+clung to her faithful Betta; for her knees were giving way, and she felt
+herself in danger of sinking to the ground.
+
+Orion sprang forward to support her, but she thrust him aside, with
+a glance so full of anguish, rage and intense contempt that he stood
+motionless, and clasped his hand over his heart.--And this deed, which
+was to work such misery for two human beings, he had smiled in doing!
+This practical joke which concealed a death-warrant--to what fearful
+issues might it not lead?
+
+Paula had sunk speechless on to a seat, and he stood staring in silence,
+till a burst of laughter broke from the assembly and old Psamtik, the
+captain of the guard, who had long been a member of the council of
+justice, exclaimed:
+
+"By my soul, a splendid stone! There is the heathen god Eros with his
+winged sweetheart Psyche smiling in his face. Did you never read that
+pretty story by Apuleius--'The Golden Ass' it is called? The passage is
+in that. Holy Luke! how finely it is carved. The lady has taken out the
+wrong necklace. Look, Gamaliel, where could your green pigeon's egg have
+found a place in that thing?" and he pointed to the gem.
+
+"Nowhere," said the Jew. "The noble lady..." But Orion roughly bid the
+witness to be silent, and Nilus, taking up the engraved gem, examined
+it closely. Then he--he the grave, just man, on whose support Paula had
+confidently reckoned--went up to her and with a regretful shrug asked
+her whether the other necklace with the setting of which she had spoken
+was in the trunk.
+
+The blood ran cold in her veins. This thing that had happened was as
+startling as a miracle. But no! No higher Power had anything to do
+with this blow. Orion believed that she had failed in her promise of
+screening him by her silence, and this, this was his revenge. By what
+means--how he had gone to work, was a mystery. What a trick!--and it had
+succeeded! But should she take it like a patient child? No. A thousand
+times no! Suddenly all her old powers of resistance came back; hatred
+steeled her wavering will; and, as in fancy, he had seen himself in
+the circus, driving in a race, so she pictured herself seated at the
+chess-board. She felt herself playing with all her might to win; but
+not, as with his father, for flowers, trifling presents or mere glory;
+nay, for a very different stake Life or Death!
+
+She would do everything, anything to conquer him; and yet, no--come what
+might--not everything. Sooner would she succumb than betray him as
+the thief or reveal what she had discovered in the viridarium. She had
+promised to keep the secret; and she would repay the father's kindness
+by screening the son from this disgrace. How beautiful, how noble
+had Orion's image been in her heart. She would not stain it with this
+disgrace in her own eyes and in those of the world. But every other
+reservation must be cast far, far away, to snatch the victory from him
+and to save Hiram. Every fair weapon she might use; only this treachery
+she could not, might not have recourse to. He must be made to feel
+that she was more magnanimous than he; that she, under all conceivable
+circumstances, kept her word. That was settled; her bosom once more rose
+and fell, and her eye brightened again; still it was some little time
+before she could find the right words with which to begin the contest.
+
+Orion could see the seething turmoil in her soul; he felt that she was
+arming herself for resistance, and he longed to spur her on to deal
+the first blow. Not a word had she uttered of surprise or anger, not a
+syllable of reproach had passed her lips. What was she thinking of, what
+was she plotting? The more startling and dangerous the better; the more
+bravely she bore herself, the more completely in the background might
+he leave the painful sense of fighting against a woman. Even heroes had
+boasted of a victory over Amazons.
+
+At last, at last!--She rose and went towards Hiram. He had been tied to
+the stake to which criminals were bound, and as an imploring glance
+from his honest eyes met hers, the spell that fettered her tongue was
+unloosed; she suddenly understood that she had not merely to protect
+herself, but to fulfil a solemn duty. With a few rapid steps she went up
+to the table at which her judges sat in a semi-circle, and leaning on it
+with her left hand, raised her right high in the air, exclaiming:
+
+"You are the victims of a cruel fraud; and I of an unparalleled and
+wicked trick, intended to bring me to ruin!--Look at that man at the
+stake. Does he look like a robber? A more honest and faithful servant
+never earned his freedom, and the gratitude Hiram owed to his master, my
+father, he has discharged to the daughter for whose sake he quitted his
+home, his wife and child. He followed me, an orphan, here into a strange
+land.--But that matters not to you.--Still, if you will hear the truth,
+the strict and whole...."
+
+"Speak!" Orion put in; but she went on, addressing herself exclusively
+to Nilus, and his peers, and ignoring him completely:
+
+"Your president, the son of the Mukaukas, knows that, instead of the
+accused, I might, if I chose, be the accuser. But I scorn it--for
+love of his father, and because I am more high-minded than he. He will
+understand!--With regard to this particular emerald Hiram, my freedman,
+took it out of its setting last evening, under my eyes, with his knife;
+other persons besides us, thank God! have seen the setting, empty, on
+the chain to which it belonged. This afternoon it was still in the place
+to which some criminal hand afterwards found access, and attached that
+gem instead. That I have just now seen for the first time--I swear it
+by Christ's wounds. It is an exquisite work. Only a very rich man--the
+richest man here, can give away such a treasure, for whatever purpose
+he may have in view--to destroy an enemy let us say.--Gamaliel," and she
+turned to the Jew--"At what sum would you value that onyx?"
+
+The Israelite asked to see the gem once more; he turned it about, and
+then said with a grin: "Well, fair lady, if my black hen laid me little
+things like that I would feed it on cakes from Arsinoe and oysters from
+Canopus. The stone is worth a landed estate, and though I am not a rich
+man, I would pay down two talents for it at any moment, even if I had to
+borrow the money."
+
+This statement could not fail to make a great impression on the judges.
+Orion, however, exclaimed: "Wonders on wonders mark this eventful day!
+The prodigal generosity which had become an empty name has revived again
+among us! Some lavish demon has turned a worthless plate of gold into a
+costly gem.--And may I ask who it was that saw the empty setting hanging
+to your chain?" Paula was in danger of forgetting even that last reserve
+she had imposed on herself; she answered with trembling accents:
+
+"Apparently your confederates or you yourself did. You, and you alone,
+have any cause...."
+
+But he would not allow her to proceed. He abruptly interrupted her,
+exclaiming: "This is really too much! Oh, that you were a man! How far
+your generosity reaches I have already seen. Even hatred, the bitterest
+hostility...."
+
+"They would have every right to ruin you completely!" she cried, roused
+to the utmost. "And if I were to charge you with the most horrible
+crime. ..."
+
+"You yourself would be committing a crime, against me and against this
+house," he said menacingly. "Beware! Can self-delusion go so far that
+you dare to appeal to me to testify to the fable you have trumped
+up...."
+
+"No. Oh, no! That would be counting on some honesty in you yet," she
+loudly broke in. "I have other witnesses: Mary, the granddaughter of the
+Mukaukas," and she tried to catch his eye.
+
+"The child whose little heart you have won, and who follows you about
+like a pet dog!" he cried.
+
+"And besides Mary, Katharina, the widow Susannah's daughter," she added,
+sure of her triumph, and the color mounted to her cheeks. "She is no
+longer a child, but a maiden grown, as you know. I therefore demand of
+you--" and she again turned to the assembly--"that you will fulfil your
+functions worthily and promote justice in my behalf by calling in both
+these witnesses and hearing their evidence."
+
+On this Orion interposed with forced composure: "As to whether a
+soft-hearted child ought to be exposed to the temptation to save the
+friend she absolutely worships by giving evidence before the judges, be
+it what it may, only her grandparents can decide. Her tender years would
+at any rate detract from the validity of her evidence, and I am averse
+to involving a child of this house in this dubious affair. With regard
+to Katharina, it is, on the contrary, the duty of this court to request
+her presence, and I offer myself to go and fetch her."
+
+He resolutely resisted Paula's attempts to interrupt him again: she
+should have a patient hearing presently in the presence of her witness.
+The gem no doubt had come to her from her father. But at this her
+righteous indignation was again too much for her; she cried out quite
+beside herself:
+
+"No, and again no. Some reprobate scoundrel, an accomplice of
+yours--yes, I repeat it--made his way into my room while I was in the
+sick-room, and either forced the lock of my trunk or opened it with a
+false key."
+
+"That can easily be proved," said Orion. In a confident tone he desired
+that the box should be placed on the table, and requested one of the
+council, who understood such matters, to give his opinion. Paula knew
+the man well. He was one of the most respected members of the household,
+the chief mechanician whose duty it was to test and repair the
+water-clocks, balances, measures and other instruments. He at once
+proceeded to examine the lock and found it in perfect order, though
+the key, which was of peculiar form, could certainly not have found a
+substitute in any false key; and Paula was forced to admit that she had
+left the trunk locked at noon and had worn the key round her neck ever
+since. Orion listened to his opinion with a shrug, and before going to
+seek Katharina gave orders that Paula and the nurse should be conducted
+to separate rooms. To arrive at any clear decision in this matter,
+it was necessary that any communication between these two should be
+rendered impossible. As soon as the door was shut on them he hastened
+into the garden, where he hoped to find Katharina.
+
+The council looked after him with divided feelings. They were here
+confronted by riddles that were hard to solve. No one of them felt that
+he had a right to doubt the good intentions of their lord's son, whom
+they looked up to as a talented and high-minded youth. His dispute with
+Paula had struck them painfully, and each one asked himself how it
+was that such a favorite with women should have failed to rouse any
+sentiment but that of hatred in one of the handsomest of her sex. The
+marked hostility she displayed to Orion injured her cause in the eyes
+of her judges, who knew only too well how unpleasant her relations were
+with Neforis. It was more than audacious in her to accuse the Mukaukas'
+son of having broken open her trunk; only hatred could have prompted her
+to utter such a charge. Still, there was something in her demeanor which
+encouraged confidence in her assertions, and if Katharina could really
+testify to having seen the empty medallion on the chain there would
+be no alternative but to begin the enquiry again from a fresh point of
+view, and to inculpate another robber. But who could have lavished
+such a treasure as this gem in exchange for mere rubbish? It was
+inconceivable; Ammonius the mechanician was right when he said that a
+woman full of hatred was capable of anything, even the incredible and
+impossible.
+
+Meanwhile it was growing dusk and the scorching day had turned to the
+tempered heat of a glorious evening. The Mukaukas was still in his room
+while his wife with Susannah and her daughter, Mary and her governess,
+were enjoying the air and chatting in the open hall looking out on the
+garden and the Nile. The ladies had covered their heads with gauze veils
+as a protection against the mosquitoes, which were attracted in swarms
+from the river by the lights, and also against the mists that rose
+from the shallowing Nile; they were in the act of drinking some
+cooling fruit-syrup which had just been brought in, when Orion made his
+appearance.
+
+"What has happened?" cried his mother in some anxiety, for she concluded
+from his dishevelled hair and heated cheeks that the meeting had gone
+anything rather than smoothly.
+
+"Incredible things," he replied. "Paula fought like a lioness for her
+father's freedman..."
+
+"Simply to annoy us and put us in a difficulty," replied Neforis.
+
+"No, no, Mother," replied Orion with some warmth. "But she has a will of
+iron; a woman who never pauses at anything when she wants to carry her
+point; and at the same time she goes to work with a keen wit that is
+worthy of the greatest lawyer that I ever heard defend a cause in the
+high court of the capital. Besides this her air of superiority, and her
+divine beauty turn the heads of our poor household officers. It is fine
+and noble, of course, to be so zealous in the cause of a servant; but
+it can do no good, for the evidence against her stammering favorite is
+overwhelming, and when her last plea is demolished the matter is ended.
+She says that she showed a necklace to the child, and to you, charming
+Katharina."
+
+"Showed it?" cried the young girl. "She took it away from us--did not
+she, Mary?"
+
+"Well, we had taken it without her leave," replied the child.
+
+"And she wants our children to appear in a court of justice to bear
+witness for her highness?" asked Neforis indignantly.
+
+"Certainly," replied Orion. "But Mary's evidence is of no value in law."
+
+"And even if it were," replied his mother, "the child should not be
+mixed up with this disgraceful business under any circumstances."
+
+"Because I should speak for Paula!" cried Mary, springing up in great
+excitement.
+
+"You will just hold your tongue," her grandmother exclaimed.
+
+"And as for Katharina," said the widow, "I do not at all like the notion
+of her offering herself to be stared at by all those gentlemen."
+
+"Gentlemen!" observed the girl. "Men--household officials and such like.
+They may wait long enough for me!"
+
+"You must nevertheless do their bidding, haughty rosebud," said Orion
+laughing. "For you, thank God, are no longer a child, and a court of
+justice has the right of requiring the presence of every grown person
+as a witness. No harm will come to you, for you are under my protection.
+Come with me. We must learn every lesson in life. Resistance is vain.
+Besides, all you will have to do will be to state what you have seen,
+and then, if I possibly can, I will bring you back under the tender
+escort of this arm, to your mother once more. You must entrust your
+jewel to me to-day, Susannah, and this trustworthy witness shall tell
+you afterwards how she fared under my care."
+
+Katharina was quite capable of reading the implied meaning of these
+words, and she was not ill-pleased to be obliged to go off alone with
+the governor's handsome son, the first man for whom her little heart
+had beat quicker; she sprang up eagerly; but Mary clung to her arm, and
+insisted so vehemently and obstinately on being taken with them to bear
+witness in Paula's behalf, that her governess and Dame Neforis had the
+greatest difficulty in reducing her to obedience and letting the pair go
+off without her. Both mothers looked after them with great satisfaction,
+and the governor's wife whispered to Susannah: "Before the judges
+to-day, but ere long, please God, before the altar at Church!"
+
+To reach the hall of judgment they could go either through the house or
+round it. If the more circuitous route were chosen, it lay first through
+the garden; and this was the course taken by Orion. He had made a very
+great effort in the presence of the ladies to remain master of the
+agitation that possessed him; he saw that the battle he had begun, and
+from which he, at any rate, could not and would not now retire, was
+raging more and more fiercely, obliging him to drag the young creature
+who must become his wife--the die was already cast--into the course of
+crime he had started on.
+
+When he had agreed with his mother that he was not to prefer his suit
+for Katharina till the following day, he had hoped to prove to her in
+the interval that this little thing was no wife for him; and now--oh!
+Irony of Fate--he found himself compelled to the very reverse of what he
+longed to do: to fight the woman he loved--Yes, still loved--as if she
+were his mortal foe, and pay his court to the girl who really did not
+suit him. It was maddening, but inevitable; and once more spurring
+himself with the word "Onwards!" he flung himself into the
+accomplishment of the unholy task of subduing the inexperienced child
+at his elbow into committing even a crime for his sake. His heart was
+beating wildly; but no pause, no retreat was possible: he must conquer.
+"Onwards, then, onwards!"
+
+When they had passed out of the light of the lamps into the shade he
+took his young companion's slender hand-thankful that the darkness
+concealed his features--and pressed the delicate fingers to his lips.
+
+"Oh!--Orion!" she exclaimed shyly, but she did not resist.
+
+"I only claim my due, sunshine of my soul!" he said insinuatingly. "If
+your heart beat as loud as mine, our mothers might hear them!"
+
+"But it does!" she joyfully replied, her curly head bent on one side.
+
+"Not as mine does," he said with a sigh, laying her little hand on his
+heart. He could do so in all confidence, for its spasmodic throbbing
+threatened to suffocate him.
+
+"Yes indeed," she said. "It is beating..."
+
+"So that they can hear it indoors," he added with a forced laugh. "Do
+you think your dear mother has not long since read our feelings?"
+
+"Of course she has," whispered Katharina. "I have rarely seen her in
+such good spirits as since your return."
+
+"And you, you little witch?"
+
+"I? Of course I was glad--we all were.--And your parents!"
+
+"Nay, nay, Katharina! What you yourself felt when we met once more, that
+is what I want to know."
+
+"Oh, let that pass! How can I describe such a thing?"
+
+"Is that quite impossible?" he asked and clasped her arm more closely
+in his own. He must win her over, and his romantic fancy helped him to
+paint feelings he had never had, in glowing colors. He poured out sweet
+words of love, and she was only too ready to believe them. At a sign
+from him she sat down confidingly on a wooden bench in the old avenue
+which led to the northern side of the house. Flowers were opening on
+many of the shrubs and shedding rich, oppressive perfume. The moonlight
+pierced through the solemn foliage of the sycamores, and shimmering
+streaks and rings of light played in the branches, on the trunks, and on
+the dark ground. The heat of the day still lingered in the leafy roofs
+overhead, sultry and heavy even now; and in this alley he called her
+for the first time his own, his betrothed, and enthralled her heart in
+chains and bonds. Each fervent word thrilled with the wild and painful
+agitation that was torturing his soul, and sounded heartfelt and
+sincere. The scent of flowers, too, intoxicated her young and
+inexperienced heart; she willingly offered her lips to his kisses, and
+with exquisite bliss felt the first glow of youthful love returned.
+
+She could have lingered thus with him for a lifetime; but in a few
+minutes he sprang up, anxious to put an end to this tender dalliance
+which was beginning to be too much even for him, and exclaimed:
+
+"This cursed, this infernal trial! But such is the fate of man! Duty
+calls, and he must return from all the bliss of Paradise to the world
+again. Give me your arm, my only love, my all!"
+
+And Katharina obeyed. Dazzled and bewildered by the extraordinary
+happiness that had come to meet her, she allowed him to lead her on,
+listening with suspended breath as he added: "Out of this beatitude back
+to the sternest of duties!--And how odious, how immeasurably loathesome
+is the case in question! How gladly would I have been a friend to Paula,
+a faithful protector instead of a foe!"
+
+As he spoke he felt the girl's left hand clench tighter on his arm,
+and this spurred him on in his guilty purpose. Katharina herself had
+suggested to his mind the course he must pursue to attain his end.
+He went on to influence her jealousy by praising Paula's charm and
+loftiness, excusing himself in his own eyes by persuading himself that a
+lover was justified in inducing his betrothed to save his happiness and
+his honor.
+
+Still, as he uttered each flattering word, he felt that he was lowering
+himself and doing a fresh injustice to Paula. He found it only too easy
+to sing her praises; but as he did so with growing enthusiasm Katharina
+hit him on the arm exclaiming, half in jest and half seriously vexed:
+
+"Oh, she is a goddess! And pray do you love her or me? You had better
+not make me jealous! Do you hear?"
+
+"You little simpleton!" he said gaily; and then he added soothingly:
+"She is like the cold moon, but you are the bright warming sun. Yes,
+Paula!--we will leave Paula to some Olympian god, some archangel. I
+rejoice in my gladsome little maiden who will enjoy life with me, and
+all its pleasures!"
+
+"That we will!" she exclaimed triumphantly; the horizon of her future
+was radiant with sunshine.
+
+"Good Heavens!" he exclaimed as if in surprise. "The lights are already
+shining in that miserable hall of justice! Ah, love, love! Under that
+enchantment we had forgotten the object for which we came out.--Tell me,
+my darling, do you remember exactly what the necklace was like that you
+and Mary were playing with this afternoon?"
+
+"It was very finely wrought, but in the middle hung a rubbishy broken
+medallion of gold."
+
+"You are a pretty judge of works of art! Then you overlooked the fine
+engraved gem which was set in that modest gold frame?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"I assure you, little wise-head!"
+
+"No, my dearest." As she spoke she looked up saucily, as though she had
+achieved some great triumph. "I know very well what gems are. My father
+left a very fine collection, and my mother says that by his will they
+are all to belong to my future husband."
+
+"Then I can set you, my jewel, in a frame of the rarest gems."
+
+"No, no," she cried gaily. "Let me have a setting indeed, for I am but a
+fugitive thing; but only, only in your heart."
+
+"That piece of goldsmith's work is already done.--But seriously my
+child; with regard to Paula's necklace: it really was a gem, and you
+must have happened to see only the back of it. That is just as you
+describe it: a plain setting of gold."
+
+"But Orion...."
+
+"If you love me, sweetheart, contradict me no further. In the future
+I will always accept your views, but in this case your mistake might
+involve us in a serious misunderstanding, by compelling me to give in
+to Paula and make her my ally.--Here we are! But wait one moment
+longer.--And once more, as to this gem. You see we may both be wrong--I
+as much as you; but I firmly believe that I am in the right. If you make
+a statement contrary to mine I shall appear before the judges as a
+liar. We are now betrothed--we are but one, wholly one; what damages or
+dignifies one of us humiliates or elevates the other. If you, who love
+me--you, who, as it is already whispered, are soon to be the mistress of
+the governor's house--make a statement opposed to mine they are certain
+to believe it. You see, your whole nature is pure kindness, but you are
+still too young and innocent quite to understand all the duties of that
+omnipotent love which beareth and endureth all things. If you do not
+yield to me cheerfully in this case you certainly do not love me as
+you ought. And what is it to ask? I require nothing of you but that
+you should state before the court that you saw Paula's necklace at noon
+to-day, and that there was a gem hanging to it--a gem with Love and
+Psyche engraved on it."
+
+"And I am to say that before all those men?" asked Katharina doubtfully.
+
+"You must indeed, you kind little angel!" cried Orion tenderly. "And
+do you think it pretty in a betrothed bride to refuse her lover's first
+request so grudgingly, suspiciously, and ungraciously? Nay, nay. If
+there is the tiniest spark of love for me in your heart, if you do not
+want to see me reduced to implore Paula for mercy...."
+
+"But what is it all about? How can it matter so much to any one whether
+a gem or a mere plate of gold...?"
+
+"All that I will explain later," he hastily replied.
+
+"Tell me now...."
+
+"Impossible. We have already put the patience of the judges to too
+severe a test. We have not a moment to lose."
+
+"Very well then; but I shall die of confusion and shame if I have to
+make a declaration...."
+
+"Which is perfectly truthful, and by which you can prove to me that you
+love me," he urged.
+
+"But it is dreadful!" she exclaimed anxiously. "At least fasten my veil
+closely over my face.--All those bearded men...."
+
+"Like the ostrich," said Orion, laughing as he complied. "If you really
+cannot agree with your... What is it you called me just now? Say it
+again."
+
+"My dearest!" she said shyly but tenderly.
+
+She helped Orion to fold her veil twice over her face, and did not
+thrust him aside when he whispered in her ear: "Let us see if a kiss
+cannot be sweet even through all that wrapping!--Now, come. It will be
+all over in a few minutes."
+
+He led the way into the anteroom to the great hall, begged her to wait
+a moment, and then went in and hastily informed the assembly that Dame
+Susannah had entrusted her daughter to him only on condition that he
+should escort her back again as soon as she had given her testimony.
+Then Paula was brought in and he desired her to be seated.
+
+It was with a sinking and anxious heart that Katharina had entered the
+anteroom. She had screened herself from a scolding before now by trivial
+subterfuges, but never had told a serious lie; and every instinct
+rebelled against the demand that she should now state a direct
+falsehood. But could Orion, the noblest of mankind, the idol of the
+whole town, so pressingly entreat her to do anything that was wrong? Did
+not love--as he had said--make it her duty to do everything that might
+screen him from loss or injury? It did not seem to her to be quite as it
+should be, but perhaps she did not altogether understand the matter; she
+was so young and inexperienced. She hated the idea, too, that, if she
+opposed her lover, he would have to come to terms with Paula. She had
+no lack of self-possession, and she told herself that she might hold
+her own with any girl in Memphis; still, she felt the superiority of the
+handsome, tall, proud Syrian, nor could she forget how, the day before
+yesterday, when Paula had been walking up and down the garden with Orion
+the chief officer of Memphis had exclaimed: "What a wonderfully handsome
+couple!" She herself had often thought that no more beautiful, elegant
+and lovable creature than Thomas' daughter walked the earth; she had
+longed and watched for a glance or a kind word from her. But since
+hearing those words a bitter feeling had possessed her soul against
+Paula, and there had been much to foster it. Paula always treated her
+like a child instead of a grown-up girl, as she was. Why, that very
+morning, had she sought out her betrothed--for she might call him so
+now--and tried to keep her away from him? And how was it that
+Orion, even while declaring his love for her, had spoken more than
+warmly--enthusiastically of Paula? She must be on her guard, and though
+others should speak of the great good fortune that had fallen to her
+lot, Paula, at any rate, would not rejoice in it, for Katharina felt and
+knew that she was not indifferent to Orion. She had not another enemy
+in the world, but Paula was one; her love had everything to fear from
+her--and suddenly she asked herself whether the gold medallion she had
+seen might not indeed have been a gem? Had she examined the necklace
+closely, even for a moment? And why should she fancy she had sharper
+sight than Orion with his large, splendid eyes?
+
+He was right, as he always was. Most engraved gems were oval in form,
+and the pendant which she had seen and was to give evidence about, was
+undoubtedly oval. Then it was not like Orion to require a falsehood of
+her. In any case it was her duty to her betrothed to preserve from evil,
+and prevent him from concluding any alliance with that false Siren. She
+knew what she had to say; and she was about to loosen a portion of her
+veil from her face that she might look Paula steadfastly in the eyes,
+when Orion came back to fetch her into the hall where the Court was
+sitting. To his delight--nay almost to his astonishment--she stated with
+perfect confidence that a gem had been hanging to Paula's necklace at
+noon that day; and when the onyx was shown her and she was asked if she
+remembered the stone, she calmly replied:
+
+"It may or it may not be the same; I only remember the oval gold back
+to it: besides I was only allowed to have the necklace in my hands for a
+very short time."
+
+When Nilus, the treasurer, desired her to look more closely at the
+figures of Eros and Psyche to refresh her memory, she evaded it by
+saying: "I do not like such heathen images: we Jacobite maidens wear
+different adornments."
+
+At this Paula rose and stepped towards her with a look of stern reproof;
+little Katharina was glad now that it had occurred to her to cover her
+face with a double veil. But the utter confusion she felt under the
+Syrian girl's gaze did not last long. Paula exclaimed reproach fully:
+"You speak of your faith. Like mine, it requires you to respect the
+truth. Consider how much depends on your declaration; I implore you,
+child..."
+
+But the girl interrupted her rival exclaiming with much irritation and
+vehement excitement:
+
+"I am no longer a child, not even as compared with you; and I think
+before I speak, as I was taught to do."
+
+She threw back her little head with a confident air, and said very
+decidedly:
+
+"That onyx hung to the middle of the chain."
+
+"How dare you, you audacious hussy!" It was Perpetua, quite unable to
+contain herself, who flung the words in her face. Katharina started as
+though an asp had stung her and turned round on the woman who had dared
+to insult her so grossly and so boldly. She was on the verge of tears as
+she looked helplessly about her for a defender; but she had not long to
+wait, for Orion instantly gave orders that Perpetua should be imprisoned
+for bearing false witness. Paula, however, as she had not perjured
+herself, but had merely invented an impossible tale with a good motive,
+was dismissed, and her chest was to be replaced in her room.
+
+At this Paula once more stepped forth; she unhooked the onyx from the
+chain and flung it towards Gamaliel, who caught it, while she exclaimed:
+
+"I make you a present of it, Jew! Perhaps the villain who hung it to my
+chain may buy it back again. The chain was given to my great-grandmother
+by the saintly Theodosius, and rather than defile it by contact with
+that gift from a villain, I will throw it into the Nile!--You--you,
+poor, deluded judges--I cannot be wroth with you, but I pity you!--My
+Hiram..." and she looked at the freedman, "is an honest soul whom
+I shall remember with gratitude to my dying day; but as to that
+unrighteous son of a most righteous father, that man..." and she raised
+her voice, while she pointed straight at Orion's face; but the young man
+interrupted her with a loud:
+
+"Enough!"
+
+She tried to control herself and replied:
+
+"I will submit. Your conscience will tell you a hundred times over what
+I need not say. One last word..." She went close up to him and said in
+his ear:
+
+"I have been able to refrain from using my deadliest weapon against
+you for the sake of keeping my word. Now you, if you are not the basest
+wretch living, keep yours, and save Hiram."
+
+His only reply was an assenting nod; Paula paused on the threshold
+and, turning to Katharina, she added: "You, child--for you are but a
+child--with what nameless suffering will not the son of the Mukaukas
+repay you for the service you have rendered him!" Then she left the
+room. Her knees trembled under her as she mounted the stairs, but when
+she had again taken her place by the side of the hapless, crazy girl
+a merciful God granted her the relief of tears. Her friend saw her and
+left her to weep undisturbed, till she herself called him and confided
+to him all she had gone through in the course of this miserable day.
+
+Orion and Katharina had lost their good spirits; they went back to the
+colonnade in a dejected mood. On the way she pressed him to explain to
+her why he had insisted on her making this declaration, but he put her
+off till the morrow. They found Susannah alone, for his mother had been
+sent for by her husband, who was suffering more than usual, and she had
+taken Mary with her.
+
+After bidding the widow good-night and escorting her to her chariot,
+he returned to the hall where the Court was still sitting. There he
+recapitulated the case as it now stood, and all the evidence against the
+freed man. The verdict was then pronounced: Hiram was condemned to death
+with but one dissentient voice that of Nilus the treasurer.
+
+Orion ordered that the execution of the sentence should be postponed; he
+did not go back into the house, however, but had his most spirited horse
+saddled and rode off alone into the desert. He had won, but he felt as
+though in this race he had rushed into a morass and must be choked in
+it.
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+During all these hours Orion had been in the solitude of his own rooms.
+Next to them was little Mary's sleeping-room; he had not seen the child
+again since leaving his father's death-bed. He knew that she was lying
+there in a very feverish state, but he could not so far command himself
+as to enquire for her. When, now and again, he could not help thinking
+of her, he involuntarily clenched his fists. His soul was shaken to the
+foundations; desperate, beside himself, incapable of any thought but
+that he was the most miserable man on earth--that his father's curse had
+blighted him--that nothing could undo what had happened--that some cruel
+and inexorable power had turned his truest friend into a foe and had
+sundered them so completely that there was no possibility of atonement
+or of moving him to a word of pardon or a kindly glance--he paced the
+long room from end to end, flinging himself on his knees at intervals
+before the divan, and burying his burning face in the soft pillows. From
+time to time he could pray, but each time he broke off; for what Power
+in Heaven or on earth could unseal those closed eyes and stir that
+heart to beat again, that tongue to speak--could vouchsafe to him, the
+outcast, the one thing for which his soul thirsted and without which he
+thought he must die: Pardon, pardon, his father's pardon! Now and then
+he struck his forehead and heart like a man demented, with cries of
+anguish, curses and lamentations.
+
+About midnight--it was but just twelve hours since that fearful scene,
+and to him it seemed like as many days--he threw himself on the couch,
+dressed as he was in the dark mourning garments, which he had half torn
+off in his rage and despair, and broke out into such loud groans that
+he himself was almost frightened in the silence of the night. Full of
+self-pity and horror at his own deep grief, he turned his face to the
+wall to screen his eyes from the clear, full moon, which only showed him
+things he did not want to see, while it hurt him.
+
+His torture was beginning to be quite unbearable; he fancied his soul
+was actually wounded, riven, and torn; it had even occurred to him to
+seize his sharpest sword and throw himself upon it like Ajax in his
+fury--and like Cato--and so put a sudden end to this intolerable and
+overwhelming misery.
+
+He started up for--surely it was no illusion, no mistake-the door of
+his room was softly opened and a white figure came in with noiseless,
+ghostly steps. He was a brave man, but his blood ran cold; however, in
+a moment he recognized his nocturnal visitor as little Mary. She came
+across the moonlight without speaking, but he exclaimed in a sharp tone:
+
+"What is the meaning of this? What do you want?"
+
+The child started and stood still in alarm, stretching out imploring
+hands and whispering timidly:
+
+"I heard you lamenting. Poor, poor Orion! And it was I who brought it
+all on you, and so I could not stay in bed any longer--I must--I could
+not help...." But she could say no more for sobs. Orion exclaimed:
+
+"Very well, very well: go back to your own room and sleep. I will try
+not to groan so loud."
+
+He ended his speech in a less rough tone, for he observed that the child
+had come to see him, though she was ill, with bare feet and only in her
+night-shift, and was trembling with cold, excitement, and grief. Mary,
+however, stood still, shook her head, and replied, still weeping though
+less violently:
+
+"No, no. I shall stop here and not go away till you tell me that
+you--Oh, God, you never can forgive me, but still I must say it, I
+must."
+
+With a sudden impulse she ran straight up to him, threw her arms round
+his neck, laid her head against his, and then, as he did not immediately
+push her away, kissed his cheeks and brow.
+
+At this a strange feeling came over him; he himself did not know what it
+was, but it was as though something within him yielded and gave way, and
+the moisture which felt warm in his eyes and on his cheeks was not
+from the child's tears but his own. This lasted through many minutes of
+silence; but at last he took the little one's arms from about his neck,
+saying:
+
+"How hot your hands and your cheeks are, poor thing! You are feverish,
+and the night air blows in chill--you will catch fresh cold by this mad
+behavior."
+
+He had controlled his tears with difficulty, and as he spoke, in broken
+accents, he carefully wrapped her in the black robe he had thrown off
+and said kindly:
+
+"Now, be calm, and I will try to compose myself. You did not mean any
+harm, and I owe you no grudge. Now go; you will not feel the draught in
+the anteroom with that wrap on. Go; be quick."
+
+"No, no," she eagerly replied. "You must let me say what I have to say
+or I cannot sleep. You see I never thought of hurting you so
+dreadfully, so horribly--never, never! I was angry with you, to be sure,
+because--but when I spoke I really and truly did not think of you, but
+only of poor Paula. You do not know how good she is, and grandfather was
+so fond of her before you came home; and he was lying there and going to
+die so soon, and I knew that he believed Paula to be a thief and a liar,
+and it seemed to me so horrible, so unbearable to see him close his eyes
+with such a mistake in his mind, such an injustice!--Not for his sake,
+oh no! but for Paula's; so then I--Oh Orion! the Merciful Saviour is
+my witness, I could not help it; if I had had to die for it I could not
+have helped it! I should have died, if I had not spoken!"
+
+"And perhaps it was well that you spoke," interrupted the young man,
+with a deep sigh. "You see, child, your lost father's miserable brother
+is a ruined man and it matters little about him; but Paula, who is a
+thousand times better than I am, has at least had justice done her; and
+as I love her far more dearly than your little heart can conceive of, I
+will gladly be friends with you again: nay, I shall be more fond of you
+than ever. That is nothing great or noble, for I need love--much love to
+make life tolerable. The best love a man may have I have forfeited,
+fool that I am! and now dear, good little soul, I could not bear to lose
+yours! So there is my hand upon it; now, give me another kiss and then
+go to bed and sleep."
+
+But still Mary would not do his bidding, but only thanked him vehemently
+and then asked with sparkling eyes:
+
+"Really, truly? Do you love Paula so dearly?" At this point however she
+suddenly checked herself. "And little Katharina..."
+
+"Never mind about that," he replied with a sigh. "And learn a lesson
+from all this. I, you see, in an hour of recklessness did a wrong thing;
+to hide it I had to do further wrong, till it grew to a mountain which
+fell on me and crushed me. Now, I am the most miserable of men and I
+might perhaps have been the happiest. I have spoilt my own life by my
+own folly, weakness, and guilt; and I have lost Paula, who is dearer to
+me than all the other creatures on earth put together. Yes, Mary, if she
+had been mine, your poor uncle would have been the most enviable fellow
+in the world, and he might have been a fine fellow, too, a man of great
+achievements. But as it is!--Well, what is done cannot be undone! Now go
+to bed child; you cannot understand it all till you are older."
+
+"Oh I understand it already and much better perhaps than you suppose,"
+cried the ten years' old child. "And if you love Paula so much why
+should not she love you? You are so handsome, you can do so many things,
+every one likes you, and Paula would have loved you, too, if only....
+Will you promise not to be angry with me, and may I say it?"
+
+"Speak out, little simpleton."
+
+"She cannot owe you any grudge when she knows how dreadfully you are
+suffering on her account and that you are good at heart, and only that
+once ever did--you know what. Before you came home, grandfather said a
+hundred times over what a joy you had been to him all your life through,
+and now, now.... Well, you are my uncle, and I am only a stupid little
+girl; still, I know that it will be just the same with you as it was
+with the prodigal son in the Bible. You and grandfather parted in
+anger...."
+
+"He cursed me," Orion put in gloomily.
+
+"No, no! For I heard every word he said. He only spoke of your evil deed
+in those dreadful words and bid you go out of his sight."
+
+"And what is the difference--Cursed or outcast?"
+
+"Oh! a very great difference! He had good reason to be angry with you;
+but the prodigal son in the Bible became his father's best beloved, and
+he had the fatted calf slain for him and forgave him all; and so will
+grandfather in heaven forgive, if you are good again, as you used to be
+to him and to all of us. Paula will forgive you, too; I know her--you
+will see. Katharina loved you of course; but she, dear Heaven! She is
+almost as much a child as I am; and if only you are kind to her and make
+her some pretty present she will soon be comforted. She really deserves
+to be punished for bearing false witness, and her punishment cannot, at
+any rate, be so heavy as yours."
+
+These words from the lips of an innocent child could not but fall like
+seed corn on the harrowed field of the young man's tortured soul and
+refresh it as with morning dew. Long after Mary had gone to rest he lay
+thinking them over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The funeral rites over the body of the deceased Mukaukas were performed
+on the day after the morrow. Since the priesthood had forbidden the old
+heathen practice of mummifying the dead, and even cremation had been
+forbidden by the Antonines, the dead had to be interred soon after
+decease; only those of high rank were hastily embalmed and lay in state
+in some church or chapel to which they had contributed an endowment.
+Mukaukas George was, by his own desire, to be conveyed to Alexandria
+and there buried in the church of St. John by his father's side; but the
+carrier pigeon, by which the news of the governor's death had been sent
+to the Patriarch, had returned with instructions to deposit the body in
+the family tomb at Memphis, as there were difficulties in the way of the
+fulfillment of his wishes.
+
+Such a funeral procession had not been seen there within the memory of
+man. Even the Moslem viceroy, the great general Amru, came over from the
+other side of the Nile, with his chief military and civil officers,
+to pay the last honors to the just and revered governor. Their brown,
+sinewy figures, and handsome calm faces, their golden helmets and shirts
+of mail, set with precious stones--trophies of the war of destruction in
+Persia and Syria--their magnificent horses with splendid trappings, and
+the authoritative dignity of their bearing made a great impression
+on the crowd. They arrived with slow and impressive solemnity; they
+returned like a cloud driven before the storm, galloping homewards from
+the burial-ground along the quay, and then thundering and clattering
+over the bridge of boats. Vivid and dazzling lightnings had flashed
+through the wreaths of white dust that shrouded them, as their gold
+armor reflected the sun. Verily, these horsemen, each of them worthy to
+be a prince in his pride, could find it no very hard task to subdue the
+mightiest realms on earth.
+
+Men and women alike had gazed at them with trembling admiration: most of
+all at the heroic stature and noble dusky face of Amru, and at the son
+of the deceased Mukaukas, who, by the Moslem's desire, rode at his side
+in mourning garb on a fiery black horse.
+
+The handsome youth, and the lordly, powerful man were a pair from whom
+the women were loth to turn their eyes; for both alike were of noble
+demeanor, both of splendid stature, both equally skilled in controlling
+the impatience of their steeds, both born to command. Many a Memphite
+was more deeply impressed by the head of the famous warrior, erect on
+a long and massive throat, with its sharply-chiselled aquiline nose
+and flashing black eyes, than by the more regular features and fine,
+slightly-waving locks of the governor's son--the last representative of
+the oldest and proudest race in all Egypt.
+
+The Arab looked straight before him with a steady, commanding gaze;
+the youth, too, looked up and forwards, but turned from time to time
+to survey the crowd of mourners. As he caught sight of Paula, among the
+group of women who had joined the procession, a gleam of joy passed over
+his pale face, and a faint flush tinged his cheeks; his fixed outlook
+had knit his brows and had given his features an expression of such
+ominous sternness that one and another of the bystanders whispered:
+
+"Our gay and affable young lord will make a severe ruler."
+
+The cause of his indignation had not escaped the notice either of his
+noble companion or of the crowd. He alone knew as yet that the Patriarch
+had prohibited the removal of his father's remains to Alexandria; but
+every one could see that the larger portion of the priesthood of Memphis
+were absent from this unprecedented following. The Bishop alone marched
+in front of the six horses drawing the catafalque on which the costly
+sarcophagus was conveyed to the burying-place, in accordance with
+ancient custom:--Bishop Plotinus, with John, a learned and courageous
+priest, and a few choristers bearing a crucifix and chanting psalms.
+
+On arriving at the Necropolis they all dismounted, and the barefooted
+runners in attendance on the Arabs came forward to hold the horses. By
+the tomb the Bishop pronounced a few warm words of eulogy, after which
+the thin chant of the choristers sounded trivial and meagre enough;
+but scarcely had they ceased when the crowd uplifted its many thousand
+voices, and a hymn of mourning rang out so loud and grand that this
+burial ground had scarcely ever heard the like. The remaining ceremonies
+were hasty and incomplete, since the priests who were indispensable to
+their performance had not made their appearance.
+
+Amru, whose falcon eye nothing could escape, at once noted the omission
+and exclaimed, in so loud and inconsiderate a voice that it could be
+heard even at some distance.
+
+"The dead is made to atone for what the living, in his wisdom, did for
+his country's good, hand-in-hand with us Moslems."
+
+"By the Patriarch's orders," replied Orion, and his voice quavered,
+while the veins in his forehead swelled with rage. "But I swear, by my
+father's soul, that as surely as there is a just God, it shall be an
+evil day for Benjamin when he closes the gate of Heaven against this
+noblest of noble souls."
+
+"We carry the key of ours under our own belt," replied the general,
+striking his deep chest, while he smiled consciously and with a kindly
+eye on the young man. "Come and see me on Saturday, my young friend; I
+have something to say to you! I shall expect you at sundown at my house
+over there. If I am not at home by dusk, you must wait for me."
+
+As he spoke he twisted his hand in his horse's mane and Orion prepared
+to assist him to mount; but the Arab, though a man of fifty, was too
+quick for him. He flung himself into the saddle as lightly as a youth,
+and gave his followers the signal for departure.
+
+Paula had been standing close to the entrance of the tomb with Dame
+Neforis, and she had heard every word of the dialogue between the two
+men. Pale, as she beheld him, in costly but simple, flowing, mourning
+robes, stricken by solemn and manly indignation, it was impossible
+that she should not confess that the events of the last days had had a
+powerful effect on the misguided youth.
+
+When Paula had led the grief-worn but tearless widow to her chariot,
+and had then returned home with Perpetua, the image of the handsome and
+wrathful youth as he lifted his powerful arm and tightly-clenched fist
+and shook them in the air, still constantly haunted her. She had not
+failed to observe that he had seen her standing opposite to him by the
+open tomb and she had been able to avoid meeting his eye; but her heart
+had throbbed so violently that she still felt it quivering, she had not
+succeeded in thinking of the beloved dead with due devotion.
+
+Orion, as yet, had neither come near her in her peaceful retreat, nor
+sent any messenger to deliver her belongings, and this she thought very
+natural; for she needed no one to tell her how many claims there must be
+on his time.
+
+But though, before the funeral, she had firmly resolved to refuse to see
+him if he came, and had given her nurse fall powers to receive from his
+hand the whole of her property, after the ceremony this line of conduct
+no longer struck her as seemly; indeed, she considered it no more than
+her duty to the departed not to repel Orion if he should crave her
+forgiveness.
+
+And there was another thing which she owed to her uncle. She desired to
+be the first to point out to Orion, from Philip's point of view, that
+life was a post, a duty; and then, if his heart seemed opened to this
+admonition, then--but no, this must be all that could pass between
+them--then all must be at an end, extinct, dead, like the fires in a
+sunken raft, like a soap-bubble that the wind has burst, like an echo
+that has died away--all over and utterly gone.
+
+And as to the counsel she thought of offering to the man she had once
+looked up to? What right had she to give it? Did he not look like a man
+quite capable of planning and living his own life in his own strength?
+Her heart thirsted for him, every fibre of her being yearned to see him
+again, to hear his voice, and it was this longing, this craving to which
+she gave the name of duty, connecting it with the gratitude she owed to
+the dead.
+
+She was so much absorbed in these reflections and doubts that she
+scarcely heard all the garrulous old nurse was saying as she walked by
+her side.
+
+Perpetua could not be easy over such a funeral ceremony as this; so
+different to anything that Memphis had been wont to see. No priests, a
+procession on horseback, mourners riding, and among them the son even
+of the dead--while of old the survivors had always followed the body on
+foot, as was everywhere the custom! And then a mere chirping of crickets
+at the tomb of such illustrious dead, followed by the disorderly
+squalling of an immense mob--it had nearly cracked her ears! However,
+the citizens might be forgiven for that, since it was all in honor of
+their departed governor!--this thought touched even her resolute heart
+and brought the tears to her eyes; but it roused her wrath, too, for had
+she not seen quite humble folk buried in a more solemn manner and with
+worthier ceremonial than the great and good Mukaukas George, who had
+made such a magnificent gift to the Church. Oh those Jacobites! They
+only were capable of such ingratitude, only their heretical prelate
+could commit such a crime. Every one in the Convent of St. Cecilia, from
+the abbess down to the youngest novice, knew that the Patriarch had sent
+word by a carrier pigeon forbidding the Bishop to allow the priests to
+take part in the ceremony. Plotinus was a worthy man, and he had been
+highly indignant at these instructions; it was not in his power to
+contravene them; but at any rate he had led the procession in person,
+and had not forbidden John's accompanying him. Orion, however, had not
+looked as though he meant to brook such an insult to his father or
+let it pass unpunished. And whose arm was long enough to reach the
+Patriarch's throne if not.... But no, it was impossible! the mere
+thought of such a thing made her blood run cold. Still, still.... And
+how graciously the Moslem leader had talked with him!--Merciful Heaven!
+If he were to turn apostate from the holy Christian faith, like so
+many reprobate Egyptians, and subscribe to the wicked doctrines of
+the Arabian false prophet! It was a tempting creed for shameless men,
+allowing them to have half a dozen wives or more without regarding it
+as a sin. A man like Orion could afford to keep them, of course; for the
+abbess had said that every one knew that the great Mukaukas was a very
+rich man, though even the chief magistrate of the city could not fully
+satisfy himself concerning the enormous amount of property left. Well,
+well; God's ways were past finding out. Why should He smother one under
+heaps of gold, while He gave thousands of poor creatures too little to
+satisfy their hunger!
+
+By the end of this torrent of words the two women had reached the house;
+and not till then was Paula clear in her own mind: Away, away with the
+passion which still strove for the mastery, whether it were in deed
+hatred or love! For she felt that she could not rightly enjoy her
+recovered freedom, her new and quiet happiness in the pretty home she
+owed to the physician's thoughtful care, till she had finally given up
+Orion and broken the last tie that had bound her to his house.
+
+Could she desire anything more than what the present had to offer her?
+She had found a true haven of rest where she lacked for nothing that she
+could desire for herself after listening to the admonitions of
+Philip pus. Round her were good souls who felt with and for her, many
+occupations for which she was well-fitted, and which suited her tastes,
+with ample opportunities of bestowing and winning love. Then, a few
+steps through pleasant shades took her to the convent where she could
+every day attend divine service among pious companions of her own creed,
+as she had done in her childhood. She had longed intensely for such food
+for the spirit, and the abbess--who was the widow of a distinguished
+patrician of Constantinople and had known Paula's parents--could supply
+it in abundance. How gladly she talked to the girl of the goodness and
+the beauty of those to whom she owed her being and whom she had so early
+lost! She could pour out to this motherly soul all that weighed on her
+own, and was received by her as a beloved daughter of her old age.
+
+And her hosts--what kind-hearted though singular folks! nay, in their
+way, remarkable. She had never dreamed that there could be on earth any
+beings at once so odd and so lovable.
+
+First there was old Rufinus, the head of the house, a vigorous, hale
+old man, who, with his long silky, snow-white hair and beard, looked
+something like the aged St. John and something like a warrior grown
+grey in service. What an amiable spirit of childlike meekness he had,
+in spite of the rough ways he sometimes fell into. Though inclined to be
+contradictory in his intercourse with his fellow-men, he was merry and
+jocose when his views were opposed to theirs. She had never met a more
+contented soul or a franker disposition, and she could well understand
+how much it must fret and gall such a man to live on,--day after day,
+appearing, in one respect at any rate, different from what he really
+was. For he, too, belonged to her confession; but, though he sent his
+wife and daughter to worship in the convent chapel, he himself was
+compelled to profess himself a Coptic Christian, and submit to the
+necessity of attending a Jacobite church with all his family on certain
+holy days, averse as he was to its unattractive form of worship.
+
+Rufinus possessed a sufficient fortune to secure him a comfortable
+maintenance; and yet he was hard at work, in his own way, from morning
+till night. Not that his labors brought him any revenues; on the
+contrary, they led to claims on his resources; every one knew that he
+was a man of good means, and this would have certainly involved him
+in persecution if the Patriarch's spies had discovered him to be a
+Melchite, resulting in exile and probably the confiscation of his goods.
+Hence it was necessary to exercise caution, and if the old man could
+have found a purchaser for his house and garden, in a city where there
+were ten times as many houses empty as occupied, he would long since
+have set out with all his household to seek a new home.
+
+Most aged people of vehement spirit and not too keen intellect, adopt
+a saying as a stop-gap or resting-place, and he was fond of using two
+phrases one of which ran: "As sure as man is the standard of all things"
+and the other--referring to his house--"As sure as I long to be quit of
+this lumber." But the lumber consisted of a well-built and very spacious
+dwellinghouse, with a garden which had commanded a high price in
+earlier times on account of its situation near the river. He himself
+had acquired it at very small cost shortly before the Arab incursion,
+and--so quickly do times change--he had actually bought it from a
+Jacobite Christian who had been forced by the Melchite Patriarch Cyrus,
+then in power, to fly in haste because he had found means to convert his
+orthodox slaves to his confession.
+
+It was Philippus who had persuaded his accomplished and experienced
+friend to come to Memphis; he had clung to him faithfully, and they
+assisted each other in their works.
+
+Rufinus' wife, a frail, ailing little woman, with a small face and
+rather hollow cheeks, who must once have been very attractive and
+engaging, might have passed for his daughter; she was, in fact, twenty
+years younger than her husband. It was evident that she had suffered
+much in the course of her life, but had taken it patiently and all for
+the best. Her restless husband had caused her the greatest trouble
+and alarms, and yet she exerted herself to the utmost to make his life
+pleasant. She had the art of keeping every obstacle and discomfort out
+of his way, and guessed with wonderful instinct what would help him,
+comfort him, and bring him joy. The physician declared that her stooping
+attitude, her bent head, and the enquiring expression of her bright,
+black eyes were the result of her constant efforts to discover even a
+straw that might bring harm to Rufinus if his callous and restless foot
+should tread on it.
+
+Their daughter Pulcheria, was commonly called "Pul" for short, to save
+time, excepting when the old man spoke of her by preference as "the poor
+child." There was at all times something compassionate in his attitude
+towards his daughter; for he rarely looked at her without asking himself
+what could become of this beloved child when he, who was so much older,
+should have closed his eyes in death and his Joanna perhaps should soon
+have followed him; while Pulcheria, seeing her mother take such care of
+her father that nothing was left for her to do, regarded herself as the
+most superfluous creature on earth and would have been ready at any time
+to lay down her life for her parents, for the abbess, for her faith, for
+the leech; nay, and though she had known her for no more than two days,
+even for Paula. However, she was a very pretty, well-grown girl, with
+great open blue eyes and a dreamy expression, and magnificent red-gold
+hair which could hardly be matched in all Egypt. Her father had long
+known of her desire to enter the convent as a novice and become a
+nursing sister; but though he had devoted his whole life to a similar
+impulse, he had more than once positively refused to accede to her
+wishes, for he must ere long be gathered to his fathers and then her
+mother, while she survived him, would want some one else to wear herself
+out for.
+
+Just now "Pul" was longing less than usual to take the veil; for she had
+found in Paula a being before whom she felt small indeed, and to whom
+her unenvious soul, yearning and striving for the highest, could look up
+in satisfied and rapturous admiration. In addition to this, there were
+under her own roof two sufferers needing her care: Rustem, the wounded
+Masdakite, and the Persian girl. Neforis, who since the fearful hour of
+her husband's death had seemed stunned and indifferent to all the claims
+of daily life, living only in her memories of the departed, had been
+more than willing to leave to the physician the disposal of these two
+and their removal from her house.
+
+In the evening after Paula's arrival Philippus had consulted with his
+friends as to the reception of these new guests, and the old man
+had interrupted him, as soon as he raised the question of pecuniary
+indemnification, exclaiming:
+
+"They are all very welcome. If they have wounds, we will make them heal;
+if their heads are turned, we will screw them the right way round; if
+their souls are dark, we will light up a flame in them. If the fair
+Paula takes a fancy to us, she and her old woman may stay as long as it
+suits her and us. We made her welcome with all our hearts; but, on
+the other hand, you must understand that we must be free to bid her
+farewell--as free as she is to depart. It is impossible ever to know
+exactly how such grand folks will get on with humble ones, and as sure
+as I long to be quit of this piece of lumber I might one day take it
+into my head to leave it to the owls and jackals and fare forth, staff
+in hand.--You know me. As to indemnification--we understand each other.
+A full purse hangs behind the sick, and the sound one has ten times more
+than she needs, so they may pay. You must decide how much; only--for the
+women's sake, and I mean it seriously--be liberal. You know what I need
+Mammon for; and it would be well for Joanna if she had less need to
+turn over every silver piece before she spends it in the housekeeping.
+Besides, the lady herself will be more comfortable if she contributes to
+pay for the food and drink. It would ill beseem the daughter of Thomas
+to be down every evening under the roof of such birds of passage as we
+are with thanks for favors received. When each one pays his share
+we stand on a footing of give and take; and if either one feels any
+particular affection to another it is not strangled by 'thanks' or 'take
+it;' it is love for love's sake and a joy to both parties."
+
+"Amen," said the leech; and Paula had been quite satisfied by her
+friend's arrangements.
+
+By the next day she felt herself one of the household, though she every
+hour found something that could not fail to strike her as strange.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+When Paula had eaten with Rufinus and his family after the funeral
+ceremonies, she went into the garden with Pul and the old man--it had
+been impossible to induce Perpetua to sit at the same table with her
+mistress. The sun was now low, and its level beams gave added lustre
+to the colors of the flowers and to the sheen of the thick, metallic
+foliage of the south, which the drought and scorching heat had still
+spared. A bright-hued humped ox and an ass were turning the wheel which
+raised cooling waters from the Nile and poured them into a large tank
+from which they flowed through narrow rivulets to irrigate the beds.
+This toil was now very laborious, for the river had fallen to so low a
+level as to give cause for anxiety, even at this season of extreme ebb.
+Numbers of birds with ruffled feathers, with little splints on their
+legs, or with sadly drooping heads, were going to roost in small cages
+hung from the branches to protect them from cats and other beasts of
+prey; to each, as he went by, Rufinus spoke a kindly word, or chirruped
+to encourage and cheer it. Aromatic odors filled the garden, and rural
+silence; every object shone in golden glory, even the black back of the
+negro working at the water-wheel, and the white and yellow skin of the
+ox; while the clear voices of the choir of nuns thrilled through the
+convent-grove. Pul listened, turning her face to meet it, and crossing
+her arms over her heart. Her father pointed to her as he said to Paula:
+
+"That is where her heart is. May she ever have her God before her eyes!
+That cannot but be the best thing for a woman. Still, among such as we
+are, we must hold to the rule: Every man for his fellowman on earth, in
+the name of the merciful Lord!--Can our wise and reasonable Father in
+Heaven desire that brother should neglect brother, or--as in our case--a
+child forsake its parents?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied Paula. "For my own part, nothing keeps me from
+taking the veil but my hope of finding my long-lost father; I, like your
+Pulcheria, have often longed for the peace of the cloister. How piously
+rapt your daughter stands there! What a sweet and touching sight!--In my
+heart all was dark and desolate; but here, among you all, it is already
+beginning to feel lighter, and here, if anywhere, I shall recover what I
+lost in my other home.--Happy child! Could you not fancy, as she stands
+there in the evening light, that the pure devotion which fills her soul,
+radiated from her? If I were not afraid of disturbing her, and if I were
+worthy, how gladly would I join my prayers to hers!"
+
+"You have a part in them as it is," replied the old man with a smile.
+"At this moment St. Cecilia appears to her under the guise of your
+features. We will ask her--you will see."
+
+"No, leave her alone!" entreated Paula with a blush, and she led Rufinus
+away to the other end of the garden.
+
+They soon reached a spot where a high hedge of thorny shrubs parted the
+old man's plot from that of Susannah. Rufinus here pricked up his ears
+and then angrily exclaimed:
+
+"As sure as I long to be quit of this lumber, they are cutting my hedge
+again! Only last evening I caught one of the slaves just as he was going
+to work on the branches; but how could I get at the black rascal through
+the thorns? It was to make a peep-hole for curious eyes, or for spies,
+for the Patriarch knows how to make use of a petticoat; but I will
+be even with them! Do you go on, pray, as if you had seen and heard
+nothing; I will fetch my whip."
+
+The old man hurried away, and Paula was about to obey him; but scarcely
+had he disappeared when she heard herself called in a shrill girl's
+voice through a gap in the hedge, and looking round, she spied a pretty
+face between the boughs which had yesterday been forced asunder by a
+man's hands--like a picture wreathed with greenery.
+
+Even in the twilight she recognized it at once, and when Katharina
+put her curly head forward, and said in a beseeching tone: "May I get
+through, and will you listen to me?" she gladly signified her consent.
+
+The water-wagtail, heedless of Paula's hand held out to help her,
+slipped through the gap so nimbly that it was evident that she had not
+long ceased surmounting such obstacles in her games with Mary. As swift
+as the wind she came down on her feet, holding out her arms to rush at
+Paula; but she suddenly let them fall in visible hesitancy, and drew
+back a step. Paula, however, saw her embarrassment; she drew the girl to
+her, kissed her forehead, and gaily exclaimed:
+
+"Trespassing! And why could you not come in by the gate? Here comes my
+host with his hippopotamus thong.--Stop, stop, good Rufinus, for the
+breach effected in your flowery wall was intended against me and not
+against you. There stands the hostile power, and I should be greatly
+surprised if you did not recognize her as a neighbor?"
+
+"Recognize her?" said the old man, whose wrath was quickly appeased. "Do
+we know each other, fair damsel--yes or no? It is an open question."
+
+"Of course!" cried Katharina, "I have seen you a hundred times from the
+gnat-tower."
+
+"You have had less pleasure than I should have had, if I had been so
+happy as to see you.--We came across each other about a year ago. I was
+then so happy as to find you in my large peach-tree, which to this day
+takes the liberty of growing over your garden-plot."
+
+"I was but a child then," laughed Katharina, who very well remembered
+how the old man, whose handsome white head she had always particularly
+admired, had spied her out among the boughs of his peach-tree and had
+advised her, with a good-natured nod, to enjoy herself there.
+
+"A child!" repeated Rufinus. "And now we are quite grown up and do not
+care to climb so high, but creep humbly through our neighbor's hedge."
+
+"Then you really are strangers?" cried Paula in surprise. "And have you
+never met Pulcheria, Katharina?"
+
+"Pul?--oh, how glad I should have been to call her!" said Katharina. "I
+have been on the point of it a hundred times; for her mere appearance
+makes one fall in love with her,--but my mother...."
+
+"Well, and what has your mother got to say against her neighbors?" asked
+Rufinus. "I believe we are peaceable folks who do no one any harm."
+
+"No, no, God forbid! But my mother has her own way of viewing things;
+you and she are strangers still, and as you are so rarely to be seen in
+church...."
+
+"She naturally takes us for the ungodly. Tell her that she is mistaken,
+and if you are Paula's friend and you come to see her--but prettily,
+through the gate, and not through the hedge, for it will be closely
+twined again by to-morrow morning--if you come here, I say, you will
+find that we have a great deal to do and a great many creatures to nurse
+and care for--poor human creatures some of them, and some with fur or
+feathers, just as it comes; and man serves his Maker if he only makes
+life easier to the beings that come in his way; for He loves them all.
+Tell that to your mother, little wagtail, and come again very often."
+
+"Thank you very much. But let me ask you, if I may, where you heard that
+odious nickname? I hate it."
+
+"From the same person who told you the secret that my Pulcheria is
+called Pul!" said Rufinus; he laughed and bowed and left the two girls
+together.
+
+"What a dear old man!" cried Katharina. "Oh, I know quite well how he
+spends his Days! And his pretty wife and Pul--I know them all. How often
+I have watched them--I will show you the place one day! I can see over
+the whole garden, only not what goes on near the convent on the other
+side of the house, or beyond those trees. You know my mother; if she
+once dislikes any one.... But Pul, you understand, would be such a
+friend for me!"
+
+"Of course she would," replied Paula. "And a girl of your age must chose
+older companions than little Mary."
+
+"Oh, you shall not say a word against her!" cried Katharina eagerly.
+"She is only ten years old, but many a grown-up person is not so upright
+or so capable as I have found her during these last few miserable days."
+
+"Poor child!" said Paula stroking her hair.
+
+At this a bitter sob broke suddenly and passionately from Katharina; she
+tried with all her might to suppress it, but could not succeed. Her fit
+of weeping was so violent that she could not utter a word, till Paula
+had led her to a bench under a spreading sycamore, had induced her with
+gentle force to sit down by her side, clasping her in her arms like a
+suffering child, and speaking to her words of comfort and encouragement.
+
+Birds without number were going to rest in the dense branches overhead,
+owls and bats had begun their nocturnal raids, the sky put on its
+spangled glory of gold and silver stars, from the western end of the
+town came the jackals' bark as they left their lurking-places among the
+ruined houses and stole out in search of prey, the heavy dew, falling
+through the mild air silently covered the leaves, the grass, and the
+flowers; the garden was more powerfully fragrant now than during the
+day-time, and Paula felt that it was high time to take refuge from the
+mists that came up from the shallow stream. But still she lingered while
+the little maiden poured out all that weighed upon her, all she repented
+of, believing she could never atone for it; and then all she had gone
+through, thinking it must break her heart, and all she still had to live
+down and drive out of her mind.
+
+She told Paula how Orion had wooed her, how much she loved him, how
+her heart had been tortured by jealousy of her, Paula, and how she had
+allowed herself to be led away into bearing false witness before the
+judges. And then she went on to say it was Mary who had first opened her
+eyes to the abyss by which she was standing. In the afternoon after the
+death of the Mukaukas she had gone with her mother to the governor's
+house to join in her friends' lamentations. She had at once asked after
+Mary, but had not been allowed to see her, for she was still in bed and
+very feverish. She was then on her way to the cool hall when she heard
+her mother's voice--not in grief, but angry and vehement--so, thinking
+it would be more becoming to keep out of the way, she wandered off
+into the pillared vestibule opening towards the Nile. She would not for
+worlds have met Orion, and was terribly afraid she might do so, but as
+she went out, for it was still quite light, there she found him--and in
+what a state! He was sitting all in a heap, dressed in black, with his
+head buried in his hands. He had not observed her presence; but she
+pitied him deeply, for though it was very hot he was trembling in every
+limb, and his strong frame shuddered repeatedly. She had therefore
+spoken to him, begging him to be comforted, at which he had started to
+his feet in dismay, and had pushed his unkempt hair back from his face,
+looking so pale, so desperate, that she had been quite terrified and
+could not manage to bring out the consoling words she had ready. For
+some time neither of them had uttered a syllable, but at length he
+had pulled himself together as if for some great deed, he came slowly
+towards her and laid his hands on her shoulders with a solemn dignity
+which no one certainly had ever before seen in him. He stood gazing into
+her face--his eyes were red with much weeping--and he sighed from his
+very heart the two words: "Unhappy Child!"--She could hear them still
+sounding in her ears.
+
+And he was altered: from head to foot quite different, like a stranger.
+His voice, even, sounded changed and deeper than usual as he went on:
+
+"Child, child! Perhaps I have given much pain in my life without knowing
+it; but you have certainly suffered most through me, for I have made
+you, an innocent, trusting creature, my accomplice in crime. The great
+sin we both committed has been visited on me alone, but the punishment
+is a hundred--a thousand times too heavy!"
+
+"And with this," Katharina went on, "he covered his face with his hands,
+threw himself on the couch again, and groaned and sighed. Then he sprang
+up once more, crying out so loud and passionately that I felt as if I
+must die of grief and pity: 'Forgive me if you can! Forgive me, wholly,
+freely. I want it--you must, you must! I was going to run up to him
+and throw my arms round him and forgive him everything, his trouble
+distressed me so much; but he gravely pushed me away--not roughly
+or sternly, and he said that there was an end of all love-making and
+betrothal between us--that I was young, and that I should be able to
+forget him. He would still be a true friend to me and to my mother, and
+the more we required of him the more gladly would he serve us.
+
+"I was about to answer him, but he hastily interrupted me and said
+firmly and decisively: 'Lovable as you are, I cannot love you as you
+deserve; for it is my duty to tell you, I have another and a greater
+love in my heart--my first and my last; and though once in my life I
+have proved myself a wretch, still, it was but once; and I would rather
+endure your anger, and hurt both you and myself now, than continue
+this unrighteous tie and cheat you and others.'--At this I was greatly
+startled, and asked: 'Paula?' However, he did not answer, but bent over
+me and touched my forehead with his lips, just as my father often kissed
+me, and then went quickly out into the garden.
+
+"Just then my mother came up, as red as a poppy and panting for breath:
+she took me by the hand without a word, dragged me into the chariot
+after her, and then cried out quite beside herself--she could not even
+shed a tear for rage: 'What insolence! what unheard-of behavior--How can
+I find the heart to tell you, poor sacrificed lamb...'"
+
+"And she would have gone on, but that I would not let her finish; I told
+her at once that I knew all, and happily I was able to keep quite calm.
+I had some bad hours at home; and when Nilus came to us yesterday, after
+the opening of the will, and brought me the pretty little gold box with
+turquoises and pearls that I have always admired, and told me that the
+good Mukaukas had written with his own hand, in his last will, that
+it was to be given to me I his bright little 'Katharina,' my mother
+insisted on my not taking it and sent it back to Neforis, though I
+begged and prayed to keep it. And of course I shall never go to that
+house again; indeed my mother talks of quitting Memphis altogether and
+settling in Constantinople or some other city under Christian rule.
+'Then our nice, pretty house must be given up, and our dear, lovely
+garden be sold to the peasant folk, my mother says. It was just the same
+a year and a half ago with Memnon's palace. His garden was turned into a
+corn-field, and the splendid ground-floor rooms, with their mosaics and
+pictures, are now dirty stables for cows and sheep, and pigs are fed in
+the rooms that belonged to Hathor and Dorothea. Good Heavens! And they
+were my clearest friends! And I am never to play with Mary any more; and
+mother has not a kind word for any living soul, hardly even for me, and
+my old nurse is as deaf as a mole! Am I not a really miserable, lonely
+creature? And if you, even you, will have nothing to say to me, who is
+there in all Memphis whom I can trust in? But you will not be so cruel,
+will you? And it will not be for long, for my mother really means to go
+away. You are older than I am, of course, and much graver and wiser...."
+
+"I will be kind to you, child; but try to make friends with Pulcheria!"
+
+"Gladly, gladly. But then my mother! I should get on very well by myself
+if it were not... Well, you yourself heard what Orion said to me, that
+time in the avenue. He surely loved me a little! What sweet, tender
+names he gave me then. Oh God! no man can speak like that to any one
+he is not fond of!--And he is rich himself; it cannot have been only my
+fortune that bewitched him. And does he look like a man who would allow
+himself to be parted from a girl by his mother, whether he would or no?"
+
+"He was always fond of me I think; but then, afterwards, he remembered
+what a high position he had to fill and regarded me as too little and
+too childish. Oh, how many tears I have shed over being so absurdly
+little! A Water-wagtail--that is what I shall always be. Your old host
+called me so; and if a man like Orion feels that he must have a stately
+wife I can hardly blame him. That other one whom he thinks he loves
+better than he does me is tall and beautiful and majestic--like you; and
+I have always told myself that his future wife ought to look like you.
+It is all over between him and me, and I will submit humbly; but at the
+same time I cannot help thinking that when he came home he thought me
+pretty and attractive, and had a real fancy and liking for me. Yes,
+it was so, it certainly was so!--But then he saw that other one, and
+I cannot compare with her. She is indeed the woman he wants,--and that
+other, Paula, is yourself. Yes, indeed, you yourself; an inner voice
+tells me so. And I tell you truly, you may quite believe me: it is a
+pain no doubt, but I can be glad of it too. I should hate any mere girl
+to whom he held out his hand--but, if you are that other--and if you are
+his wife..."
+
+"Nonsense," exclaimed Paula decidedly. "Consider what you are saying.
+When Orion tempted you to perjure yourself, did he behave as my friend
+or as my foe, my bitterest and most implacable enemy?"
+
+"Before the judges, to be sure..." replied the girl looking down
+thoughtfully. But she soon looked up again, fixed her eyes on Paula's
+face with a sparkling, determined glance, and frankly and unhesitatingly
+exclaimed: "And you?--In spite of it all he is so handsome, so clever,
+so manly. You can hardly help it--you love him!"
+
+Paula withdrew her arm, which had been round Katharina, and answered
+candidly.
+
+"Until to-day, at the funeral, I hated and abominated him; but there,
+by his father's tomb, he struck me as a new man, and I found it easy to
+forgive him in my heart."
+
+"Then you mean to say that you do not love him?" urged Katharina,
+clasping her friend's round arm with her slender fingers.
+
+Paula started to feel how icy cold her hand was. The moon was up, the
+stars rose higher and higher, so, simply saying: "Come away," she rose.
+"It must be within an hour of midnight," she added. "Your mother will be
+anxious about you."
+
+"Only an hour of midnight!" repeated the girl in alarm. "Good Heavens, I
+shall have a scolding! She is still playing draughts with the Bishop,
+no doubt, as she does every evening. Good-bye then for the present. The
+shortest way is through the hedge again."
+
+"No," said Paula firmly, "you are no longer a child; you are grown up,
+and must feel it and show it. You are not to creep through the bushes,
+but to go home by the gate. Rufinus and I will go with you and explain
+to your mother..."
+
+"No, no!" cried Katharina in terror. "She is as angry with you as she is
+with them. Only yesterday she forbid..."
+
+"Forbid you to come to me?" asked Paula. "Does she believe..."
+
+"That it was for your sake that Orion.... Yes, she is only too glad to
+lay all the blame on you. But now that I have talked to you I.... Look,
+do you see that light? It is in her sitting-room."
+
+And, before Paula could prevent her, she ran to the hedge and slipped
+through the gap as nimbly as a weasel.
+
+Paula looked after her with mingled feelings, and then went back to the
+house, and to bed. Katharina's story kept her awake for a long time, and
+the suspicion--nay almost the conviction--that it was herself, indeed,
+who had aroused that "great love" in Orion's heart gave her no rest. If
+it were she? There, under her hand was the instrument of revenge on the
+miscreant; she could make him taste of all the bitterness he had brewed
+for her aching spirit. But which of them would the punishment hurt most
+sorely: him or herself? Had not the little girl's confidences revealed
+a world of rapture to her and her longing heart? No, no. It would be too
+humiliating to allow the same hand that had smitten her so ruthlessly to
+uplift her to heaven; it would be treason against herself.
+
+Slumber overtook her in the midst of these conflicting feelings and
+thoughts, and towards morning she had a dream which, even by daylight,
+haunted her and made her shudder.
+
+She saw Orion coming towards her, as pale as death, robed in mourning,
+pacing slowly on a coal-black horse; she had not the strength to fly,
+and without speaking to her or looking at her, he lifted her high in the
+air like a child, and placed her in front of him on the horse. She put
+forth all her strength to get free and dismount, but he clasped her with
+both arms like iron clamps and quelled her efforts. Life itself would
+not have seemed too great a price for escape from this constraint; but,
+the more wildly she fought, the more closely she was held by the silent
+and pitiless horseman. At their feet flowed the swirling river, but
+Orion did not seem to notice it, and without moving his lips, he coolly
+guided the steed towards the water. Beside herself now with horror and
+dread, she implored him to turn away; but he did not heed her, and went
+on unmoved into the midst of the stream. Her terror increased to an
+agonizing pitch as the horse bore her deeper and deeper into the water;
+of her own free will she threw her arms round the rider's neck; his
+paleness vanished, his cheeks gained a ruddy hue, his lips sought hers
+in a kiss; and, in the midst of the very anguish of death, she felt a
+thrill of rapture that she had never known before. She could have gone
+on thus for ever, even to destruction; and, in fact, they were still
+sinking--she felt the water rising breast high, but she cared not. Not
+a word had either of them spoken. Suddenly she felt urged to break the
+silence, and as if she could not help it she asked: "Am I the other?" At
+this the waves surged down on them from all sides; a whirlpool dragged
+away the horse, spinning him round, and with him Orion and herself, a
+shrill blast swept past them, and then the current and the waves, the
+roaring of the whirlpool, the howling of the storm--all at once and
+together, as with one voice, louder than all else and filling her ears,
+shouted: "Thou!"--Only Orion remained speechless. An eddy caught the
+horse and sucked him under, a wave carried her away from him, she was
+sinking, sinking, and stretched out her arms with longing.--A cold
+dew stood on her brow as she slept, and the nurse, waking her from her
+uneasy dream, shook her head as she said:
+
+"Why, child? What ails you? You have been calling Orion again and again,
+at first in terror and then so tenderly.--Yes, believe me, tenderly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+In the neat rooms which Rufinus' wife had made ready for her sick guests
+perfect peace reigned, and it was noon. A soft twilight fell through the
+thick green curtains which mitigated the sunshine, and the nurses had
+lately cleared away after the morning meal. Paula was moistening the
+bandage on the Masdakite's head, and Pulcheria was busy in the adjoining
+room with Mandane, who obeyed the physician's instructions with
+intelligent submission and showed no signs of insanity.
+
+Paula was still spellbound by her past dream. She was possessed by such
+unrest that, quite against her wont, she could not long remain quiet,
+and when Pulcheria came to her to tell her this or that, she listened
+with so little attention and sympathy that the humble-minded girl,
+fearing to disturb her, withdrew to her patient's bed-side and waited
+quietly till her new divinity called her.
+
+In fact, it was not without reason that Paula gave herself up to a
+certain anxiety; for, if she was not mistaken, Orion must necessarily
+present himself to hand over to her the remainder of her fortune; and
+though even yesterday, on her way from the cemetery, she had said to
+herself that she must and would refuse to meet him, the excitement
+produced by Katharina's story and her subsequent dream had confirmed her
+in her determination.
+
+Perpetua awaited Orion's visit on the ground-floor, charged to announce
+him to Rufinus and not to her mistress. The old man had willingly
+undertaken to receive the money as her representative; for Philippus had
+not concealed from her that he had acquainted him with the circumstances
+under which Paula had quitted the governor's house, describing Orion as
+a man whom she had good reason for desiring to avoid.
+
+By about two hours after noon Paula's restlessness had increased so much
+that now and then she wandered out of the sick-room, which looked over
+the garden, to watch the Nile-quay from the window of the anteroom; for
+he might arrive by either way. She never thought of the security of her
+property; but the question arose in her mind as to whether it were not
+actually a breach of duty to avoid the agitation it would cost her to
+meet her cousin face to face. On this point no one could advise her,
+not even Perpetua; her own mother could hardly have understood all her
+feelings on such an occasion. She scarcely knew herself indeed; for
+hitherto she had never failed, even in the most difficult cases, to know
+at once and without long reflection, what to do and to leave undone,
+what under special circumstances was right or wrong. But now she felt
+herself a yielding reed, a leaf tossed hither and thither; and every
+time she set her teeth and clenched her hands, determined to think
+calmly and to reason out the "for" and "against," her mind wandered
+away again, while the memory of her dream, of Orion as he stood by his
+father's grave--of Katharina's tale of "the other," and the fearful
+punishment which he had to suffer, nay indeed, certainly had
+suffered--came and went in her mind like the flocks of birds over the
+Nile, whose dipping and soaring had often passed like a fluttering veil
+between her eye and some object on the further shore.
+
+It was three hours past noon, and she had returned to the sick-room,
+when she thought that she heard hoofs in the garden and hurried to the
+window once more. Her heart had not beat more wildly when the dog
+had flown at her and Hiram that fateful night, than it did now as she
+hearkened to the approach of a horseman, still hidden from her gaze by
+the shrubs. It must be Orion--but why did he not dismount? No, it could
+not be he; his tall figure would have overtopped the shrubbery which was
+of low growth.
+
+She did not know her host's friends; it was one of them very likely. Now
+the horse had turned the corner; now it was coming up the path from the
+front gate; now Rufinus had gone forth to meet the visitor--and it was
+not Orion, but his secretary, a much smaller man, who slipped off a mule
+that she at once recognized, threw the reins to a lad, handed something
+to the old man, and then dropped on to a bench to yawn and stretch his
+legs.
+
+Then she saw Rufinus come towards the house. Had Orion charged this
+messenger to bring her her possessions? She thought this somewhat
+insulting, and her blood boiled with wrath. But there could be no
+question here of a surrender of property; for what her host was holding
+in his hand was nothing heavy, but a quite small object; probably, nay,
+certainly a roll of papyrus. He was coming up the narrow stairs, so she
+ran out to meet him, blushing as though she were doing something wrong.
+The old man observed this and said, as he handed her the scroll:
+
+"You need not be frightened, daughter of a hero. The young lord is not
+here himself, he prefers, it would seem, to treat with you by letter;
+and it is best so for both parties."
+
+Paula nodded agreement; she took the roll, and then, while she tore the
+silken tie from the seal, she turned her back on the old man; for
+she felt that the blood had faded from her face, and her hands were
+trembling.
+
+"The messenger awaits an answer," remarked Rufinus, before she began to
+read it. "I shall be below and at your service." He left; Paula returned
+to the sick-room, and leaning against the frame of the casement, read as
+follows, with eager agitation:
+
+"Orion, the son of George the Mukaukas who sleeps in the Lord, to his
+cousin the daughter of the noble Thomas of Damascus, greeting.
+
+"I have destroyed several letters that I had written to you before this
+one." Paula shrugged her shoulders incredulously. "I hope I may succeed
+better this time in saying what I feel to be indispensable for your
+welfare and my own. I have both to crave a favor and offer counsel."
+
+"Counsel! he!" thought the girl with a scornful curl of the lips, as she
+went on. "May the memory of the man who loved you as his daughter, and
+who on his death-bed wished for nothing so much as to see you--averse as
+he was to your creed--and bless you as his daughter indeed, as his son's
+wife,--may the remembrance of that just man so far prevail over your
+indignant and outraged soul that these words from the most wretched man
+on earth, for that am I, Paula, may not be left unread. Grant me the
+last favor I have to ask of you--I demand it in my father's name."
+
+"Demand!" repeated the damsel; her cheeks flamed, her eye sparkled
+angrily, and her hands clutched the opposite sides of the letter as
+though to tear it across. But the next words: "Do not fear," checked
+her hasty impulse--she smoothed out the papyrus and read on with growing
+excitement:
+
+"Do not fear that I shall address you as a lover--as the man for whom
+there is but one woman on earth. And that one can only be she whom I
+have so deeply injured, whom I fought with as frantic, relentless, and
+cruel weapons as ever I used against a foe of my own sex."
+
+"But one," murmured the girl; she passed her hand across her brow, and a
+faint smile of happy pride dwelt on her lips as she went on:
+
+"I shall love you as long as breath animates this crushed and wretched
+heart."
+
+Again the letter was in danger of destruction, but again it escaped
+unharmed, and Paula's expression became one of calm and tender pleasure
+as she read to the end of Orion's clearly written epistle:
+
+"I am fully conscious that I have forfeited your esteem, nay even all
+good feeling towards me, by my own fault; and that, unless divine love
+works some miracle in your heart, I have sacrificed all joy on earth.
+You are revenged; for it was for your sake--understand that--for your
+sake alone, that my beloved and dying father withdrew the blessings he
+had heaped on my remorseful head, and in wrath that was only too just
+at the recreant who had desecrated the judgment-seat of his ancestors,
+turned that blessing to a curse."
+
+Paula turned pale as she read. This then was what Katharina had meant.
+This was what had so changed his appearance, and perhaps, too, his whole
+inward being. And this, this bore the stamp of truth, this could not be
+a lie--it was for her sake that a father's curse had blighted his only
+son! How had it all happened? Had Philippus failed to observe it, or had
+he held his peace out of respect for the secrets of another?--Poor man,
+poor young man! She must see him, must speak to him. She could not
+have a moment's ease till she knew how it was that her uncle, a tender
+father.--But she must go on, quickly to the end:
+
+"I come to you only as what I am: a heart-broken man, too young to give
+myself over for lost, and at the same time determined to make use of
+all that remains to me of the steadfast will, the talents, and the
+self-respect of my forefathers to render me worthy of them, and I
+implore you to grant me a brief interview. Not a word, not a look shall
+betray the passion within and which threatens to destroy me.
+
+"You must on no account fail to read what follows, since it is of no
+small real importance even to you. In the first place restitution must
+be made to you of all of your inheritance which the deceased was able
+to rescue and to add to by his fatherly stewardship. In these agitated
+times it will be a matter of some difficulty to invest this capital
+safely and to good advantage. Consider: just as the Arabs drove out the
+Byzantines, the Byzantines might drive them out again in their turn. The
+Persians, though stricken to the earth, the Avars, or some other people
+whose very name is as yet unknown to history, may succeed our present
+rulers, who, only ten years since, were regarded as a mere handful
+of unsettled camel-drivers, caravan-leaders, and poverty-stricken
+desert-tribes. The safety of your fortune would be less difficult to
+provide for if, as was formerly the case here, we could entrust it to
+the merchants of Alexandria. But one great house after another is being
+ruined there, and all security is at an end. As to hiding or burying
+your possessions, as most Egyptians do in these hard times, it is
+impossible, for the same reason as prevents our depositing it on
+interest in the state land-register. You must be able to get it at the
+shortest notice; since you might at some time wish to quit Egypt in
+haste with all your possessions.
+
+"These are matters with which a woman cannot be familiar. I would
+therefore propose that you should leave the arrangement of them to
+us men; to Philippus, the physician, Rufinus, your host--who is, I am
+assured, an honest man--and to our experienced and trustworthy treasurer
+Nilus, whom you know as an incorruptible judge.
+
+"I propose that the business should be settled tomorrow in the house of
+Rufinus. You can be present or not, as you please. If we men agree in
+our ideas I beg you--I beseech you to grant me an interview apart. It
+will last but a few minutes, and the only subject of discussion will be
+a matter--an exchange by which you will recover something you value and
+have lost, and grant me I hope, if not your esteem, at any rate a
+word of forgiveness. I need it sorely, believe me, Paula; it is as
+indispensable to me as the breath of life, if I am to succeed in the
+work I have begun on myself. If you have prevailed on yourself to read
+through this letter, simply answer 'Yes' by my messenger, to relieve me
+from torturing uncertainty. If you do not--which God forefend for both
+our sakes, Nilus shall this very day carry to you all that belongs
+to you. But, if you have read these lines, I will make my appearance
+to-morrow, at two hours after noon, with Nilus to explain to the others
+the arrangement of which I have spoken. God be with you and infuse some
+ruth into your proud and noble soul!"
+
+Paula drew a deep breath as the hand holding this momentous epistle
+dropped by her side; she stood for some time by the window, lost in
+grave meditation. Then calling Pulcheria, she begged her to tend her
+patient, too, for a short time. The girl looked up at her with rapt
+admiration in her clear eyes, and asked sympathetically why she was so
+pale; Paula kissed her lips and eyes, and saying affectionately: "Good,
+happy child!" she retired to her own room on the opposite side of the
+house. There she once more read through the letter.
+
+Oh yes; this was Orion as she had known him after his return till the
+evening of that never-to-be-forgotten water-party. He was, indeed, a
+poet; nature herself had made it so easy to him to seduce unguarded
+souls into a belief in him! And yet no! This letter was honestly meant.
+Philippus knew men well; Orion really had a heart, a warm heart. Not the
+most reckless of criminals could mock at the curse hurled at him by
+a beloved father in his last moments. And, as she once more read the
+sentence in which he told her that it was his crime as an unjust judge
+towards her that had turned the dying man's blessing to a curse, she
+shuddered and reflected that their relative attitude was now reversed,
+and that he had suffered more and worse through her than she had through
+him. His pale face, as she had seen it in the Necropolis, came back
+vividly to her mind, and if he could have stood before her at this
+moment she would have flown to him, have offered him a compassionate
+hand, and have assured him that the woes she had brought upon him filled
+her with the deepest and sincerest pity.
+
+That morning she had asked the Masdakite whether he had besought Heaven
+to grant him a speedy recovery, and the man replied that Persians never
+prayed for any particular blessing, but only for "that which was good;"
+for that none but the Omnipotent knew what was good for mortals. How
+wise! For in this instance might not the most terrible blow that could
+fall on a son--his father's curse--prove a blessing? It was undoubtedly
+that curse which had led him to look into his soul and to start on
+this new path. She saw him treading it, she longed to believe in his
+conversion--and she did believe in it. In this letter he spoke of his
+love; he even asked her hand. Only yesterday this would have roused her
+wrath; to-day she could forgive him; for she could forgive anything to
+this unhappy soul--to the man on whom she had brought such deep anguish.
+Her heart could now beat high in the hope of seeing him again; nay, it
+even seemed to her that the youth, whose return had been hailed with
+such welcome and who had so powerfully attracted her, had only now grown
+and ripened to full and perfect manhood through his sin, his penitence,
+and his suffering.
+
+And how noble a task it would be to assist him in seeking the right way,
+and in becoming what he aspired to be!
+
+The prudent care he had given to her worldly welfare merited her
+gratitude. What could he mean by the "exchange" he proposed? The "great
+love" of which he had spoken to Katharina was legible in every line of
+his letter, and any woman can forgive any man--were he a sinner, and a
+scarecrow into the bargain--for his audacity in loving her. Oh! that he
+might but set his heart on her--for hers, it was vain to deny it, was
+strongly drawn to him. Still she would not call it Love that stirred
+within her; it could only be the holy impulse to point out to him the
+highest goal of life and smooth the path for him. The pale horseman who
+had clutched her in her dream should not drag her away; no, she would
+joyfully lift him up to the highest pinnacle attainable by a brave and
+noble man.
+
+So her thoughts ran, and her cheeks flushed as, with swift decision, she
+opened her trunk, took out papyrus, writing implements and a seal, and
+seated herself at a little desk which Rufinus had placed for her in the
+window, to write her answer.
+
+At this a sudden fervent longing for Orion came over her. She made a
+great effort to shake it off; still, she felt that in writing to him it
+was impossible that she should find the right words, and as she replaced
+the papyrus in the chest and looked at the seal a strange thing happened
+to her; for the device on her father's well-known ring: a star above two
+crossed swords--perchance the star of Orion--caught her eye, with
+the motto in Greek: "The immortal gods have set sweat before virtue,"
+meaning that the man who aims at being virtuous must grudge neither
+sweat nor toil.
+
+She closed her trunk with a pleased smile, for the motto round the star
+was, she felt, of good augury. At the same time she resolved to speak
+to Orion, taking these words, which her forefathers had adopted from
+old Hesiod, as her text. She hastened down stairs, crossed the garden,
+passing by Rufinus, his wife and the physician, awoke the secretary who
+had long since dropped asleep, and enjoined him to say: "Yes" to his
+master, as he expected. However, before the messenger had mounted his
+mule, she begged him to wait yet a few minutes and returned to the two
+men; for she had forgotten in her eagerness to speak to them of Orion's
+plans. They were both willing to meet him at the hour proposed and,
+while Philippus went to tell the messenger that they would expect his
+master on the next day, the old man looked at Paula with undisguised
+satisfaction and said:
+
+"We were fearing lest the news from the governor's house should have
+spoilt your happy mood, but, thank God, you look as if you had just come
+from a refreshing bath.--What do you say, Joanna? Twenty years ago such
+an inmate here would have made you jealous? Or was there never a place
+for such evil passions in your dove-like soul?"
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed the matron. "How can I tell how many fair beings you
+have gazed after, wanderer that you are in all the wide world far away?"
+
+"Well, old woman, but as sure as man is the standard of all things,
+nowhere that I have carried my staff, have I met with a goddess like
+this!"
+
+"I certainly have not either, living here like a snail in its shell,"
+said Dame Joanna, fixing her bright eyes on Paula with fervent
+admiration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+That evening Rufinus was sitting in the garden with his wife and
+daughter and their friend Philippus. Paula, too, was there, and from
+time to time she stroked Pulcheria's silky golden hair, for the girl had
+seated herself at her feet, leaning her head against Paula's knee.
+
+The moon was full, and it was so light out of doors that they could see
+each other plainly, so Rufinus' proposition that they should remain to
+watch an eclipse which was to take place an hour before midnight found
+all the more ready acceptance because the air was pleasant. The men
+had been discussing the expected phenomenon, lamenting that the Church
+should still lend itself to the superstitions of the populace by
+regarding it as of evil omen, and organizing a penitential procession
+for the occasion to implore God to avert all ill. Rufinus declared that
+it was blasphemy against the Almighty to interpret events happening in
+the course of eternal law and calculable beforehand, as a threatening
+sign from Him; as though man's deserts had any connection with the
+courses of the sun and moon. The Bishop and all the priests of the
+province were to head the procession, and thus a simple natural
+phenomenon was forced in the minds of the people into a significance it
+did not possess.
+
+"And if the little comet which my old foster father discovered last week
+continues to increase," added the physician, "so that its tail spreads
+over a portion of the sky, the panic will reach its highest pitch; I can
+see already that they will behave like mad creatures."
+
+"But a comet really does portend war, drought, plague, and famine," said
+Pulcheria, with full conviction; and Paula added:
+
+"So I have always believed."
+
+"But very wrongly," replied the leech. "There are a thousand reasons
+to the contrary; and it is a crime to confirm the mob in such a
+superstition. It fills them with grief and alarms; and, would you
+believe it--such anguish of mind, especially when the Nile is so low
+and there is more sickness than usual, gives rise to numberless forms of
+disease? We shall have our hands full, Rufinus."
+
+"I am yours to command," replied the old man. "But at the same time,
+if the tailed wanderer must do some mischief, I would rather it should
+break folks' arms and legs than turn their brains."
+
+"What a wish!" exclaimed Paula. "But you often say things--and I see
+things about you too--which seem to me extraordinary. Yesterday you
+promised...."
+
+"To explain to you why I gather about me so many of God's creatures who
+have to struggle under the burden of life as cripples, or with injured
+limbs."
+
+"Just so," replied Paula. "Nothing can be more truly merciful than to
+render life bearable to such hapless beings...."
+
+"But still, you think," interrupted the eager old man, "that this noble
+motive alone would hardly account for the old oddity's riding his hobby
+so hard.--Well, you are right. From my earliest youth the structure of
+the bones in man and beast has captivated me exceedingly; and just as
+collectors of horns, when once they have a complete series of every
+variety of stag, roe, and gazelle, set to work with fresh zeal to find
+deformed or monstrous growths, so I have found pleasure in studying
+every kind of malformation and injury in the bones of men and beasts."
+
+"And to remedy them," added Philippus. "It has been his passion from
+childhood.
+
+"And the passion has grown upon me since I broke my own hip bone
+and know what it means," the old man went on. "With the help of my
+fellow-student there, from a mere dilettante I became a practised
+surgeon; and, what is more, I am one of those who serve Esculapius at
+my own expense. However, there are accessory reasons for which I have
+chosen such strange companions: deformed slaves are cheap and besides
+that, certain investigations afford me inestimable and peculiar
+satisfaction. But this cannot interest a young girl."
+
+"Indeed it does!" cried Paula. "So far as I have understood Philippus
+when he explains some details of natural history...."
+
+"Stay," laughed Rufinus, "our friend will take good care not to explain
+this. He regards it as folly, and all he will admit is that no surgeon
+or student could wish for better, more willing, or more amusing
+house-mates than my cripples."
+
+"They are grateful to you," cried Paula.
+
+"Grateful?" asked the old man. "That is true sometimes, no doubt; still,
+gratitude is a tribute on which no wise man ever reckons. Now I have
+told you enough; for the sake of Philippus we will let the rest pass."
+
+"No, no," said Paula putting up entreating hands, and Rufinus answered
+gaily:
+
+"Who can refuse you anything? I will cut it short, but you must pay good
+heed.--Well then Man is the standard of all things. Do you understand
+that?"
+
+"Yes, I often hear you say so. Things you mean are only what they seem
+to us."
+
+"To us, you say, because we--you and I and the rest of us here--are
+sound in body and mind. And we must regard all things--being God's
+handiwork--as by nature sound and normal. Thus we are justified in
+requiring that man, who gives the standard for them shall, first and
+foremost, himself be sound and normal. Can a carpenter measure straight
+planks properly with a crooked or sloping rod?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then you will understand how I came to ask myself: 'Do sickly,
+crippled, and deformed men measure things by a different standard to
+that of sound men? And might it not be a useful task to investigate how
+their estimates differ from ours?'"
+
+"And have your researches among your cripples led to any results?"
+
+"To many important ones," the old man declared; but Philippus
+interrupted him with a loud: "Oho!" adding that his friend was in
+too great a hurry to deduce laws from individual cases. Many of his
+observations were, no doubt, of considerable interest.... Here Rufinus
+broke in with some vehemence, and the discussion would have become a
+dispute if Paula had not intervened by requesting her zealous host to
+give her the results, at any rate, of his studies.
+
+"I find," said Rufinus very confidently, as he stroked down his long
+beard, "that they are not merely shrewd because their faculties are
+early sharpened to make up by mental qualifications for what they lack
+in physical advantages; they are also witty, like AEesop the fabulist
+and Besa the Egyptian god, who, as I have been told by our old friend
+Horus, from whom we derive all our Egyptian lore, presided among those
+heathen over festivity, jesting, and wit, and also over the toilet
+of women. This shows the subtle observation of the ancients; for the
+hunchback whose body is bent, applies a crooked standard to things
+in general. His keen insight often enables him to measure life as
+the majority of men do, that is by a straight rule; but in some happy
+moments when he yields to natural impulse he makes the straight crooked
+and the crooked straight; and this gives rise to wit, which only
+consists in looking at things obliquely and--setting them askew as it
+were. You have only to talk to my hump-backed gardener Gibbus, or listen
+to what he says. When he is sitting with the rest of our people in an
+evening, they all laugh as soon as he opens his mouth.--And why? Because
+his conformation makes him utter nothing but paradoxes.--You know what
+they are?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you, Pul?"
+
+"No, Father."
+
+"You are too straight-nay, and so is your simple soul, to know what the
+thing is! Well, listen then: It would be a paradox, for instance, if
+I were to say to the Bishop as he marches past in procession: 'You are
+godless out of sheer piety;' or if I were to say to Paula, by way of
+excuse for all the flattery which I and your mother offered her just
+now: 'Our incense was nauseous for very sweetness.'--These paradoxes,
+when examined, are truths in a crooked form, and so they best suit the
+deformed. Do you understand?"
+
+"Certainly," said Paula.
+
+"And you, Pul?"
+
+"I am not quite sure. I should be better pleased to be simply told: 'We
+ought not to have made such flattering speeches; they may vex a young
+girl.'"
+
+"Very good, my straightforward child," laughed her father. "But look,
+there is the man! Here, good Gibbus--come here!--Now, just consider:
+supposing you had flattered some one so grossly that you had offended
+him instead of pleasing him: How would you explain the state of affairs
+in telling me of it?"
+
+The gardener, a short, square man, with a huge hump but a clever face
+and good features, reflected a minute and then replied: "I wanted to
+make an ass smell at some roses and I put thistles under his nose."
+
+"Capital!" cried Paula; and as Gibbus turned away, laughing to himself,
+the physician said:
+
+"One might almost envy the man his hump. But yet, fair Paula, I think
+we have some straight-limbed folks who can make use of such crooked
+phrases, too, when occasion serves."
+
+But Rufinus spoke before Paula could reply, referring her to his Essay
+on the deformed in soul and body; and then he went on vehemently:
+
+"I call you all to witness, does not Baste, the lame woman, restrict her
+views to the lower aspect of things, to the surface of the earth indeed?
+She has one leg much shorter than the other, and it is only with much
+pains that we have contrived that it should carry her. To limp along
+at all she is forced always to look down at the ground, and what is the
+consequence? She can never tell you what is hanging to a tree, and
+about three weeks since I asked her under a clear sky and a waning moon
+whether the moon had been shining the evening before and she could not
+tell me, though she had been sitting out of doors with the others
+till quite late, evening after evening. I have noticed, too, that she
+scarcely recognizes men who are rather tall, though she may have seen
+them three or four times. Her standard has fallen short-like her leg.
+Now, am I right or wrong?"
+
+"In this instance you are right," replied Philippus, "still, I know some
+lame people..."
+
+And again words ran high between the friends; Pulcheria, however, put an
+end to the discussion this time, by exclaiming enthusiastically:
+
+"Baste is the best and most good-natured soul in the whole house!"
+
+"Because she looks into her own heart," replied Rufinus. "She knows
+herself; and, because she knows how painful pain is, she treats others
+tenderly. Do you remember, Philippus, how we disputed after that
+anatomical lecture we heard together at Caesarea?"
+
+"Perfectly well," said the leech, "and later life has but confirmed the
+opinion I then held. There is no less true or less just saying than the
+Latin motto: 'Mens sana in corpore sano,' as it is generally interpreted
+to mean that a healthy soul is only to be found in a healthy body. As
+the expression of a wish it may pass, but I have often felt inclined to
+doubt even that. It has been my lot to meet with a strength of mind,
+a hopefulness, and a thankfulness for the smallest mercies in the
+sickliest bodies, and at the same time a delicacy of feeling, a wise
+reserve, and an undeviating devotion to lofty things such as I have
+never seen in a healthy frame. The body is but the tenement of the soul,
+and just as we find righteous men and sinners, wise men and fools, alike
+in the palace and the hovel--nay, and often see truer worth in a cottage
+than in the splendid mansions of the great--so we may discover noble
+souls both in the ugly and the fair, in the healthy and the infirm, and
+most frequently, perhaps, in the least vigorous. We should be careful
+how we go about repeating such false axioms, for they can only do harm
+to those who have a heavy burthen to bear through life as it is. In my
+opinion a hunchback's thoughts are as straightforward as an athlete's;
+or do you imagine that if a mother were to place her new-born children
+in a spiral chamber and let them grow up in it, they could not tend
+upwards as all men do by nature?"
+
+"Your comparison limps," cried Rufinus, "and needs setting to rights. If
+we are not to find ourselves in open antagonism...."
+
+"You must keep the peace," Joanna put in addressing her husband; and
+before Rufinus could retort, Paula had asked him with frank simplicity:
+
+"How old are you, my worthy host?"
+
+"Your arrival at my house blessed the second day of my seventieth year,"
+replied Rufinus with a courteous bow. His wife shook her finger at him,
+exclaiming:
+
+"I wonder whether you have not a secret hump? Such fine phrases..."
+
+"He is catching the style from his cripples," said Paula laughing at
+him. "But now it is your turn, friend Philippus. Your exposition was
+worthy of an antique sage, and it struck me--for the sake of Rufinus
+here I will not say convinced me. I respect you--and yet I should like
+to know how old...."
+
+"I shall soon be thirty-one," said Philippus, anticipating her question.
+
+"That is an honest answer," observed Dame Joanna. "At your age many a
+man clings to his twenties."
+
+"Why?" asked Pulcheria.
+
+"Well," said her mother, "only because there are some girls who think a
+man of thirty too old to be attractive."
+
+"Stupid creatures," answered Pulcheria. "Let them find me a young
+man who is more lovable than my father; and if Philippus--yes you,
+Philippus--were ten or twenty years over nine and twenty, would that
+make you less clever or kind?"
+
+"Not less ugly, at any rate," said the physician. Pulcheria laughed, but
+with some annoyance, as though she had herself been the object of the
+remark. "You are not a bit ugly!" she exclaimed. "Any one who says so
+has no eyes. And you will hear nothing said of you but that you are a
+tall, fine man!"
+
+As the warm-hearted girl thus spoke, defending her friend against
+himself, Paula stroked her golden hair and added to the physician:
+
+"Pulcheria's father is so far right that she, at any rate, measures men
+by a true and straight standard. Note that, Philippus!--But do not take
+my questioning ill.--I cannot help wondering how a man of one and thirty
+and one of seventy should have been studying in the high schools at the
+same time? The moon will not be eclipsed for a long time yet--how bright
+and clear it is!--So you, Rufinus, who have wandered so far through the
+wide world, if you would do me a great pleasure, will tell us something
+of your past life and how you came to settle in Memphis."
+
+"His history?" cried Joanna. "If he were to tell it, in all its details
+from beginning to end, the night would wane and breakfast would get
+cold. He has had as many adventures as travelled Odysseus. But tell us
+something husband; you know there is nothing we should like better."
+
+"I must be off to my duties," said the leech, and when he had taken
+a friendly leave of the others and bidden farewell to Paula with less
+effusiveness than of late, Rufinus began his story.
+
+"I was born in Alexandria, where, at that time, commerce and industry
+still flourished. My father was an armorer; above two hundred slaves and
+free laborers were employed in his work-shops. He required the finest
+metal, and commonly procured it by way of Massilia from Britain. On one
+occasion he himself went to that remote island in a friend's ship, and
+he there met my mother. Her ruddy gold hair, which Pul has inherited,
+seems to have bewitched him and, as the handsome foreigner pleased her
+well--for men like my father are hard to match nowadays--she turned
+Christian for his sake and came home with him. They neither of them ever
+regretted it; for though she was a quiet woman, and to her dying day
+spoke Greek like a foreigner, the old man often said she was his best
+counsellor. At the same time she was so soft-hearted, that she could
+not bear that any living creature should suffer, and though she looked
+keenly after everything at the hearth and loom, she could never see
+a fowl, a goose, or a pig slaughtered. And I have inherited her
+weakness--shall I say 'alas!' or 'thank God?'
+
+"I had two elder brothers who both had to help my father, and who
+were to carry on the business. When I was ten years old my calling was
+decided on. My mother would have liked to make a priest of me and at
+that time I should have consented joyfully; but my father would not
+agree, and as we had an uncle who was making a great deal of money as
+a Rhetor, my father accepted a proposal from him that I should devote
+myself to that career. So I went from one teacher to another and made
+good progress in the schools.
+
+"Till my twentieth year I continued to live with my parents, and during
+my many hours of leisure I was free to do or leave undone whatever I had
+a fancy for; and this was always something medical, if that is not too
+big a word. I was but a lad of twelve when this fancy first took me, and
+that through pure accident. Of course I was fond of wandering about the
+workshops, and there they kept a magpie, a quaint little bird, which my
+mother had fed out of compassion. It could say 'Blockhead,' and call
+my name and a few other words, and it seemed to like the noise, for it
+always would fly off to where the smiths were hammering and filing their
+loudest, and whenever it perched close to one of the anvils there were
+sure to be mirthful faces over the shaping and scraping and polishing.
+For many years its sociable ways made it a favorite; but one day it got
+caught in a vice and its left leg was broken. Poor little creature!"
+
+The old man stooped to wipe his eyes unseen, but he went on without
+pausing:
+
+"It fell on its back and looked at me so pathetically that I snatched
+the tongs out of the bellows-man's hand--for he was going to put an end
+to its sufferings in all kindness--and, picking it up gently, I made up
+my mind I would cure it. Then I carried the bird into my own room, and
+to keep it quiet that it might not hurt itself, I tied it down to a
+frame that I contrived, straightened its little leg, warmed the injured
+bone by sucking it, and strapped it to little wooden splints. And behold
+it really set: the bird got quite well and fluttered about the workshops
+again as sound as before, and whenever it saw me it would perch upon my
+shoulder and peck very gently at my hair with its sharp beak.
+
+"From that moment I could have found it in me to break the legs of every
+hen in the yard, that I might set them again; but I thought of something
+better. I went to the barbers and told them that if any one had a bird,
+a dog, or a cat, with a broken limb, he might bring it to me, and that
+I was prepared to cure all these injuries gratis; they might tell all
+their customers. The very next day I had a patient brought me: a black
+hound, with tan spots over his eyes, whose leg had been smashed by a
+badly-aimed spear: I can see him now! Others followed; feathered or
+four-footed sufferers; and this was the beginning of my surgical career.
+The invalid birds on the trees I still owe to my old allies the barbers.
+I only occasionally take beasts in hand. The lame children, whom you
+saw in the garden, come to me from poor parents who cannot afford a
+surgeon's aid. The merry, curly-headed boy who brought you a rose just
+now is to go home again in a few days.--But to return to the story of my
+youth.
+
+"The more serious events which gave my life this particular bias
+occurred in my twentieth year, when I had already left even the high
+school behind me; nor was I fully carried away by their influence till
+after my uncle had procured me several opportunities of proving my
+proficiency in my calling. I may say without vanity that my speeches won
+approval; but I was revolted by the pompous, flowery bombast, without
+which I should have been hissed down, and though my parents rejoiced
+when I went home from Niku, Arsmoe, or some other little provincial
+town, with laurel-wreaths and gold pieces, to myself I always seemed
+an impostor. Still, for my father's sake, I dared not give up my
+profession, although I hated more and more the task of praising people
+to the skies whom I neither loved nor respected, and of shedding tears
+of pathos while all the time I was minded to laugh.
+
+"I had plenty of time to myself, and as I did not lack courage and held
+stoutly to our Greek confession, I was always to be found where there
+was any stir or contention between the various sects. They generally
+passed off with nothing worse than bruises and scratches, but now and
+then swords were drawn. On one occasion thousands came forth to meet
+thousands, and the Prefect called out the troops--all Greeks--to restore
+order by force. A massacre ensued in which thousands were killed. I
+could not describe it! Such scenes were not rare, and the fury and greed
+of the mob were often directed against the Jews by the machinations of
+the creatures of the archbishop and the government. The things I saw
+there were so horrible, so shocking, that the tongue refuses to tell
+them; but one poor Jewess, whose husband the wretches--our fellow
+Christians--killed, and then pillaged the house, I have never forgotten!
+A soldier dragged her down by her hair, while a ruffian snatched the
+child from her breast and, holding it by its feet, dashed its skull
+against the wall before her eyes--as you might slash a wet cloth against
+a pillar to dry it--I shall never forget that handsome young mother and
+her child; they come before me in my dreams at night even now.
+
+"All these things I saw; and I shuddered to behold God's creatures,
+beings endowed with reason, persecuting their fellows, plunging them
+into misery, tearing them limb from limb--and why? Merciful Saviour,
+why? For sheer hatred--as sure as man is the standard for all
+things--merely carried away by a hideous impulse to spite their neighbor
+for not thinking as they do--nay, simply for not being themselves--to
+hurt him, insult him, work him woe. And these fanatics, these armies
+who raised the standard of ruthlessness, of extermination, of
+bloodthirstiness, were Christians, were baptized in the name of Him who
+bids us forgive our enemies, who enlarged the borders of love from the
+home and the city and the state to include all mankind; who raised the
+adulteress from the dust, who took children into his arms, and would
+have more joy over a sinner who repents than over ninety and nine just
+persons!--Blood, blood, was what they craved; and did not the doctrine
+of Him whose followers they boastfully called themselves grow out of the
+blood of Him who shed it for all men alike,--just as that lotos flower
+grows out of the clear water in the marble tank? And it was the highest
+guardians and keepers of this teaching of mercy, who goaded on the
+fury of the mob: Patriarchs, bishops, priests and deacons--instead of
+pointing to the picture of the Shepherd who tenderly carries the lost
+sheep and brings it home to the fold.
+
+"My own times seemed to me the worst that had ever been; aye, and--as
+surely as man is the standard of all things--so they are! for love is
+turned to hatred, mercy to implacable hardheartedness. The thrones not
+only of the temporal but of the spiritual rulers, are dripping with
+the blood of their fellow-men. Emperors and bishops set the example;
+subjects and churchmen follow it. The great, the leading men of the
+struggle are copied by the small, by the peaceful candidates for
+spiritual benefices. All that I saw as a man, in the open streets, I had
+already seen as a boy both in the low and high schools. Every doctrine
+has its adherents; the man who casts in his lot with Cneius is hated by
+Caius, who forthwith speaks and writes to no other end than to vex and
+put down Cneius, and give him pain. Each for his part strives his
+utmost to find out faults in his neighbor and to put him in the pillory,
+particularly if his antagonist is held the greater man, or is likely
+to overtop him. Listen to the girls at the well, to the women at the
+spindle; no one is sure of applause who cannot tell some evil of the
+other men or women. Who cares to listen to his neighbor's praises? The
+man who hears that his brother is happy at once envies him! Hatred,
+hatred everywhere! Everywhere the will, the desire, the passion for
+bringing grief and ruin on others rather than to help them, raise them
+and heal them!
+
+"That is the spirit of my time; and everything within me revolted
+against it with sacred wrath. I vowed in my heart that I would live and
+act differently; that my sole aim should be to succor the unfortunate,
+to help the wretched, to open my arms to those who had fallen into
+unmerited contumely, to set the crooked straight for my neighbor, to
+mend what was broken, to pour in balm, to heal and to save!
+
+"And, thank God! it has been vouchsafed to me in some degree to keep
+this vow; and though, later, some whims and a passionate curiosity got
+mixed up with my zeal, still, never have I lost sight of the great task
+of which I have spoken, since my father's death and since my uncle also
+left me his large fortune. Then I had done with the Rhetor's art, and
+travelled east and west to seek the land where love unites men's hearts
+and where hatred is only a disease; but as sure as man is the standard
+of all things, to this day all my endeavors to find it have been in
+vain. Meanwhile I have kept my own house on such a footing that it has
+become a stronghold of love; in its atmosphere hatred cannot grow, but
+is nipped in the germ.
+
+"In spite of this I am no saint. I have committed many a folly, many an
+injustice; and much of my goods and gold, which I should perhaps have
+done better to save for my family, has slipped through my fingers,
+though in the execution, no doubt, of what I deemed the highest duties.
+Would you believe it, Paula?--Forgive an old man for such fatherly
+familiarity with the daughter of Thomas;--hardly five years after my
+marriage with this good wife, not long after we had lost our only son, I
+left her and our little daughter, Pul there, for more than two years, to
+follow the Emperor Heraclius of my own free will to the war against the
+Persians who had done me no harm--not, indeed, as a soldier, but as a
+surgeon eager for experience. To confess the truth I was quite as eager
+to see and treat fractures and wounds and injuries in great numbers,
+as I was to exercise benevolence. I came home with a broken hip-bone,
+tolerably patched up, and again, a few years later, I could not keep
+still in one place. The bird of passage must need drag wife and child
+from the peace of hearth and homestead, and take them to where he could
+go to the high school. A husband, a father, and already grey-headed,
+I was a singular exception among the youths who sat listening to the
+lectures and explanations of their teachers; but as sure as man is the
+standard of all things, they none of them outdid me in diligence and
+zeal, though many a one was greatly my superior in gifts and intellect,
+and among them the foremost was our friend Philippus. Thus it came
+about, noble Paula, that the old man and the youth in his prime were
+fellow-students; but to this day the senior gladly bows down to his
+young brother in learning and feeling. To straighten, to comfort, and
+to heal: this is the aim of his life too. And even I, an old man, who
+started long before Philippus on the same career, often long to call
+myself his disciple."
+
+Here Rufinus paused and rose; Paula, too, got up, grasped his hand
+warmly, and said:
+
+"If I were a man, I would join you! But Philippus has told me that even
+a woman may be allowed to work with the same purpose.--And now let me
+beg of you never to call me anything but Paula--you will not refuse me
+this favor. I never thought I could be so happy again as I am with you;
+here my heart is free and whole. Dame Joanna, do you be my mother! I
+have lost the best of fathers, and till I find him again, you, Rufinus,
+must fill his place!"
+
+"Gladly, gladly!" cried the old man; he clasped both her hands and went
+on vivaciously: "And in return I ask you to be an elder sister to Pul.
+Make that timid little thing such a maiden as you are yourself.--But
+look, children, look up quickly; it is beginning!--Typhon, in the form
+of a boar, is swallowing the eye of Horns: so the heathen of old in this
+country used to believe when the moon suffered an eclipse. See how the
+shadow is covering the bright disk. When the ancients saw this happening
+they used to make a noise, shaking the sistrum with its metal rings,
+drumming and trumpeting, shouting and yelling, to scare off the evil one
+and drive him away. It may be about four hundred years since that last
+took place, but to this day--draw your kerchiefs more closely round
+your heads and come with me to the river--to this day Christians degrade
+themselves by similar rites. Wherever I have been in Christian lands, I
+have always witnessed the same scenes: our holy faith has, to be sure,
+demolished the religions of the heathen; but their superstitions have
+survived, and have forced their way through rifts and chinks into our
+ceremonial. They are marching round now, with the bishop at their head,
+and you can hear the loud wailing of the women, and the cries of
+the men, drowning the chant of the priests. Only listen! They are as
+passionate and agonized in their entreaty as though old Typhon were even
+now about to swallow the moon, and the greatest catastrophe was hanging
+over the world. Aye, as surely as man is the standard of all things,
+those terrified beings are diseased in mind; and how are we to forgive
+those who dare to scare Christians; yes, Christian souls, with the
+traditions of heathen folly, and to blind their inward vision?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Up to within a few days Katharina had still been a dependent and docile
+child, who had made it a point of honor to obey instantly, not only her
+mother's lightest word, but Dame Neforis, too; and, since her own Greek
+instructress had been dismissed, even the acid Eudoxia. She had never
+concealed from her mother, or the worthy teacher whom she had truly
+loved, the smallest breach of rules, the least naughtiness or wilful act
+of which she had been guilty; nay, she had never been able to rest till
+she had poured out a confession, before evening prayer, of all that
+her little heart told her was not perfectly right, to some one whom
+she loved, and obtained full forgiveness. Night after night the
+"Water-wagtail" had gone to sleep with a conscience as clear and as
+white as the breast of her whitest dove, and the worst sin she had ever
+committed during the day was some forbidden scramble, some dainty or,
+more frequently, some rude and angry word.
+
+But a change had first come over her after Orion's kiss in the
+intoxicating perfume of the flowering trees; and almost every hour since
+had roused her to new hopes and new views. It had never before occurred
+to her to criticise or judge her mother; now she was constantly doing
+so. The way in which Susannah had cut herself off from her neighbors in
+the governor's house, to her daughter seemed perverse and in bad taste;
+and the bitterly vindictive attacks on her old friends, which were
+constantly on Susannah's lips, aggrieved the girl, and finally set her
+in opposition to her mother, whose judgment had hitherto seemed to her
+infallible. Thus, when the governor's house was closed against her,
+there was no one in whom she cared to confide, for a barrier stood
+between her and Paula, and she was painfully conscious of its height
+each time the wish to pass it recurred to her mind. Paula was certainly
+"that other" of whom Orion had spoken; when she had stolen away to see
+her in the evening after the funeral, she had been prompted less by a
+burning wish to pour out her heart to a sympathizing hearer, than by
+torturing curiosity mingled with jealousy. She had crept through the
+hedge with a strangely-mixed feeling of tender longing and sullen
+hatred; when they had met in the garden she had at first given herself
+up to the full delight of being free to speak, and of finding a listener
+in a woman so much her superior; but Paula's reserved replies to her
+bold questioning had revived her feelings of envy and grudge. Any one
+who did not hate Orion must, she was convinced, love him.
+
+Were they not perhaps already pledged to each other! Very likely Paula
+had thought of her as merely a credulous child, and so had concealed the
+fact!
+
+This "very likely" was torture to her, and she was determined to try, at
+any rate, to settle the doubt. She had an ally at her command; this
+was her foster-brother, the son of her deaf old nurse; she knew that
+he would blindly obey all her wishes--nay, to please her, would throw
+himself to the crocodiles in the Nile. Anubis had been her comrade in
+all her childish sports, till at the age of fourteen, after learning to
+read and write, her mother had obtained an appointment for him in the
+governor's household, as an assistant to be further trained by the
+treasurer Nilus. Dame Susannah intended to find him employment at
+a future date on her estates, or at Memphis, the centre of their
+administration, as he might prove himself capable. The lad was still
+living with his mother under the rich widow's roof, and only spent his
+working days at the governor's house, he was industrious and clever
+during office hours, though between whiles he busied himself with things
+altogether foreign to his future calling. At Katharina's request he
+had opened a communication between the two houses by means of
+carrier-pigeons, and many missives were thus despatched with little
+gossip, invitations, excuses, and the like, from Katharina to Mary and
+back again. Anubis took great pleasure in the pretty creatures, and by
+the permission of his superiors a dovecote was erected on the roof of
+the treasurer's house. Mary was now lying ill, and their intercourse
+was at an end; still, the well-trained messengers need not be idle, and
+Katharina had begun to use them for a very different purpose.
+
+Orion's envoy had been detained a long time at Rufinus' door the day
+before; and she had since learnt from Anubis, who was acquainted with
+all that took place in Nilus' office, that Paula's moneys were to be
+delivered over to her very shortly, and in all probability by Orion
+himself. They must then have an interview, and perhaps she might succeed
+in overhearing it. She knew well how this could be managed; the only
+thing was to be on the spot at the right moment.
+
+On the morning after the full-moon, at two hours and a half before noon,
+the little boy whose task it was to feed the feathered messengers in
+their dove-cote brought her a written scrap, on which Anubis informed
+her that Orion was about to set out; but he was not very warmly
+welcomed, for the hour did not suit her at all. Early in the morning
+Bishop Plotinus had come to inform Susannah that Benjamin, Patriarch of
+Alexandria, was visiting Amru on the opposite shore, and would presently
+honor Memphis with his presence. He proposed to remain one day; he had
+begged to have no formal reception, and had left it to the bishop to
+find suitable quarters for himself and his escort, as he did not wish
+to put up at the governor's house. The vain widow had at once pressingly
+urged her readiness to receive the illustrious guest under her roof: The
+prelate's presence must bring a blessing on the house, and she thought,
+too, that she might turn it to advantage for several ends she just now
+happened to have in view.
+
+A handsome reception must be prepared; there were but a few hours to
+spare, and even before the bishop had left her, she had begun to call
+the servants together and give them orders. The whole house must be
+turned upside down; some of the kitchen staff were hurried off into the
+town to make purchases, others bustled round the fire; the gardeners
+plundered the beds and bushes to weave wreaths and nosegays for
+decorations; from cellar to roof half a hundred of slaves, white, brown
+and black, were toiling with all their might, for each believed that,
+by rendering a service to the Patriarch, he might count on the special
+favor of Heaven, while their unresting mistress never ceased screaming
+out her orders as to what she wished done.
+
+Susannah, who as a girl had been the eldest of a numerous and not
+wealthy family, and had been obliged to put her own hand to things,
+quite forgot now that she was a woman of position and fortune whom it
+ill-beseemed to do her own household work; she was here, there, and
+everywhere, and had an eye on all--excepting indeed her own daughter;
+but she was the petted darling of the house, brought up to Greek
+refinement, whose help in such arduous labors was not to be thought of;
+indeed, she would only have been in the way.
+
+When the bishop had taken his leave Katharina was merely desired to be
+ready in her best attire, with a nosegay in her hand, to receive the
+Patriarch under the awning spread outside the entrance. More than this
+the widow did not require of her, and as the girl flew up the stairs
+to her room she was thinking: "Orion will be coming directly: it still
+wants fully two hours of noon, and if he stays there half an hour that
+will be more than enough. I shall have time then to change my dress, but
+I will put my new sandals on at once as a precaution; nurse and the
+maid must wait for me in my room. They must have everything ready for my
+return--perhaps he and Paula may have much to say to each other. He
+will not get off without a lecture, unless she has already found an
+opportunity elsewhere of expressing her indignation."
+
+A few minutes later she had sprung to the top of a mound of earth
+covered with turf, which she had some time since ordered to be thrown up
+close behind the hedge through which she had yesterday made her way. Her
+little feet were shod with handsome gold sandals set with sapphires, and
+she seated herself on a low bench with a satisfied smile, as though to
+assist at a theatrical performance. Some broad-leaved shrubs, placed
+behind this place of ambush, screened her to some extent from the heat
+of the sun, and as she sat watching and listening in this lurking place,
+which she was not using for the first time, her heart began to beat
+more quickly; indeed, in her excitement she quite forgot some sweetmeats
+which she had brought to wile away the time and had poured into a large
+leaf in her lap.
+
+Happily she had not long to wait; Orion arrived in his mother's
+four-wheeled covered chariot. By the side of the driver sat a servant,
+and a slave was perched on the step to the door on each side of the
+vehicle. It was followed by a few idlers, men and women, and a crowd of
+half-naked children. But they got nothing by their curiosity, for
+the carruca did not draw up in the road, but was driven into Rufinus'
+garden, and the trees and shrubs hid it from the gaze of the expectant
+mob, which presently dispersed.
+
+Orion got out at the principal door of the house, followed by the
+treasurer; and while the old man welcomed the son of the Mukaukas, Nilus
+superintended the transfer of a considerable number of heavy sacks to
+their host's private room.
+
+Nothing of all this had seemed noteworthy to Katharina but the quantity
+and size of the bags--full, no doubt, of gold--and the man, whom alone
+she cared to see. Never had she thought Orion so handsome; the long,
+flowing mourning robe, which he had flung over his shoulder in rich
+folds, added to the height of his stately form; his abundant hair, not
+curled but waving naturally, set off his face which, pale and grave as
+it was, both touched and attracted her ir resistibly. The thought that
+this splendid creature had once courted her, loved her, kissed her--that
+he had once been hers, and that she had lost him to another, was a pang
+like physical agony, mounting from her heart to her brain.
+
+After Orion had vanished indoors, she still seemed to see him; and when
+she thrust his image from her fancy, forced to remind herself that he
+was now standing face to face with that other, and was looking at Paula
+as, a few days since, he had looked at her, the anguish of her soul was
+doubled. And was Paula only half as happy as she had been in that hour
+of supreme bliss? Ah! how her heart ached! She longed to leap over the
+hedge--she could have rushed into the house and flung herself between
+Paula and Orion.
+
+Still, there she sat; restless but without moving; wholly under the
+dominion of evil thoughts, among which a good one rarely and timidly
+intruded, with her eyes fixed on Rufinus' dwelling. It stood in the
+broad sunshine as silent as death, as if all were sleeping. In the
+garden, too, all was motionless but the thin jet of water, which danced
+up from the marble tank with a soft and fitful, but monotonous tinkle,
+while butterflies, dragonflies, bees, and beetles, whose hum she could
+not hear, seemed to circle round the flowers without a sound. The birds
+must be asleep, for not one was to be seen or broke the oppressive
+stillness by a chirp or a twitter. The chariot at the door might have
+been spellbound; the driver had dismounted, and he, with the other
+slaves, had stretched himself in the narrow strips of shade cast by the
+pillars of the verandah; their chins buried in their breasts, they spoke
+not a word. The horses alone were stirring-flicking off the flies
+with their flowing tails, or turning to bite the burning stings they
+inflicted. This now and then lifted the pole, and as the chariot
+crunched backwards a few inches, the charioteer growled out a sleepy
+"Brrr."
+
+Katharina had laid a large leaf on her head for protection against the
+sun; she did not dare use a parasol or a hat for fear of being seen. The
+shade cast by the shrubs was but scanty, the noontide heat was torment;
+still, though minute followed minute and one-quarter of an hour after
+another crept by at a snail's pace, she was far too much excited to be
+sleepy. She needed no dial to tell her the time; she knew exactly how
+late it was as one shadow stole to this point and another to that, and,
+by risking the danger to her eyes of glancing up at the sun, she could
+make doubly sure.
+
+It was now within three-quarters of an hour of noon, and in that house
+all was as still as before; the Patriarch, however, might be expected
+to be punctual, and she had done nothing towards dressing but putting
+on those gilt sandals. This brought her to swift decision she hurried
+to her room, desired the maid not to dress her hair, contenting herself
+with pinning a few roses into its natural curls. Then, in fierce haste,
+she made her throw on her sea-green dress of bombyx silk edged with fine
+embroidery, and fasten her peplos with the first pins that came to hand;
+and when the snap of her bracelet of costly sapphires broke, as she
+herself was fastening it, she flung it back among her other trinkets as
+she might have tossed an unripe apple back upon a heap. She slipped
+her little hand into a gold spiral which curled round half her arm, and
+gathered up the rest of her jewels, to put them on out of doors as she
+sat watching. The waiting-woman was ordered to come for her at noon
+with the flowers for the Patriarch, and, in a quarter of an hour after
+leaving her lurking place, she was back there again. Just in time;--for
+while she was putting on the trinkets Nilus came out, followed by some
+slaves with several leather bags which they replaced in the chariot.
+Then the treasurer stepped in and with him Philippus, and the vehicle
+drove away.
+
+"So Paula has entrusted her property to Orion again," thought Katharina.
+"They are one again; and henceforth there will be endless going and
+coming between the governor's house and that of Rufinus. A very pretty
+game!--But wait, only wait." And she set her little white teeth; but she
+retained enough self-possession to mark all that took place.
+
+During her absence indoors Orion's black horse had been brought into the
+garden; a groom on horseback was leading him, and as she watched their
+movements she muttered to herself with a smile of scorn: "At any rate he
+is not going to carry her home with him at once."
+
+A few minutes passed in silence, and at last Paula came out, and close
+behind her, almost by her side, walked Orion.
+
+His cheeks were no longer pale, far from it, no more than Katharina's
+were; they were crimson! How bright his eyes were, how radiant with
+satisfaction and gladness!--She only wished she were a viper to sting
+them both in the heel!--At the same time Paula had lost none of her
+proud and noble dignity--and he? He gazed at his companion like a rapt
+soul; she fancied she could see the folds of his mourning cloak rising
+and falling with the beating of his heart. Paula, too, was in mourning.
+Of course. They were one; his sorrow must be hers, although she had fled
+from his father's house as though it were a prison. And of course this
+virtuous beauty knew full well that nothing became her better than dark
+colors! In manner, gait and height this pair looked like two superior
+beings, destined for each other by Fate; Katharina herself could not but
+confess it.
+
+Some spiteful demon--a friendly one, she thought--led them past her,
+so close that her sharp ears could catch every word they said as they
+slowly walked on, or now and then stood still, dogged by the agile
+water-wagtail, who stole along parallel with them on the other side of
+the hedge.
+
+"I have so much to thank you for," were the first words she caught from
+Orion, "that I am shy of asking you yet another favor; but this one
+indeed concerns yourself. You know how deep a blow was struck me by
+little Mary's childish hand; still, the impulse that prompted her had
+its rise in her honest, upright feeling and her idolizing love of you."
+
+"And you would like me to take charge of her?" asked Paula. "Such a wish
+is of course granted beforehand--only...."
+
+"Only?" repeated Orion.
+
+"Only you must send her here; for you know that I will never enter your
+doors again."
+
+"Alas that it should be so!--But the child has been very ill and can
+hardly leave the house at present; and--since I must own it--my mother
+avoids her in a way which distresses the child, who is over-excited as
+it is, and fills her with new terrors."
+
+"How can Neforis treat her little favorite so?"
+
+"Remember," said Orion, "what my father has been to my poor mother. She
+is now completely crushed: and, when she sees the little girl, that last
+scene of her unhappy husband's life is brought back to her, with all
+that came upon my father and me, beyond a doubt through Mary. She looks
+on the poor little thing as the bane of the family?"
+
+"Then she must come away," said Paula much touched. "Send her to us.
+Kind and comforting souls dwell under Rufinus' roof."
+
+"I thank you warmly. I will entreat my mother most urgently...."
+
+"Do so," interrupted Paula. "Have you ever seen Pulcheria, the daughter
+of my worthy host?"
+
+"Yes.--A singularly lovable creature!"
+
+"She will soon take Mary into her faithful heart--"
+
+"And our poor little girl needs a friend, now that Susannah has
+forbidden her daughter to visit at our house."
+
+The conversation now turned on the two girls, of whom they spoke as
+sweet children, both much to be pitied; and, when Orion observed that
+his niece was old for her tender years, Paula replied with a slight
+accent of reproach: "But Katharina, too, has ripened much during the
+last few days; the lively child has become a sober girl; her recent
+experience is a heavy burden on her light heart."
+
+"But, if I know her at all, it will soon be cast off," replied Orion.
+"She is a sweet, happy little creature; and, of all the dreadful things
+I did on that day of horrors, the most dreadful perhaps was the woe I
+wrought for her. There is no excuse possible, and yet it was solely
+to gratify my mother's darling wish that I consented to marry
+Katharina.--However, enough of that.--Henceforth I must march through
+life with large strides, and she to whom love gives courage to become my
+wife, must be able to keep pace with me."
+
+Katharina could only just hear these last words. The speakers now turned
+down the path, sparsely shaded from the midday sun by a few trees, which
+led to the tank in the centre of the garden, and they went further and
+further from her.
+
+She heard no more--still, she knew enough and could supply the rest. The
+object of her ambush was gained: she knew now with perfect certainty
+who was "the other." And how they had spoken of her! Not as a deserted
+bride, whose rights had been trodden in the dust, but as a child who is
+dismissed from the room as soon as it begins to be in the way. But she
+thought she could see through that couple and knew why they had spoken
+of her thus. Paula, of course, must prevent any new tie from being
+formed between herself and Orion; and as for Orion, common prudence
+required that he should mention her--her, whom he had but lately
+loaded with tenderness--as a mere child, to protect himself against the
+jealousy of that austere "other" one. That he had loved her, at any
+rate that evening under the trees, she obstinately maintained in her own
+mind; to that conviction she must cling desperately, or lose her last
+foothold. Her whole being was a prey to a frightful turmoil of feeling.
+Her hands shook; her mouth was parched as by the midday heat; she knew
+that there were withered leaves between her feet and the sandals she
+wore, that twigs had got caught in her hair; but she could not care and
+when the pair were screened from her by the denser shrubs she flew back
+to her raised seat-from which she could again discover them. At this
+moment she would have given all she held best and dearest, to be the
+thing it vexed her so much to be called: a water-wagtail, or some other
+bird.
+
+It must be very near noon if not already past; she dusted her sandals
+and tidied her curly hair, picking out the dry leaves and not noticing
+that at the same time a rose fell out on the ground. Only her hands were
+busy; her eyes were elsewhere, and suddenly they brightened again,
+for the couple on which she kept them fixed were coming back, straight
+towards the hedge, and she would soon be able again to hear what they
+were saying.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Orion and Paula had had much to talk about, since the young man had
+arrived. The discussion over the safe keeping of the girl's money had
+been tedious. Finally, her counsellors had decided to entrust half of
+it to Gamaliel the jeweller and his brother, who carried on a large
+business in Constantinople. He happened to be in Memphis, and they
+had both declared themselves willing each to take half of the sum in
+question and use it at interest. They would be equally responsible for
+its security, so that each should make good the whole of the property
+in their hands in case of the other stopping payment. Nilus undertook
+to procure legal sanction and the necessary sixteen witnesses to this
+transaction.
+
+The other half of her fortune was, by the advice of Philippus, to be
+placed in the hands of a brother of Haschim's, the Arab merchant, who
+had a large business as money changer in Fostat, the new town on
+the further shore, in which the merchant himself was a partner. This
+investment had the advantage of being perfectly safe, at any rate so
+long as the Arabs ruled the land.
+
+After all this was settled Nilus departed with that half of the money
+which Orion was to hand over to the keeping of the Moslem money changer
+on the following morning.
+
+Paula, though she had taken no part in the men's discussion, had
+been present throughout, and had expressed her grateful consent. The
+clearness, gravity, and decision which Orion had displayed had not
+escaped her notice; and though the treasurer's shrewd remarks, briefly
+and modestly made, had in every case proved final, it was Orion's
+reasoning and explanations that had most come home to her, for it
+seemed to her that he was always prompted by loftier, wider, and more
+statesmanlike considerations than the others.
+
+When this was over she and Orion were left together, and neither she
+nor the young man had been able to escape a few moments of anxious
+heart-beating.
+
+It was not till the governor's son had summoned up his courage and,
+sinking on his knees, was imploring her pardon, that she recovered some
+firmness and reminded him of the letter he had sent her. But her heart
+drew her to him almost irresistibly, and in order not to yield to its
+urgent prompts, she hastily enquired what he had meant by the exchange
+he had written about.
+
+At this he went up to her with downcast eyes, drew a small box out
+of the breast of his robe, and took out the emerald with the damaged
+setting. He held them towards her with a beseeching gesture, exclaiming,
+with all the peculiar sweetness of his deep voice:
+
+"It is your property! Take it and give me in return your confidence,
+your forgiveness."
+
+She drew back a little, looking first at him and then at the stone and
+its setting--surprised, pleased, and deeply moved, with a bright light
+in her eyes. The young man found it impossible to utter a single word,
+only holding the jewel and the broken setting closer to her, and yet
+closer, like some poor man who makes bold to offer the best he has to a
+wealthy superior, though conscious that it is all too humble a gift to
+find favor.
+
+And Paula was not long undecided; she took the proffered gem and feasted
+her glistening eyes with glad thankfulness on her recovered treasure.
+
+Two days ago she had thought of it as defiled and desecrated; it had
+gratified her pride to fancy that she had cast the precious jewel at the
+feet, as it were, of Neforis and her son, never to see it again. So hard
+is it to forego the right of hating those who have basely brought grief
+into our lives and anguish to our souls!--and yet Paula, who would not
+have yielded this right at any price a short time since, now waived
+it of her own free will--nay, thrust it from her like some tormenting
+incubus which choked her pulses and kept her from breathing freely. In
+this gem she saw once more a cherished memorial of her lost mother, the
+honorable gift of a great monarch to her forefathers; and she was happy
+to possess it once more. But it was not this that gave life to the warm,
+sunny glow of happiness which thrilled through her, or occasioned its
+quick and delightful growth; for her eye did not linger on the large and
+glittering stone, but rested spellbound on the poor gold frame which had
+once held it, and which had cost her such hours of anguish. This broken
+and worthless thing, it is true, was powerful to justify her in the
+opinions of her judges and her enemies; with this in her hand she would
+easily confute her accusers. Still, it was not that which so greatly
+consoled her. The physician's remark, that there was no greater joy than
+the discovery that we have been deceived in thinking ill of another,
+recurred to her mind; and she had once loved the man who now stood
+before her open to every good influence, deeply moved in her presence;
+and her judgment of him had been a hundred, a thousand times too hard.
+Only a noble soul could confidently expect magnanimity from a foe and
+he, he had put himself defenceless into the power of her who had been
+mortally stricken by the most fateful, and perhaps the only disgraceful
+act of his life. In giving up this gold frame Orion also gave himself
+up; with this talisman in her possession she stood before him as
+irresistible Fate. And now, as she looked up at him and met his large
+eyes, full of life and intellect but sparkling through tears of violent
+agitation, she felt absolutely certain that this favorite of Fortune,
+though he had indeed sinned deeply and disastrously, was capable of
+the highest and greatest aims if he had a friend to show him what life
+required of him and were but ready to follow such guidance. And such a
+friend she would be to him!
+
+She, like Orion, could not for some time speak; but he, at last, was
+unable to contain himself; he hastened towards her and pressed her hand
+to his lips with fervent gratitude, while she--she had to submit; nay,
+she would have been incapable of resisting him if, as in her dream, he
+had clasped her in his arms, to his heart. His burning lips had rested
+fervently on her hand, but it was only for an instant that she abandoned
+herself to the violent agitation that mastered her. Then with a great
+effort her instinct and determination to do right enabled her to control
+it; she pushed him from her decisively but not ungently, and then, with
+some emotion and an arch sweetness which he had never before seen in
+her, and which charmed him even more than her noble and lofty pride, she
+said, threatening him with her finger.
+
+"Take care, Orion! Now I have the stone and the setting; yes, that very
+setting. Beware of the consequences, rash man!"
+
+"Not at all. Say rather: Fool, who at last has succeeded in doing
+something rational," he replied joyfully. "What I have brought you is
+not a gift; it is your own. To you it can be neither more nor less than
+it was before; but to me it has gained inestimably in value since it
+places my honor, perhaps my life even, in your keeping; I am in your
+power as completely as the humblest slave in the palace is in that of
+the Emperor. Keep the gem, and use it and this fateful gold trifle till
+the day shall come when my weal and woe are one with yours."
+
+"For your dead father's sake," she answered, coloring deeply, "your weal
+lies already very near my heart. Am not I, who brought upon you your
+father's curse, bound indeed to help you to free yourself from the
+burden of it? And it may perhaps be in my power to do so, Orion, if you
+do not scorn to listen to the counsels of an ignorant girl?"
+
+"Speak," he cried; but she did not reply immediately. She only begged
+him to come into the garden with her; the close atmosphere of the room
+had become intolerable to both, and when they got out and Katharina
+had first caught sight of them their flushed cheeks had not escaped her
+watchful eye.
+
+In the open air, a scarcely perceptible breath from the river moderated
+the noontide heat, and then Paula found courage to tell him what
+Philippus had called his apprehension in life. It was not new to him;
+indeed it fully answered to the principles he had laid down for the
+future. He accepted it gratefully: "Life is a function, a ministry, a
+duty!" the words were a motto, a precept that should aid him in carrying
+out his plans.
+
+"And the device," he exclaimed, "will be doubly precious to me as having
+come from your lips.--But I no longer need its warning. The wisest and
+most practical axioms of conduct never made any man the better. Who does
+not bring a stock of them with him when he quits school for the world
+at large? Precepts are of no use unless, in the voyage of life, a manly
+will holds the rudder. I have called on mine, and it will steer me to
+the goal, for a bright guiding star lights the pilot on his way. You
+know that star; it is...."
+
+"It is what you call your love," she interposed, with a deep
+blush.--"Your love for me, and I will trust it."
+
+"You will!" he cried passionately. "You allow me to hope...."
+
+"Yes, yes, hope!" she again broke in, "but meanwhile...."
+
+"Meanwhile," he said, "'do not press me further,' ought to end your
+sentence. Oh! I quite understand you; and until I feel that you have
+good reason once more to respect the maniac who lost you by his own
+fault, I, who fought you like your most deadly foe, will not even speak
+the final word. I will silence my longing, I will try...."
+
+"You will try to show me--nay, you will show me--that in you, my foe and
+persecutor, I have gained my dearest friend!--And now to quite another
+matter. We know how we stand towards each other and can count on each
+other with glad and perfect confidence, thanking the Almighty for having
+opened out a new life to us. To Him we will this day...."
+
+"Offer praise and thanksgiving," Orion joyfully put in.
+
+And here began the conversation relating to little Mary which Katharina
+had overheard.
+
+They had gone out of hearing again when Orion explained to Paula that
+all arrangements for the little girl must be postponed till the morrow,
+as he had business now with Amru, on the other shore of the Nile.
+He decisively confuted her fears lest he should allow himself to be
+perverted by the Moslems to their faith; for though he ardently desired
+to let the Patriarch feel that he had no mind to submit patiently to the
+affront to his deceased father, he clung too firmly to his creed, and
+knew too well what was due to the memory of the dead, and to Paula
+herself, ever to take this extreme step. He spoke in glowing terms as he
+described how, for the future, he purposed to devote his best powers to
+his hapless and oppressed country, whether it were in the service of the
+Khaliff or in some other way; and she eagerly entered into his schemes,
+quite carried away by his noble enthusiasm, and acknowledging to
+herself with silent rapture the superiority of his mind and the soaring
+loftiness of his soul.
+
+When, presently, they began talking again of the past she asked him
+quite frankly, but in a low voice and without looking up, what had
+become of the emerald he had taken from the Persian hanging. He turned
+pale at this, looked at the ground, and hesitatingly replied that he had
+sent it to Constantinople--"to have it set--set in an ornament--worthy
+of her whom--whom he...."
+
+But here he broke off, stamped angrily with his foot, and looking
+straight into the girl's eyes exclaimed:
+
+"A pack of lies, foul and unworthy lies!--I have been truthful by nature
+all my life; but does it not seem as though that accursed day forced me
+to some base action every time it is even mentioned? Yes, Paula; the gem
+is really on its way to Byzantium. But the stolen gift was never meant
+for you, but for a fair, gentle creature, in nothing blameworthy, who
+gave me her heart. To me she was never anything but a pretty plaything;
+still, there were moments when I believed--poor soul!--I first learnt
+what love meant through you, how great and how sacred it is!--Now you
+know all; this, indeed, is the truth!"
+
+They walked on again, and Katharina, who had not been able to gather
+the whole of this explanation, could plainly hear Paula's reply in warm,
+glad accents:
+
+"Yes, that is the truth, I feel. And henceforth that horrible day is
+blotted out, erased from your life and mine; and whatever you tell me in
+the future I shall believe."
+
+And the listener heard the young man answer in a tremulous voice:
+
+"And you shall never be deceived in me. Now I must leave you; and I go,
+in spite of my griefs, a happy man, entitled to rejoice anew. O Paula,
+what do I not owe to you! And when we next meet you will receive me,
+will you not, as you did that evening on the river after my return?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; and with even more glad confidence," replied Paula,
+holding out her hand with a lovely graciousness that came from her
+heart; he pressed it a moment to his lips, and then sprang on to his
+horse and rode off at a round trot, his slave following him.
+
+"Katharina, child, Katharina!" was shouted from Susannah's house in
+a woman's high-pitched voice. The water-wagtail started up, hastily
+smoothing her hair and casting an evil glance at her rival, "the other,"
+the supplanter who had basely betrayed her under the sycamores; she
+clenched her little fist as she saw Paula watching Orion's retreating
+form with beaming eyes. Paula went back into the house, happy and
+walking on air, while the other poor, deeply-wounded child burst into
+violent weeping at the first hasty words from her mother, who was not at
+all satisfied with the disorder of her dress; and she ended by declaring
+with defiant audacity that she would not present the flowers to the
+patriarch, and would remain in her own room, for she was dying of
+headache.--And so she did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+In the course of the afternoon Orion paid his visit to the Arab
+governor. He crossed the bridge of boats on his finest horse.
+
+Only two years since, the land where the new town of Fostat was now
+growing up under the old citadel of Babylon had been fields and gardens;
+but at Amru's word it had started into being as by a miracle; house
+after house already lined the streets, the docks were full of ships and
+barges, the market was alive with dealers, and on a spot where, during
+the siege of the fortress, a sutler's booth had stood, a long colonnade
+marked out the site of a new mosque.
+
+There was little to be seen here now of native Egyptian life; it looked
+as though some magician had transported a part of Medina itself to the
+shores of the Nile. Men and beasts, dwellings and shops, though they
+had adopted much of what they had found in this ancient land of culture,
+still bore the stamp of their origin; and wherever Orion's eye fell
+on one of his fellow-countrymen, he was a laborer or a scribe in the
+service of the conquerors who had so quickly made themselves at home.
+
+Before his departure for Constantinople one of his father's palm-groves
+had occupied the spot where Amru's residence now stood opposite the
+half-finished mosque. Where, now, thousands of Moslems, some on foot,
+some on richly caparisoned steeds, were passing to and fro, turbaned and
+robed after the manner of their tribe, with such adornment as they had
+stolen or adopted from intercourse with splendor-loving nations, and
+where long trains of camels dragged quarried stones to the building, in
+former times only an occasional ox-cart with creaking wheels was to be
+seen, an Egyptian riding an ass or a bare-backed nag, and now and then a
+few insolent Greek soldiers. On all sides he heard the sharper and more
+emphatic accent of the sons of the desert instead of the language of his
+forefathers and their Greek conquerors. Without the aid of the servant
+who rode at his side he could not have made himself understood on the
+soil of his native land.
+
+He soon reached Amru's house and was there informed by an Egyptian
+secretary that his master was gone out hunting and would receive him,
+not in the town, but at the citadel. There, on a pleasant site on
+the limestone hills which rose behind the fortress of Babylon and the
+newly-founded city, stood some fine buildings, originally planned as a
+residence for the Prefect; and thither Amru had transported his wives,
+children, and favorite horses, preferring it, with very good reason, to
+the palace in the town, where he transacted business, and where the new
+mosque intercepted the view of the Nile, while this eminence commanded a
+wide prospect.
+
+The sun was near setting when Orion reached the spot, but the general
+had not yet come in from the chase, and the gate-keeper requested that
+he would wait.
+
+Orion was accustomed to be treated in his own country as the heir of the
+greatest man in it; the color mounted to his brow and his Egyptian heart
+revolted at having to bend his pride and swallow his wrath before an
+Arab. He was one of the subject race, and the thought that one word
+from his lips would suffice to secure his reception in the ranks of the
+rulers forced itself suddenly on his mind; but he repressed it with all
+his might, and silently allowed himself to be conducted to a terrace
+screened by a vine-covered trellis from the heat of the sun.
+
+He sat down on one of the marble seats by the parapet of this hanging
+garden and looked westward. He knew the scene well, it was the
+playground of his childhood and youth; hundreds of times the picture had
+spread before him, and yet it affected him to-day as it had never
+done before. Was there on earth--he asked himself--a more fertile and
+luxuriant land? Had not even the Greek poets sung of the Nile as
+the most venerable of rivers? Had not great Caesar himself been so
+fascinated by the idea of discovering its source that to that end--so he
+had declared--he would have thought the dominion of the world well lost?
+On the produce of those wide fields the weal and woe of the mightiest
+cities of the earth had been dependent for centuries; nay, imperial Rome
+and sovereign Constantinople had quaked with fears of famine, when a bad
+harvest here had disappointed the hopes of the husbandman.
+
+And was there anywhere a more industrious nation of laborers, had there
+ever been, before them, a thriftier or a more skilful race? When he
+looked back on the fate and deeds of nations, on the remotest horizon
+where the thread of history was scarcely perceptible, that same gigantic
+Sphinx was there--the first and earliest monument of human joy in
+creative art--those Pyramids which still proudly stood in undiminished
+and inaccessible majesty beyond the Nile, beyond the ruined capital of
+his forefathers, at the foot of the Libyan range. He was the son of the
+men who had raised these imperishable works, and in his veins perchance
+there still might flow a drop of the blood of those Pharaohs who had
+sought eternal rest in these vast tombs, and whose greater progeny, had
+overrun half the world with their armies, and had exacted tribute and
+submission. He, who had often felt flattered at being praised for the
+purity of his Greek--pure not merely for his time: an age of bastard
+tongues--and for the engaging Hellenism of his person, here and now had
+an impulse of pride of his Egyptian origin. He drew a deep breath, as he
+gazed at the sinking sun; it seemed to lend intentional significance to
+the rich beauty of his home as its magical glory transmuted the fields,
+the stream, and the palm-groves, the roofs of the city, and even the
+barren desert-range and the Pyramids to burning gold. It was fast going
+to rest behind the Libyan chain. The bare, colorless limestone sparkled
+like translucent crystal; the glowing sphere looked as though it
+were melting into the very heart of the mountains behind which it
+was vanishing, while its rays, shooting upwards like millions of gold
+threads, bound his native valley to heaven--the dwelling of the Divine
+Power who had blessed it above all other lands.
+
+To free this beautiful spot of earth and its children from their
+oppressors--to restore to them the might and greatness which had once
+been theirs--to snatch down the crescent from the tents and buildings
+which lay below him and plant the cross which from his infancy he
+had held sacred--to lead enthusiastic troops of Egyptians against the
+Moslems--to quell their arrogance and drive them back to the East like
+Sesostris, the hero of history and legend--this was a task worthy of the
+grandson of Menas, of the son of George the great and just Mukaukas.
+
+Paula would not oppose such an enterprise; his excited imagination
+pictured her indeed as a second Zenobia by his side, ready for any great
+achievement, fit to aid him and to rule.
+
+Fully possessed by this dream of the future, he had long ceased to gaze
+at the glories of the sunset and was sitting with eyes fixed on the
+ground. Suddenly his soaring visions were interrupted by men's voices
+coming up from the street just below the terrace. He looked over and
+perceived at its foot about a score of Egyptian laborers; free men,
+with no degrading tokens of slavery, making their way along, evidently
+against their will and yet in sullen obedience, with no thought of
+resistance or evasion, though only a single Arab held them under
+control.
+
+The sight fell on his excited mood like rain on a smouldering fire, like
+hail on sprouting seed. His eye, which a moment ago had sparkled
+with enthusiasm, looked down with contempt and disappointment on the
+miserable creatures of whose race he came. A line of bitter scorn curled
+his lip, for this troop of voluntary slaves were beneath his anger--all
+the more so as he more vividly pictured to himself what his people
+had once been and what they were now. He did not think of all this
+precisely, but as dusk fell, one scene after another from his own
+experience rose before his mind's eye--occasions on which the Egyptians
+had behaved ignominiously, and had proved that they were unworthy of
+freedom and inured to bow in servitude. Just as one Arab was now able to
+reduce a host of his fellow-countrymen to subjection, so formerly three
+Greeks had held them in bondage. He had known numberless instances of
+almost glad submission on the part of freeborn Egyptians--peasants,
+village magnates, and officials, even on his father's estates and farms.
+In Alexandria and Memphis the sons of the soil had willingly borne
+the foreign yoke, allowing themselves to be thrust into the shade and
+humbled by Greeks, as though they were of a baser species and origin,
+so long only as their religious tenets and the subtleties of their creed
+remained untouched. Then he had seen them rise and shed their blood, yet
+even then only with loud outcries and a promising display of enthusiasm.
+But their first defeat had been fatal and it had required only a small
+number of trained soldiers to rout them.
+
+To make any attempt against a bold and powerful invader as the leader of
+such a race would be madness; there was no choice but to rule his people
+in the service of the enemy and so exert his best energies to make their
+lot more endurable. His father's wiser and more experienced judgment
+had decided that the better course was to serve his people as mediator
+between them and the Arabs rather than to attempt futile resistance at
+the head of Byzantine troops.
+
+"Wretched and degenerate brood!" he muttered wrathfully, and he began to
+consider whether he should not quit the spot and show the arrogant Arab
+that one Egyptian, at any rate, still had spirit enough to resent his
+contempt, or whether he should yet wait for the sake of the good cause,
+and swallow down his indignation. No! he, the son of the Mukaukas, could
+not--ought not to brook such treatment. Rather would he lose his life as
+a rebel, or wander an exile through the world and seek far from home a
+wider field for deeds of prowess, than put his free neck under the feet
+of the foe.
+
+But his reflections were disturbed by the sound of footsteps, and
+looking round he saw the gleam of lanterns moving to and fro on the
+terrace, turned directly on him. These must be Amru's servants come to
+conduct him to their master, who, as he supposed, would now do him the
+honor to receive him--tired out with hunting, no doubt, and stretched
+on his divan while he imperiously informed his guest, as if he were some
+freed slave, what his wishes were.
+
+But the steps were not those of a messenger. The great general himself
+had come to welcome him; the lantern-bearers were not to show the way
+to Amru's couch, but to guide Amru to the "son of his dear departed
+friend." The haughty Vicar of the Khaliffs was the most cordial host,
+prompted by hospitality to make his guest's brief stay beneath his roof
+as pleasant as possible, and giving him the right hand of welcome.
+
+He apologized for his prolonged absence in very intelligible Greek,
+having learnt it in his youth as a caravan-leader to Alexandria; he
+expressed his regret at having left Orion to wait so long, blamed his
+servants for not inviting him indoors and for neglecting to offer him
+refreshment. As they crossed the garden-terrace he laid his hand on the
+youth's shoulder, explained to him that the lion he had been pursuing,
+though wounded by one of his arrows, had got away, and added that he
+hoped to make good his loss by the conquest of a nobler quarry than the
+beast of prey.
+
+There was nothing for it but that the young man should return courtesy
+for courtesy; nor did he find it difficult. The Arab's fine pleasant
+voice, full of sincere cordiality, and the simple distinction and
+dignity of his manner appealed to Orion, flattered him, gave him
+confidence, and attracted him to the older man who was, besides, a
+valiant hero.
+
+In his brightly-lighted room hung with costly Persian tapestry, Amru
+invited his guest to share his simple hunter's supper after the Arab
+fashion; so Orion placed himself on one side of the divan while the
+Governor and his Vekeel--[Deputy]--Obada--a Goliath with a perfectly
+black moorish face squatted rather than sat on the other, after the
+manner of his people.
+
+Amru informed his guest that the black giant knew no Greek, and he only
+now and then threw in a few words which the general interpreted to Orion
+when he thought fit; but the negro's remarks were not more pleasing to
+the young Egyptian than his manner and appearance.
+
+Obada had in his childhood been a slave and had worked his way up to his
+present high position by his own exertions; his whole attention seemed
+centred in the food before him, which he swallowed noisily and greedily,
+and yet that he was able to follow the conversation very well, in spite
+of his ignorance of Greek, his remarks sufficiently proved. Whenever he
+looked up from the dishes, which were placed in the midst on low
+tables, to put in a word, he rolled his big eyes so that only the whites
+remained visible; but when he turned them on Orion, their small,
+black pupils transfixed him with a keen and, as the young man thought,
+exceedingly sinister glare.
+
+The presence of this man oppressed him; he had heard of his base origin,
+which to Orion's lofty ideas rendered him contemptible, of his fierce
+valor, and remarkable shrewdness; and though he did not understand what
+Obada said, more than once there was something in the man's tone that
+brought the blood into his face and made him set his teeth. The more
+kindly and delightful the effect of the Arab's speech and manner,
+the more irritating and repulsive was his subordinate; and Orion was
+conscious that he would have expressed himself more freely, and have
+replied more candidly to many questions, if he had been alone with Amru.
+
+At first his host made enquiries as to his residence in Constantinople
+and asked much about his father; and he seemed to take great interest in
+all he heard till Obada interrupted Orion, in the midst of a sentence,
+with an enquiry addressed to his superior. Amru hastily answered him in
+Arabic and soon after gave a fresh turn to the conversation.
+
+The Vekeel had asked why Amru allowed that Egyptian boy to chatter so
+much before settling the matter about which he had sent for him, and
+his master had replied that a man is best entertained when he has most
+opportunity given him for hearing himself talk; that moreover the young
+man was well-informed, and that all he had to say was interesting and
+important.
+
+The Moslems drank nothing; Orion was served with capital wine, but he
+took very little, and at length Amru began to speak of his father's
+funeral, alluding to the Patriarch's hostility, and adding that he
+had talked with him that morning and had been surprised at the marked
+antagonism he had confessed towards his deceased fellow-believer,
+who seemed formerly to have been his friend. Then Orion spoke out; he
+explained fully what the reasons were that had moved the Patriarch to
+display such conspicuous and far-reaching animosity towards his
+father. All that Benjamin cared for was to stand clear in the eyes of
+Christendom of the reproach of having abandoned a Christian land to
+conquerors who were what Christians termed "infidels" and his aim at
+present was to put his father forward as the man wholly and solely
+responsible for the supremacy of the Moslems in the land.
+
+"True, true; I understand," Amru put in, and when the young man went on
+to tell him that the final breach between the Patriarch and the Mukaukas
+George had been about the convent of St. Cecilia, whose rights the
+prelate had tried to abrogate by an illegal interpretation of certain
+ancient and perfectly clear documents; the Arab exchanged rapid glances
+with the Vekeel and then broke in:
+
+"And you? Are you disposed to submit patiently to the blow struck at you
+and at your parent's worthy memory by this restless old man, who hates
+you as he did your father before you?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied the youth proudly.
+
+"That is right!" cried the general. "That is what I expected of you; but
+tell me now, with what weapons you, a Christian, propose to defy this
+shrewd and powerful man, in whose hands--as I know full well--you have
+placed the weal and woe, not of your souls alone...."
+
+"I do not know yet," replied Orion, and as he met a glance of scorn from
+the Vekeel, he looked down.
+
+At this Amru rose, went closer to him, and said "And you will seek them
+in vain, my young friend; nor, if you found them, could you use them.
+It is easier to hit a woman, an eel, a soaring bird, than these supple,
+weak, unarmed, robed creatures, who have love and peace on their tongues
+and use their physical helplessness as a defence, aiming invisible but
+poisoned darts at those they hate--at you first and foremost, Son of the
+Mukaukas; I know it and I advise you: Be on your guard! If indeed manly
+revenge for this slight on your father's memory is dear to your heart
+you can easily procure it--but only on one condition."
+
+"Show it me!" cried Orion with flaming eyes. "Become one of us."
+
+"That is what I came here for. My brain and my arm from this day forth
+are at the service of the rulers of my country: yourself and our common
+master the Khaliff."
+
+"Ya Salaam--that is well!" cried Amru, laying his hand on Orion's
+shoulder. "There is but one God, and yours is ours, too, for there is
+none other but He! you will not have to sacrifice much in becoming a
+Moslem, for we, too, count your lord Jesus as one of the prophets; and
+even you must confess that the last and greatest of them is Mohammed,
+the true prophet of God. Every man must acknowledge our lord Mohammed,
+who does not wilfully shut his eyes to the events which have come about
+under his government and in his name. Your own father admitted..."
+
+"My father?"
+
+"He was forced to admit that we are more zealous, more earnest, more
+deeply possessed by our faith than you, his own fellow-believers."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And when I told him that I had given orders that the desk for the
+reader of the Koran in our new mosque should be discarded, because when
+he stepped up to it he was uplifted above the other worshippers, the
+weary Mukaukas was quite agitated with satisfaction and uttered a
+loud cry of approbation. We Moslems--for that was what my commands
+implied--must all be equal in the presence of God, the Eternal, the
+Almighty, the All-merciful; their leader in prayer must not be raised
+above them, even by a head; the teaching of the Prophet points the road
+to Paradise, to all alike, we need no earthly guide to show us the way.
+It is our faith, our righteousness, our good deeds that open or close
+the gates of heaven; not a key in the hand of a priest. When you are one
+of us, no Benjamin can embitter your happiness on earth, no Patriarch
+can abrogate your claims and your father's to eternal bliss. You have
+chosen well, boy! Your hand, my convert to the true faith!"
+
+And he held out his hand to Orion with glad excitement. But the young
+man did not take it; he drew back a little and said rather uneasily:
+
+"Do not misunderstand me, great Captain. Here is my hand, and I can know
+no greater honor than that of grasping yours, of wielding my sword under
+your command, of wearing it out in your service and in that of my lord
+the Khaliff; but I cannot be untrue to my faith."
+
+"Then be crushed by Benjamin--you and all your people!" cried Armu,
+disappointed and angry. He waved his hand with a gesture of disgust and
+dismissal, and then turned to the Vekeel with a shrug, to answer the
+man's scornful exclamation.
+
+Orion looked at them in dumb indecision; but he quickly collected
+himself, and said in a tone of modest but urgent entreaty:
+
+"Nay; hear me and do not reject my petition. It could only be to my
+advantage to go over to you; and yet I can resist so great a temptation;
+but for that very reason I shall keep faith with you as I do to my
+religion."
+
+"Until the priests compel you to break it," interrupted the Arab
+roughly.
+
+"No, no!" cried Orion. "I know that Benjamin is my foe; but I have lost
+a beloved parent, and I believe in a meeting beyond the grave."
+
+"So do I," replied the Moslem. "And there is but one Paradise and one
+Hell, as there is but one God."
+
+"What gives you this conviction?"
+
+"My faith."
+
+"Then forgive me if I cling to mine, and hope to see my father once more
+in that Heaven...."
+
+"The heaven to which, as you fools believe, no souls but your own are
+admitted! But supposing that it is open only to the immortal spirit
+of Moslems and closed against Christians?--What do you know of that
+Paradise? I know your sacred Scriptures--Is it described in them? But
+the All-merciful allowed our Prophet to look in, and what he saw he
+has described as though the Most High himself had guided his reed. The
+Moslem knows what Heaven has to offer him,--but you? Your Hell, you do
+know; your priests are more readier to curse than to bless. If one of
+you deviates by one hair's breadth from their teaching they thrust
+him out forthwith to the abode of the damned.--Me and mine, the Greek
+Christians, and--take my word for it boy--first and foremost you and
+your father!"
+
+"If only I were sure of finding him there!" cried Orion striking his
+breast. "I really should not fear to follow him. I must meet him, must
+see him again, were it in Hell itself!"
+
+At these words the Vekeel burst into loud laughter, and when Amru
+reproved him sharply the negro retorted and a vehement dialogue ensued.
+
+Obada's contumely had roused Orion's wrath; he was longing, burning
+to reduce this insolent antagonist to silence. However, he contained
+himself by a supreme effort of will, till Amru turned to him once more
+and said in a reserved tone, but not unkindly:
+
+"This clear-sighted man has mentioned a suspicion which I myself had
+already felt. A worldly-minded young Christian of your rank is not so
+ready to give up earthly joys and happiness for the doubtful bliss of
+your Paradise and when you do so and are prepared to forego all that
+a man holds most dear: Honor, temporal possessions, a wide field of
+action, and revenge on your enemies, to meet the spirit of the departed
+once more after death, there must be some special reason in the
+background. Try to compose yourself, and believe my assurances that I
+like you and that you will find in me a zealous protector and a discreet
+friend if you will but tell me candidly and fully what are the motives
+of your conduct. I myself really desire that our interview should be
+fruitful of advantages on both sides. So put your trust in a man so much
+your senior and your father's friend, and speak."
+
+"On no consideration in the presence of that man!" said Orion in a
+tremulous voice. "Though he is supposed not to understand Greek, he
+follows every word I say with malicious watchfulness; he dared to laugh
+at me, he..."
+
+"He is as discreet as he is brave, and my Vekeel," interrupted Amru
+reprovingly. "If you join us you will have to obey him; and remember
+this, young man. I sent for you to impose conditions on you, not to
+have them dictated to me. I grant you an audience as the ruler of this
+country, as the Vicar of Omar, your Khaliff and mine."
+
+"Then I entreat you to dismiss me, for in the presence of that man my
+heart and lips are sealed; I feel that he is my enemy."
+
+"Beware of his becoming so!" cried the governor, while Obada shrugged
+his shoulders scornfully.
+
+Orion understood this gesture, and although he again succeeded in
+keeping cool he felt that he could no longer be sure of himself; he
+bowed low, without paying any heed to the Vekeel, and begged Amru to
+excuse him for the present.
+
+Amru, who had not failed to observe Obada's demeanor and who keenly
+sympathized with what was going on in the young man's mind, did not
+detain him; but his manner changed once more; he again became the
+pressing host and invited his guest, as it was growing late, to pass
+the night under his roof. Orion politely declined, and when at length
+he quitted the room--without deigning even to look at the Negro--Amru
+accompanied him into the anteroom. There he grasped the young man's
+hand, and said in a low voice full of sincere and fatherly interest:
+
+"Beware of the Negro; you let him perceive that you saw through him--it
+was brave but rash. For my part I honestly wish you well."
+
+"I believe it, I know it," replied Orion, on whose perturbed soul the
+noble Arab's warm, deep accents fell like balm. "And now we are alone I
+will gladly confide in you. I, my Lord, I--my father--you knew him. In
+cruel wrath, before he closed his eyes, he withdrew his blessing from
+his only son."
+
+The memory of the most fearful hour of his life choked his voice for a
+moment, but he soon went on: "One single act of criminal folly roused
+his anger; but afterwards, in grief and penitence, I thought over my
+whole life, and I saw how useless it had been; and now, when I came
+hither with a heart full of glad expectancy to place all I have to offer
+of mind and gifts at your disposal, I did so, my Lord, because I long
+to achieve great and noble, and difficult or, if it might be, impossible
+deeds--to be active, to be doing..."
+
+Here he was interrupted by Amru, who said, laying his sinewy arm across
+the youth's shoulders:
+
+"And because you long to let the spirit of your dead father, that
+righteous man, see that a heedless act of youthful recklessness has not
+made you unworthy of his blessing; because you hope by valiant deeds to
+compel his wrath to turn to approval, his scorn to esteem..."
+
+"Yes, yes, that is the thing, the very thing!" Orion broke in with fiery
+enthusiasm; but the Arab eagerly signed to him to lower his voice, as
+though to cheat some listener, and whispered hastily, but with warm
+kindliness:
+
+"And I, I will help you in this praiseworthy endeavor. Oh, how much
+you remind me of the son of my heart who, like you, erred, and who was
+permitted to atone for all, for more than all by dying like a hero for
+his faith on the field of battle!--Count on me, and let your purpose
+become deed. In me you have found a friend.--Now, go. You shall hear
+from me before long. But, once more: Do not provoke the Negro; beware of
+him; and the next time you meet him subdue your pride and make as though
+you had never seen him before."
+
+He looked sadly at Orion, as though the sight of him revived some loved
+image in his mind, kissed his brow, and as soon as the youth had left
+the anteroom he hastily drew open the curtain that hung across the door
+into the dining-room.--A few steps behind it stood the Vekeel, who was
+arranging the straps of his sword-belt.
+
+"Listener!" exclaimed the Arab with intense scorn, "you, a man of gifts,
+a man of deeds! A hero in battle and in council; lion, serpent, and toad
+in one! When will you cast out of your soul all that is contemptible
+and base? Be what you have made yourself, not what you were; do not
+constantly remind the man who helped you to rise that you were born of a
+slave!"
+
+"My Lord!" began the Moor, and the whites of his rolling eyes were
+ominously conspicuous in his black face. But Amru took the words out of
+his mouth and went on in stern and determined reproof:
+
+"You behaved to that noble youth like an idiot, like a buffoon at a
+fair, like a madman."
+
+"To Hell with him!" cried Obada, "I hate the gilded upstart."
+
+"Envious wretch! Do not provoke him! Times change, and the day may come
+when you will have reason to fear him."
+
+"Him?" shrieked the other. "I could crush the puppet like a fly! And he
+shall live to know it."
+
+"Your turn first and then his!" said Amru. "To us he is the more
+important of the two--yes, he, the up start, the puppet. Do you hear? Do
+you understand? If you touch a hair of his head, it will cost you your
+nose and ears! Never for an hour forget that you live--and ought not to
+live--only so long as two pairs of lips are sealed. You know whose. That
+clever head remains on your shoulders only as long as they choose. Cling
+to it, man; you have only one to lose! It was necessary, my lord Vekeel,
+to remind you of that once more!"
+
+The Negro groaned like a wounded beast and sullenly panted out: "This
+is the reward of past services; these are the thanks of Moslem to
+Moslem!--And all for the sake of a Christian dog."
+
+"You have had thanks, and more than are your due," replied Amru more
+calmly. "You know what you pledged yourself to before I raised you to be
+my Vekeel for the sake of your brains and your sword, and what I had to
+overlook before I did so--not on your behalf, but for the great cause
+of Islam. And, if you wish to remain where you are, you will do well to
+sacrifice your wild ambition. If you cannot, I will send you back to
+the army, and to-day rather than to-morrow; and if you carry it with
+too high a hand you will find yourself at Medina in fetters, with your
+death-warrant stuck in your girdle."
+
+The Negro again groaned sullenly; but his master was not to be checked.
+
+"Why should you hate this youth? Why, a child could see through it! In
+the son and heir of George you see the future Mukaukas, while you are
+cherishing the insane wish to become the Mukaukas yourself."
+
+"And why should such a wish be insane?" cried the other in a harsh
+voice. "Putting you out of the question, who is there here that is
+shrewder or stronger than I?"
+
+"No Moslem, perhaps. But neither you nor any other true believer will
+succeed to the dead man's office, but an Egyptian and a Christian.
+Prudence requires it, and the Khaliff commands it."
+
+"And does he also command that this curled ape shall be left in
+possession of his millions?"
+
+"So that is what you covet, you greedy curmudgeon--that is it? Do not
+all the crimes you have committed out of avarice weigh upon you heavily
+enough? Gold, and yet more gold--that is the end, the foul end, of all
+your desires. A fat morsel, no doubt: the Mukaukas' estates, his talents
+of gold, his gems, slaves, and horses; I admit that. But thank God the
+All-merciful, we are not thieves and robbers!"
+
+"And who was it that dug out the hidden millions from beneath the
+reservoir of Peter the Egyptian, and who made him bite the dust?"
+
+"I--I. But--as you know--only to send the money to Medina. Peter had
+hidden it before we killed him. The Mukaukas and his son have declared
+all their possessions to the uttermost dinar and hide of land; they have
+faithfully paid the taxes, and consequently their property belongs to
+them as our swords, our horses, our wives belong to you or me. What
+will not your grasping spirit lead you to!--Take your hand from your
+dagger!--Not a copper coin from them shall fall into your hungry maw, so
+help me God! Do not again cast an evil eye on the Mukaukas' son! Do
+not try my patience too far, man, or else--Hold your head tight on your
+shoulders or you will have to seek it at your feet; and what I say
+I mean!--Now, good-night! To-morrow morning in the divan you are to
+explain your scheme for the new distribution of the land; it will not
+suit me in any way, and I shall have other projects to propose for
+discussion."
+
+With this the Arab turned his back on the Vekeel; but no sooner had the
+door closed on him than Obada clenched his fist in fury at his lord
+and master, who had hitherto said nothing of his having had purloined a
+portion of the consignment of gold which Amru had charged him to escort
+to Medina. Then he rushed up and down the room, snorting and foaming
+till slaves came in to clear the tables.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Orion made his way home under the moonlit and starry night. He held his
+head high, and not since that evening on the water with Paula had he
+felt so glad or so hopeful. On the other side of the bridge he did not
+at once turn his horse's head homewards; the fresh night air was so
+delightful, his heart beat so high that he shrunk from the oppression
+of a room. Full of renewed life, freed from a burden as it were, he made
+his way at a round pace to the house that held his beloved, picturing
+to himself how gladly she would welcome the news that he had found Amru
+ready to encourage him in his projects, indeed, to be a fatherly friend.
+
+The Arab general, whose lofty character, intellect, and rectitude his
+father had esteemed highly, had impressed him, too, as the ideal of
+noble manliness, and as he compared him with the highest officials and
+warriors he had met at the Court of Byzantium he could not help smiling.
+By the side of this dignified, but impetuous and warm-hearted man they
+appeared like the old, rigid idols of his ancestors in comparison with
+the freely-wrought works of Greek art. He could bless the memory of
+his father for having freed the land from that degenerate race. Now,
+he felt, that lost parent, whose image lived in his soul, was satisfied
+with him, and this gave him a sense of happiness which he meant to
+cling to and enhance by every thought and deed in the future. "Life is a
+function, a ministry, and a duty!" this watchword, which had been given
+him by those beloved lips, should keep him in the new path; and soon he
+hoped to feel sure of himself, to be able to look back on such deeds of
+valor as would give him a right in his own judgment to unite his lot to
+that of this noblest of women.
+
+Full of such thoughts as these, he made his way to the house of Rufinus.
+The windows of the corner room on the upper floor were lighted up; two
+of these windows looked out on the river and the quay. He did not know
+which rooms were Paula's, but he looked up at the late-burning light
+with a vague feeling that it must be hers; a female figure which now
+appeared framed in the opening, showed him that he was not mistaken; it
+was that of Perpetua. The sound of hoofs had roused her curiosity, but
+she did not seem to recognize him in the dim starlight.
+
+He slowly rode past, and when he presently turned back and again
+looked up, in the hope this time of seeing Paula, the place was vacant:
+however, he perceived a tall dark shadow moving across from one side of
+the room to the other, which could not be that of the nurse nor of her
+slender mistress. It must indeed be that of a remarkably big man, and
+stopping to gaze with anxious and unpleasant apprehension, he plainly
+recognized Philippus.
+
+It was past midnight. How could he account for his being with Paula at
+this hour?--Was she ill?--Was this room hers after all?--Was it merely
+by chance that the nurse was in Rufinus' room with the physician.
+
+No. The woman whom he could now see pass across the window and go
+straight up to the man, with outstretched hands, was Paula and none
+other. Isis heart was already beating fast, and now a suspicion grew
+strong in him which his vanity had hitherto held in check, though he had
+often seen the friendly relations that subsisted between Paula and the
+leech.--Perhaps it was a warmer feeling than friendship and guileless
+trust, which had led her so unreservedly to claim this man's protection
+and service. Could he have won Paula's heart--Paula's love?
+
+Was it conceivable!--But why not?
+
+What was there against Philippus but his homely face and humble birth?
+And how many a woman had he not seen set her heart on quite other
+things! The physician was not more than five years his senior; and
+recalling the expression in his eyes as he looked at Paula only that
+morning Orion felt more and more uneasy.
+
+Philippus loved Paula.--A trifling incident suddenly occurred to
+his mind which made him certain on that point; he had only too much
+experience in such matters. Yesterday, it had struck him that ever
+since his father's death--that was ever since Paula's change of
+residence--Philippus dressed more carefully than had been his wont. "Now
+this," thought he, "is a change that does not come over so serious a man
+unless it is caused by love."
+
+A mingled torment of pain and rage shot through him as he again saw the
+tall shadow cross the window. For the first time in his life he felt the
+pangs of jealousy, which he had so often laughed at in his friends; but
+was it not absurd to allow it to torture him; was he not sure, since
+that morning's meeting, quite sure of Paula? And Philippus! Even if he,
+Orion, must retire into the background before a higher judge, in the
+eyes of a woman he surely had the advantage!--But in spite of all this
+it troubled him to know that the physician was with Paula at such an
+hour; he angrily pulled his horse's head round, and it was a pleasure
+to him to feel the fiery creature, unused as it was to such rough
+treatment, turn restive at it now. By the time he had gone a hundred
+steps from those windows with their cursed glare, the horse was
+displaying all the temper and vice that had been taken out of him as a
+foal. Orion had to fight a pitched battle with his steed, and it was a
+relief to him to exercise his power with curb and knee. In vain did
+the creature dance round and round; in vain did he rear and plunge; the
+steady rider was his master; and it was not till he had brought him to
+quietness and submission that Orion drew breath and looked about him
+while he patted the horse's smooth neck.
+
+Close at hand, behind a low hedge, spread the thick, dark groves of
+Susannah's garden and between them the back of the house was visible,
+being more brilliantly lighted than even Paula's rooms. Three of the
+windows showed lights; two were rather dim, however, the result probably
+of one lamp only.
+
+All this could not matter to him; nevertheless he remained gazing at the
+roof of the colonnade which went round the house below the upper floor;
+for, on the terrace it formed, leaning against a window-frame, stood a
+small figure with her head thrust so far forth to listen that the light
+shone through the curls that framed it. Katharina was trying to overhear
+a dialogue between the Patriarch Benjamin--whose bearded and
+apostolic head Orion could clearly recognize--and the priest John,
+an insignificant looking little man, of whom, however, the deceased
+Mukaukas had testified that he was far superior to old Plotinus the
+Bishop in intellect and energy.
+
+The young man could easily have watched Katharina's every movement,
+but he did not think it worth while. Nevertheless, as he rode on, the
+water-wagtail's little figure dwelt in his mind; not alone, however, for
+that of Paula immediately rose by her side; and the smaller Katharina's
+seemed, the more ample and noble did the other appear. Every word he
+had heard that day from Paula's lips rushed to his remembrance, and the
+vivid and lovely memory drove out all care. That woman, who only a few
+hours since, had declared herself ready, with him, to hope all things,
+to believe all things, and to accept his protection--that lordly maiden
+whom he had been glad to bid fix her eye, with him, on the goal of
+his future efforts, whose pure gaze could restrain his passion and
+impetuosity as by a charm, and who yet granted him the right to strive
+to possess her--that proud daughter of heroes, whom even his father
+would have clasped to his heart as a daughter--was it possible that
+she should betray him like some pleasure-seeking city beauty? Could she
+forget her dignity as a woman?--No! and a thousand times no. To doubt
+her was to insult her--was to wrong her and himself.
+
+The physician loved her; but it certainly was not any warmer feeling
+than friendship on her part that made her receive him at this late hour.
+The shame would be his own, if he ever again allowed such base suspicion
+to find place in his soul!
+
+He breathed a deep sigh of relief. And when his servant, who had
+lingered to pay the toll at the bridge, came up with him, Orion
+dismounted and desired him to lead his horse home, for he himself wished
+to return on foot, alone with his thoughts. He walked meditatively and
+slowly under the sycamores, but he had not gone far when, on the other
+side of the deserted road, he heard some one overtaking him with long,
+quick strides. He recognized the leech Philippus at a glance and was
+glad, for this proved to him how senseless and unjust his doubts had
+been, and how little ground he had for regarding the physician as a
+rival; for indeed this man did not look like a happy lover. He hurried
+on with his head bent, as though under a heavy burthen, and clasped
+his hand to his forehead with a gesture of despair. No, this nocturnal
+wanderer had left no hour of bliss behind him; and if his demeanor was
+calculated to rouse any feeling it was not envy, but pity.
+
+Philippus did not heed Orion; absorbed in himself, he strode on, moaning
+dully, as if in pain. For a few minutes he disappeared into a house
+whence came loud cries of suffering, and when he came out again, he
+walked on, shaking his head now and then, as a man who sees many things
+happen which his understanding fails to account for.
+
+The end of his walk was a large, palatial building. The stucco had
+fallen off in places, and in the upper story the windows had been broken
+away till their open ings were a world too wide. In former times this
+house had accommodated the State officers of Finance for the province,
+and the ground-floor rooms had been suitably and comfortably fitted
+up for the Ideologos--the supreme controller of this department, who
+usually resided at Alexandria, but who often spent some weeks at Memphis
+when on a tour of inspection. But the Arabians had transferred the
+management of the finances of the whole country to the new capital of
+Fostat on the other shore of the river, and that of the monetary
+affairs of the decaying city had been incorporated with the treasurer's
+department of the Mukaukas' household. The senate of the city had found
+the expense of this huge building too heavy, and had been well content
+to let the lower rooms to Philippus and his Egyptian friend, Horapollo.
+
+The two men occupied different rooms, but the same slaves attended to
+their common housekeeping and also waited on the physician's assistant,
+a modest and well-informed Alexandrian.
+
+When Philippus entered his old friend's lofty and spacious study
+he found him still up, sitting before a great number of rolls of
+manuscript, and so absorbed in his work that he did not notice his
+late-coming comrade till the leech bid him good-evening. His only reply
+was an unintelligible murmur, for some minutes longer the old man was
+lost in study; at last, however, he looked up at Philippus, impatiently
+tossing an ivory ruler-which he had been using to open and smooth the
+papyrus on to the table; and at the same moment a dark bundle under it
+began to move--this was the old man's slave who had long been sleeping
+there.
+
+Three lamps on the writing-table threw a bright light on the old man and
+his surroundings, while the physician, who had thrown himself on a couch
+in a corner of the large room, remained in the dark.
+
+What startled the midnight student was his housemate's unwonted silence;
+it disturbed him as the cessation of the clatter of the wheel disturbs a
+man who lives in a mill. He looked at his friend with surprised enquiry,
+but Philippus was dumb, and the old man turned once more to his rolls of
+manuscript. But he had lost the necessary concentration; his brown hand,
+in which the blue veins stood out like cords, fidgeted with the scrolls
+and the ivory rule, and his sunken lips, which had before been firmly
+closed, were now twitching restlessly.
+
+The man's whole aspect was singular and not altogether pleasing: his
+lean brown figure was bent with age, his thoroughly Egyptian face, with
+broad cheekbones and outstanding ears, was seamed and wrinkled
+like oak-bark; his scalp was bare of its last hair, and his face
+clean-shaved, but for a few tufts of grey hair by way of beard,
+sprouting from the deep furrows on his cheeks and chin, like reeds from
+the narrow bed of a brook; the razor could not reach them there, and
+they gave him an untidy and uncared-for appearance. His dress answered
+to his face--if indeed that could be called dress which consisted of
+a linen apron and a white kerchief thrown over his shoulders after
+sundown. Still, no one meeting him in the road could have taken him for
+a beggar; for his linen was fine and as white as snow, and his keen,
+far-seeing eyes, above which, exactly in the middle, his bristly
+eyebrows grew strangely long and thick, shone and sparkled with clear
+intelligence, firm self-reliance, and a repellent severity which would
+no more have become an intending mendicant than the resolute and often
+scornful expression which played about his lips. There was nothing
+amiable, nothing prepossessing, nothing soft in this man's face; and
+those who knew what his life had been could not wonder that the years
+had failed to sweeten his abrupt and contradictory acerbity or to
+transmute them into that kindly forbearance which old men, remembering
+how often they have stumbled and how many they have seen fall, sometimes
+find pleasure in practising.
+
+He had been born, eighty years before, in the lovely island of Philae,
+beyond the cataract in the district of the temple of Isis, and under the
+shadow of the only Egyptian sanctuary in which the heathen cultus was
+kept up, and that publicly, as late as in his youth. Since Theodosius
+the Great, one emperor and one Praefectus Augustalis after another had
+sent foot-soldiers and cavalry above the falls to put an end to idolatry
+in the beautiful isle; but they had always been routed or destroyed by
+the brave Blemmyes who haunted the desert between the Nile and the Red
+Sea. These restless nomad tribes acknowledged the Isis of Philae as
+their tutelary goddess, and, by a very ancient agreement, the image
+of their patroness was carried every year by her priests in a solemn
+procession to the Blemmyes, and then remained for a few weeks in their
+keeping. Horapollo's father was the last of the horoscope readers, and
+his grandfather had been the last high-priest of the Isis of Philae. His
+childhood had been passed on the island but then a Byzantine legion
+had succeeded in beating the Blemmyes, in investing the island, and
+in plundering and closing the temple. The priests of Isis escaped the
+imperial raid and Horapollo had spent all his early years with his
+father, his grandfather, and two younger sisters, in constant peril and
+flight. His youthful spirit was unremittingly fed with hatred of the
+persecutors, the cruel contemners and exterminators of the faith of his
+forefathers; and this hatred rose to irreconcilable bitterness after
+the massacre at Antioch where the imperial soldiery fell upon all his
+family, and his grandfather and two innocent sisters were murdered.
+These horrors were committed at the instigation of the Bishop, who
+denounced the Egyptian strangers as idolaters, and to whom the Roman
+prefect, a proud and haughty patrician, had readily lent the support of
+an armed force. It was owing to the narrowest chance--or, as the old man
+would have it, to the interposition of great Isis, that his father had
+been so happy as to get away with him and the treasures he had brought
+from the temple at Philae. Thus they had means to enable them to travel
+farther under an assumed name, and they finally settled in Alexandria.
+Here the persecuted youth changed his name, Horus, to its Greek
+equivalent, and henceforth he was known at home and in the schools as
+Apollo. He was highly gifted by nature, and availed himself with the
+utmost zeal of the means of learning that abounded in Alexandria; he
+labored indefatigably and dug deep into every field of Greek science,
+gaining, under his father's guidance, all the knowledge of Egyptian
+horoscopy, which was not wholly lost even at this late period.
+
+In the midst of the contentious Christian sects of the capital, both
+father and son remained heathen and worshippers of Isis; and when the
+old priest died at an advanced age, Horapollo moved to Memphis where he
+led the quiet and secluded life of a student, mingling only now and
+then with the astronomers, astrologers, and calendar-makers at the
+observatory, or visiting the alchemists' laboratories, where, even in
+Christian Egypt, they still devoted themselves to attempts to transmute
+the baser into the noble metals. Alchemists and star-readers alike soon
+detected the old man's superior knowledge, and in spite of his acrid and
+often offensively-repellent demeanor, took counsel of him on difficult
+questions. His fame had even reached the Arabs, and, when it was
+necessary to find the exact direction towards Mecca for the prayer niche
+in Amru's new mosque, he was appealed to, and his decision was final.
+
+Philippus had, some years since, been called to the old man's bedside
+in sickness, and being then a beginner and in no great request, he had
+given the best of his time and powers to the case. Horapollo had
+been much attracted by the young physician's wide culture and earnest
+studiousness; he had conceived a warm liking for him, the warmest
+perhaps that he had ever felt for any fellow-human since the death of
+his own family. At last the elder took the younger man into his heart
+with such overflowing affection, that it seemed as though his spirit
+longed to make up now for the stint of love it had hitherto shown. No
+father could have clung to his son with more fervent devotion, and when
+a relapse once more brought him to death's door he took Philippus wholly
+into his confidence, unrolled before his eyes the scroll of his inner
+and outer life from its beginnings, and made him his heir on condition
+that he should abide by him to the end.
+
+Philippus, who, from the first, had felt a sympathetic attraction to
+this venerable and talented man, agreed to the bargain; and when
+he subsequently became associated with the old man in his studies,
+assisting him from time to time, Horapollo desired that he would help
+him to complete a work he hoped to finish before he died. It was a
+treatise on hieroglyphic writing, and was to interpret the various signs
+so far as was still possible, and make them intelligible to posterity.
+
+The old man disliked writing anything but Egyptian, using Greek
+unwillingly and clumsily, so he entrusted to his young friend the task
+of rendering his explanations into that language. Thus the two men--so
+different in age and character, but so closely allied in intellectual
+aims--led a joint existence which was both pleasant and helpful to both,
+in spite of the various eccentricities, the harshness and severity of
+the elder.
+
+Horapollo lived after the manner of the early Egyptian priests,
+subjecting himself to much ablution and shaving; eating little but
+bread, vegetables, and poultry, and abstaining from pulse and the flesh
+of all beasts--not merely of the prohibited animal, swine; wearing
+nothing but pure linen clothing, and setting apart certain hours for
+the recitation of those heathen forms of prayer whose magic power was to
+compel the gods to grant the desires of those who thus appealed to them.
+
+And if the old man had given his full confidence to Philippus, the
+leech, on his part, had no secrets from him; or, if he withheld
+anything, Horapollo, with wonderful acumen, was at once aware of it.
+Philippus had often spoken of Paula to his parental friend, describing
+her charms with all the fervor of a lover, but the old man was already
+prejudiced against her, if only as the daughter of a patrician and a
+prefect. All who bore these titles were to him objects of hatred, for
+a patrician and a prefect had been guilty of the blood of those he had
+held most dear. The Governor of Antioch, to be sure, had acted only
+under the orders of the bishop; but old Horapollo, and his father before
+him, from the first had chosen to throw all the blame on the prefect,
+for it afforded some satisfaction to the descendant of an ancestral race
+of priests to be able to vent all his wrathful spite on any one rather
+than on the minister of a god--be that god who or what he might.
+
+So when Philippus praised Paula's dignified grandeur, her superior
+elegance, the height of her stature or the loftiness of her mind, the
+old man would bound up exclaiming: "Of course--of course!--Beware boy,
+beware! You are disguising haughtiness, conceit, and arrogance under
+noble names. The word 'patrician' includes everything we can conceive of
+as most insolent and inhuman; and those apes in purple who disgrace the
+Imperial throne pick out the worst of them, the most cold-hearted
+and covetous, to make prefects of them. And as they are, so are their
+children! Everything which they in their vainglory regard as 'beneath
+them' they tread into the dust--and we--you and I, all who labor with
+their hands in the service of the state--we, in their dull eyes,
+are beneath them. Mark me, boy! To-day the governor's daughter, the
+patrician maiden, can smile at you because she needs you; tomorrow she
+will cast you aside as I push away the old panther-skin which keeps my
+feet warm in winter, as soon as the March days come!"
+
+Nor was his aversion less for the son of the Mukaukas, whom, however,
+he had never seen; when the leech had confessed to him how deep a grudge
+against Orion dwelt in the heart of Paula, old Horapollo had chuckled
+scornfully, and he exclaimed, as though he could read hearts and look
+into the future--: "They snap at each other now, and in a day or two
+they will kiss again! Hatred and love are the opposite ends of the same
+rod; and how easily it is reversed!--Those two!--Like in blood is like
+in kind;--such people attract each other as the lodestone tends towards
+the iron and the iron towards the lodestone!"
+
+But these and similar admonitions had produced little effect on the
+physician's sentiments; even Paula's repulse of his ardent appeal after
+she had moved to the house of Rufinus had failed to extinguish his
+hope of winning her at last. This very morning, in the course of the
+discussion as to the stewardship of her fortune, Paula had been
+ready and glad to accept him as her Kyrios--her legal protector and
+representative; but he now thought that he could perceive by various
+signs that his venerable friend was right: that the rod had been
+reversed, and that aversion had been transformed to love in the girl's
+heart. The anguish of this discovery was hard to bear. And yet Paula had
+never shown him such hearty warmth of manner, never had she spoken to
+him in a voice so soft and so full of feeling, as this evening in the
+garden. More cheerful and talkative than usual, she had constantly
+turned to address him, while he had felt his pain and torment of mind
+gradually eased, till in him too, sentiment had blossomed anew, and his
+intellectual power had expanded. Never--so he believed--had he expressed
+his thoughts better or more brilliantly than in that hour. Nor had she
+withheld her approval; she had heartily agreed with his views; and
+when, half an hour before midnight, he had gone with her to visit
+his patients, rapturous hopes had sprung once more in his breast.
+Ecstatically happy, like a man intoxicated, he had, by her own desire,
+accompanied her into her sitting-room, and then--and there....
+
+Poor, disappointed man, sitting on the divan in a dark corner of the
+spacious room! In his soul hitherto the intellect had alone made itself
+heard, the voice of the heart had never been listened to.
+
+How he had found his way home he never knew. All he remembered was
+that, in the course of duty, he had gone into the house of a man whose
+wife--the mother of several children--he had left at noon in a dying
+state; that he had seen her a corpse, surrounded by loud but sincere
+mourners; that he had gone on his way, weighed down by their grief and
+his own, and that he had entered his friend's rooms rather than his
+own, to feel safe from himself. Life had no charm, no value for him now;
+still, he felt ashamed to think that a woman could thus divert him from
+the fairest aims of life, that he could allow her to destroy the peace
+of mind he needed to enable him to carry out his calling in the spirit
+of his friend Rufinus. He knew his house-mate well and felt that he
+would only pour vitriol into his wounds, but it was best so. The old
+man had already often tried to bring down Paula's image from its high
+pedestal in his soul, but always in vain; and even now he should not
+succeed. He would mar nothing, scatter nothing to the winds, tread
+nothing in the dust but the burning passion, the fevered longing
+for her, which had fired his blood ever since that night when he had
+vanquished the raving Masdakite. That old sage by the table, on whose
+stern, cold features the light fell so brightly, was the very man to
+accomplish such a work of destruction, and Philippus awaited his first
+words as a wounded man watches the surgeon heating the iron with which
+to cauterize the sore.
+
+Poor disappointed wretch, sorely in need of a healing hand!
+
+He lay back on the divan, and saw how his friend leaned over his scroll
+as if listening, and fidgeted up and down in his arm-chair.
+
+It was clear that Horapollo was uneasy at Philippus' long silence, and
+his pointed eyebrows, raised high on his brow, plainly showed that he
+was drawing his own conclusions from it--no doubt the right ones. The
+peace must soon be broken, and Philippus awaited the attack. He was
+prepared for the worst; but how could he bring himself to make his
+torturer's task easy for him. Thus many minutes slipped away; while
+the leech was waiting for the old man to speak, Horapollo waited for
+Philippus. However, the impatience and curiosity of the elder were
+stronger than the young man's craving for comfort; he suddenly laid down
+the roll of manuscript, impatiently snatched up the ivory stick which he
+had thrown aside, set his heavy seat at an angle with a shove of amazing
+vigor for his age, turned full on Philippus, and asked him, in a loud
+voice, pointing his ruler at him as if threatening him with it:
+
+"So the play is out. A tragedy, of course!"
+
+"Hardly, since I am still alive," replied the other.
+
+"But there is inward bleeding, and the wound is painful," retorted the
+old man. Then, after a short pause, he went on: "Those who will not
+listen must feel! The fox was warned of the trap, but the bait was too
+tempting! Yesterday there would still have been time to pull his foot
+out of the spring, if only he had sincerely desired it; he knew the
+hunter's guile. Now the foe is down on the victim; he has not spared his
+weapons, and there lies the prey dumb with pain and ignominy, cursing
+his own folly.--You seem inclined for silence this evening. Shall I tell
+you just how it all came about?"
+
+"I know only too well," said Philippus.
+
+"While I, to be sure, can only imagine it!" growled the old man. "So
+long as that patrician hussy needed the poor beast of burthen she could
+pet it and throw barley and dates to it. Now she is rolling in gold and
+living under a sheltering roof, and hey presto, the discarded protector
+is sent to the right about in no time. This mistress of the hearts of
+our weak and bondage-loving sex raises this rich Adonis to fill the
+place of the hapless, overgrown leech, just as the sky lets the sun rise
+when the pale moon sinks behind the hills. If that is not the fact give
+me the lie!"
+
+"I only wish I could," sighed Philippus. "You have seen rightly,
+wonderfully rightly--and yet, as wrongly as possible."
+
+"Dark indeed!" said the old man quietly. "But I can see even in the
+dark. The facts are certain, though you are still so blinded as not
+to see their first cause. However, I am satisfied to know that your
+delusion has come to so abrupt, and in my opinion so happy, an end. To
+its cause--a woman, as usual--I am perfectly indifferent. Why should I
+needlessly ascribe to her any worse sin than she had committed? If only
+for your sake I will avoid doing so, for an honorable soul clings to
+those whom it sees maligned. Still, it seems to me that it is for you
+to speak, not for me. I should know you for a philosopher, without such
+persistent silence; and as for myself, I am not altogether bereft of
+curiosity, in spite of my eighty years."
+
+At this Philippus hastily rose and pacing the room while he spoke, or
+pausing occasionally in front of the old man, he poured out with glowing
+cheeks and eager gestures, the history of his hopes and sufferings--how
+Paula had filled him with fresh confidence, and had invited him to her
+rooms--only to show him her whole heart; she had been strongly moved,
+surprised at herself, but unable and unwilling to conceal from him the
+happiness that had come into her life. She had spoken to him, her best
+friend, as a burthened soul pours itself out to a priest: had confessed
+all that she had felt since the funeral of the deceased Mukaukas, and
+said that she felt convinced now that Orion had come to a right mind
+again after his great sin.
+
+"And that there, was so much joy over him in heaven," interrupted
+Horapollo, "that she really could not delay doing her cast-off lover the
+honor of inviting his sympathy!"
+
+"On the contrary. It was with the utmost effort that she uttered all
+her heart prompted her to tell; she had nothing to look for from me but
+mockery, warning, and reproach, and yet she opened her heart to me."
+
+"But why? To what end?" shrieked the old man. "Shall I tell you. Because
+a man who is a friend must still be half a lover, and a woman cannot
+bear to give up even a quarter of one."
+
+"Not so!" exclaimed Philippus, indignantly interrupting him. "It was
+because she esteems and values me,--because she regards me as a brother,
+and--I am not a vain man--and could not bear--those were her very
+words--to cheat me of my affection for even an hour! It was noble,
+it was generous, worthy of her! And though every fibre of my nature
+rebelled I found myself compelled to admire her sincerity, her
+true friendship, her disregard of her own feelings, and her womanly
+tenderness!--Nay, do not interrupt me again, do not laugh at me. It is
+no small matter for a proud girl, conscious of her own dignity, to lay
+bare her heart's weakness to a man who, as she knows, loves her, as she
+did just now to me. She called me her benefactor and said she would be
+a sister to me; and whatever motive you--who hate her out of a habit of
+prejudice without really knowing her--may choose to ascribe her conduct
+to, I--I believe in her, and understand her.
+
+"Could I refuse to grasp the hand she held out to me as she entreated
+me with tears in her eyes to be still her friend, her protector, and her
+Kyrios! And yet, and yet!--Where shall I find resolution enough to
+ask of her who excites me to the height of passion no more than a kind
+glance, a clasp of the hand, an intelligent interest in what I say? How
+am I to preserve self-control, calmness, patience, when I see her in the
+arms of that handsome young demi-god whom I scorned only yesterday as a
+worthless scoundrel? What ice may cool the fire of this burning heart?
+What spear can transfix the dragon of passion which rages here? I have
+lived almost half my life without ever feeling or yearning for the love
+of which the poets sing. I have never known anything of such feelings
+but through the pangs of some friend whose weakness had roused my pity;
+and now, when love has come upon me so late with all its irresistible
+force--has subjugated me, cast me into bondage--how shall I, how can I
+get free?
+
+"My faithful friend, you who call me your son, whom I am glad to hear
+speak to me as 'boy,' and 'child,' who have taken the place of the
+father I lost so young--there is but one issue: I must leave you and
+this city--flee from her neighborhood--seek a new home far from her with
+whom I could have been as happy as the Saints in bliss, and who has made
+me more wretched than the damned in everlasting fire. Away, away! I will
+go--I must go unless you, who can do so much, can teach me to kill this
+passion or to transmute it into calm, brotherly regard."
+
+He stood still, close in front of the old man and hid his face in his
+hands. At his favorite's concluding words, Horapollo had started to his
+feet with all the vigor of youth; he now snatched his hand down from his
+face, and exclaimed in a voice hoarse with indignation and the deepest
+concern:
+
+"And you can say that in earnest? Can a sensible man like you have sunk
+so deep in folly? Is it not enough that your own peace of mind should
+have been sacrificed, flung at the feet of this--what can I call
+her?--Do you understand at last why I warned you against the Patrician
+brood?--The faith, gratitude, and love of a good man!--What does she
+care for them? Unhook the whiting; away with him in the dust! Here comes
+a fine large fish who perhaps may swallow the bait!--Do you want to
+ruin, for her sake, and the sake of that rascally son of the governor,
+the comfort and happiness of an old man's last years when he has become
+accustomed to love you, who so well deserve it, as his own son? Will
+you--an energetic student, you--a man of powerful intellect, zealous
+in your duty, and in favor with the gods--will you pine like a deserted
+maiden or spring from the Leucadian rock like love-sick Sappho in the
+play while the spectators shake with laughter? You must stay, Boy, you
+must stay; and I will show you how a man must deal with a passion that
+dishonors him."
+
+"Show me," replied Philippus in a dull voice. "I ask no more. Do you
+suppose that I am not myself ashamed of my own weakness? It ill beseems
+me of all men, formed by fate for anything rather than to be a sighing
+and rapturous lover. I will struggle with it, wrestle with it with all
+the strength that is in me; but here, in Memphis, close to her and as
+her Kyrios, I should be forced every day to see her, and day after day
+be exposed to fresh and humiliating defeat! Here, constantly near her
+and with her, the struggle must wear me out--I should perish, body and
+soul. The same place, the same city, cannot hold her and me."
+
+"Then she must make way for you," croaked Horus. Philippus raised his
+bowed head and asked, in some surprise and with stern reproof:
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Nothing," replied the other airily. He shrugged his shoulders and went
+on more gently: "Memphis has greater need of you than of the patrician
+hussy." Then he shook himself as if he were cold, struck his breast and
+added: "All is turmoil here within; I can neither help nor advise you.
+Day must soon be dawning in the east; we will try to sleep. A knot can
+often be untied by daylight which by lamplight seems inextricable, and
+perhaps on my sleepless couch the goddess may reveal to me the way I
+have promised to show you. A little more lightness of heart would do
+neither of us any harm.--Try to forget your own griefs in those of
+others; you see enough of them every day. To wish you a good night would
+probably be waste of words, but I may wish you a soothing one, You may
+count on my aid; but you will not let me, a poor old man, hear another
+word about flight and departure and the like, will you? No, no. I know
+you better, Philippus--you will never treat your lonely old friend so!"
+
+These were the tenderest words that the leech had ever heard from the
+old man's lips, and it comforted him when Horapollo pressed him to his
+heart in a hasty embrace. He thought no more of the hint that it was
+Paula's part to make room for him. But the old man had spoken in all
+seriousness, for, no sooner was he alone than he petulantly flung down
+the ivory ruler on the table, and murmured, at first angrily and then
+scornfully, his eyes sparkling the while:
+
+"For this true heart, and to preserve myself and the world from losing
+such a man, I would send a dozen such born hussies to Amentis--[The
+Nether world of the ancient Egyptians.]--Hey, hey! My beauty! So this
+noble leech is not good enough for the like of us; he may be tossed away
+like a date-stone that we spit out? Well, every one to his taste;
+but how would it be if old Horapollo taught us his value? Wait a bit,
+wait!--With a definite aim before my eyes I have never yet failed to
+find my way--in the realm of science, of course; but what is life--the
+life of the sage but applied knowledge? And why should not old
+Horapollo, for once before he dies, try what his brains can contrive to
+achieve in the busy world of outside human existence? Pleasant as you
+may think it to be in Memphis with your lover, fair heart-breaker,
+you will have to make way for the plaything you have so lightly tossed
+aside! Aye, you certainly will, depend upon that my beauty, depend upon
+that!--Here, Anubis!"
+
+He gave the slave, who had fallen asleep again under the table, a
+kick with his bare foot, and while Anubis lighted his master to his
+sleeping-room, and helped him in his long and elaborate ablutions,
+Horapollo never ceased muttering broken sentences and curses, or
+laughing maliciously to himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+If Philippus found no sleep that night, neither did Orion. He no longer
+doubted Paula, but his heart was full of longing to hear her say once
+more that she loved him and him alone, and the yearning kept him awake.
+He sprang from his bed at the first glimmer of dawn, glad that the
+night was past, and started to cross the Nile in order to place half
+of Paula's fortune in the hands of Salech, the brother of Haschim the
+merchant.
+
+In Memphis all was still silent, and all he saw in the old town struck
+him as strangely worn-out, torpid, and decayed; it seemed only fit to be
+left to ruin, while on the other side of the river, in the new town of
+Fostat, on all hands busy, eager, new-born vitality met his eyes.
+
+He involuntarily compared the old capital of the Pharaohs to a
+time-eaten mummy, and Amru's new city to a vigorous youth. Here every
+one was astir and in brisk activity. The money-changer, who had risen,
+like all Moslems, to perform his morning prayer, "as soon as a white
+thread could be distinguished from a black one," was already busy with
+his rolls of gold and silver coin; and how quick, clear, and decisive
+the Arab was in concluding his bargain with Orion and with Nilus, who
+had accompanied him!
+
+Whichever way the young man turned, bright and flashing eyes met his
+gaze, energetic, resolute, and enterprising faces; no bowed heads, no
+dull, brooding looks, no gloomy resignation like those in his native
+town on the other shore. Here, in Fostat, his blood flowed more swiftly;
+there, existence was an oppressive burden. Everything attracted him to
+the Arabs!
+
+The changer's shop, like all those in the Sook or Bazaar of Fostat,
+consisted of a wooden stall in which he sat with his assistants. On the
+side open to the street he transacted business with his customers, who,
+when the affair promised to be lengthy, were invited by the Arab to seat
+themselves with him on his little platform.
+
+Orion and Nilus had accepted such an invitation, and it happened that,
+while they sat in treaty with Salech, visible to the passers-by, the
+Vekeel Obada, who had so deeply stirred the wrath of the governor's son
+on the previous evening, came by, close to him. To Orion's amazement he
+greeted him with great amiability, and he, remembering Amru's warning,
+responded, though not without an effort, to his hated foe's civility.
+When Obada passed the stall a second and a third time, Orion felt that
+he was watching him; however, it was quite possible that the Vekeel
+might also have business with the money-changer and be waiting only for
+the conclusion of his.
+
+At any rate Orion ere long forgot the incident, for matters of more
+pressing importance claimed his attention at home.
+
+As often happens, the death of one man had changed everything in his
+house so utterly as to make it unlike the same; though his removal had
+made it neither richer nor poorer, and though his secluded presence of
+late had scarcely had an appreciable influence. The rooms formerly
+so full of life now seemed dead. Petitioners and suppliants no longer
+crowded the anteroom, and all visits of condolence had, according to
+the ancient custom, been received on the day after the funeral. The Lady
+Neforis had ceased fussing and bustling, the clatter of her keys and
+her scolding were no longer to be heard; she sat apart, either in her
+sleeping-room or the cool hall with the fountain which had been her
+husband's favorite room, excepting when she was at church whither she
+went twice every day. She returned from thence with the same weary,
+abstracted expression that she took there, and any one seeing her lying
+on the divan which her husband had formerly occupied, idly absorbed in
+gloomy thought, would hardly have recognized her as the same woman who
+had but lately been so active and managing. She did not exactly mourn or
+bewail her loss; indeed, she had no tears for her grief, as though she
+had shed them all, once for all, during the night after his death and
+burial. But she could not attain to that state of sadness made sacred
+by memories with which consoling angels so often mingle some drops of
+sweetness, after the first anguish is overpast. She felt--she knew--that
+with her husband a portion of her own being had been riven from her, but
+she could not yet perceive that this last portion was nothing less than
+the very foundations of her whole moral and social being.
+
+Her father and her husband's father had been the two leading men in
+Memphis, nay, in all Egypt. She had given her hand and a heart full of
+love to the son of Menas, a proud and happy woman. It was as one with
+her, and not by himself alone, that he had risen to the highest dignity
+attainable by a native Egyptian, and she had done everything that lay
+in her power to uphold him in a position which many envied him, and in
+filling it with dignity and effect. After many years of rare happiness
+their grief at the loss of their murdered sons only bound the attached
+couple more closely, and when her husband had fallen into bad health she
+had gladly shared his seclusion, had devoted herself entirely to caring
+for him, and divided all the doubts and anxieties which came upon him
+from his political action. The consciousness of being not merely much
+but everything to him, was her pride and her joy. Her dislike of Paula
+had its rise, in the first instance, in the discovery that she, his
+wife, was no longer indispensable to the sufferer when he had his fair
+young niece's company. And now?
+
+At night, after long lying awake, when she woke from a snatch of uneasy
+sleep, she involuntarily listened for the faint panting breath, but no
+heart now throbbed by her side; and when she quitted her lonely couch at
+dawn the coming day lay before her as a desert and treeless solitude. By
+night, as by day, she constantly tried to call up the image of the dead,
+but whenever her small imaginative power had succeeded in doing so--not
+unfrequently at first--she had seen him as in the last moments of his
+life, a curse on his only son on his trembling lips. This horrible
+impression deprived her of the last consolation of the mourner: a
+beautiful memory, while it destroyed her proud and glad satisfaction in
+her only child. The youth, who had till now been her soul's idol, was
+stigmatized and branded in her eyes. She might not ignore the burden
+laid on Orion by that most just man; instead of taking him to her heart
+with double tenderness and softening or healing the fearful punishment
+inflicted by his father, she could only pity him. When Orion came to see
+her she would stroke his waving hair and, as she desired not to wound
+him and make him even more unhappy than he must be already, she neither
+blamed nor admonished him, and never reminded him of his father's curse.
+And how beggared was that frugal heart, accustomed to spend all its
+store of love on so few objects--nay, chiefly on one alone who was now
+no more!
+
+The happy voices of the children had always given her pleasure, so
+long as they did not disturb her suffering husband; now, they too were
+silent. She had withdrawn the sunshine of her narrow affection from her
+only grandchild, who had hitherto held a place in it, for little Mary
+had had a share in the horrors that had come upon her and Orion in her
+husband's last moments. Indeed, the bereaved woman's excited fancy had
+firmly conceived the mad notion that the child was the evil genius of
+the house and the tool of Satan.
+
+Neforis had, however, enjoyed some hours of greater ease during the last
+two days. In the misery of wakefulness which was beginning to torture
+her like an acute pain, she had suddenly recollected what relief from
+sleeplessness her husband had been wont to find in the opium pillules,
+and a box of the medicine, only just opened, was at hand. And was not
+she, too, suffering unutterable wretchedness? Why should she neglect
+the remedy which had so greatly mitigated her husband's distress? It was
+said to have a bad effect after long and frequent use, and she had often
+checked the Mukaukas in taking it too freely; but could her sufferings
+be greater? Would she not, indeed, be thankful to the drug if it should
+shorten her miserable existence?
+
+So she took the familiar remedy, at first hesitatingly and then more
+freely; and on the second day again, with real pleasure and happy
+expectancy, for it had not merely procured her a good night but had
+brought her joy in the morning: The dead had appeared to her, and for
+the first time not in the act of cursing, but as a young and happy man.
+
+No one in the house knew what comfort the widow had had recourse to; the
+physician and her son had been glad yesterday to find her more composed.
+
+When Orion returned home, after concluding his business with the
+money-changer at Fostat, he had to make his way through a crowd of
+people, and found the court-yard full of men, and the guards and
+servants in the greatest excitement. No less a personage than the
+Patriarch had arrived on a visit, and was now in conference with
+Neforis. Sebek, the steward, informed Orion that he had asked for him,
+and that his mother wished that he should immediately join them and pay
+his respects to the very reverend Father.
+
+"She wished it?" asked the young man, as he tossed his riding-hat to a
+slave, and he stood hesitating.
+
+He was too much a son of his time, and the Church and her ministers had
+exercised too marked influence on his education, for the great prelate's
+visit to be regarded otherwise than as a high honor. At the same time
+he could not forget the insult done to his father's vanes, nor the Arab
+general's warning to be on his guard against Benjamin's enmity; and
+perhaps, he said to himself, it might be better to avoid a meeting with
+the powerful priest than to expose himself to the danger of losing his
+self-control and finding fresh food for his wrath.
+
+However, he had in fact no choice, for the patriarch just now came out
+of the fountain-hall into the viridarium. The old man's tall figure was
+not bent, his snowy hair flowed in abundance round his proud head, and a
+white beard fell in soft waves far down his breast. His fine eyes rested
+on the young man with a keen glance, and though he had last seen Orion
+as a boy he recognized him at once as the master of the house. While
+Orion bowed low before him, the patriarch, in his deep, rich voice,
+addressed him with cheerful dignity.
+
+"All hail, son of my never-to-be-forgotten friend! The child I remember,
+has, I see, grown to a fine man. I have devoted a short time to the
+mother, and now I must say what is needful to the son."
+
+"In my father's study," Orion said to the steward; and he led the way
+with the ceremonious politeness of a chamberlain of the imperial court.
+
+The patriarch, as he followed him, signed to his escort to remain
+behind, and as soon as the door was closed upon them, he went up to
+Orion and exclaimed: "Again I greet you! This, then, is the descendant
+of the great Menas, the son of Mukaukas George, the adored ruler of my
+flock at Memphis, who held the first place among the gilded youth of
+Constantinople in their gay whirl! A strange achievement for an Egyptian
+and a Christian! But first of all, child, first give me your hand!" He
+held out his right hand and Orion accepted it, but not without reserve,
+for he had suspected a scornful ring in the patriarch's address, and he
+could not help asking himself whether this man honestly meant so well
+by him, that he could address him thus paternally as "child" in all
+sincerity of heart? To refuse his hand was, however, impossible; still,
+he found courage to reply:
+
+"I can but obey your desire, holy Father; but, at the same time, I do
+not know whether it becomes the son to grasp the hand of the foe who was
+not to be appeased even by Death, the reconciler--who grossly insulted
+the father, the noblest of men, and, in him, the son too, at the grave
+itself."
+
+The patriarch shook his head with a supercilious smile, and a hot thrill
+shot through Orion as Benjamin laid his hand on his shoulder and said
+with grave kindness:
+
+"A Christian does not find it hard to forgive a sinner, an antagonist,
+an enemy; and it is a joy to me to pardon the son who feels himself
+injured through his lost father, blind and foolish as his indignation
+may be. Your wrath can no more affect me, Child, than the Almighty in
+Heaven, and it would not even be blameworthy, but that--and of this
+we must speak presently--but that--well, I will be frank with you at
+once--but that your manner clearly and unmistakably betrays what you
+lack to make you a true Christian, and such a man as he must be who
+fills so conspicuous a position in this land governed by infidels. You
+know what I mean?"
+
+The prelate let his hand slip from the young man's shoulder, looking
+enquiringly in his face; and when Orion, finding no reply ready, drew
+back a step or two, the old man went on with growing excitement:
+
+"It is humility, pious and submissive faith, that I find you lack, my
+friend. Who, indeed, am I? But as the Vicar, the representative of Him
+before whom we all are as worms in the dust, I must insist that every
+man who calls himself a Christian, a Jacobite, shall submit to my will
+and orders, without hesitation or doubt, as obediently and unresistingly
+as though salvation or woe had fallen on him from above. What would
+become of us, if individuals were to take upon themselves to defy me and
+walk in their own way? In one miserable generation, and with the death
+of the elders who had grown up as true Christians, the doctrine of the
+Saviour would be extinct on the shores of the Nile, the crescent would
+rise in the place of the Cross, and our cry would go up to Heaven for so
+many lost souls. Learn, haughty youth, to bow humbly and submissively
+to the will of the Most High and of His vicar on earth, and let me show
+you, from your demeanor to myself especially, how far your own judgment
+is to be relied on. You regard me as your father's enemy?"
+
+"Yes," said Orion firmly.
+
+"And I loved him as a brother!" replied the patriarch in a softer voice.
+"How gladly would I have heaped his bier with palm branches of peace,
+such as the Church alone can grow, wet with my own tears!"
+
+"And yet," cried Orion, "you denied to him, whom you call your friend,
+what the Church does not refuse to thieves and murderers, if only they
+desire forgiveness and have received absolution from a priest;
+and that...."
+
+"And that your father did!" interrupted the old man. "Peace be to him!
+He is now, no doubt, gazing on the glory of the Lord. And nevertheless
+I could forbid the priesthood here showing him honor at the grave.--Why?
+For what urgent reason was such a prohibition spoken by a friend against
+a friend?"
+
+"Because you wished to brand him, in the eyes of the world, as the man
+who lent his support to the unbelievers and helped them to victory,"
+said Orion gloomily.
+
+"How well the boy can read the thoughts of men!" exclaimed the prelate,
+looking at the young man with approbation in which, however, there was
+some irony and annoyance. "Very good. We will assume that my object
+was to show the Christians of Memphis what fate awaits the man,
+who surrenders his country to the enemy and walks hand-in-hand with
+unbelievers? And may I not possibly have been right?"
+
+"Do you suppose my father invited the Arabs?" interrupted the young man.
+
+"No, Child," replied the patriarch, "the enemy came of his own free
+will."
+
+"And you," Orion went on, "after the Greeks had driven you into exile,
+prophesied from the desert that they would come and overthrow the
+Melchites, the Greek enemies of our faith, drive them out of the
+country."
+
+"It was revealed to me by the Lord!" replied the old man, bowing his
+head reverently. "And yet other things were shown to me while I dwelt
+a devout ascetic, mortifying my flesh under the scorching sun of the
+desert. Beware my son, beware! Heed my warning, lest it should be
+fulfilled and the house of Menas vanish like clouds swept before the
+wind.--Your father, I know, regarded my prophecy as advice given by me
+to receive the infidels as the instrument of the Almighty and to support
+them in driving the Melchite oppressors out of the land."
+
+"Your prophecy," replied Orion, "had, no doubt, a marked effect on my
+father; and when the cause of the emperor and the Greeks was lost,
+your opinion that the Melchites were unbelievers as much as the sons
+of Islam, was of infinite comfort to him. For he, if any one--as you
+know--had good reason to hate the sectarians who killed his two sons in
+their prime. What followed, he did to rescue his and your unfortunate
+brethren and dependants from destruction. Here, here in this desk,
+lies his answer to the emperor's accusations, as given to the Greek
+deputation who had speech of him in this very room. He wrote it down as
+soon as they had left him. Will you hear it?"
+
+"I can guess its purport."
+
+"No, no!" cried the excited youth; he hastily opened his father's desk,
+laid his hand at once on the wax tablet, and exclaimed: "This was his
+reply!" And he proceeded to read:
+
+"These Arabs, few as they are, are stronger and more powerful than we
+with all our numbers. One man of them is equal to a hundred of us, for
+they rush on death and love it better than life. Each of them presses
+to the front in battle, and they have no longing to return home and
+to their families. For every Christian they kill they look for a great
+reward in Heaven, and they say that the gates of Paradise open at once
+for those who fall in the fight. They have not a wish in this world
+beyond the satisfaction of their barest need of food and clothing. We,
+on the contrary, love life and dread death;--how can we stand against
+them? I tell you that I will not break the peace I have concluded with
+the Arabs. ..."
+
+"And what is the upshot of all this reply?" interrupted the patriarch
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"That my father found himself compelled to conclude a peace, and
+that--but read on.--That as a wise man he was forced to ally himself
+with the foe."
+
+"The foe to whom he yielded more readily and paid much greater honor
+than became him as a Christian!--Does not this discourse convey the idea
+that the joys of Paradise solely and exclusively await our damned and
+blood-thirsty oppressors?--And the Moslem Paradise! What is it but a
+gulf of iniquity, in which they are to wallow in sensual delight? The
+false prophet invented it to tempt his followers to force his lying
+creed, by might of arms and in mad contempt of death, on nation after
+nation. Our Lord, the Word made flesh, came down on earth to win hearts
+and souls by the persuasive power of the living truth, one and eternal,
+which emanates from Him as light proceeds from the sun; this Mohammed,
+on the contrary, is a sword made flesh! For me, then, there is no choice
+but to submit to superior strength; but I can still hate and loathe
+their accursed and soul-destroying superstition.--And so I do, and so I
+shall, to the last throb of this old heart, which only longs for rest,
+the sooner the better....
+
+"But you? And your father? Verily, verily, the man who, even for an
+instant, ceases to hate unbelief or false doctrine has sinned for his
+whole life on this side of the grave and beyond it; sinned against
+the only true and saving faith and its divine Founder. Blasphemous and
+flattering praise of the piety and moderation of our foes, the very
+antichrist incarnate, who kill both body and soul.--With these your
+father fouled his heart and tongue..."
+
+"Fouled?" cried Orion and the blood tingled in his cheeks. "He kept his
+heart and tongue alike pure and honorable; never did a false word pass
+his lips. Justice, justice to all, even to his enemies, was the ruling
+principle, the guiding clue of his blameless life; and the noblest of
+the heathen Greeks admired the man who could so far triumph over himself
+as to recognize what was fine and good in a foe."
+
+"And they were right," replied the patriarch, "for they were not yet
+acquainted with truth. In a worldly sense, even now, each of us may aim
+at such magnanimity; but the man who forgives those who tamper with
+the sacred truth, which is the bread, meat, and wine of the Christian's
+soul, sins against that truth; and, if he is a leader of men, he draws
+on those who look up to him, and who are only too ready to follow his
+example, into everlasting fire. Where your father ought to have been a
+recalcitrant though conquered enemy, he became an ally; nay, so far as
+the leader of the infidels was concerned, a friend--how many tears it
+cost me! And our hapless people were forced to see this attitude
+of their chief, and imitated it.--Forgive their seducer, Merciful
+God!--forming their conduct on his. Thousands fell away from our saving
+faith and went over to those, who in their eyes could not be reprobate,
+could not be damned, since they saw them dwelling and working
+hand-in-hand with their wise and righteous leader; and it was simply and
+solely to warn his misguided people that I did not hesitate to wound my
+own heart, to raise the voice of reproof at the grave of a dear friend,
+and to refuse the honor and blessing of which his just and virtuous life
+rendered him more worthy than thousands of others. I have spoken, and
+now your foolish anger must be appeased; now you will grasp the hand
+held out to you by the shepherd of the souls entrusted to him with an
+easy and willing heart."
+
+And again he offered his hand to Orion, who, however, again took it
+doubtfully, and instead of looking the prelate in the face, cast down
+his eyes in gloomy bewilderment. The patriarch appeared not to observe
+the young man's repulsion and clasped his hand warmly. Then he changed
+the subject, speaking of the grieving widow, of the decadence of
+Memphis, of Orion's plans for the future, and finally of the gems
+dedicated to the Church by the deceased Mukaukas. The dialogue had taken
+a calm, conversational tone; the patriarch was sitting in the dead man's
+arm-chair, and there was nothing forced or unnatural in his asking,
+in the course of discussing the jewels, what had become of the great
+emerald.
+
+Orion replied, in the same tone, that this stone was not, strictly
+speaking, any part of his father's gift; but Benjamin expressed an
+opposite opinion.
+
+All the tortures Orion had endured since that luckless deed in the
+tablinum revived in his soul during this discussion; however, it was
+some small relief to him to perceive, that neither his mother nor Dame
+Susannah seemed to have told the patriarch the guilt he had incurred
+by reason of that gem. Susannah, of course, had said nothing of the
+incident in order to avoid speaking of her daughter's false evidence;
+still, this miserable business might easily have come to the ears of the
+stern old man, and to the guilty youth no sacrifice seemed too great to
+smother any enquiry for the ill-fated jewel. He unhesitatingly explained
+that the emerald had disappeared, but that he was quite ready to make
+good its value. Benjamin might fix his own estimate, and name any sum he
+wished for some benevolent purpose, and he, Orion, was ready to pay it
+to him on the spot.
+
+The prelate, however, calmly persisted in his demand, enjoined Orion to
+have a diligent search made for the gem, and declared that he regarded
+it as the property of the Church. He added that, when his patience was
+at an end, he should positively insist on its surrender and bring every
+means at his disposal into play to procure it.
+
+Orion had no choice but to say that he would prosecute his search for
+the lost stone; but his acquiescence was sullen, as that of a man who
+accedes to an unreasonable demand.
+
+At first the patriarch took this coolly; but presently, when he rose to
+take leave, his demeanor changed; he said, with stern solemnity:
+
+"I know you now, Son of Mukaukas George, and I end as I began: The
+humility of the Christian is far from you, you are ignorant of the
+power and dignity of our Faith, you do not even know the vast love that
+animates it, and the fervent longing to lead the straying sinner back to
+the path of salvation.--Your admirable mother has told me, with tears in
+her eyes, of the abyss over which you are standing. It is your desire
+to bind yourself for life to a heretic, a Melchite--and there is another
+thing which fills her pious mother's heart with fears, which tortures it
+as she thinks of you and your eternal welfare. She promised to confide
+this to my ear in church, and I shall find leisure to consider of it on
+my return home; but at any rate, and be it what it may, it cannot more
+greatly imperil your soul than marriage with a Melchite.
+
+"On what have you set your heart? On the mere joys of earth! You sue for
+the hand of an unbeliever, the daughter of an unbelieving heretic;
+you go over to Fostat--nay, hear me out--and place your brain and your
+strong arm at the service of the infidels--it is but yesterday; but I,
+I, the shepherd of my flock, will not suffer that he who is the highest
+in rank, the richest in possessions, the most powerful by the mere
+dignity of his name, shall pervert thousands of the Jacobite brethren. I
+have the will and the power too, to close the sluice gates against such
+a disaster. Obey me, or you shall rue it with tears of blood."
+
+The prelate paused, expecting to see Orion fall on his knees before
+him; but the young man did nothing of the kind. He stood looking at him,
+open-eyed and agitated, but undecided, and Benjamin went on with added
+vehemence:
+
+"I came to you to lift up my voice in protest, and I desire, I require,
+I command you: sever all ties with the enemies of your nation and of
+your faith, cast out your love for the Melchite Siren, who will seduce
+your immortal part to inevitable perdition...."
+
+Till this Orion had listened with bowed head and in silence to the
+diatribe which the patriarch had hurled at him like a curse; but at this
+point his whole being rose in revolt, all self-control forsook him, and
+he interrupted the speaker in loud tones:
+
+"Never, never, never will I do such a thing! Insult me as you will. What
+I am, I will still be: a faithful son of the Church to which my fathers
+belonged, and for which my brothers died. In all humility I acknowledge
+Jesus Christ as my Lord. I believe in him, believe in the God-made-man
+who died to save us, and who brought love into the world, and I will
+remain unpersuaded and faithful to my own love. Never will I forsake her
+who has been to me like a messenger from God, like a good angel to teach
+me how to lay hold on what is earnest and noble in life-her whom my
+father, too, held dear. Power, indeed, is yours. Demand of me anything
+reasonable, and within my attainment, and I will try to force myself to
+obedience; but I never can and never will be faithless to her, to prove
+my faith to you; and as to the Arabs...."
+
+"Enough!" exclaimed the prelate. "I am on my way to Upper Egypt. Make
+your choice by my return. I give you till then to come to a right mind,
+to think the matter over; and it is quite deliberately that I bid you to
+forget the Melchite. That you, of all men, should marry a heretic would
+be an abomination not to be borne. With regard to your alliance with the
+Arabs, and whether it becomes you--being what you are--to take service
+with them, we will discuss it at a future day. If, by the time I return,
+you have thought better of the matter as regards your marriage--and you
+are free to choose any Jacobite maiden--then I will speak to you in a
+different tone. I will then offer you my friendship and support; instead
+of the Church's curse I will pronounce her blessing on you--the pardon
+and grace of the Almighty, a smooth path to eternity and peace, and the
+prospect of giving new joy to the aching heart of your sorrowing mother.
+My last word is that you must and shall give up the woman from whom you
+can look for nothing but perdition."
+
+"I cannot, and shall not, and I never will!" replied Orion firmly.
+
+"Then I can, and shall, and will make you feel how heavily the curse
+falls which, in the last resort, I shall not hesitate to pronounce upon
+you!"
+
+"It is in your power," said Orion. "But if you proceed to extremities
+with me, you will drive me to seek the blessing for which my soul
+thirsts more ardently than you, my lord, can imagine, and the salvation
+I crave, with her whom you hold reprobate, and on the further side of
+the Nile."
+
+"I dare you!" cried the patriarch, quitting the room with a resolute
+step and flaming cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Orion was alone in the spacious room, feeling as though the whole world
+were sinking into nothingness after the rack of storm and tempest.
+At first he was merely conscious of having gone through a fearful
+experience, which threatened to fling him far outside the sphere of
+everything he was wont to reverence and hold sacred. For love and honor
+of his guardian angel he had declared war to the patriarch, and that
+man's power was as great as his stature. Still, the image of Paula rose
+high and supreme above that of the terrible old man, in Orion's fancy,
+and his father, as it seemed to him, was like an ally in the battle he
+was destined to wage in his own strength.
+
+The young man's vivid imagination and excellent memory recapitulated
+every word the prelate had uttered. The domineering old man, overflowing
+with bigoted zeal, had played with him as a cat with a mouse. He had
+tried to search his soul and sift him to the bottom before he attacked
+the subject with which he ought to have begun, and concerning which
+he was fully informed when he offered him his hand that first time--as
+cheerfully, too, as though he had no serious grievance seething in
+his soul. Orion resolved that he would cling fast to his faith without
+Benjamin's interposition, and not allow his hold on the two other
+Christian graces, Hope and Love, to be weakened by his influence.
+
+By some miracle his mother had not yet told the prelate of his father's
+curse, in spite of the anguish of her aching heart; and what a weapon
+would not that have been in Benjamin's hand. It was with the deepest
+pity that he thought of that poor, grief-stricken woman, and the idea
+flashed through his mind that the patriarch might have gone back to his
+mother to accuse him and to urge her to further revelations.
+
+Many minutes had passed since the patriarch had left him; Orion had
+allowed his illustrious guest to depart unescorted, and this could
+not fail to excite surprise. Such a breach of good manners, of the
+uncodified laws of society, struck Orion, the son of a noble and ancient
+house, who had drunk in his regard for them as it were with his mother's
+milk, as an indignity to himself; and to repair it he started
+up, hastily smoothing down his tumbled hair, and hurried into the
+viridarium. His fears were confirmed, for the patriarch's following were
+standing in the fountain-hall close to the exit; his mother, too, was
+there and Benjamin was in the act of departure.
+
+The old man accepted his offered escort with dignified affability, as if
+nothing but what was pleasant had passed between him and Orion. As they
+crossed the viridarium he asked his young host what was the name of some
+rare flower, and counselled him to take care that shade-giving trees
+were planted in abundance on his various estates. In the outer hall, on
+either side of the door, was a statue: Truth and justice, two fine works
+by Aristeas of Alexandria, who flourished in the time of the Emperor
+Hadrian. Justice held the scales and sword, Truth was gazing into her
+mirror. As the patriarch approached them, he said to the priest who
+walked by his side: "Still here!" Then, standing still, he said, partly
+to Orion and partly to his companion:
+
+"Your father, I see, neglected my suggestion that these heathen images
+had no place in any Christian house, and least of all in one attached,
+as this is, to a public function. We, no doubt, know the meaning of the
+symbols they bear; but how easily might the ordinary man, waiting here,
+mistake the figure with the mirror for Vanity and that with the scales
+Venality: 'Pay us what we ask,' she might be saying, 'or else your life
+is a forfeit,'--so the sword would imply."
+
+He smiled and walked on, but added airily to Orion:
+
+"When I come again--you know--I shall be pleased if my eye is no longer
+offended by these mementos of an extinct idolatry."
+
+"Truth and justice!" replied Orion in a constrained voice. "They have
+dwelt on this spot and ruled in this house for nearly five hundred
+years."
+
+"It would look better, and be more suitable," retorted the patriarch,
+"if you could say that of Him to whom alone the place of honor is due
+in a Christian house; in His presence every virtue flourishes of itself.
+The Christian should proscribe every image from his dwelling; at the
+door of his heart only should he raise an image on the one hand of Faith
+and on the other of Humility."
+
+By this time they had reached the court-yard, where Susannah's chariot
+was waiting. Orion helped the prelate into it, and when Benjamin offered
+him his hand to kiss, in the presence of several hundred slaves and
+servants, all on their knees, the young man lightly touched it with
+his lips. He stood bowed low in reverence so long as the holy father
+remained visible, in the attitude of blessing the crowd from the open
+side of the chariot; then he hurried away to join his mother.
+
+He expected to find her exhausted by the excitement of the patriarch's
+visit; but, in fact, she was more composed than he had seen her yet
+since his father's death. Her eyes indeed, commonly so sober in their
+expression, were bright with a kind of rapture which puzzled Orion. Had
+she been thinking of his father? Could the patriarch have succeeded in
+inspiring her pious fervor to such a pitch, that it had carried her, so
+to speak, out of herself?
+
+She was dressed to go to church, and after expressing her delight at the
+honor done to herself and her whole household by the prelate's visit,
+she invited Orion to accompany her. Though he had proposed devoting the
+next few hours to a different purpose, the dutiful son at once acceded
+to this wish; he helped her into her chariot, bid the driver go slowly,
+and seated himself by her side.
+
+As they drove along he asked her what she had told the patriarch, and
+her replies might have reassured him but that she filled him with grave
+anxiety on fresh grounds. Her mind seemed to have suffered under the
+stress of grief. It was usually so clear, so judicious, so reasonable;
+and now all she said was incoherent and not more than half intelligible.
+Still, one thing he distinctly understood: that she had not confided to
+the patriarch the fact of his father's curse. The prelate must certainly
+have censured the conduct of the deceased to her also and that had
+sealed her lips. She complained to her son that Benjamin had never
+understood her lost husband, and that she had felt compelled to repress
+her desire to disclose everything to him. Nowhere but in church, in the
+very presence of the Redeemer, could she bring herself to allow him to
+read her heart as it were an open book. A voice had warned her that in
+the house of God alone, could she find salvation for herself and her
+son; that voice she heard day and night, and much as it pained her to
+grieve him he must hear it now--: That voice never ceased to enjoin her
+to tear asunder his connection with the Melchite maiden. Last evening
+it had seemed to her that it was her eldest son, who had died for the
+Jacobite faith, that was speaking to her. The voice had sounded like
+his, and it had warned her that the ancient house of Menas must perish,
+if a Melchite should taint the pure blood of their race. And Benjamin
+had confirmed her fears; he had come back to her on purpose to beseech
+her to oppose Orion's sinful affection for Thomas' daughter with the
+utmost maternal authority, and, as the patriarch expressed the same
+desire as the voice, it must be from God and she must obey it.
+
+Her old grudge against Paula had revived, and her very tones betrayed
+that it grew stronger with every word she spoke which had any reference
+to the girl.
+
+At this Orion begged her to be calm, reminding her of the promise she
+had made him by his father's deathbed; and just as his mother was about
+to reply in a tone of pitiful recrimination, the chariot stopped at the
+door of the church. He did everything in his power to soothe her;
+his gentle and tender tones comforted her, and she nodded to him more
+happily, following him into the sanctuary.
+
+Beyond the narthex--the vestibule of the church, where three penitents
+were flaying their backs with scourges by the side of a small marble
+fountain, and in full view of the crowd--they were forced to part,
+as the women were divided from the men by a screen of finely-carved
+woodwork.
+
+As Neforis went to her place, she shook her bowed head: she was
+meditating on the choice offered her by Orion, of yielding to the
+patriarch's commands or to her son's wishes. How gladly would she have
+seen her son in bright spirits again. But Benjamin had threatened her
+with the loss of all the joys of Heaven, if she should agree to Orion's
+alliance with the heretic--and the joys of Heaven to her meant a
+meeting, a recognition, for which she would willingly have sacrificed
+her son and everything else that was dear to her heart.
+
+Orion assisted at the service in the place reserved for the men of his
+family, close to the hekel, or holy of holies, where the altar stood
+and the priests performed their functions. A partition, covered with
+ill-wrought images and a few gilt ornaments, divided it from the main
+body of the church, and the whole edifice produced an impression that
+was neither splendid nor particularly edifying. The basilica, which had
+once been richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in a
+fight between them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city had
+not been in a position to restore the venerable church to anything
+approaching its original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could see
+nothing calculated to raise his devotion.
+
+The congregation were required to stand all through the service; and
+as it often was a very long business, not the women only, behind the
+screen, but many of the men supported themselves like cripples on
+crutches. How unpleasing, too, were the tones of the Egyptian chant,
+accompanied by the frequent clang of a metal cymbal and mingled with the
+babble of chattering men and women, checked only when the talk became a
+quarrel, by a priest who loudly and vehemently shouted for silence from
+the hekel.
+
+Generally the chanted liturgy constituted the whole function, unless the
+Lord's Supper was administered; but in these anxious times, for above
+a week past, a priest or a monk preached a daily sermon. This began a
+short while after the young man had taken his place, and it was with
+painful feelings that he recognized, in the hollow-eyed and ragged monk
+who mounted the pulpit, a priest whom he had seen more than once drunk
+to imbecility, in Nesptah's tavern, And the revolting creature, who thus
+flaunted his dirty, dishevelled person even in the pulpit, thundered
+down on the trembling congregation declarations that the delay in
+the rising of the Nile was the consequence of their sins, and God's
+punishment for their evil deeds. Instead of comforting the terrified
+souls, or encouraging their faith and bidding them hope for better
+times, he set before them in burning words the punishment that awaited
+their wicked despondency.
+
+God Almighty was plaguing them and the land with great heat; but this
+was like the cool north wind at Advent-tide, as compared with the
+fierceness of the furnace of hell which Satan was making hot for them.
+The scorching sun on earth at any rate gave them daylight, but the
+flames of hell shed no light, that the terrors might never cease of
+those whom the devil's myrmidons drove over the narrow bridge leading to
+his horrible realm, goading them with spears and pitchforks, with heavy
+cudgelling or gnawing of their flesh. In the anguish of death, and the
+crush by the way, mothers trod down their infants and fathers their
+daughters; and when the damned reached the spiked threshold of hell
+itself, a hideous and poisoned vapor rose up to meet them, choking
+them, and yet giving them renewed strength to feel fresh torments with
+increased keenness of every sense. Then the devil's shrieks of anguish,
+which shake the vault of hell, came thundering on their ears; with
+hideous yells he snatched at them from the grate on which he lay,
+crushed and squeezed them in his iron jaws like a bunch of grapes, and
+swallowed them into his fiery maw; or else they were hung up by their
+tongues by attendant friends in Satan's fiery furnace, or dragged
+alternately through ice and flames, and finally beaten to pieces on
+the anvil of hell, or throttled and wrung with ropes and cloths.--As
+compared with the torments they would suffer there, every present
+anxiety was as the kiss of a lover. Mothers would hear the brain
+seething in their infants' skulls....
+
+At this point of the monk's grewsome discourse, Orion turned away with a
+shudder. The curse with which the patriarch had threatened him recurred
+to his mind; he could have fancied that the hot, stuffy, incense-laden
+air of the church was full of flapping daws and hideous bats. Deadly
+horror crept over him; but then, suddenly, the rebound came of youthful
+vigor, longing for freedom and joy in living; a voice within cried out:
+"Away with coercion and chains! Winged spirit, use your pinions! Down
+with the god of terrors! He is not that Heavenly Father whose love
+embraces mankind. Forward, leap up and be free! Trusting in your
+own strength, guided by your own will, go boldly forth into the open
+sunshine of life! Be free, be free!--Still, be not like a slave who is
+no sooner cut adrift and left to himself than he falls a slave again to
+his own senses. No; but striving unceasingly and of your own free will,
+in the sweat of your brow, to reach the high goal, to work out to its
+fulfilment and fruition everything that is best in your soul and mind.
+Yes--life is a ministry.... I, like the disciples of the Stoa, will
+strive after all that is known as virtue, with no other end in view than
+to practise it for its own sake, because it is fair and gives unmixed
+joys. I will rely on myself to seek the truth--and do what I feel to
+be right and good; this, henceforth, shall be the lofty aim of my
+existence. To the two chief desires of my heart--: atonement to my
+father and union with Paula, I here add a third: the attainment of the
+loftiest goal that I may reach, by valiant striving to get as near to it
+as my strength will allow. The road thither is by Work; the guiding star
+I must keep before me that I may not go astray is my Love!"
+
+His cheeks were burning, and with a deep breath he looked about him as
+though to find an adversary with whom he might measure his strength. The
+horrible sermon was ended and the words of the chanting crowd fell on
+his ear. "Lord, reward me not according to mine iniquities!" The load of
+his own sin fell on his heart again, and his dying father's curse;
+his proud head drooped on his breast, and he said to himself that his
+burthen was too heavy for him to venture on the bold flight for which he
+had but now spread his wings. The ban was not yet lifted; he was not yet
+redeemed from its crushing weight. But the mere word "redeemed" brought
+to his mind the image of Him who took on Himself the sins of the world;
+and the more deeply he contemplated the nature of the Saviour whom he
+had loved from his childhood, the more surely he felt that it would
+be doing no violence to the freedom of his own will, but rather be the
+fulfilment of a long-felt desire, if he were to tell Jesus simply all
+that oppressed him; that his love for Him, his faith in Him, had a
+saving power even for his soul. He lifted up his eyes and heart to
+Him, and to Him, as to a trusted friend, confided all that troubled and
+hindered him and besought His aid.
+
+In loving Him, he and Paula were one, he knew, though they had not the
+same idea of His nature.
+
+Orion, as he meditated, thought out the points on which her views
+deviated from his own: she believed that the divine and the human
+natures were distinct in the person of Christ. And as he reflected on
+this creed, till now so horrible in his eyes, he felt that the unique
+individuality of the Saviour, shedding forth love and truth, came home
+to him more closely when he pictured Him perfect and spotless, yet
+feeling as a man; walking among men with all their joy in life in
+His heart, alive to every pang and sorrow which can torture mortals,
+rejoicing with them, and taking upon Himself unspeakable humiliation,
+suffering, and death, with a stricken, bleeding, and yet self-devoting
+heart, for pure love of the wretched race to which He could stoop from
+His glory. Yes, this Christ could be his Redeemer too. The Almighty Lord
+had become his perfect and most loving friend, his glorious, but lenient
+and tender brother, to whom he could gladly give his whole heart, who
+understood everything, who was ready to forgive everything--even all
+that was seething in his aching heart which longed for purification--and
+all because He once had suffered as a man suffers.
+
+For the first time he, the Jacobite, dared to confess so much to
+himself; and not solely for Paula's sake. A violent clanging on a
+cracked metal plate roused him from his meditations by its harsh clamor;
+the sacrament of the Last Supper was about to be administered: the
+invariable conclusion of the Jacobite service. The bishop came forth
+from behind the screen of the inner sanctuary, poured some wine into a
+silver cup and crumbled into it two little cakes stamped with the Coptic
+cross. Of this mixture he first partook, and then gave it in a spoon
+to each member of the congregation who came up to receive it. Orion
+approached after two elders of the Church. Finally the priest rinsed
+out the cup, and drained the very washings, that no drop of the saving
+liquid should be lost.
+
+How high had Orion's heart throbbed when, as a youth, he had been
+admitted for the first time to this most sacred of all Christian
+privileges! He was instructed in its deep and glorious symbolism, and
+had often felt the purifying, saving, and refreshing effect of the
+sacrament, strengthening him in all goodness, when he had partaken of it
+with his parents and brothers. Hand-in-hand, they had gone home feeling
+as if newly robed in body and soul and more closely bound together than
+before. And to-day, insensible as he was to the repulsiveness of the
+forms of worship of his confession he felt as though the bread and
+wine--the Flesh and Blood of the Saviour--had sealed the bond he had
+silently entered into with himself; as though the Lord had put forth
+an invisible hand to remove the guilt and the curse that crushed him
+so sorely. Deep devotion fell on his soul: his future life, he thought,
+should bring him nearer to God than ever before, and be spent in loving,
+and in the more earnest, full, and laborious exercise of the gifts
+Heaven had bestowed on him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Orion had dreaded the drive home with his mother, but after complaining
+to him of Susannah's conduct in having made a startling display of her
+vexation in the women's place behind the screen, she had leaned on him
+and fallen fast asleep. Her head was on her son's shoulder when they
+reached home, and Orion's anxiety for the mother he truly loved was
+enhanced when he found it difficult to rouse her. He felt her stagger
+like a drunken creature, and he led her not into the fountain-room but
+to her bed-chamber, where she only begged to lie down; and hardly had
+she done so when she was again overcome by sleep.
+
+Orion now made his way to Gamaliel the jeweller, to purchase from him a
+very large and costly diamond, plainly set, and the Israelite's brother
+undertook to deliver it to the fair widow at Constantinople, who
+was known to him as one of his customers. Orion, in the jeweller's
+sitting-room, wrote a letter to his former mistress, in which he begged
+her in the most urgent manner to accept the diamond, and in exchange
+to return to him the emerald by a swift and trustworthy messenger, whom
+Simeon the goldsmith would provide with everything needful.
+
+After all this he went home hungry and weary, to the late midday meal
+which he shared, as for many days past, with no one but Eudoxia, Mary's
+governess. The little girl was not yet allowed to leave her room, and of
+this, for one reason, her instructress was glad, for a dinner alone with
+the handsome youth brought extreme gratification to her mature heart.
+How considerate was the wealthy and noble heir in desiring the slaves to
+offer every dish to her first, how kind in listening to her stories of
+her young days and of the illustrious houses in which she had formerly
+given lessons! She would have died for him; but, as no opportunity
+offered for such a sacrifice, at any rate she never omitted to point
+out to him the most delicate morsels, and to supply his room with fresh
+flowers.
+
+Besides this, however, she had devoted herself with the most admirable
+unselfishness to her pupil, since the child had been ill and her
+grandmother had turned against her, noticing, too, that Orion took a
+tender and quite fatherly interest in his little niece. This morning
+the young man had not had time to enquire for Mary, and Eudoxia's report
+that she seemed even more excited than on the day before disturbed him
+so greatly, that he rose from table, in spite of Eudoxia's protest,
+without waiting till the end of the meal, to visit the little invalid.
+
+It was with genuine anxiety that he mounted the stairs. His heart was
+heavy over many things, and as he went towards the child's room he said
+to himself with a melancholy smile, that he, who had contemned many a
+distinguished man and many a courted fair one at Constantinople because
+they had fallen short of his lofty standard, had here no one but this
+child who would be sure to understand him. Some minutes elapsed before
+his knock was answered with the request to 'come in,' and he heard a
+hasty bustle within. He found Mary lying, as the physician had ordered,
+on a couch by the window, which was wide open and well-shaded; her couch
+was surrounded by flowering plants and, on a little table in front of
+her, were two large nosegays, one fading, the other quite fresh and
+particularly beautiful.
+
+How sadly the child had changed in these few days. The soft round cheeks
+had disappeared, and the pretty little face had sunk into nothingness by
+comparison with the wonderful, large eyes, which had gained in size and
+brilliancy. Yesterday she had been free from fever and very pale, but
+to-day her cheeks were crimson, and a twitching of her lips and of her
+right shoulder, which had come on since the scene at the grandfather's
+deathbed, was so incessant that Orion sat down by her side in some
+alarm.
+
+"Has your grandmother been to see you?" was his first question, but the
+answer was a mournful shake of her head.
+
+The blossoming plants were his own gift and so was the fading nosegay;
+the other, fresher one had not come from him, so he enquired who was the
+giver, and was not a little astonished to see his favorite's confusion
+and agitation at the question. There must be something special connected
+with the posey, that was very evident, and the young man, who did not
+wish to excite her sensitive nerves unnecessarily, but could not recall
+his words, was wishing he had never spoken them, when the discovery of
+a feather fan cut the knot of his difficulty; he took it up, exclaiming:
+"Hey--what have we here?"
+
+A deeper flush dyed Mary's cheek, and raising her large eyes imploringly
+to his face, she laid a finger on her lips. He nodded, as understanding
+her, and said in a low voice:
+
+"Katharina has been here? Susannah's gardener ties up flowers like that.
+The fan--when I knocked--she is here still perhaps?"
+
+He had guessed rightly; Mary pointed dumbly to the door of the adjoining
+room.
+
+"But, in Heaven's name, child," Orion went on, in an undertone, "what
+does she want here?"
+
+"She came by stealth, in the boat," whispered the child. "She sent
+Anubis from the treasurer's office to ask me if she might not come, she
+could not do without me any longer, and she never did me any harm and so
+I said yes--and then, when I knew it was your knock, whisk--off she went
+into the bedroom."
+
+"And if your grandmother were to come across her?"
+
+"Then--well, then I do not know what would become of me! But oh! Orion,
+if you only knew how--how...." Two big tears rolled down her cheeks
+and Orion understood her; he stroked her hair lovingly and said in a
+whisper, glancing now and again at the door of the next room.
+
+"But I came up on purpose to tell you something more about Paula. She
+sends you her love, and she invites you to go to her and stay with her,
+always. But you must keep it quite a secret and tell no one, not even
+Eudoxia and Katharina; for I do not know myself how we can contrive to
+get your grandmother's consent. At any rate we must set to work very
+prudently and cautiously, do you understand? I have only taken you into
+our confidence that you may look forward to it and have something to be
+glad of at night, when you are such a silly little thing as to keep
+your eyes open like the hares, instead of sleeping like a good child. If
+things go well, you may be with Paula to-morrow perhaps--think of that!
+I had quite given up all hope of managing it at all; but now, just
+now--is it not odd--just within these two minutes I suddenly said to
+myself: 'It will come all right!'--So it must be done somehow."
+
+A flood of tears streamed down Mary's burning cheeks but, freely as they
+flowed, she did not sob and her bosom did not heave. Nor did she speak,
+but such pure and fervent gratitude and joy shone from her glistening
+eyes that Orion felt his own grow moist. He was glad to find some way
+of concealing his emotion when Mary seized his hand and, pressing a long
+kiss on it, wetted it with her tears.
+
+"See!" he exclaimed. "All wet! as if I had just taken it out of the
+fountain."
+
+But he said no more, for the bedroom door was suddenly thrown open and
+Eudoxia's high, thin voice was heard saying:
+
+"But why make any fuss? Mary will be enchanted! Here, Child, here is
+your long-lost friend! Such a surprise!" And the water-wagtail, pushed
+forward by no gentle hand, appeared within the doorway. Eudoxia was as
+radiant as though she had achieved some heroic deed; but she drew back
+a little when she found that Orion was still in the room. The divided
+couple stood face to face. What was done could not be undone; but,
+though he greeted her with only a calm bow, and she fluttered her fan
+with abrupt little jerks to conceal her embarrassment, nothing took
+place which could surprise the bystander; indeed, Katharina's pretty
+features assumed a defiant expression when he enquired how the little
+white dog was, and she coldly replied that she had had him chained up in
+the poultry-yard, for that the patriarch, who was their guest, could not
+endure dogs.
+
+"He honors a good many men with the same sentiments," replied Orion, but
+Katharina retorted, readily enough.
+
+"When they deserve it."
+
+The dialogue went on in this key for some few minutes; but the young man
+was not in the humor either to take the young girl's pert stings or
+to repay her in the same coin; he rose to go but, before he could take
+leave, Katharina, observing from the window how low the sun was, cried:
+"Mercy on me! how late it is--I must be off; I must not be absent at
+supper time. My boat is lying close to yours in the fishing-cove. I only
+hope the gate of the treasurer's house is still open."
+
+Orion, too, looked at the sun and then remarked: "To-day is Sanutius."
+
+"I know," said Katharina. "That is why Anubis was free at noon."
+
+"And for the same reason," added Orion, "there is not a soul at work now
+in the office."
+
+This was awkward. Not for worlds would she have been seen in the house;
+and knowing, as she did from her games with Mary, every nook and corner
+of it, she began to consider her position. Her delicate features assumed
+a sinister expression quite new to Orion, which both displeased him and
+roused his anxiety--not for himself but for Mary, who could certainly
+get no good from such a companion as this. These visits must not be
+repeated very often; he would not allude to the subject in the child's
+presence, but Katharina should at once have a hint. She could not
+get out of the place without his assistance; so he intruded on her
+meditations to inform her that he had the key of the office about him.
+Then he went to see if the hall were empty, and led her at once to the
+treasurer's office through the various passages which connected it with
+the main buildings. The office at this hour was as lonely as the grave,
+and when Orion found himself standing with her, close to the door which
+opened on the road to the harbor, and had already raised the key to
+unlock it, he paused and for the first time broke the silence they had
+both preserved during their unpleasant walk, saying:
+
+"What brought you to see Mary, Katharina? Tell me honestly." Her heart,
+which had been beating high since she had found herself alone with him
+in the silent and deserted house, began to throb wildly; a great terror,
+she knew not of what, came over her.
+
+"She had come to the house for several reasons, but one had outweighed
+all the rest: Mary must be told that her young uncle and Paula were
+betrothed; for she knew by experience that the child could keep nothing
+of importance from her grandmother, and that Neforis had no love for
+Paula was an open secret. As yet she certainly could know nothing of
+her son's formal suit, but if once she were informed of it she would
+do everything in her power--of this Katharina had not a doubt--to keep
+Orion and Paula apart. So the girl had told Mary that it was already
+reported that they were a betrothed and happy pair, and that she herself
+had watched them making love in her neighbor's garden. To her great
+annoyance, however, Mary took this all very coolly and without any
+special excitement.
+
+"So, when Orion enquired of his companion what had brought her to the
+governor's house, she could only reply that she longed so desperately to
+see little Mary.
+
+"Of course," said Orion. "But I must beg of you not to yield again to
+your affectionate impulse. Your mother makes a public display of her
+grudge against mine, and her ill-feeling will only be increased if she
+is told that we are encouraging you to disregard her wishes. Perhaps you
+may, ere long, have opportunities of seeing Mary more frequently; but,
+if that should be the case, I must especially request you not to talk
+of things that may agitate her. You have seen for yourself how excitable
+she is and how fragile she looks. Her little heart, her too precocious
+brain and feelings must have rest, must not be stirred and goaded by
+fresh incitements such as you are in a position to apply. The patriarch
+is my enemy, the enemy of our house, and you--I do not say it to offend
+you--you overheard what he was saying last night, and probably gathered
+much important information, some of which may concern me and my family."
+
+Katharina stood looking at her companion, as pale as death. He knew that
+she had played the listener, and when, and where! The shock it gave her,
+and the almost unendurable pang of feeling herself lowered in his eyes,
+quite dazed her. She felt bewildered, offended, menaced; however, she
+retained enough presence of mind to reply in a moment to her antagonist:
+
+"Do not be alarmed! I will come no more. I should not have come at all,
+if I could have foreseen..."
+
+"That you would meet me?"
+
+"Perhaps.--But do not flatter yourself too much on that account!--As
+to my listening.... Well, yes; I was standing at the window. Inside the
+room I could only half hear, and who does not want to hear what great
+men have to say to each other? And, excepting your father, I have met
+none such in Memphis since Memnon left the city. We women have inherited
+some curiosity from our mother Eve; but we rarely indulge it so far
+as to hunt for a necklace in our neighbor's trunk! I have no luck as a
+criminal, my dear Orion. Twice have I deserved the name. Thanks to the
+generous and liberal use you made of my inexperience I sinned--sinned
+so deeply that it has ruined my whole life; and now, again, in a more
+venial way; but I was caught out, you see, in both cases."
+
+"Your taunts are merited," said Orion sadly. "And yet, Child, we may
+both thank Providence, which did not leave us to wander long on the
+wrong road. Once already I have besought your forgiveness, and I do so
+now again. That does not satisfy you I see--and I can hardly blame you.
+Perhaps you will be better pleased, when I assure you once more that no
+sin was ever more bitterly or cruelly punished than mine has been."
+
+"Indeed!" said Katharina with a drawl; then, with a flutter of her fan,
+she went on airily: "And yet you look anything rather than crushed;
+and have even succeeded in winning 'the other'--Paula, if I am not
+mistaken."
+
+"That will do!" said Orion decisively, and he raised the key to
+the lock. Katharina, however, placed herself in his way, raised a
+threatening finger, and exclaimed:
+
+"So I should think!--Now I am certain. However, you are right with your
+insolent 'That will do!' I do not care a rush for your love affairs;
+still, there is one thing I should like to know, which concerns myself
+alone; how could you see over our garden hedge? Anubis is scarcely a
+head shorter than you are...."
+
+"And you made him try?" interrupted Orion, who could not forbear
+smiling, perceiving that his honestly meant gravity was thrown away on
+Katharina. "Notwithstanding such a praiseworthy experiment, I may beg
+you to note for future cases that what is true of him is not true of
+every one, and that, besides foot-passengers, a tall man sometimes
+mounts a tall horse?"
+
+"It was you, then, who rode by last night?"
+
+"And who could not resist glancing up at your window."
+
+At these words she drew back in surprise, and her eyes lighted up, but
+only for an instant; then, clenching the feathers of her fan in both
+hands, she sharply asked:
+
+"Is that in mockery?"
+
+"Certainly not," said Orion coolly; "for though you have reason enough
+to be angry with me...."
+
+"I, at any rate, have, so far given you none," she petulantly broke
+in. "No, I have not. It is I, and I alone, who have been insulted and
+ill-used; you must confess that you owe me some amends, and that I have
+a right to ask them."
+
+"Do so," replied he. "I am yours to command." She looked him straight in
+the face.
+
+"First of all," she began, "have you told any one else that I was..."
+
+"That you were listening? No--not a living soul."
+
+"And will you promise never to betray me?"
+
+"Willingly. Now, what is the 'secondly' to this 'first of all?'"
+
+But there was no immediate answer; the water-wagtail evidently found it
+difficult. However, she presently said, with downcast eyes:
+
+"I want.... You will think me a greater fool than I am... nevertheless,
+yes, I will ask you, though it will involve me in fresh humiliation.--I
+want to know the truth; and if there is anything you hold sacred, before
+I ask, you must swear by what is holiest to answer me, not as if I were
+a silly girl, but as if I were the Supreme judge at the last day.--Do
+you hear?"
+
+"This is very solemn," said Orion. "And you must allow me to observe
+that there are some questions which do not concern us alone, and if
+yours is such...."
+
+"No, no," replied Katharina, "what I mean concerns you and me alone."
+
+"Then I see no reason for refusing," he said. "Still, I may ask you a
+favor in return. It seems to me no less important than it did to you, to
+know what a great man like the patriarch finds to talk about, and since
+I place myself at your commands...."
+
+"I thought," said the girl with a smile, "that your first object would
+be to discharge some small portion of your debt to me; however, I expect
+no excessive magnanimity, and the little I heard is soon told. It cannot
+matter much to you either--so I will agree to your wishes, and you, in
+return, must promise...."
+
+"To speak the whole truth."
+
+"As truly as you hope for forgiveness of your sins?"
+
+"As truly as that."
+
+"That is well."
+
+"And what is it that you want to know?"
+
+At this she shook her head, exclaiming uneasily:
+
+"Nay, nay, not yet. It cannot be done so lightly. First let me speak;
+and then open the door, and if I want to fly let me go without saying
+or asking me another word.--Give me that chair; I must sit down." And
+in fact she seemed to need it; for some minutes she had looked very
+pale and exhausted, and her hands trembled as she drew her handkerchief
+across her face.
+
+When she was seated she began her story; and while her words flowed on
+quickly but without expression, as though she spoke mechanically, Orion
+listened with eager interest, for what she had to tell struck him as
+highly significant and important.
+
+He had been watched by the patriarch's orders. By midnight Benjamin
+had already been informed of Orion's visit to Fostat, and to the Arab
+general. Nothing, however, had been said about it beyond a fear lest he
+had gone thither with a view to abjuring the faith of his fathers and
+going over to the Infidels. Far more important were the facts
+Orion gathered as to the prelate's negotiations with the Khaliff's
+representative. Amru had urged a reduction of the number of convents and
+of the monks and nuns who lived on the bequests and gifts of the pious,
+busied in all kinds of handiwork according to the rule of Pachomius, and
+enabled, by the fact of their living at free quarters, to produce almost
+all the necessaries of life, from the mats on the floors to the shoes
+worn by the citizens, at a much lower price than the independent
+artisans, whether in town or country. The great majority of these poor
+creatures were already ruined by such competition, and Amru, seeing the
+Arab leather-workers, weavers, ropemakers, and the rest, threatened with
+the same fate, had determined to set himself firmly to restrict all this
+monastic work. The patriarch had resisted stoutly and held out long,
+but at last he had been forced to sacrifice almost half the convents for
+monks and nuns.
+
+But nothing had been conceded without an equivalent; for Benjamin was
+well aware of the immense difficulties which he, as chief of the Church,
+could put in the way of the new government of the country. So it was
+left to him to designate which convents should be suppressed, and he
+had, of course, begun by laying hands on the few remaining Melchite
+retreats, among them the Convent of St. Cecilia, next to the house of
+Rufinus. This establishment was now to be closed within three days and
+to become the property of the Jacobite Church; but it was to be done
+quite quietly, for there was no small fear that now, when the delayed
+rising of the river was causing a fever of anxiety in all minds, the
+impoverished populace of the town might rise in defence of the wealthy
+sisterhood to whom they were beholden for much benevolence and kind
+care.
+
+Opposition from the town-senate was also to be looked for, since the
+deceased Mukaukas had pronounced this measure unjust and detrimental
+to the common welfare. The evicted orthodox nuns were to be taken into
+various Jacobite convents as lay sisters similar cases had already
+been known; but the abbess, whose superior intellect, high rank, and
+far-reaching influence might, if she were left free to act, easily rouse
+the prelates of the East to oppose Benjamin, was to be conveyed to a
+remote convent in Ethiopia, whence no flight or return was possible.
+
+Katharina's report took but few minutes, and she gave it with apparent
+indifference; what could the suppression of an orthodox cloister, and
+the dispersion of its heretic sisterhood, matter to her, or to Orion,
+whose brothers had fallen victims to Melchite fanaticism? Orion did not
+betray his deep interest in all he heard, and when at length Katharina
+rose and pointed feebly to the door, all she said, as though she were
+vexed at having wasted so much time, was: "That, on the whole, is all."
+
+"All?" asked Orion unlocking the door.
+
+"Certainly, all," she repeated uneasily. "What I meant to ask--whether
+I ever know it or not--it does not matter.--It would be better
+perhaps-yes, that is all.--Let me go."
+
+But he did not obey her.
+
+"Ask," he said kindly. "I will answer you gladly."
+
+"Gladly?" she retorted, with an incredulous shrug. "In point of fact
+you ought to feel uncomfortable whenever you see me; but things do not
+always turn out as they ought, in Memphis or in the world; for what do
+you men care what becomes of a poor girl like me? Do not imagine that
+I mean to reproach you; God forbid! I do not even owe you a grudge. If
+anyone can live such a thing down I can. Do not you think so? Everything
+is admirably arranged for me; I cannot fail to do well. I am very rich,
+and not ugly, and I shall have a hundred suitors yet. Oh, I am a most
+enviable creature! I have had one lover already, and the next will be
+more faithful, at any rate, and not throw me over so ruthlessly as the
+first.--Do not you think so?"
+
+"I hope so," said Oriole gravely. "Bitter as the cup is that you offer
+me to drink..."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I can only repeat that I must even drink it, since the fault was mine.
+Nothing would so truly gladden me as to be able to atone in some degree
+for my sin against you."
+
+"Oh dear no!" she scornfully threw in. "Our hopes shall not be fixed so
+high as that! All is at an end between us, and if you ever were anything
+to me, you are nothing to me now--absolutely nothing. One hour in the
+past we had in common; it was short indeed, but to me--would you believe
+it?--a very great matter. It aged the young creature, whom you, but
+yesterday, still regarded as a mere child--that much I know--with
+amazing rapidity; aye, and made a worse woman of her than you can
+fancy."
+
+"That indeed would grieve me to the bottom of my soul," replied Orion.
+"There is, I know, no excuse for my conduct. Still, as you yourself
+know, our mothers' wish in the first instance..."
+
+"Destined us for each other, you would say. Quite true!--And it was
+all to please Dame Neforis that you put your arms round me, under the
+acacias, and called me your own, your all, your darling, your rose-bud?
+Was that--and this is exactly what I want to ask you, what I insist
+on knowing--was that all a lie--or did you, at any rate, in that brief
+moment, under the trees, love me with all your heart--love me as now you
+love--I cannot name her--that other?--The truth, Orion, the whole truth,
+on your oath!"
+
+She had raised her voice and her eyes glowed with the excitement of
+passion; and now, when she ceased speaking, their sparkling, glistening
+enquiry plainly and unreservedly confessed that her heart still was his,
+that she counted on his high-mindedness and expected him to say "yes."
+Her round arm lay closely pressed to her bosom, as though to keep its
+wild heaving within bounds. Her delicate face had lost its pallor and
+seemed bathed in a glow, now tender and now crimson. Her little mouth,
+which but now had uttered such bitter words, was parted in a smile as
+if ready to bestow a sweet reward for the consoling, saving answer,
+for which her whole being yearned, and her eager eyes, shining through
+tears, did not cease to entreat him so pathetically, so passionately!
+How bewitching an image of helpless, love-sick, beseeching youth and
+grace.
+
+"As you love that other,--on your oath."--The words still rang in the
+young man's ear. All that was soft in his soul urged him to make good
+the evil he had brought upon this fair, hapless young creature; but
+those very words gave him strength to remain steadfast; and though
+he felt himself appealed to for comfort and compassion, he could only
+stretch out imploring hands, as though praying for help, and say:
+
+"Ah Katharina, and you are as lovely, as charming now, as you were then;
+but--much as you attracted me, the great love that fills a life can come
+but once.... Forget what happened afterwards.... Put your question in
+another form, alter it a little, and ask me again--or let me assure
+you."
+
+But he had no time to say more; for, before he could atop her, she had
+slipped past him and flown away like some swift wild thing into the road
+and down to the fishing cove.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Orion stood alone gazing sadly after her. Was this his father's
+curse--that all who loved him must reap pain and grief in return?
+
+He shivered; still, his youthful energy and powers of resistance
+were strong enough to give him speedy mastery over these torturing
+reflections. What opportunities lay before him of proving his prowess!
+Even while Katharina was telling her story, the brave and strenuous
+youth had set himself the problem of rescuing the cloistered sisters.
+The greater the danger its solution might involve him in, the more
+impossible it seemed at first sight, the more gladly, in his present
+mood, would he undertake it. He stepped out into the road and closed the
+door behind him with a feeling of combative energy.
+
+It was growing dusk. Philippus must now be with Mary and, with the
+leech's aid, he was resolved to get the child away from his mother's
+house. Not till he felt that she was safe with Paula in Rufinus' house,
+could he be free to attempt the enterprise which floated before his
+eyes. On the stairs he shouted to a slave:
+
+"My chariot with the Persian trotting horse!" and a few minutes after
+he entered the little girl's room at the same time with a slave girl who
+carried in a lamp. Neither Mary nor the physician observed him at first,
+and he heard her say to Philippus, who sat holding her wrist between his
+fingers.
+
+"What is the matter with you this evening? Good heavens, how pale and
+melancholy you look!" The lamplight fell full on his face. "Look here, I
+have just made such a smart little man out of wax..."
+
+She hoped to amuse the friend who was always so kind to her with this
+comical work of art; but, as she leaned forward to reach it, she caught
+sight of her uncle and exclaimed: "Philippus comes here to cure me, but
+he looks as if he wanted a draught himself. Take care, or you will have
+to drink that bitter brown stuff you sent yesterday; then you will
+know for once how nasty it can be." Though the child's exclamation was
+well-meant, neither of the men took any notice of it. They stood face
+to face in utter silence and with only a formal greeting; for Orion,
+without Mary's remark, had been struck by the change that had come over
+the physician since yesterday. Ignoring Orion's presence, he asked the
+child a few brief questions, begged Eudoxia to persevere in the same
+course of treatment, and then hastily bid a general farewell to all
+present; Orion, however, did not respond, but said, with an affectionate
+glance at the little patient: "One word with you presently."
+
+This made Philippus turn to look at Mary and, as the eyes of the rivals
+met, they knew that on one subject at any rate they thought and felt
+alike. The leech already knew how tenderly the young man had taken to
+Mary, and he followed him into the room which Orion now occupied, and
+which, as Philippus was aware, had formerly been Paula's.
+
+"In the cause of duty," he said to himself again and again, to keep
+himself calm and enable him to gather at least the general sense of
+what the handsome young fellow opposite to him was saying in his rich,
+pleasant voice, and urging as a request with more warmth than the
+leech had given him credit for. Philippus, of course, had heard of the
+grandmother's lamentable revulsion of feeling against her grandchild,
+and he thought Orion's wish to remove the little girl fully justified.
+But, on learning that she was to be placed under Paula's care, he seemed
+startled, and gazed at the floor in such sullen gloom that the other
+easily guessed what was going on in his mind. In fact, the physician
+suspected that the child was to serve merely as an excuse for the more
+frequent meetings of the lovers. Unable to bury this apprehension in his
+own breast he started to his feet, and was about to put it into words,
+when Orion took the words out of his mouth, saying modestly but frankly,
+with downcast eyes:
+
+"I speak only for the child's--for Mary's sake. By my father's soul...."
+
+But Philippus shook his head dismally, went up to his rival, and
+murmured dully:
+
+"For the sake of that child I am capable of doing or enduring a great
+deal. She could not be better cared for than with Rufinus and Paula;
+but if I could suppose," and he raised his voice, while his eyes took a
+sinister and threatening expression, "if I could suppose that her sacred
+and suffering innocence were merely an excuse...."
+
+"No, no," said Orion urgently. "Again, on my sacred word, I assure you
+that I have no aim in view but the child's safety; and, as we have said
+so much, I will not stick at a word more or less! Rufinus' house is open
+to you day and night, and I, if all turns out as I expect, shall ere
+long be far from hence--from Memphis--from Paula. There is mischief
+brewing--I dare say no more--an act of treachery; and I will try to
+prevent it at the risk of my life. You, every one, shall no longer
+have a right to think me capable of things which are as repulsive to
+my nature as to yours. You and I, if I mistake not, strive for the same
+prize, and so far are rivals; but why should the child therefor suffer?
+Forget it in her presence, and that forgetting will, as you well know,
+enhance your merit in her--her eyes."
+
+"My merit?" retorted the other scornfully. "Merit is not in the balance;
+nothing but the gifts of blind Fortune--a nose, a chin, an eye, anything
+in short--a crime as much as a deed of heroism--that happens to make a
+deep impression on the wax of a girl's soft heart. But curse me," and he
+shouted the words at Orion as if he were beside himself, "if I know how
+we came to talk of such things! Has my folly gone running through the
+streets, bare-bosomed, to display itself to the world at large? How do
+you know what my feelings are? She, perhaps, has laughed with you at her
+ridiculous lover?--Well, no matter. You know already, or will know by
+to-morrow, which of us has won the cock-fight. You have only to look at
+me! What woman ever broke her heart for such a Thersites-face. Good-luck
+to the winner, and the other one--well, since it must be so, farewell
+till to-morrow."
+
+He hastily made his way towards the door; Orion, however, detained him,
+imploring him to set aside his ill-feeling--at any rate for the present;
+assured him that Paula had not betrayed what his feelings were; that,
+on the contrary, he himself, seeing him with her so late on the previous
+night, had been consumed by jealousy, and entreated him to vent his
+wrath on him in abusive words, if that could ease his heart, only, by
+all that was good, not to withdraw his succor from that poor, innocent
+child.
+
+The physician's humane heart was not proof against his prayer; and
+when at length he prepared to depart, in the joyful and yet painful
+conviction that his happier rival had become more worthy of the prize,
+he had agreed that he would impress on Neforis, whose mind he suspected
+to be slightly affected, that the air of the governor's residence did
+not suit Mary, and that she should place her in the care of a physician
+outside the town.
+
+As soon as Philippus had quitted the house, Orion went to see Rufinus,
+who, on his briefly assuring him that he had come on grave and important
+business, begged him to accompany him to his private room. The young
+man, however, detained him till he had made all clear with the women as
+to the reception of little Mary.
+
+"By degrees all the inhabitants of the residence will be transplanted
+into our garden!" exclaimed Rufinus. "Well, I have no objection; and
+you, old woman, what do you say to it?"
+
+"I have none certainly," replied his wife. "Besides, neither you nor I
+have to decide in this case: the child is to be Paula's guest."
+
+"I only wish she were here already," said Paula, "for who can say
+whether your mother, Orion--the air here is perilously Melchite."
+
+"Leave Philippus and me to settle that.--You should have seen how
+pleased Mary was."
+
+Then, drawing Paula aside, he hastily added:
+
+"Have I not hoped too much? Is your heart mine? Come what may, can I
+count on you--on your love--?"
+
+"Yes, Yes!" The words rushed up from the very bottom of her heart, and
+Orion, with a sigh of relief, followed the old man, glad and comforted.
+
+The study was lighted up, and there, without mentioning Katharina, he
+told Rufinus of the patriarch's scheme for dispersing the nuns of St.
+Cecilia. What could he care for these Melchite sisters? But, since that
+consoling hour in the church, he felt as though it were his duty to
+stand forth for all that was right, and to do battle against everything
+that was base. Besides, he knew how warmly and steadfastly his father
+had taken the part of this very convent against the patriarch. Finally,
+he had heard how strongly his beloved was attached to this retreat and
+its superior, so he prepared himself gleefully to come forth a new man
+of deeds, and show his prowess.
+
+The old man listened with growing surprise and horror, and when Orion
+had finished his story he rose, helplessly wringing his hands. Orion
+spoke to him encouragingly, and told him that he had come, not merely
+to give the terrible news, but to hold council with him as to how
+the innocent victims might be rescued. At this the grey-headed
+philanthropist and wanderer pricked up his ears; and as an old war
+horse, though harnessed to the plough, when he hears the trumpet sound
+lifts his head and arches his neck as proudly and nobly as of yore
+under his glittering trappings, so Rufinus drew himself up, his old
+eyes sparkled, and he exclaimed with all the enthusiasm and eagerness of
+youth:
+
+"Very good, very good; I am with you; not merely as an adviser; no,
+no. Head, and hand, and foot, from crown to heel! And as for you, young
+man--as for you! I always saw the stuff that was in you in spite--in
+spite.--But, as surely as man is the standard of all things, those
+who reach the stronghold of virtue by a winding road are often better
+citizens than those who are born in it.--It is growing late, but
+evensong will not yet have begun and I shall still be able to see the
+abbess. Have you any plan to propose?"
+
+"Yes; the day after to-morrow at this hour...."
+
+"And why not to-morrow?" interrupted the ardent old man.
+
+"Because I have preparations to make which cannot be done in twelve
+hours of daylight."
+
+"Good! Good!"
+
+"The day after to-morrow at dusk, a large barge--not one of ours--will
+be lying by the bank at the foot of the convent garden. I will escort
+the sisters as far as Doomiat on the Lake. I will send on a mounted
+messenger to-night, and I will charter a ship for the fugitives by the
+help of my cousin Columella, the greatest ship-owner of that town. That
+will take them over seas wherever the abbess may command."
+
+"Capital, splendid!" cried Rufinus enthusiastically. He took up his
+hat and stick, and the radiant expression of his face changed to a very
+grave one. He went up to the young man with solemn dignity, looked at
+him with fatherly kindliness, and said:
+
+"I know what woes befell your house through those of our confession,
+the fellow-believers of these whom you propose to protect with so much
+prudence and courage; and that, young man, is noble, nay, is truly
+great. I find in you--you who were described to me as a man of the world
+and not over-precise--for the first time that which I have sought in
+vain for many years and in many lands, among the pious and virtuous: the
+spirit of willing self-sacrifice to save an enemy of a different creed
+from pressing peril.--But you are young, Orion, and I am old. You
+triumph in the action only, I foresee the consequences. Do you know what
+lies before you, if it should be discovered that you have covered the
+escape of the prey whom the patriarch already sees in his net? Have you
+considered that Benjamin, the most implacable and most powerful hater
+among the Jacobites, will pursue you as his mortal foe with all the
+fearful means at his command?"
+
+"I have considered it," replied Orion.
+
+Rufinus laid his left hand on the young man's shoulder, and his right
+hand on his head, saying, "Then take with you, to begin with, an old
+man's--a father's blessing."
+
+"Yes, a father's," repeated Orion softly. A happy thrill ran through his
+body and soul, and he fell on the old man's neck deeply moved.
+
+For a minute they stood clasped in each other's arms; then Rufinus freed
+himself, and set out to seek the abbess. Orion returned to the women,
+whose curiosity had been roused to a high pitch by seeing Rufinus
+disappear through the gate leading to the convent-garden. Dame Joanna
+could not sit still for excitement, and Pulcheria answered at random
+when Orion and Paula, who had an infinity of things to say or whisper to
+each other, now and then tried to draw her into the conversation.
+Once she sighed deeply, and when her friend asked her: "What ails you,
+Child?" she answered anxiously:
+
+"Something serious must be going forward, I feel it. If only Philippus
+were here!"
+
+"But we are all safe and well, thank God!" observed Orion, and she
+quickly replied:
+
+"Yes indeed, the Lord be praised!" But she thought to herself:
+
+"You think he is of no use but to heal the sick; but it is only when he
+is here that everything goes right and happens for the best!"
+
+Still, all felt that there was something unusual and ominous in the
+air, and when the old man presently returned his face confirmed their
+suspicions. He laid aside his hat and staff in speechless gravity; then
+he put his arm affectionately round his wife and said:
+
+"You will need all your courage and self-command once more, as you have
+often done before, good wife; I have taken upon myself a serious duty."
+
+Joanna had turned very pale, and while she clung to her husband and
+begged him to speak and not to torture her with suspense, her frail
+figure was trembling, and bitter tears ran down her cheeks. She could
+guess that her husband was once more going away from her and their
+child, in the service and for the benefit of others, and she knew full
+well that she could not prevent it. If she could, she never would have
+had the heart to interfere: for she always understood him, and felt with
+him that something to take him out of the narrow circle of home-life was
+indispensable to his happiness.
+
+He read her thoughts, and they gave him pain; but he was not to be
+diverted from his purpose. The man who would try to heal every suffering
+brute was accustomed to see those whom he loved best grieve on his
+account. Marriage, he would say, ought not to hinder a man in following
+his soul's vocation; and he was fond of using this high-sounding name to
+justify himself in his own and his wife's eyes, in doing things to which
+he was prompted only by restlessness and unsatisfied energy. Without
+this he would, no doubt, have done his best for the imperilled
+sisterhood, but it added to his enjoyment of the grand and dangerous
+rescue.
+
+The wretched fate of the hapless nuns, and the thought of losing them
+as near neighbors, grieved the women deeply, and the men saw many tears
+flow; at the same time they had the satisfaction of finding them all
+three firmly and equally determined to venture all, and to bid these
+whom they loved venture all, to hinder the success of a deed which
+filled them with horror and disgust.
+
+Joanna spoke not a word of demur when Rufinus said that he intended to
+accompany the fugitives; and when, with beaming looks, he went on
+to praise Orion's foresight and keen decisiveness, Paula flew to him
+proudly and gladly, holding out both her hands. As for the young man, he
+felt as though wings were growing from his shoulders, and this fateful
+evening was one of the happiest of his life.
+
+The superior had agreed to his scheme, and in some details had improved
+upon it. Two lay sisters and one nun should remain behind. The two
+former were to attend to the sick in the infirmary, to ring the bell and
+chant the services as usual, that the escape of the rest might not be
+suspected; and Joanna, Paula, and Pulcheria, were to assist them.
+
+When, at a late hour, Orion was about to leave, Rufinus asked whether,
+under these circumstances, it would be well to bring Mary to his
+house; he himself doubted it. Joanna was of his opinion; Paula, on the
+contrary, said that she believed it would be better to let the child run
+the risk of a remote danger--hardly to be called danger, than to leave
+her to pine away body and soul in her old home. Pulcheria supported her,
+but the two girls were forced to yield to the decision of the elders.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+After that interview with Orion, Philippus hurried off through the
+town, paying so little heed to the people he met and to the processions
+besieging Heaven with loud psalms to let the Nile at last begin to rise,
+that he ran up against more than one passer-by, and had many a word of
+abuse shouted after him. He went into two or three houses, and neither
+his patients nor their attendants could recognize, in this abrupt and
+hasty visitor, the physician and friend who was usually so sympathetic
+to the sufferer: who would speak with a cordiality that brought new life
+to his heart, who would toss the children in the air, kiss one and nod
+merrily to another. To-day their elders even felt shy and anxious in
+his presence. For the first time he found the duty he loved a wearisome
+burthen; the sick man was a tormenting spirit in league with the world
+against his peace of mind. What possessed him, that he should feel such
+love of his fellow-men as to deprive himself of all comfort in life and
+of his night's rest for their sake? Rufinus was right. In these times
+each man lived solely to spite his neighbor, and he who could be most
+brazenly selfish, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, was
+the most certain to get on in life. Fool that he was to let other folks'
+woes destroy his peace and hinder him in his scientific advancement!
+
+Tormented by such bitter thoughts as these, he went into a neat little
+house by the harbor where a worthy pilot lay dying, surrounded by his
+wife and children; and there, at once, he was himself again, putting
+forth all his knowledge and heartfelt kindliness, quitting the scene
+with a bleeding heart and an empty purse; but no sooner was he out of
+doors than his former mood closed in upon him with double gloom. The
+case was plain: Even with the fixed determination not to sacrifice
+himself for others he could not help doing it; the impulse was too
+strong for him. He could no more help suffering with the sufferer,
+and giving the best he had to give with no hope of a return, than the
+drunkard can help drinking. He was made to be plundered; it was his
+fate!
+
+With a drooping head he returned to his old friend's work-room.
+Horapollo was sitting, just as he had sat the night before, at his
+writing-table with his scrolls and his three lamps, a slave below,
+snoring while he awaited his master's pleasure.
+
+The leech's pretty Greek greeting "Rejoice!" sounded rather like "May
+you choke!" as he flung aside his upper garment; and to the old man's
+answer and anxious exclamation: "How badly you look, Philip!" he
+answered crossly: "Like a man who deserves a kick rather than a welcome;
+a booby who has submitted to have his nose pulled; a cur who has licked
+the hand of the lout who has thrashed him!"
+
+He threw himself on the divan and told Horapollo all that had passed
+between him and Orion. "And the maddest part of it all," he ended, "is
+that I almost like the man; that he really seems to me to be on the high
+road to become a capital fellow; and that I no longer feel inclined to
+pitch him into a lime-kiln at the mere thought of his putting out a hand
+to Paula. At the same time," and he started to his feet, "even if I help
+him to bring the poor little girl away from that demented old hag, I
+cannot and will not continue to be her physician. There are plenty of
+quacks about in this corpse of a town, and they may find one of them.
+
+"You will continue to treat the child," interrupted the old man quietly.
+
+"To have my heart daily flogged with nettles!" exclaimed the leech,
+going towards Horapollo with wild gesticulations. "And do you believe
+that I have any desire to meet that young fellow's sweetheart day after
+day, often twice a day, that the barb may be twisted round and round in
+my bleeding wound?"
+
+"I expect a quite different result from your frequent meeting," said the
+other. "You will get accustomed to see her under the aspect which alone
+she can hence forth bear to you: that of a handsome girl--there are
+thousands such in Egypt,--and the betrothed of another."
+
+"Certainly, if my heart were like a hunting-dog that lies down the
+moment it is bid," said Philippus with a scornful laugh. "The end of
+it is that I must go away, away from Memphis--away from this miserable
+world for all I care! I?--Recover my peace of mind within reach of her?
+Alas, for my blissful, lost peace!"
+
+"And why not? To every man a thing is only as he conceives of it. Only
+listen to me: I had finished a treatise on the old and new Calendars,
+and my master desired me to deliver a lecture on it in the Museum--if
+the school of pedants in Alexandria now deserves the name; but I did
+not wish to do so because I knew that the presence of such a large and
+learned audience would embarrass me. But my master advised me to imagine
+that my hearers were not men, but mere cabbages. This gave me new light;
+I took his advice, got over my shyness, and my speech flowed like oil."
+
+"A very good story," said Philippus, "but I do not see...."
+
+"The moral of it for you," interrupted the old man, "is that you must
+regard the supremely adorable lady of your love as one among a dozen
+others--I will not say as a cabbage--as one with whom your heart has
+no more concern. Put a little strength of will into it, and you will
+succeed."
+
+"If a heart were a cipher, and if passion were calendar-making!..."
+retorted Philippus. "You are a very wise man, and your manuscripts and
+tables have stood like walls between you and passion."
+
+"Who can tell?" said Horapollo. "But at any rate, it never should have
+had such power over me as to make me embitter the few remaining days
+under the sun yet granted to my father and friend for the sake of a
+woman who scorned my devotion. Will you promise me to talk no more
+nonsense about flying from Memphis, or anything of the kind?"
+
+"Teach me first to measure my strength of will."
+
+"Will you try, at any rate?"
+
+"Yes, for your sake."
+
+"Will you promise to continue your treatment of that poor little girl,
+whom I love dearly in spite of her forbears?"
+
+"As long as I can endure the daily meeting with her--you know..."
+
+"That, then, is a bargain.--Now, come and let us translate a few more
+chapters."
+
+The friends sat at work together till a late hour, and when the old man
+was alone again he reflected: "So long as he can be of use to the child
+he will not go away, and by that time I shall have dug a pit for that
+damned siren."
+
+       .........................
+
+Orion had his hands full of work for the next morning. Before it was
+light he sent off two trustworthy messengers to Doomiat, giving each of
+them a letter with instructions that a sailing vessel should be held
+in readiness for the fugitives. One was to start three hours after the
+other, so that the business in hand should not fail if either of them
+should come to grief.
+
+He then went out; first to the harbor, where he succeeded in hiring a
+large, good Nile-boat from Doomiat, whose captain, a trustworthy and
+experienced man, promised to keep their agreement a secret and to be
+prepared to start by noon next day. Next, after taking council with
+himself, he went to the treasurer's office, and there, with the
+assistance of Nilus, made his will, to be ratified and signed next
+morning in the presence of a notary and witnesses. His mother, little
+Mary, and Paula were to inherit the bulk of his property. He also
+bequeathed a considerable sum as a legacy to the hospitals and orphan
+asylums, as well as to the Church, to the end that they might pray
+for his soul; and a legacy to Nilus "as the most just judge of his
+household." Eudoxia, Mary's Greek governess, was not forgotten; and
+finally he commanded that all his house-slaves should be liberated, and
+to the end that they might not suffer from want he bequeathed to them
+one of his largest estates in Upper Egypt, where they might settle and
+labor for their common good. He increased the handsome sums already
+devised by his father to the freedmen of his family.
+
+This business occupied several hours. Nilus, who wrote while Orion
+dictated, giving the document a legal form, was deeply touched by
+the young man's fore thought and kindness; for in truth, since his
+desecration of the judgment-seat, he had given him up for a lost soul.
+
+By Orion's orders this will was to be opened after four weeks, in case
+he should not have returned from a journey on which he proposed starting
+on the morrow, and this injunction revealed to the faithful steward, who
+had grown grey in the service, that the last scion of the house
+expected to run considerable risk; however, he was too modest to ask any
+questions, and his master did not take him into his confidence.
+
+When, after all this, the two men went back into the anteroom, Anubis,
+the young clerk and Katharina's ally, was standing there. Nilus took no
+notice of him, and while he, with tearful eyes, stooped to kiss the hand
+Orion held out to him as he bid him come to take leave of him once
+more next evening, Anubis, who had withdrawn respectfully to a little
+distance, keeping his ears open, however, officiously opened the heavy
+iron-plated door.
+
+Orion was exhausted and hungry; he enquired for his mother, and hearing
+that she had gone to lie down, he went into the dining-room to get some
+food. Although breakfast had but just been served, Eudoxia was awaiting
+him with evident impatience. Her heart was bursting with a great piece
+of news, and as Orion entered, greeting her, she cried out:
+
+"Have you heard? Do you know?" Then she began, encouraged by his curt
+negative, to pour out to him how that Neforis, by the desire of the
+physician who had lately been to see her, had decided on sending her,
+Eudoxia, away with her granddaughter to enjoy better air under the roof
+of a friend of the leech's; they were to go this very day, or to-morrow
+at latest.
+
+Orion was disagreeably startled by this intelligence. He had not
+expected that Philippus would come so early, and he himself had been the
+first to promote a scheme which now no longer seemed advisable.
+
+"How very provoking!" he muttered between his teeth, as a slave offered
+him a roast fowl and asparagus.
+
+"Is it not? And perhaps we shall have to go quite far into the country,"
+said the Greek, with a languishing look, as she drew one of the long
+stems between her teeth.
+
+The words and the glance made Orion feel as if he grudged the old
+fool the good food she was eating, and his voice was not particularly
+ingratiating as he replied that town and country were all the same, the
+only point was which would be best for the child. When he went on to say
+that he was quitting home next evening, Eudoxia cried out, let a
+stick of asparagus drop in her lap, and said despairingly: "Oh, then
+everything is at an end!"
+
+He, however, interposed reproachfully: "On the contrary, then your duty
+begins; you must devote yourself wholly and exclusively to the child.
+You know that her own grandmother is averse to her. Give her your best
+affection, as you have already begun to do, be a mother to her; and if
+you really are my well-wisher, show it in that way. For my part you will
+find me grateful, and not in words alone. Go tomorrow to the treasurer's
+office; Nilus will give you the only thing by which I can at present
+prove my gratitude. Do your best to cherish the child; I have taken care
+to provide for your old age."
+
+He rose, cutting short the Greek's profuse expressions of thanks, and
+betook himself to his mother. She was still in her room; however, he now
+sent word that he had come to see her, and she was ready to admit him,
+having expected that he would come even sooner.
+
+She was reclining, half-sitting, on a divan in her cool and shady
+bedroom, and she at once told her son of her determination to follow the
+physician's advice and entrust the little girl to his friend. She spoke
+in a tone of sleepy indifference; but as soon as Orion opposed her and
+begged her to keep Mary at home, she grew more lively, and looking him
+wrathfully in the face exclaimed: "Can you wish that? How can you ask
+me?" and she went on in repining lamentation:
+
+"Everything is changed nowadays. Old age no longer forgets; it is youth
+that has a short memory. Your head has long been full of other things,
+but I--I still remember who it was that made my lost dear one's last
+hours on earth a hell, even in view of the gates of Heaven!" Her breast
+heaved with feeble, tearless sobs--a short, convulsive gasping, and
+Orion did not dare contravene her wishes. He sought to soothe her
+with loving words and, when she recovered herself, he told her that he
+proposed to leave her for a short time to look after his estates, as
+the law required, and this information gladdened her greatly. To be
+alone--solitary and unobserved now seemed delightful. Those white pills
+did more for her, raised her spirits better, than any human society.
+They brought her dreams, sleeping or waking; dreams a thousand times
+more delightful than her real, desolate existence. To give herself up to
+memory, to pray, to dream, to picture herself in the other world among
+her beloved dead--and besides that to eat and drink, which she was
+always ready to do very freely--this was all she asked henceforth of
+life on earth.
+
+When, to her further questions, Orion replied that he was going first
+to the Delta, she expressed her regret, since, if he had gone to Upper
+Egypt, he might have visited his sister-in-law, Mary's mother, in her
+convent. She sat up as she spoke, passed her hand across her forehead,
+and pointed to a little table near the head of the couch, on which, by
+the side of a cup with fruit syrup, phials, boxes, and other objects,
+lay a writing-tablet and a letter-scroll. This she took up and handed to
+Orion, saying:
+
+"A letter from your sister-in-law. It came last evening and I began
+to read it; but the first words are a complaint of your father, and
+that--you know, just before going to sleep--I could not read any more;
+I could not bear it! And to-day; first there was church, and then the
+physician came with his request about the child; I have not yet found
+courage to read the rest of it.--What can any letter bring to me but
+evil! Do you know at all whence anything pleasant could come to me? But
+now: read me the letter. Not that part again about your father; that I
+will keep till presently for myself alone."
+
+Orion undid the roll, and with quivering lips glanced over the nun's
+accusations against his father. The wildest fanaticism breathed in
+every line of this epistle from the martyr's widow. She had found in the
+cloister all she sought: she lived now, she said, in God alone and in
+the Divine Saviour. She thought of her child, even, only as an alien,
+one of God's young creatures for whom it was a joy to pray. At the same
+time it was her duty to care for the little one's soul, and if it were
+not too hard for her grandmother to part from her, she longed to see
+Mary once more. She had lately been chosen abbess of her convent--and
+no one could prevent her taking possession of the child; but she feared
+lest an overwhelming natural affection might drag her back to the carnal
+world, which she had for ever renounced, so she would have Mary brought
+up in a neighboring nunnery, and led to Heavenly joys, not to earthly
+misery--to be the wife of no sinful husband, but a pure bride of Christ.
+
+Orion shuddered as he read and, when he laid the letter down, his mother
+exclaimed:
+
+"Perhaps she is right, perhaps it is already ordained that the child
+should be sent to the convent, and not to the leech's friend, and
+started on the only path that leads to Heaven without danger or
+hindrance!"
+
+But Orion said to himself that he would make it his duty to guard the
+happy-hearted child from this fate, and he begged his mother to consider
+that the first important point was to restore the little girl to health.
+He now saw that she had been right. His father had always obeyed the
+prescriptions of Philippus, and for that reason, if for no other, it
+would be her duty to act by his advice.
+
+Neforis, who for some time had been casting longing eyes at a small box
+by her side, did not contradict him; and in the course of the afternoon
+Orion conducted little Mary and her governess to the house of Rufinus,
+who, notwithstanding the doubts he had expressed the day before, made
+them heartily welcome.
+
+When Mary was lying in her bed, close by the side of Paula's, the child
+threw her arms round the young girl's neck as she leaned over her, and
+laying her head on her bosom, felt herself in soft and warm security.
+There, as one released from prison and bondage, she wept out her woes,
+pouring all the grief of her deeply wounded child's heart into that of
+her friend.
+
+Paula, however, heard Orion's voice, and she longed to go down to her
+lover, whom she had greeted but briefly on his arrival; still, she
+could not bear to snatch the child from her bosom, to disturb her in her
+newly-found happiness and leave her at this very moment! And yet, she
+must--she must see him! Every impulse urged her towards him and, when
+Pulcheria came into the room, she placed Mary's hand in hers and said:
+"There, now make friends and stay together like good children till I
+come back again and have something nice to tell you. You are fond of
+Orion, little one, my story shall be all about him."
+
+"He was obliged to go," said Pulcheria, interrupting her. "Here is his
+message on this tablet. He was almost dying of impatience, and when he
+could wait no longer he wrote this for you."
+
+Paula took the tablet, with a cry of regret, and carried it to her room
+to read. He had longed for their meeting as eagerly as herself, but at
+last he could wait no longer. How differently--so he wrote--had he hoped
+to end this day which must be devoted to the rescue of her friends.
+
+Why, oh why had she allowed herself to be detained here? Why had she not
+flown to him, at least for a few moments, to thank him for his kindness
+and faithfulness, and to hear him confess publicly and aloud what he had
+but murmured in her ear the day before? She returned to the little girl,
+anxious and dissatisfied with herself.
+
+Orion had in fact postponed his departure till the last moment; he
+thought it necessary to give Amru due notice of his journey and of his
+rupture with the patriarch. Of all the motives which could prompt him to
+aid the nuns, revenge was that which the Arab could best understand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+As Orion rode across the bridge of boats to Fostat, the gladness that
+had inspired him died away. Could not--ought not Paula to have spared
+him a small part of the time she had devoted to the child? He had been
+left to make the most of a kind grasp of the hand and a grateful look of
+welcome. Would she not have flown to meet him, if the love of which she
+had assured him yesterday were as fervent, as ardent as his own? Was
+the proud spirit of this girl, who, as his mother said, was cold and
+unapproachable, incapable of passionate, self-forgetting devotion? Was
+there no way of lighting up in her the sacred fire which burnt in him?
+He was tormented by many doubts and a bitter feeling of disappointment,
+and a crowd of suspicions forced themselves upon him, which would never
+have troubled him if only he had seen her once more, had heard her happy
+words of love, and felt his lips consecrated by his mistress' first
+kiss.
+
+He was out of spirits, indeed out of temper, as he entered the Arab
+general's dwelling. In the anteroom he was met by rejected petitioners,
+and he said to himself, with a bitter smile, that he had just been sent
+about his business in the same unsatisfied mood--yes, sent about his
+business--and by whom?
+
+He was announced, and his spirits rose a little when he was at once
+admitted and led past many, who were left waiting, into the Arab
+governor's presence-chamber. He was received with paternal warmth; and,
+when Amru heard that Orion and the patriarch had come to high words, he
+jumped up and holding out both his hands exclaimed:
+
+"My right hand on that, my friend; come over to Islam, and with my left
+I will appoint you your father's successor, in the Khaliff's name,
+in spite of your youth. Away with hesitation! Clasp hands; at once,
+quickly! I cannot bear to quit Egypt and know that there is no governor
+at Memphis!"
+
+The blood tingled in the young man's veins. His father's successor!
+He, the new Mukaukas! How it flattered his ambition, what a way to all
+activity it opened out to him! It dazzled his vision, and moved him
+strongly to grasp the right hand which his generous patron still held
+out to him. But suddenly his excited fancy showed him the image of the
+Redeemer with whom he had entered into a silent covenant in the church,
+sadly averting his gentle face. At this he remembered what he had vowed;
+at this he forgot all his grievance against Paula; he took the general's
+hand, indeed, but only to raise it to his lips as he thanked him with
+all his heart. But then he implored him, with earnest, pleading urgency,
+not to be wroth with him if he remained firm and clung to the faith of
+his father and his ancestors. And Amru was not wroth, though it was with
+none of the hearty interest with which he had at first welcomed him,
+that he hastily warned Orion to be on his guard against the prelate,
+since, so long as he remained a Christian, he had no power to protect
+him against Benjamin.
+
+When Orion went on to tell him that he was intending to travel for a
+short time, and had, in fact, come to take leave of him, the Arab was
+much annoyed. He, too, he said, must be going away and was starting
+within two days for Medina.
+
+"And in casting my eye on you," he went on, "in spite of your youth, to
+fill your father's place, I took care to find a task for you which would
+enable you to prove that I had not put too great confidence in you.
+But, if you persist in your own opinions, I cannot possibly entrust so
+important a post as the governorship of Memphis to a Christian so
+young as you are; with the youthful Moslem I might have ventured on
+it.--However, I will not deprive you of the enterprise which I had
+intended for you. If you succeed in it, it will be a good thing for
+yourself, and I can, I believe, turn it to the benefit of the whole
+province--for what could take me from hence at this time, when my
+presence is so needful for a hundred incomplete projects, but my anxiety
+for the good of this country--in which I am but an alien, while you
+must love it as your native soil, the home of your race?--I am going to
+Medina because the Khaliff, in this letter, complains that I send too
+small a revenue into the treasury from so rich a land as Egypt. And yet
+not a single dinar of your taxes finds its way into my own coffers. I
+keep a hundred and fifty thousand laborers at work to restore the canals
+and waterworks which my predecessors, the blood-sucking Byzantines,
+neglected so disgracefully and left to fall to ruin--I build, and plan,
+and sow seed for posterity to reap. All this costs money. It swallows up
+the lion's share of the revenue. And I am making the journey, not merely
+to purge myself from reproach, but to obtain Omar's permission for the
+future to exact no extortionate payments, but to consider only the true
+weal of the province. I am most unwilling to go, for a thousand reasons;
+and you, young man, if you care for your native land, ought.... Do you
+really love it and wish it well?"
+
+"With all my soul!" cried Orion.
+
+"Well then, at this time, if by any possibility you can arrange it so,
+you ought to remain at home, and devote yourself heart and soul to the
+task I have to propose to you. I hate postponements. Ride straight at
+the foe, and do not canter up and down till you tire the horses! that is
+my principle, and not in battle only. Take the moral to heart!--And you
+will have no time to waste; what I require is no light matter: It is
+that you should endeavor to sketch a new division of the districts,
+drawing on your own knowledge of the country and its inhabitants,
+and using the records and lists in the archives of your ancient
+government-offices, of which your father has told me; you must have
+special regard to the financial condition of each district. That the old
+mode of levying taxes is unsatisfactory we find every day; you will have
+ample room for improvements in every respect. Overthrow the existing
+arrangements, if you consider it necessary. Other men have attempted
+to redistribute the divisions and devise new modes of collecting the
+revenue. The best scheme will have the preference; and you seem to me
+to be the man to win the prize, and, with it, a wide and noble field of
+work in the future. It is not a mere sense of tedium, or a longing
+for the pleasures of the capital to which you are accustomed, that are
+tempting you to quit Memphis the melancholy...."
+
+"No, indeed, my Lord," Orion assured him. "The duty I have in view does
+not even profit me, and if I had not given my word I would throw myself,
+heart and soul, into so grand a task, no later than to-morrow. That you
+should expect me to solve so hard a problem is the most precious incense
+ever offered me. If it is only to be worthy of your confidence, I
+will return as soon as possible and put forth my utmost powers of
+intelligence and prudence, of endurance and patriotism. I have
+always been a diligent student; and it would be a shame indeed, if
+my experiences as a youth could hinder the man from outdoing the
+school-boy."
+
+"That is right, well said!" replied Amru, holding out his hand. "Do your
+best, and you shall have ample opportunity of proving your powers.--Take
+my warnings to heart as regards the patriarch and the black Vekeel. I
+unfortunately have no one who could fill his place except the worthy
+Kadi Othman; but he is no soldier, and he cannot be spared from his
+post. Keep out of Obada's way, return soon, and may the All-merciful
+protect you...."
+
+When Orion had recrossed the bridge on his way home, he saw a
+gaily-dressed Nile-boat, such as now but rarely stopped at Memphis,
+lying at anchor in the dock, and on the road he met two litters followed
+by beasts of burden and a train of servants. The whole party had a
+brilliant and wealthy appearance, and at any other time would have
+roused his curiosity; but to-day he merely wondered for a moment who
+these new-comers might be, and then continued to meditate on the task
+proposed to him by Amru. From the bottom of his heart he cursed the hour
+in which he had pledged himself to take the part of these strangers;
+for after such long idleness he longed to be able to prove his powers.
+Suddenly, and as if by a miracle, he saw the way opened before him which
+he had himself hoped to tread, and now he was fettered and held back
+from an enterprise which he felt he could carry out with success
+and benefit to his country, while it attracted him as with a hundred
+lode-stones.
+
+Next morning, when his will had been duly signed and witnessed, he
+called the treasurer for an interview alone with him. He had made up his
+mind that one person, at least, must be informed of the enterprise he
+had planned, and that one could be no other than Nilus. So he begged him
+to accompany him to the impluvium of his private residence; and several
+office scribes who were present heard the invitation given. They did
+not, however, allow themselves to be disturbed in their work; the
+youngest only--a handsome lad of sixteen, an olive-complexioned
+Egyptian, with keen, eager black eyes, who had listened sharply to
+every word spoken by the treasurer and his master, quietly rose from his
+squatting posture as soon as they had quitted the office, and, stole,
+unobserved into the anteroom. From thence he flew up the ladder-like
+steps which led to the dovecote of which he had the care, sprang on
+to the roof of the lower story, and crept flat on his face till he was
+close to the edge of the large square opening which gave light and air
+to the impluvium below. With a swift movement of the hand he pushed
+back the awning which shaded it at midday, and listened intently to the
+dialogue that went on below.
+
+This listener was Anubis, the water-wagtail's foster-brother; and
+he seemed to be in no way behind his beloved mistress in the art of
+listening; for no one could prick up his ears more sharply than Anubis.
+He knew, too, what was to be his reward for exposing himself on a roof
+to the shafts of the pitiless African sun, for Katharina, his adored
+play-fellow and the mistress of his ardent boy's heart, had promised him
+a sweet kiss, if only he would bring her back some more exact news as to
+Orion's perilous journey. Anubis had told her, the evening before, all
+he had heard in the anteroom to the office, but such general information
+had not satisfied her. She must see clearly before her, must know
+exactly what was going on, and she was not mistaken when she imagined
+that the reward she had promised the lad would spur him to the utmost.
+
+Anubis had not indeed expected to gain his end so soon, boldly as he
+dared to hope; scarcely had he pushed aside the awning, when Orion began
+to explain to Nilus all his plan and purpose.
+
+When he had finished speaking, the boy did not wait to hear Nilus reply.
+Intoxicated with his success, and the prospect of a guerdon which to him
+included all the bliss of heaven, he crept back to the dovecote. But
+he could not go back by the way by which he had come; for if one of the
+older scribes should meet him in the anteroom, he would be condemned to
+return to his work. He therefore wriggled along the ridge of the roof
+towards the fishing-cove, got over it, and laid hold of a gutter pipe,
+intending to slip down it; unfortunately it was old and rotten-rain was
+rare in Memphis--and hardly had he trusted his body after his hands when
+the lead gave way. The rash youth fell with the clattering fragments of
+the gutter from a height of four men; a heavy thump on the pavement was
+followed by a loud cry, and in a few minutes all the officials had
+heard that poor Anubis, nimble as he was, had fallen from the roof while
+attending to his pets, and had broken his leg.
+
+The two men in the impluvium were not informed of the accident till some
+time later, for strict orders had been given that they were not to be
+disturbed.
+
+Nilus had received his young master's communication with growing
+amazement, indignation, and horror. When Orion ended, the treasurer put
+forth all the eloquence of a faithful heart, anxious for the safety of
+the body and soul of the youth he loved, to dissuade him from a deed of
+daring which could bring him nothing but misapprehension, disaster, and
+persecution. Nilus was with all his soul a Jacobite; and the idea that
+his young master was about to risk everything for a party of Melchite
+nuns, and draw down upon himself the wrath and maledictions of the
+patriarch, was more than he could bear.
+
+His faithful friend's warnings and entreaties did not leave Orion
+unmoved; but he clung to his determination, representing to Nilus that
+he had pledged his word to Rufinus, and could not now draw back, though
+he had already lost all his pleasure in the enterprise. But it went
+against him to leave the brave old man to face the danger alone--indeed,
+it was out of the question.
+
+Genuine anxiety is fertile in expedient; Orion had scarcely done
+speaking, when Nilus had a proposal to make which seemed well calculated
+to dispel the youth's last objections. Melampus, the chief shipbuilder,
+was a Greek and a zealous Melchite, though he no longer dared to confess
+his creed openly. He and his sons, two bold and sturdy ships carpenters,
+had often given proof of their daring, and Nilus had no doubt that they
+would be more than willing to share in an expedition which had for its
+object the rescue of so many pious fellow-believers. They might take
+Orion's place, and would be far more helpful to the old man than Orion
+himself.
+
+Orion so far approved of this suggestion as to promise himself good aid
+from the brave artisans, who were well known to him; and he was willing
+to take them with him, though he would not give up his own share in the
+business.
+
+Nilus, though he adhered firmly to his objections, was at last
+reduced to silence. However, Orion went with his anxious friend to the
+ship-yard; the old ship-builder, a kind-hearted giant, was as ready and
+glad to undertake the rescue of the Sisters as if each one was his own
+mother. It would be a real treat to the youngsters to have a hand in
+such a job,--and he was right, for when they were taken into confidence
+one flourished his hatchet with enthusiasm, and the tether struck his
+horny fist against his left palm as gleefully as though he were bidden
+to a dance.
+
+Orion took boat at once with the three men, and was rowed to the
+house of Rufinus, to whom he introduced them; the old man was entirely
+satisfied.
+
+Orion remained with him after dismissing them. He had promised last
+evening to breakfast with him, and the meal was waiting. Paula had gone,
+about an hour since, to the convent, and Joanna expected her to return
+at any moment. They began without her, however; the various dishes were
+carried away, the meal was nearly ended-still she had not returned.
+Orion, who had at first been able to conceal his disappointment, was
+now so uneasy that his host could with difficulty extract brief and
+inadvertent replies to his repeated questions. Rufinus himself was
+anxious; but just as he rose to go in search of her, Pulcheria, who was
+at the window, saw her coming, and joyfully exclaiming: "There she is!"
+ran out.
+
+But now again minute after minute passed, a quarter of an hour grew to
+half an hour, and still Orion was waiting in vain. Glad expectation
+had long since turned to impatience, impatience to a feeling of injured
+dignity, and this to annoyance and bitter vexation, when at last
+Pulcheria came back instead of Paula, and begged him from Paula to join
+her in the garden.
+
+She had been detained too long at the convent. The terrible rumor had
+scared the pious sisters out of their wonted peace and put them all into
+confusion, like smoke blown into a bee-hive. The first thing was to pack
+their most valuable possessions; and although Orion had expressly said
+only a small number of cases and bags could be taken on board, one was
+for dragging her prayer-desk, another a large picture of some saint, a
+third a copper fish-kettle, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth the great
+reliquary with the bones of Ammonius the Martyr, to which the chapel
+owed its reputation for peculiar sanctity. To reduce this excess
+of baggage, the abbess had been obliged to exert all her energy and
+authority, and many a sister retired weeping over some dear but too
+bulky treasure.
+
+The superior had therefore been unable to devote herself to Paula till
+this portable property had been under review. Then the damsel had
+been admitted to her parlor, a room furnished with rich and elegant
+simplicity, and there she had been allowed to pour out her whole heart
+to warm and sympathetic ears.
+
+Any one who could have seen these two together might have thought that
+this was a daughter in grief seeking counsel on her mother's breast.
+In her youth the grey-haired abbess must have been very like Thomas'
+daughter; but the lofty and yet graceful mien of the younger woman had
+changed in the matron to majestic and condescending dignity, and it was
+impossible to guess from her defiantly set mouth that it had once been
+the chief charm of her face.
+
+As she listened to the girl's outpourings the expression of her calm
+eyes changed frequently; when her soul was fired by fanatical zeal
+they could gleam brightly; but now she was listening to a variety of
+experiences, for Paula regarded this interview as a solemn confession,
+and concealed nothing from the friend who was both mother and
+priest-neither of what had happened to her in external circumstances,
+nor of what had moved her heart and mind ever since she had first
+entered the house of the Mtikaukas. Not a corner of her soul did she
+leave unsearched; she neither concealed nor palliated anything; and
+when she described her lover's strenuous efforts to apprehend the whole
+seriousness of life, her love and enthusiasm fairly carried her away,
+making his image shine all the more brightly by comparison with the
+brief, but dark shadow, that had fallen upon it. When Paula had at last
+ended her confession, the superior had remained silent for some time;
+then drawing the girl to her, she had affectionately asked her:
+
+"And now? Now, tell me truly, does not the passion that has such
+wonderful power over you prompt and urge your inmost soul to yield--to
+fly to the embrace of the man you love--to give all up for him and say:
+'Here I am--I am yours! Call a priest to bless our union!--Is it not
+so--am I not right?'"
+
+Paula, deeply blushing, bowed assent; but the old woman drew her head on
+to her motherly bosom, and went on thoughtfully:
+
+"I saw him drive past in his quadriga, and was reminded of many a noble
+statue of the heathen Greeks. Beauty, rank, wealth, aye--and talents and
+intellect--all that could ruin the heart of a Paula are his, and she--I
+see it plainly--will give it to him gladly."
+
+And again the maiden bowed her head. The abbess sighed, and went on as
+though she had with difficulty succeeded in submitting to the inevitable
+"Then all warning would be in vain.--Still, he is not of our confession,
+he...."
+
+"But how highly he esteems it!" cried Paula. "That he proves by risking
+his freedom and life for you and your household."
+
+"Say rather for you whom he loves," replied the other. "But putting that
+out of the question, it pains me deeply to think of Thomas' daughter
+as the wife of a Jacobite. You will not, I know, give him up; and the
+Father of Love often leads true love to good ends by wonderful ways,
+even though they are ways of error, passing through pitfalls and
+abysses."
+
+Paula fell on her neck to kiss her gratefully: but the abbess could only
+allow the girl a few minutes to enjoy her happiness. She desired her
+to sit down by her side, and holding Paula's hand in both her own, she
+spoke to her in a tone of calm deliberation. She and her sisterhood, she
+began by saying, were deeply indebted to Orion. She had no dearer
+wish than that Paula should find the greatest earthly happiness in her
+marriage; still, it was her part to tender advice, and she dared not
+blind herself to the dangers which threatened this happiness. She
+herself had a long life behind her of varied experience, in which she
+had seen hundreds of young men who had been given up as lost sinners
+by father and mother--lost to the Church and to all goodness--and among
+these many a one, like Saul, had had his journey to Damascus. A turning
+point had come to them, and the outcast sons had become excellent and
+pious men.
+
+Paula, as she listened, had drawn closer to the speaker, and her eyes
+beamed with joy; but the elder woman shook her head, and her gaze grew
+more devout and rapt, as she went on with deep solemnity:
+
+"But then, my child, in all of these Grace had done its perfect work;
+the miracle was accomplished which we term regeneration. They were still
+the same men in the flesh and in the elements of their sensible nature,
+but their relation to the world and to life was altogether new. All that
+they had formerly thought desirable they could now hate; what they had
+deemed important was now worthless, and the worthless precious in their
+eyes; whereas they once referred everything to their own desires, they
+now referred all to God and His will. Their impulses were the same as of
+old, but they kept them within bounds by a never-sleeping consciousness
+that they led, not to joys, but to everlasting punishment. These
+regenerate souls learned to contemn the world, and instead of gazing
+down at the dust their eyes were fixed upwards on Heaven. If either of
+them tottered, his whole 'new man' prompted him to recover his balance
+before he fell to the ground.--But Orion! Your lover? His guilt seems
+to have passed over him; he hopes for reunion with God from a more
+meritorious life in the world. Not only is his nature unaltered, but his
+attitude with regard to life and to the joys it offers to the children
+of this world. Earthly love is spurring him on to strive for what is
+noble and great and he earnestly seeks to attain it; but he will fall
+over every stone that the devil casts in his path, and find it hard to
+pick himself up again, for misfortune has not led him to the new birth
+or the new life in God. Just such men have I seen, numbers of times,
+relapsing into the sins they had escaped from. Before we can entirely
+trust a man who has once--though but once-wandered so far from God's
+ways, while Grace has not yet worked effectually in him, we shall do
+well to watch his dealings and course for more than a few short days. If
+you still feel that you must follow the dictates of your heart, at any
+rate do not fly into your lover's open arms, do not abandon to him the
+pure sanctuary of your body and soul, do not be wholly his till he has
+been fully put to the proof."
+
+"But I believe in him entirely!" cried Paula, with a flood of tears.
+
+"You believe because you love him," replied the abbess.
+
+"And because he deserves it."
+
+"And how long has he deserved it?"
+
+"Was he not a splendid man before his fall?"
+
+"And so was many a murderer. Most criminals become outcasts from society
+in a single moment."
+
+"But society still accepts Orion."
+
+"Because he is the son of the Mukaukas."
+
+"And because he wins all hearts!"
+
+"Even that of the Almighty?"
+
+"Oh! Mother, Mother! why do you measure him by the standard of your own
+sanctified soul? How few are the elect who find a share of the grace of
+which you speak!"
+
+"But those who have sinned like him must strive for it."
+
+"And he does so, Mother, in his way."
+
+"It is the wrong way; wrong for those who have sinned as he has. All he
+strives for is worldly happiness."
+
+"No, no. He is firm in his faith in God and the Saviour. He is not a
+liar."
+
+"And yet he thinks he may escape the penalty?"
+
+"And does not the Lord pardon true repentance?--He has repented; and how
+bitterly, how fearfully he has suffered!"
+
+"Say rather that he has felt the stripes that his own sin brought upon
+him.--There are more to come; and how will he take them? Temptation
+lurks in every path, and how will he avoid it? As your mother, indeed
+it is my duty to warn you: Keep your passion and yourself still under
+control; continue to watch him, and grant him nothing--not the smallest
+favor, as you are a maiden, before he..."
+
+"Till when; how long am I to be so basely on my guard?" sobbed Paula.
+"Is that love which trusts not and is not ready to share the lot even of
+the backslider?"
+
+"Yes, child, yes," interrupted the old woman. "To suffer all things, to
+endure all things, is the duty of true love, and therefore of yours; but
+you must not allow the most indissoluble of all bonds to unite you to
+him till the back-slider has learnt to walk firmly. Follow him step by
+step, hold him up with faithful care, never despair of him if he seems
+other than what you had hoped. Make it your duty, pious soul, to render
+him worthy of grace--but do not be in a hurry to speak the final yes--do
+not say it yet."
+
+Paula yielded, though unwillingly, to this last word of counsel; but, in
+fact, Orion's fault had filled the abbess with deep distrust. So great
+a sinner, under the blight, too, of a father's curse, ought, in her
+opinion, to have retired from the world and besieged Heaven for grace
+and a new birth, instead of seeking joys, such as she thought none but
+the most blameless--and, those of her own confession--could deserve,
+in union with so exceptional a creature as her beloved Paula. Indeed,
+having herself found peace for her soul only in the cloister, after
+a stormy and worldly youth, she would gladly have received the noble
+daughter of her old friend as the Bride of Christ within those walls,
+to be, perhaps, her successor as Mother Superior. She longed that
+her darling should be spared the sufferings she had known through the
+ruthlessness of faithless men; so she would not abate a jot of the tenor
+of her advice, or cease to impress on Paula, firmly though lovingly, the
+necessity of following it. At last Paula took leave of her, bound by a
+promise not to pledge herself irrevocably to Orion till his return from
+Doomiat, and till the abbess had informed her by letter what opinion she
+had formed of him in the course of their flight.
+
+The high-spirited girl had not shed so many tears, as in the course of
+this interview, since the fatal affair at Abyla where she had lost her
+father and brother; it was with a tear-stained face and aching head that
+she had made her way back, under the scorching mid-day sun, to Rufinus'
+house, where she sought her old nurse. Betta had earnestly entreated her
+to lie down, and when Paula refused to hear of it she persuaded her at
+any rate to bathe her head with water as cold as was procurable in this
+terrific heat, and to have her hair carefully rearranged by her skilful
+hand; for this had been her mother's favorite remedy against headache.
+When, at length, Paula and her lover stood face to face, in a shady spot
+in the garden, they both looked embarrassed and estranged. He was pale,
+and gazed at her with some annoyance; and her red eyes and knit brows,
+for her brain was throbbing with piercing pain, did not tend to improve
+his mood. It was her part to explain and excuse herself; and as he did
+not at once address her after they had exchanged greetings, she said in
+a low tone of urgent entreaty:
+
+"Forgive me for coming so late. How long you must have been waiting!
+But parting from my best friend, my second mother, agitated me so
+painfully--it was so unspeakably sad.--I did not know how to hold up
+my head, it ached so when I came home, and now--oh, I had hoped that we
+might meet to-day so differently!"
+
+"But even yesterday you had no time to spare for me," he retorted
+sullenly, "and this morning--you were present when Rufinus invited
+me--this morning!--I am not exacting, and to you, good God! How could
+I be?--But have we not to part, to bid each other farewell--perhaps for
+ever? Why should you have given up so much time and strength to your
+friend, that so scanty a remnant is left for the lover? That is an
+unfair division."
+
+"How could I deny it?" she said with melancholy entreaty. "You are
+indeed very right; but I could not leave the child last evening, as soon
+as she came, and while she was weeping out all her sorrows; and if you
+only knew how surprised and grieved I was--how my heart ached when,
+instead of finding you, your note...."
+
+"I was obliged to go to Amru," interrupted Orion. "This undertaking
+compels me to leave much behind, and I am no longer the freest of
+the free, as I used to be. During this dreadful breakfast I have been
+sitting on thorns. But let all that pass. I came hither with a heart
+high with hope--and now?--You see, Paula, this enterprise tears me in
+two in more ways than you can imagine, puts me into a more critical
+position, and weighs more on my mind than you can think or know--I will
+explain it all to you at another time--and to bear it all, to keep up
+the spirit and happy energy that I need, I must be secure of the one
+thing for which I could take far greater toil and danger as mere child's
+play; I must know...."
+
+"You must know," she interposed, "whether my heart is fully and wholly
+open to your love...."
+
+"And whether," he added, with growing ardor, "in spite of the bitter
+suffering that weighs on my wretched soul, I may hope to be happier than
+the saints in bliss. O Paula, adored and only woman, may I...."
+
+"You may," she said clearly and fervently. "I love you, Orion, and shall
+never, never cease to love you with my whole soul."
+
+He flew to her side, clasped both her hands as if beside himself,
+snatched them to his lips regardless of the nearness of the house,
+whence ten pairs of eyes might have seen him, and covered them with
+burning kisses, till she drew them from him with the entreaty: "No, no;
+forbear, I entreat you. No--not now."
+
+"Yes, now, at this very moment--or, if not, when?" he asked vehemently.
+"But here, in this garden--you are right, this is no place for two human
+beings so happy as we are. Come with me; come into the house and lead
+the way to a spot where we may be unseen and unheard, alone with each
+other and our happiness."
+
+"No, no, no!" she hastily put in, pressing her hand to her aching brow.
+"Come with me to the bench under the sycamore; it is shady there, and
+you can tell me everything, and hear once more how entirely love has
+taken possession of me."
+
+He looked in her face, surprised and disappointed; but she turned
+towards the sycamore and sat down beneath it. He slowly followed her.
+She signed to him to take a seat by her side, but he stood up in front
+of her, saying sadly and despondently.
+
+"Always the same--always calm and cold. Is this fair, Paula? Is this
+the overwhelming love of which you spoke? Is this your response to the
+yearning cry of a passionately ardent heart? Is this all that love can
+grant to love--that a betrothed owes to her lover on the very eve of
+parting?"
+
+At this she looked up at him, deeply distressed, and said in
+pathetically urgent entreaty: "O Orion, Orion! Have I not told you, can
+you not see and feel how much I love you? You must know and feel it; and
+if you do, be content, I entreat. You, whom alone I love, be satisfied
+to know that this heart is yours, that your Paula--your own Paula, for
+that indeed I am--will think of nothing, care for nothing, pray and
+entreat Heaven for nothing but you, yes you, my own, my all."
+
+"Then come, come with me," he insisted, "and grant your betrothed the
+rights that are his due.
+
+"Nay, not my betrothed--not yet," she besought him, with all the
+fervor of her tortured soul. "In my veins too the blood flows warm with
+yearning. Gladly would I fly to your arms and lay my head against yours,
+but not to-day can I become your betrothed, not yet; I cannot, I dare
+not!"
+
+"And why not? Tell me, at any rate, why not," he cried indignantly,
+clenching his fist to his breast. "Why will you not be my bride, if
+indeed it is true that you love me? Why have you invented this new and
+intolerable torment?"
+
+"Because prudence tells me," she replied in a low, hurried voice, while
+her bosom heaved painfully, as though she were afraid to hear her own
+words; "because I see that the time is not yet come. Ah, Orion! you have
+not yet learnt to bridle the desires and cravings that burn within you;
+you have forgotten all too quickly what is past--what a mountain we had
+to cross before we succeeded in finding each other, before I--for I must
+say it, my dear one--before I could look you in the face without anger
+and aversion. A strange and mysterious ordering has brought it about;
+and you, too, have honestly done your best that everything should be
+changed, that what was white should now be black, that the chill north
+wind should turn to a hot southerly one. Thus poison turns to healing,
+and a curse to a blessing. In this foolish heart of mine passionate
+hatred has given way to no less fervent love. Still, I cannot yet be
+your bride, your wife. Call it cowardice, call it selfish caution, what
+you will. I call it prudence, and applaud it; though it cost my poor
+eyes a thousand bitter tears before my heart and brain could consent to
+be guided by the warning voice. Of one thing you may be fully assured:
+my heart will never be another's, come what may--it is yours with my
+whole soul!--But I will not be your bride till I can say to you
+with glad confidence, as well as with passionate love: 'You have
+conquered--take me, I am yours!' Then you shall feel and confess that
+Paula's love is not less vehement, less ardent.... O God! Orion, learn
+to know and understand me. You must--for my sake and your own, you
+must!--My head, merciful Heaven, my head!"
+
+She bowed her face and clasped her hands to her burning brow; Orion,
+pale and shivering, laid his hand on her shoulder, and said in a harsh,
+forced voice that had lost all its music: "The Esoterics impose severe
+trials on their disciples before they admit them into the mysteries.
+And we are in Egypt--but the difference is a wide one when the rule is
+applied to love. How ever, all this is not from yourself. What you call
+prudence is the voice of that nun!"
+
+"It is the voice of reason," replied Paula softly. "The yearning of my
+heart had overpowered it, and I owe to my friend...."
+
+"What do you owe her?" cried the young man furiously indignant. "You
+should curse her, rather, for doing you so ill a turn, as I do at this
+moment. What does she know of me? Has she ever heard a word from my
+lips? If that despotic and casuistic recluse could have known what my
+heart and soul are like, she would have advised you differently. Even
+as a childs' confidence and love alone could influence me. Whatever my
+faults might be, I never was false to kindness and trust.--And, so far
+as you are concerned--you who are prudence and reason in person--blest
+in your love, I should have cared only for your approbation. If I could
+have overcome the last of your scruples, I should indeed have been proud
+and happy!--I would have brought the sun and stars down from the sky
+for you, and have laughed temptation to scorn!--But as it is--instead
+of being raised I am lowered, a laughing-stock even in my own eyes. One
+with you, I could have led the way on wings to the realms of light where
+Perfection holds sway!--But as it is? What a task lies before me!--To
+heat your frigid love to flaming point by good deeds, as though they
+were olive-logs. A pretty task for a man--to put himself to the proof
+before the woman he loves! It is a hideous and insulting torture which I
+will not submit to, against which my whole inner man revolts, and which
+you will and must forego--if indeed it is true that you love me!"
+
+"I love you, oh! I love you," she cried, beside herself, and seizing his
+hands. "Perhaps you are right. I--my God what shall I do? Only do not
+ask me yet, to speak the final yes or no. I cannot control myself to the
+feeblest thought. You see, you see, how I am suffering!"
+
+"Yes, I see it," he replied, looking compassionately at her pale face
+and drawn brow. "And if it must be so, I say: till this evening then.
+Try to rest now, and take care of yourself.--But then...."
+
+"Then, during the voyage, the flight, repeat to the abbess all you
+have just said to me. She is a noble woman, and she, too, will learn to
+understand and to love you, I am sure. She will retract the word I
+know...."
+
+"What word?"
+
+"My word, given to her, that I would not be yours...."
+
+"Till I had gone through the Esoteric tests?" exclaimed Orion with an
+angry shrug. "Now go,--go and lie down. This hour, which should have
+been the sweetest of our lives, a stranger has embittered and darkened.
+You are not sure of yourself--nor I of myself. Anything more that we
+could say now and here would lead to no good issue for either you or me.
+Go and rest; sleep off your pain, and I--I will try to forget.--If you
+could but see the turmoil in my soul!--But farewell till our next, more
+friendly--I hardly dare trust myself to say our happier meeting."
+
+He hastily turned away, but she called after him in sad lament: "Orion
+do not forget--Orion, you know that I love you."
+
+But he did not hear; he buried on with his head bowed over his breast,
+down to the road, without reentering Rufinus' house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+When Orion reached home, wounded to the quick, he flung himself on a
+divan. Paula had said that her heart was his indeed, but what a cool and
+grudging love was this that would give nothing till it had insured its
+future. And how could Paula have allowed a third person to come between
+them, and rule her feelings and actions? She must have revealed to that
+third person all that had previously passed between them--and it was for
+this Melchite nun, his personal foe, that he was about to--it was enough
+to drive him mad!--But he could not withdraw; he had pledged himself to
+the brave old man to carry out this crazy enterprise. And in the place
+of the lofty, noble mistress of his whole being, his fancy pictured
+Paula as a tearful, vacillating, and cold-hearted woman.
+
+There lay the maps and plans which he had desired Nilus to send in from
+his room for his study of the task set him by Amru; as his eye fell upon
+them, he struck his fist against the wall, started up, and ran like a
+madman up and down the room which had been sacred to her peaceful life.
+
+There stood her lute; he had freshly strung and tuned it. To calm
+himself he drew it to him, took up the plectrum, and began to play. But
+it was a poor instrument; she had been content with this wretched thing!
+He flung it on the couch and took up his own, the gift of Heliodora.
+How sweetly, how delightfully she had been wont to play it! Even now its
+strings gave forth a glorious tone; by degrees he began to rejoice in
+his own playing, and music soothed his excitement, as it had often done
+before. It was grand and touching, though he several times struck the
+strings so violently that their loud clanging and sighing and throbbing
+answered each other like the wild wailing of a soul in torment.
+
+Under this vehement usage the bridge of the lute suddenly snapped off
+with a dull report; and at the same instant his secretary, who had been
+with him at Constantinople, threw open the door in glad excitement, and
+began, even before he had crossed the threshold:
+
+"Only think, my lord! Here is a messenger come from the inn kept by
+Sostratus with this tablet for you.--It is open, so I read it. Only
+think! it is hardly credible! The Senator Justinus is here with his
+wife, the noble Martina--here in Memphis, and they beg you to visit them
+at once to speak of matters of importance. They came last night, the
+messenger tells me, and now--what joy! Think of all the hospitality
+you enjoyed in their house. Can we leave them in an inn? So long as
+hospitality endures, it would be a crime!"
+
+"Impossible, quite impossible!" cried Orion, who had cast aside the
+lute, and was now reading the letter himself. "It is true indeed! his
+own handwriting. And that immovable pair are in Egypt--in Memphis! By
+Zeus!"--for this was still the favorite oath of the golden youth of
+Alexandria and Constantinople, even in these Christian times.--"By Zeus,
+I ought to receive them here like princes!--Wait!--of course you
+must tell the messenger that I am coming at once--have the four new
+Pannonians harnessed to the silver-plated chariot. I must go to my
+mother; but there is time enough for that. Desire Sebek to have the
+guest-chambers prepared for distinguished guests--those sick people are
+out of them, thank God! Take my present room for them too; I will go
+back to the old one. Of course they have a numerous suite. Set twenty
+or thirty slaves to work. Everything must be ready in two hours at
+furthest. The two sitting-rooms are particularly handsome, but
+where anything is lacking, place everything in the house at Sebek's
+command.--Justinus in Egypt!--But make haste, man! Nay, stay! One thing
+more. Carry these maps and scrolls--no; they are too heavy for you.
+Desire a slave to fetch them, and take them to Rufinus; he must keep
+them till I come. Tell him I meant to use them on the way--he knows."
+
+The secretary rushed off; Orion performed a rapid toilet and had his
+mourning dress rearranged in fresh folds; then he went to his mother.
+She had often heard of the cordial reception that her son, and her
+husband, too, in former days, had met with in the senator's house, and
+she took it quite as a matter of course that the strangers' rooms,
+and among them that which had been Paula's, should be prepared for the
+travellers; all she asked was that it should be explained that she was
+suffering, so that she might not have to trouble herself to entertain
+them.
+
+She advised Orion to put off his journey and to devote himself to his
+friends; but he explained that even their arrival must not delay him.
+He had entire confidence in Sebek and the upper housekeeper, and the
+emperor himself would remit the duties of hostess to a sick woman. Once,
+at any rate, she would surely allow the illustrious guests to pay their
+respects to her,--but even this Neforis refused It would be quite enough
+if her visitors received messages and greetings daily in her name, with
+offerings of choice fruit and flowers, and on the last day some costly
+gift. Orion thought this proposal quite worthy of them both, and
+presently drove off behind his Pannonians to the hostelry.
+
+By the harbor he met the captain of the boat he had hired; to him he
+held up two fingers, and the boatman signified by repeated nodding that
+he had understood the meaning of this signal: "Be ready at two hours
+before midnight."
+
+The sight of this weather-beaten pilot, and the prospect of making
+some return to his noble friends for all their kindness, cheered Orion
+greatly; and though he regretted being obliged to leave these guests of
+all others, the perils that lay before him reasserted their charm. He
+could surely win over the abbess in the course of the voyage, and Paula
+might be brought to reason, perhaps, this very evening. Justinus and his
+wife were Melchites, and he knew that both these friends--for whom he
+had a particular regard--would be enchanted with his scheme if he took
+them into his confidence.
+
+The inn kept by Sostratus, a large, square building surrounding a
+spacious court-yard, was the best and most frequented in the town. The
+eastern side faced the road and the river, and contained the best rooms,
+in which, on the previous night, the senator had established himself
+with his wife and servants. The clatter of the quadriga drew Justinus
+to the window; as soon as he recognized Orion he waved a table-napkin to
+him, shouting a hearty "Welcome!" and then retired into the room again.
+
+"Here he is!" he cried to his wife, who was lying on a couch in the
+lightest permissible attire, and sipping fruit-syrup from time to time
+to moisten her dry lips, while a boy fanned her for coolness.
+
+"That is well indeed!" she exclaimed, and desired her maid to be quick,
+very quick, and fetch her a wrap, but to be sure it was a thin one.
+Then, turning to a very lovely young woman who had started to her feet
+at Justinus' first exclamation, she asked:
+
+"Would you rather that he should find you here, my darling, or shall we
+see him first, and tell him that we have brought you with us?"
+
+"That will be best," answered the other in a sweet voice, and she sighed
+softly before she added: "What will he not think of me? We may grow
+older, but folly--folly..."
+
+"Grows with years?" laughed the matron. "Or do you think it
+decreases?--But here he is."
+
+The younger woman hurried away by a side door, behind which she
+disappeared. Martina looked after her, and pointing that way to direct
+her husband's glance, she observed: "She has left herself a chink. Good
+God! Fancy being in love in such heat as this; what a hideous thought!"
+
+At this moment the door was opened, and the heartiest greetings ensued.
+It was evident that the meeting was as great a pleasure to the elderly
+pair as to the young man. Justinus embraced him warmly, while the matron
+cried out: "And a kiss for me too!" And when the youth immediately and
+heartily gave it, she exclaimed with a groan:
+
+"O man, and child of man, great Sesostris! How did your famous ancestor
+ever achieve heroic deeds under such a sun as this? For my part I am
+fast disappearing, melting away like butter; but what will a man not do
+for love's sake?--Syra, Syra; for God's sake bring me something, however
+small, that looks like a garment! How rational is the fashion of the
+people of Africa whom we met with on our journey. If they have three
+fingers' breadth of cloth about them, they consider themselves elegantly
+dressed.--But come, sit down--there, at my feet. A seat, Argos, and some
+wine, and water in a damp clay pitcher, and cool like the last.
+Husband, the boy seems to me handsomer than ever. But dear God! he is in
+mourning, and how becoming it is! Poor boy, poor boy! Yes, we heard in
+Alexandria."
+
+She wiped first her eyes and then her damp brow, and her husband added
+his expressions of sympathy at the death of the Mukaukas.
+
+They were a genial and comfortable couple, Justinus and his wife
+Martina. Two beings who felt perfectly secure in their vast inherited
+wealth, and who, both being of noble birth, never need make any display
+of dignity, because they were sure of it in the eyes of high and low
+alike. They had asserted their right to remain natural and human under
+the formalities of the most elaborately ceremonious society; those who
+did not like the easy tone adopted by them in their house might stay
+away. He, devoid of ambition, a senator in virtue of his possessions and
+his name, never caring to make any use of his adventitious dignity but
+that of procuring good appointments for his favorite clients, or good
+places for his family on any festive occasion, was a hospitable soul;
+the good friend of all his friends, whose motto was "live and let live."
+Martina, with a heart as good as gold, had never made any pretensions to
+beauty, but had nevertheless been much courted. This worthy couple had
+for many years thought that nothing could be more delightful than a
+residence in the capital, or at their beautiful villa on the Bosphorus,
+scorning to follow the example of other rich and fashionable folks, and
+go to take baths or make journeys. It was enough for them to be able
+to make others happy under their roof; and there was never any lack of
+visitors, just because those who were weary of bending their backs
+at the Byzantine Court, found this unceremonious circle particularly
+restful.
+
+Martina was especially fond of having young people about her, and
+Heliodora, the widow of her nephew, had found comfort with her in her
+trouble; it was in her house that Orion and Heliodora had met. The young
+widow was a great favorite with the old couple, but higher in their
+esteem even than she, had been the younger brother of her deceased
+husband. He was to have been their heir; but they had mourned his death
+now two years; for news had reached them that Narses, who had served in
+the Imperial army as tribune of cavalry, had fallen in battle against
+the infidels. No one, however, had ever brought a more exact report of
+his death; and at last their indefatigable enquiries had resulted in
+their learning that he had been taken prisoner by the Saracens and
+carried into slavery in Arabia. This report received confirmation
+through the efforts of Orion and his deceased father. Within a few hours
+of the young Egyptian's departure, they received a letter from the youth
+they had given up for lost, written in trembling characters, in which he
+implored them to effect his deliverance through Amru, the Arab governor
+of Egypt. The old people had set forth at once on their pilgrimage, and
+Heliodora had done her part in urging them to this step. Her passion for
+Orion, to whom, for more than a year, her gentle heart had been wholly
+devoted, had increased every hour since his departure. She had not
+concealed it from Martina, who thought it no less than her duty to stand
+by the poor lovesick child; for Heliodora had nursed her husband, the
+senator's nephew, to the end, with touching fidelity and care; and
+besides, Martina had given the young Egyptian--with whom she was "quite
+in love herself"--every opportunity of paying his addresses to the young
+widow.
+
+They were a pair that seemed made for each other, and Martina delighted
+in match-making. But in this case, though hearts had met, hands had
+not, and finally it had been a real grief to Martina to hear Orion and
+Heliodora called--and with good reason--a pair of lovers.
+
+Once she had appealed in her genial way to the young man's conscience,
+and he had replied that his father, who was a Jacobite, would never
+consent to his union with a woman of any other confession. At that time
+she had found little to answer; but she had often thought if only she
+could make the Mukaukas acquainted with Heliodora, he, whom she had
+known in the capital as a young and handsome admirer of every charming
+woman, would certainly capitulate.
+
+Her favorite niece had indeed every grace that a father's heart could
+desire to attract the son. She was of good family, the widow of a man of
+rank, rich, but just two and twenty, and beautiful enough to bewitch
+old or young. A sweeter and gentler soul Martina had never known. Those
+large dewy eyes-imploring eyes, she called them--might soften a stone,
+and her fair waving hair was as soft as her nature. Add to this her
+full, supple figure--and how perfectly she dressed, how exquisitely she
+sang and struck the lute! It was not for nothing that she was courted by
+every youth of rank in Constantinople--and if the old Mukaukas could
+but hear her laugh! There was not a sound on earth more clear, more glad
+than Heliodora's laugh. She was not indeed remarkable for intellect, but
+no one could call her a simpleton, and your very clever women were not
+to every man's taste.
+
+So, when they were to travel to Egypt, Martina took it for granted that
+Heliodora must go with them, and that the flirtation which had made
+her favorite the talk of the town must, in Memphis, become courtship in
+earnest. Then, when she heard at Alexandria that the Mukaukas was lately
+dead, she regarded the game as won. Now they were in Memphis, Orion was
+sitting before her, and the young man had invited her and her following
+of above twenty persons to stay in his house. It was a foregone
+conclusion that the travellers were to accept this bidding as prescribed
+by the laws of hospitality, and preparations for the move were
+immediately set on foot.
+
+Justinus meanwhile explained what had brought them to Egypt, and begged
+Orion's assistance. The young man had known the senator's nephew well as
+one of the most brilliant and amiable youths of the capital, and he was
+sincerely distressed to be forced to inform his friends that Amru, who
+could easily have procured the release of Narses, was to start within
+two days for Medina, while he himself was compelled to set out on a
+journey that very evening, at an hour he could not name.
+
+He saw how greatly this firmly-expressed determination agitated and
+disturbed the old couple, and the senator's urgency led him to tell
+them, under the pledge of strict secrecy, what business it was that took
+him away and what a perilous enterprise he had before him.
+
+He began his story confident of his orthodox guests' sympathy; but to
+his amazement they both disapproved of the undertaking, and not, as
+they declared, on his account only or for the sake of the help they had
+counted on.
+
+The senator reminded him that he was the natural chief of the Egyptian
+population in Memphis, and that, by such a scheme, he was undermining
+his influence with those whose leader he was by right and duty as his
+father's son. His ambition ought to make him aim at this leadership; and
+instead of offering such a rebuff to the patriarch, it was his part to
+work with him--whose power he greatly underrated--so as to make life
+tolerable to their fellow-Christians in a land ruled by Moslems.
+
+Paula's name was not once mentioned; but Orion thought of her and
+remained firm, though not without an inward struggle.
+
+At the same time, to prove to his friends how sincerely he desired to
+please them, he proposed that he and Justinus should immediately cross
+the Nile to lay his application before the Khaliff's vicar. A glance at
+the sky showed him that it wanted still an hour and a half of sunset.
+His swift horses would not need more than that time for the journey,
+and during their absence the rest of the party could move from the inn.
+Carts for the baggage were already in waiting below, and chariots
+had been ordered to follow and convey his beloved guests to their new
+quarters.
+
+The senator agreed to this proposal, and as the two men went off Martina
+called after Orion.
+
+"My senator must talk to you on the road, and if you can be brought to
+reason you will find your reward waiting for you! Do not be saving of
+your talents of gold, old man, till the general has promised to procure
+the lad's release.--And listen to me, Orion; give up your mad scheme."
+
+The sun had not wholly disappeared behind the Libyan range when
+the snorting Pannonians, all flecked with foam, drove back into the
+court-yard of the governor's residence. The two men had unfortunately
+gained nothing; for Amru was absent, reviewing the troops between
+Heliopolis and Onix, and was not expected home till night or even next
+morning. The party had removed from the inn and the senator's white
+slaves were already mixing with the black and brown ones of the
+establishment.
+
+Martina was delighted with her new quarters, and with the beautiful
+flowers--most of them new to her--with which the invalid mistress of
+the house had had the two great reception-rooms garnished in token
+of welcome; but the failure of Justinus' visit to Fostat fell like
+hoar-frost on her happy mood.
+
+Orion, she asserted, ought to regard this stroke of ill-luck as a
+judgment from God. It was the will of Heaven that he should give up
+his enterprise and be content to make due preparations for a noble
+work which could be carried through without him, in order to accomplish
+another, out of friendship, which urgently needed his help. However, he
+again expressed his regret that in spite of everything he must adhere to
+his purpose; and when Martina asked him: "What, even if my reward is one
+that would especially delight you?" he nodded regretfully. "Yes, even
+then."
+
+So she merely added, "Well, we shall see," and went on impressively:
+"Every one has some peculiarity which stamps his individuality and
+becomes him well: in you it is amiability, my son. Such obstinacy does
+not suit you; it is quite foreign to you, and is the very opposite to
+what I call amiability. Be yourself, even in this instance."
+
+"That is to say weak and yielding, especially when a kind woman...."
+
+"When old friends ask it," she hastily put in; but almost before she had
+finished she turned to her husband, exclaiming: "Good Heavens! come to
+the window. Did you ever see such a glorious mingling of purple and gold
+in the sky? It is as though the old pyramids and the whole land of Egypt
+were in flames. But now, great Sesostris,"--the name she gave to Orion
+when she was in a good humor with him, "it is time that you should see
+what I have brought you. In the first place this trinket," and she gave
+him a costly bracelet of old Greek workmanship set with precious stones,
+"and then--nay, no Thanks--and then--Well the object is rather large,
+and besides--come with me."
+
+As she spoke she went from the reception-room into the anteroom, led the
+way to the door of the room which had once been Paula's, and then his
+own, opened it a little way, peeped in, and then pushed Orion forward,
+saying hastily: "There--do you see--there it is!"
+
+By the window stood Heliodora. The bright radiance of the sinking sun
+bathed her slender but round and graceful form, her "imploring" eyes
+looked up at him with rapturous delight, and her white arms folded
+across her bosom gave her the aspect of a saint, waiting with humble
+longing for some miracle, in expectation of unutterable joys.
+
+Martina's eyes, too, were fixed on Orion; she saw how pale he turned at
+seeing the young widow, she saw him start as though suddenly overcome by
+some emotion--what, she could not guess--and shrink back from the sunlit
+vision in the window. These were effects which the worthy matron had not
+anticipated.
+
+Never off the stage, thought she, had she seen a man so stricken by
+love; for she could not suspect that to him it was as though a gulf had
+suddenly yawned at his feet.
+
+With a swiftness which no one could have looked for from her heavy and
+bulky figure, Martina hastily returned to her husband, and even at the
+door exclaimed: "It is all right, all has gone well! At the sight of her
+he seemed thunderstruck! Mark my words: we shall have a wedding here by
+the Nile."
+
+"My blessing on it," replied Justinus. "But, wedding or no wedding, all
+I care is that she should persuade that fine young fellow to give up
+his crazy scheme. I saw how even the brown rascals in the Arab's service
+bowed down before him; and he will persuade the general, if any one can,
+to do all in his power for Narses. He must not and shall not go! You
+impressed it strongly on Heliodora...."
+
+"That she should keep him?" laughed the matron. "I tell you, she will
+nail him down if need be."
+
+"So much the better," replied her husband. "But, wife, folks might say
+that it was not quite seemly in you to force them together. Properly
+speaking, you are as it were her female mentor, the motherly patroness."
+
+"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Martina. "At home they invited no witnesses
+to look on at their meetings. The poor love-lorn souls must at any rate
+have a chance of speaking to each other and rejoicing that they have
+met once more. I will step in presently, and be the anxious, motherly
+friend. Tine, Tine! And if it does not end in a wedding, I will make a
+pilgrimage to St. Agatha, barefoot."
+
+"And I with only one shoe!" the senator declared, "for, everything in
+reason--but the talk about Dora was at last beyond all bounds. It was no
+longer possible to have them both together under the same roof. And you
+yourself--no, seriously; go in to them."
+
+"Directly, directly.--But first look out of this window once more. Oh,
+what a sun!--there, now it is too late. Only two minutes ago the
+whole heaven was of the hue of my red Syrian cloak; and now it is all
+dark!--The house and garden are beautiful, and everything is old and
+handsome; just what I should have expected in the home of the rich
+Mukaukas."
+
+"And I too," replied Justinus. "But now, go. If they have come to an
+understanding, Dora may certainly congratulate herself."
+
+"I should think so! But she need not be ashamed even of her villa, and
+they must spend every summer there, I will manage that. If that poor,
+dear fellow Narses does not escape with his life--for two years of
+slavery are a serious matter--then I should be able...."
+
+"To alter your will? Not a bad idea; but there is no hurry for that; and
+now, you really must go."
+
+"Yes, yes, in a minute. Surely I may have time to speak.--I, for my
+part, know of no one whom I would sooner put in the place of Narses...."
+
+"Than Orion and Heliodora? Certainly, I have no objection; but now...."
+
+"Well, perhaps it is wicked to think of a man who may still be alive as
+numbered with the dead.--At any rate the poor boy cannot go back to his
+legion...."
+
+"On no consideration. But, Martina...."
+
+"To-morrow morning Orion must urge our case on the Arab...."
+
+"If he does not go away."
+
+"Will you bet that she fails to keep him."
+
+"I should be a fool for my pains," laughed Justinus. "Do you ever pay
+me when I win?--But now, joking apart, you must go and see what they are
+about."
+
+And this time she obeyed. She would have won her bet; for Orion, who had
+remained unmoved by his sister-in-law's letter, by the warning voice
+of the faith of his childhood, by the faithful council of his honest
+servant Nilus, or by the senator's convincing arguments--had yielded to
+Heliodora's sweet blandishments.
+
+How ardently had her loving heart flamed up, when she saw him so deeply
+agitated at the sight of her! With what touching devotion had she sunk
+into his arms; how humbly-half faint with sweet sorrow and sweeter
+ecstasy--had she fallen at his feet, and clasped his knees, and
+entreated him, with eyes full of tears of adoring rapture, not to leave
+to-day, to wait only till tomorrow, and then, if he would, to tread her
+in the dust. Now--now when she had just found him again after being worn
+out with pining and longing-to part now, to see him rush on an uncertain
+fate--it would kill her, it would certainly be her death! And when he
+still had tried to resist she had rushed into his arms, had stopped his
+lips with burning kisses, and whispered in his ear all the flattering
+words of love he once had held so dear.
+
+Why had he never seriously tried to win her, why had he so soon
+forgotten her? Because she, who could assert her dignity firmly enough
+with others, had abandoned herself to him unresistingly after a few
+meetings, as if befooled by some magician's spell. The precious spoil
+so easily won had soon lost its value in his eyes. But to-day the fire
+which had died out blazed up again. Yes, this was the love he craved, he
+must have! To be loved with entire and utter devotion, with a heart
+that thought only of him and not of itself, that asked only for love in
+return for love, that did not fence itself round with caution and invoke
+the aid of others for protection against him. This lovely creature, all
+passion, who had taken upon herself to endure the contumely of society,
+and pain and grief for his sake, knowing too that he had abandoned her,
+and would never make her his wife before God and men--she indeed knew
+what it was to love; and he who was so often inclined to despair of
+himself felt his heart uplifted at the thought that he was so precious
+in her eyes, nay--he would own it--so idolized.
+
+And how sweet, how purely womanly she was! Those imploring eyes--which
+he had grown quite sick of in Constantinople, for they were as full of
+pathetic entreaty when she merely begged him to hold her cloak for
+her as when she appealed to his heart of hearts not to leave her--that
+entrancing play of glances which had first bewitched him, came to him
+to-day as something new and worked the old spell.
+
+In this moment of tender reunion he had promised her at any rate to
+consider whether he could not release himself from the pledge by which
+he was bound; but hardly had he spoken the words when the memory of
+Paula revived in his mind, and an inward voice cried out to him that
+she was a being of nobler mould than this yielding, weak woman, abject
+before him--that she symbolized his upward struggle, Heliodora his
+perdition.
+
+At length he was able to tear himself from her embrace; and at the first
+step out of this intoxication into real life again he looked about like
+one roused from sleep, feeling as though it were by some mocking sport
+of the devil himself that Paula's room should have been the scene of
+this meeting and of his weakness.
+
+An enquiry from Heliodora, as to the fate of the little white dog that
+she had given him as a remembrance, recalled to his mind that luckless
+emerald which was to have been his return offering or antidoron. He
+evasively replied that, remembering her love of rare gems, he had sent
+her a remarkably fine stone about which he had a good deal to say;
+and she gave such childlike and charming expression to her delight
+and gratitude, and took such skilful advantage of his pleasure in her
+clinging tenderness, to convince him of the necessity for remaining at
+home, that he himself began to believe in it, and gave way. The more
+this conclusion suited his own wishes the easier it became to
+find reasons for it: old Rufinus really did not need him; and if
+he--Orion--had cause to be ashamed of his vacillation, on the other
+hand he could comfort himself by reflecting that it would be unkind and
+ungrateful to his good friends to leave them in the lurch just when he
+could be of use to them. One pair of protecting arms more or less could
+not matter to the nuns, while the captive Narses might very probably
+perish before he could be rescued without his interest with the Arab
+general.
+
+It was high time to decide one way or the other.--Well, no; he ought not
+to go away to-day!
+
+That was settled!
+
+Rufinus must at once be informed of his change of purpose. To sit down
+and write at such a moment he felt was impossible: Nilus should go and
+speak in his name; and he knew how gladly and zealously he would perform
+such an errand.
+
+Heliodora clapped her hands, and just as Martina knocked at the door
+the pair came out into the anteroom: She, radiant with happiness, and
+so graceful in her fashionable, costly, and well-chosen garb, so
+royal-looking in spite of her no more than middle height, that even in
+the capital she would have excited the admiration of the men and the
+envy of the women: He, content, but with a thoughtful smile on his lips.
+
+He had not yet closed the door when in the anteroom he perceived two
+female figures, who had come in while Martina was knocking at her
+niece's door. These were Katharina and her waiting-maid.
+
+Anubis had been brought to these rooms after his fall from the roof,
+and notwithstanding the preparations that had been made for illustrious
+guests Philippus could not be persuaded to allow his patient, for whom
+perfect quiet was indispensable, to be moved to the lower floor.
+
+The listener who had been so severely punished had with him his mother,
+Katharina's old nurse; the water-wagtail, with her maid, had accompanied
+her to see the lad, for she was very anxious to assure herself whether
+her foster-brother, before his tumble, had succeeded in hearing
+anything; but the poor fellow was so weak and his pain so severe that
+she had not the heart to torment him with questions. However, her
+Samaritan's visit brought her some reward, for to meet Orion coming out
+of Paula's room with so beautiful and elegant a woman was a thing worth
+opening her eyes to see. She would have walked from home hither twice
+over only to see the clothes and jewels of this heaven sent stranger.
+Such a being rarely strayed to Memphis,--and might not this radiant and
+beautiful creature be "the other" after all, and not Paula? Might not
+Orion have been trifling with her rival as he had already trifled with
+her? They must have had a rapturous meeting in that room; every feature
+of the fair beauty's saint-like face betrayed the fact. Oh, that Orion!
+She would have liked to throttle him; and yet she was glad to think that
+there was another besides herself--and she so elegant and lovely--whom
+he had betrayed.
+
+"He will stay!" Heliodora exclaimed as she came out of the room; and
+Martina held out her hand to the young man, with a fervent: "God bless
+you for that!"
+
+She was delighted to see how happy her niece looked but the lively
+old woman's eyes were everywhere at once, and when she caught sight of
+Katharina who had stood still with curiosity, she turned to her with a
+friendly nod and said to Orion:
+
+"Your sister? Or the little niece of whom you used to speak?"
+
+Orion called Katharina and introduced her to his guests, and the girl
+explained what had brought her hither; in such a sweet and pathetic
+manner--for she was sincerely fond of her foster-brother and
+play-fellow--that she quite charmed Martina and Heliodora, and the
+younger woman expressed a hope that they might see her often. Indeed,
+when she was gone, Martina exclaimed: "A charming little thing! As fresh
+and bright as a newly-fledged bird, so brisk and pretty too--and how
+nicely she prattles!"
+
+"And the richest heiress in Memphis into the bargain," added Orion.
+But, noticing that on this Heliodora cast down her eyes with a troubled
+expression, he went on with a laugh: "Our mothers destined us to marry
+each other, but we are too ill-matched in size, and not exactly made for
+a pair in other ways."
+
+Then, taking leave of them, he went to Nilus and informed him of his
+decision. His request that the treasurer would make his excuses to
+Rufinus, carry his greetings to Thomas' daughter, and make the most
+of his reasons for remaining behind, sent the good man almost beside
+himself for joy; and he so far forgot his modest reserve as to embrace
+Orion as a son.
+
+The young host sat with his visitors till nearly midnight: and when,
+on the following morning, Martina first greeted her niece--who looked
+peacefully happy though somewhat tired--she was able to tell her that
+the two men had already gone across the Nile, and, she hoped, settled
+everything with the Arab governor. Great was her disappointment when
+presently Justinus and Orion came back to say that Amru, instead of
+returning to Fostat from the review at Heliopolis, had gone straight
+to Alexandria. He had engagements there for a few days, and would then
+start for Medina.
+
+The senator saw nothing for it but to follow him up, and Orion
+volunteered to accompany him.
+
+A faint attempt on Heliodora's part to detain him met with a decisive,
+nay, stern refusal. This journey was indeed sheer flight from his own
+weakness and from the beautiful creature who could never be anything to
+him.
+
+Early in the day he had found time to write to Paula; but he had cast
+aside more than one unfinished letter before he could find the right
+words. He told her that he loved her and her alone; and as his stylus
+marked the wax he felt, with horror of himself, that in fact his heart
+was Paula's, and his determination ripened to put an end once for all to
+his connection with Heliodora, and not allow himself to see Paula again
+till he had forever cut the tie that bound him to the young widow.
+
+The two women went out to see the travellers start, and as they returned
+to the house, hanging their heads like defeated warriors, in the
+vestibule they met Katharina and her maid. Martina wanted to detain the
+little girl, and to persuade her to go up to their rooms with them; but
+Katharina refused, and appeared to be in a great hurry. She had just
+come from seeing Anubis, who was in less pain to-day, and who had done
+his best to tell her what he had overheard. That the flight was to be
+northwards he was certain; but he had either misunderstood or forgotten
+the name of the place whither the sisters were bound.
+
+His mother and the nurse were dismissed from the room, and then the
+water-wagtail in her gratitude had bent over him, had raised his pretty
+face a little, and had given him two such sweet kisses that the poor boy
+had been quite uneasy. But, when he was alone with his mother once more,
+he had felt happier and happier, and the remembrance of the transient
+rapture he had known had alleviated the pain he was suffering on
+Katharina's account.
+
+Katharina, meanwhile, did not go home at once to her mother; on the
+contrary, she went straight off to the Bishop of Memphis, to whom
+she divulged all she had learnt with regard to the inhabitants of the
+convent and the intended rescue. The gentle Plotinus even had been
+roused to great wrath, and no sooner had she left him than he set out
+for Fostat to invoke the help of Amru, and--finding him absent--of his
+Vekeel to enable him to pursue the fugitive Melchite sisters.
+
+When the water-wagtail was at home again and alone in her room, she said
+to herself, with calm satisfaction, that she had now contrived something
+which would spoil several days for Orion and for Paula, and that might
+prove even fatal, so far as she was concerned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Nilus had performed his errand well, and Rufinus was forced to admit
+that Orion had done his part and had planned the enterprise with so much
+care and unselfishness that his personal assistance could be dispensed
+with. Under these circumstances he scarcely owed the young man a grudge
+for placing himself at the service of his Byzantine friends; still,
+his not coming to the house disturbed and vexed him, less on his own
+account, or that of the good cause, than for Paula's sake, for her
+feelings towards Orion had remained no secret to him or his wife.
+
+Dame Joanna, indeed, felt the young man's conduct more keenly than
+Rufinus; she would have been glad to withhold her husband from the
+enterprise, whose dangers now appeared to her frightened soul tenfold
+greater than they were. But she knew that the Nile would flow backwards
+before she could dissuade him from keeping his promise to the abbess, so
+she forced herself to preserve at any rate outward composure.
+
+Before Paula, Rufinus declared that Orion was fully justified and he
+loudly praised the young man's liberality in providing the Nile-boat
+and the vessel for the sea-voyage, and such admirable substitutes for
+himself. Pulcheria was delighted with her father's undertaking; she
+only longed to go with him and help him to save her dear nuns. The
+ship-builder had brought with him, besides his sons, three other Greeks
+of the orthodox confession, shipwrights like himself, who were out
+of work in consequence of the low ebb of the Nile, which had greatly
+restricted the navigation. Hence they were glad to put a hand to such
+a good work, especially as it would be profitable, too, for Orion had
+provided the old man with ample funds.
+
+As the evening grew cooler after sundown Paula had got better. She did
+not, indeed, know what to think of Orion's refusal to start. First she
+was grieved, then she rejoiced; for it certainly preserved him from
+great perils. In the early days after his return from Constantinople she
+had heard his praise of the senator's kindness and hospitality, in which
+the Mukaukas, who had pleasant memories of the capital, heartily joined.
+He must, of course, be glad to be able to assist those friends, of all
+others; and Nilus, who was respectfully devoted to her, had greeted her
+from Orion with peculiar warmth. He would come to-morrow, no doubt;
+and the oftener she repeated to herself his assertion that he had never
+betrayed affectionate trust, the more earnestly she felt prompted, in
+spite of the abbess' counsel, to abandon all hesitancy, to follow
+the impulse of her heart, and to be his at once in full and happy
+confidence.
+
+The waning moon had not yet risen, and the night was very dark when the
+nuns set forth. The boat was too large to come close to the shore in
+the present low state of the river, and the sisters, disguised as
+peasant-women, had to be carried on board one by one from the convent
+garden. Last of all the abbess was to be lifted over the shallow water,
+and the old ship-builder held himself in readiness to perform this
+service. Joanna, Pulcheria, Perpetua, and Eudoxia, who was also
+zealously orthodox, were standing round as she gave Paula a parting kiss
+and whispered: "God bless thee, child!--All now depends on you, and you
+must be doubly careful to abide by your promise."
+
+"I owe him, in the first place, friendly trust," was Paula's whispered
+reply, and the abbess answered: "But you owe yourself firmness and
+caution." Rufinus was the last; his wife and daughter clung around him
+still.
+
+"Take example from that poor girl," cried the old man, clasping his wife
+in his arms. "As sure as man is the standard of all things, all must go
+well with me this time if everlasting Love is not napping. Till we meet
+again, best of good women!--And, if ill befalls your stupid old husband,
+always remember that he brought it upon himself in trying to save a
+quarter of a hundred innocent women from the worst misfortunes. At
+any rate I shall fall on the road I myself have chosen.--But why has
+Philippus not come to take leave of me?"
+
+Dame Joanna burst into tears: "That-that is so hard too! What has
+come over him that he has deserted us, and just now of all times? Ah,
+husband! If you love me, take Gibbus with you on the voyage."
+
+"Yes, master, take me," the hunchbacked gardener interposed. "The Nile
+will be rising again by the time we come back, and till then the flowers
+can die without my help. I dreamt last night that you picked a rose from
+the middle of my Bump. It stuck up there like the knob on the lid of a
+pot. There is some meaning in it and, if you leave me at home, what is
+the good of the rose--that is to say what good will you get out of me?"
+
+"Well then, carry your strange flower-bed on board," said the old man
+laughing. "Now, are you satisfied Joanna?"
+
+Once more he embraced her and Pulcheria and, as a tear from his wife's
+eyes dropped on his hand, he whispered in her ear: "You have been the
+rose of my life; and without you Eden--Paradise itself can have no
+joys."
+
+The boat pushed out into the middle of the stream and was soon hidden by
+the darkness from the eyes of the women on the bank.
+
+The convent bells were soon heard tolling after the fugitives: Paula and
+Pulcheria were pulling them. There was not a breath of air; not enough
+even to fill the small sail of the seaward-bound boat; but the rowers
+pulled with all their might and the vessel glided northward. The captain
+stood at the prow with his pole; sounding the current: his brother,
+no less skilled, took the helm.--The shallowness of the water made
+navigation very difficult, and those who knew the river best might
+easily run aground on unexpected shoals or newly-formed mud-drifts. The
+moon had scarcely risen when the boat was stranded at a short distance
+below Fostat, and the men had to go overboard to push it off to an
+accompaniment of loud singing which, as it were, welded their individual
+wills and efforts into one. Thus it was floated off again; but such
+delays were not unfrequent till they reached Letopolis, where the Nile
+forks, and where they hoped to steal past the toll-takers unobserved.
+Almost against their expectation, the large boat slipped through under
+the heavy mist which rises from the waters before sunrise, and the
+captain and crew, steering down the Phatmetic branch of the river with
+renewed spirit, ascribed their success to the intercession of the pious
+sisters.
+
+By daylight it was easier to avoid the sand-banks; but how narrow was
+the water-way-at this season usually overflowing! The beds of papyrus on
+the banks now grew partly on dry land, and their rank green had faded to
+straw-color. The shifting ooze of the shore had hardened to stone, and
+the light west wind, which now rose and allowed of their hoisting the
+sail, swept clouds of white dust before it. In many cases the soil was
+deeply fissured and wide cracks ran across the black surface, yawning to
+heaven for water like thirsty throats. The water-wheels stood idle, far
+away from the stream, and the fields they were wont to irrigate looked
+like the threshing floors on which the crops they bore should be
+threshed out. The villages and palm-groves were shrouded in shimmering
+mist, quivering heat, and dazzling yellow light; and the passer-by on
+the raised dykes of the shore bent his head as he dragged his weary feet
+through the deep dust.
+
+The sun blazed pitilessly in the cloudless sky, down on land and river,
+and on the fugitive nuns who had spread their white head-cloths above
+them for an awning and sat in dull lethargy, awaiting what might he
+before them.
+
+The water-jar passed from hand to band; but the more they drank the
+more acute was their discomfort, and their longing for some other
+refreshment. At meal time the dishes were returned to the tiny cabin
+almost untouched. The abbess and Rufinus tried to speak comfort to them;
+but in the afternoon the superior herself was overpowered by the heat,
+and the air in the little cabin, to which she retired, was even less
+tolerable stuffy than on deck.
+
+Thus passed a long day of torment, the hottest that even the men could
+remember; and they on the whole suffered least from it, though they
+toiled at the oar without ceasing and with wonderful endurance.
+
+At length evening fell after those fearful midday hours; and as a cool
+breeze rose shortly before sunset to fan their moist brows, the hapless
+victims awoke to new energies. Their immediate torment had so crushed
+them that, incapable of anticipating the future, they had ceased either
+to fear or to hope; but now they could rejoice in thinking of the start
+they had gained over their pursuers. They were hungry and enjoyed their
+evening meal; the abbess made friends with the worthy ship-wright, and
+began an eager conversation with Rufinus as to Paula and Orion: Her
+wish that the young man should spend a time of probation did not at all
+please Rufinus; with such a wife as Paula, he could not fail to be at
+all times the noble fellow which his old friend held him to be in spite
+of his having remained at home.
+
+The hump-backed gardener made the younger nuns merry with his jests, and
+after supper they all united in prayer.
+
+Even the oarsmen had found new vigor and new life; and it was well that
+few of the Greek sisters understood Egyptian, for the more jovial of
+them started a song in praise of the charms of the maids they loved,
+which was not composed for women's ears.
+
+The nuns chatted of those they had left behind, and many a one spoke
+of a happy meeting at home once more; but an elderly nun put a stop to
+this, saying that it was a sin to anticipate the ways of God's mercy,
+or, when His help was still so sorely needed, to speak as though He had
+already bestowed it. They could only tremble and pray, for they knew
+from experience that a threatening disaster never turned to a good end
+unless it had been expected with real dread.
+
+Another one then began to speculate as to whether their pursuers
+could overtake them on foot or on horseback, and as it seemed only too
+probable that they could, their hearts sank again with anxiety. Ere
+long, however, the moon rose; the objects that loomed on the banks and
+were mirrored in the stream, were again clearly visible and lost their
+terrors.
+
+The lower down they sailed, the denser were the thickets of papyrus on
+the shore. Thousands of birds were roosting there, but they were all
+asleep; a "dark ness that might be felt" brooded over the silent land
+scape. The image of the moon floated on the dark water, like a gigantic
+lotos-flower below the smaller, fragrant lotos-blossoms that it out-did
+in sheeny whiteness; the boat left a bright wake in its track, and every
+stroke of the oar broke the blackness of the water, which reflected the
+light in every drop. The moonlight played on the delicate tufts that
+crowned the slender papyrus-stems, filmy mist, like diaphanous brocade
+of violet and silver, veiled the trees; and owls that shun the day, flew
+from one branch to another on noiseless, rhythmic wings.
+
+The magic of the night fell on the souls of the nuns; they ceased
+prattling; but when Sister Martha, the nightingale of the sisterhood,
+began to sing a hymn the others followed her example. The sailors'
+songs were hushed, and the psalms of the virgin sisters, imploring the
+protection of the Almighty, seemed to float round the gliding boat as
+softly as the light of the circling moon. For hours--and with increased
+zeal as the comet rose in the sky--they gave themselves up to the
+soothing and encouraging pleasure of singing; but one by one the voices
+died away and their peaceful hymn was borne down the river to the sea,
+by degrees more low, more weary, more dreamlike.
+
+They sat looking in their laps, gazing in rapture up to heaven, or
+at the dazzling ripples and the lotos flowers on the surface. No one
+thought of the shore, not even the men, who had been lulled to sleep
+or daydreams by the nuns' singing. The pilot's eyes were riveted on the
+channel--and yet, as morning drew near, from time to time there was a
+twinkle, a flash behind the reed-beds on the eastern bank, and now and
+then there was a rustling and clatter there. Was it a jackal that had
+plunged into the dense growth to surprise a brood of water-fowl; was it
+a hyena trampling through the thicket?
+
+The flashing, the rustling, the dull footfall on parched earth followed
+the barge all through the night like a sinister, lurid, and muttering
+shadow.
+
+Suddenly the captain started and gazed eastwards.--What was that?
+
+There was a herd of cattle feeding in a field beyond the reeds-two bulls
+perhaps were sharpening their horns. The river was so low, and the
+banks rose so high, that it was impossible to see over them. But at this
+moment a shrill voice spoke his name, and then the hunchback whispered
+in his ear:
+
+"There--over there--it is glittering again.--I will bite off my own
+nose if that is not--there, again. Merciful God! I am not mistaken.
+Harness--and there, that is the neighing of a horse; I know the sound.
+The east is growing grey. By all the saints, we are pursued!"
+
+The captain looked eastwards with every sense alert, and after a few
+minutes silence he said decidedly "Yes."
+
+"Like a flight of quail for whom the fowler spreads his net," sighed
+the gardener; but the boatman impatiently signed to him to be quiet, and
+gazed cautiously on every side. Then he desired Gibbus to wake Rufinus
+and the shipwrights, and to hide all the nuns in the cabin.
+
+"They will be packed as close as the dates sent to Rome in boxes,"
+muttered the gardener, as he went to call Rufinus. "Poor souls, their
+saints may save them from suffocation; and as for me, on my faith, if it
+were not that Dame Joanna was the very best creature on two legs, and
+if I had not promised her to stick to the master, I would jump into the
+water and try the hospitality of the flamingoes and storks in the reeds!
+We must learn to condescend!"
+
+While he was fulfilling his errand, the captain was exchanging a few
+words with his brother at the helm. There was no bridge near, and that
+was well. If the horsemen were indeed in pursuit of them, they must ride
+through the water to reach them; and scarcely three stadia lower down,
+the river grew wider and ran through a marshy tract of country; the only
+channel was near the western bank, and horsemen attempting to get to it
+ran the risk of foundering in the mud. If the boat could but get as far
+as that reach, much would be gained.
+
+The captain urged the men to put forth all their strength, and very soon
+the boat was flying along under the western shore, and divided by an
+oozy flat from the eastern bank. Day was breaking, and the sky was
+tinged red as with blood--a sinister omen that this morning was destined
+to witness bitter strife and gaping wounds.
+
+The seed sown by Katharina was beginning to grow. At the bishop's
+request the Vekeel had despatched a troop of horse in pursuit of the
+nuns, with orders to bring the fugitives back to Memphis and take their
+escort prisoners. As the boat had slipped by the toll watch unperceived,
+the Arabs had been obliged to divide, so as to follow down each arm
+of the Nile. Twelve horsemen had been told off to pursue the Phasmetic
+branch; for by every calculation these must suffice for the capture of
+a score or so of nuns, and a handful of sailors would scarcely dare
+to attempt to defend themselves. The Vekeel had heard nothing of the
+addition to the party of the ship-master and his sons.
+
+The pursuers had set out at noon of the previous day, and had overtaken
+the vessel about two hours before daylight. But their leader thought
+it well to postpone the attack till after sunrise, lest any of the
+fugitives should escape. He and his men were all Arabs, and though well
+acquainted with the course of that branch of the river which they were
+to follow, they were not familiar with its peculiarities.
+
+As soon as the morning star was invisible, the Moslems performed their
+devotions, and then rushed out of the papyrus-beds. Their leader, making
+a speaking trumpet of his hand, shouted to the boat his orders to stop.
+He was commissioned by the governor to bring it back to Fostat. And the
+fugitives seemed disposed to obey, for the boat lay to. The captain
+had recognized the speaker as the captain of the watch from Fostat, an
+inexorable man; and now, for the first time, he clearly understood the
+deadly peril of the enterprise. He was accustomed, no doubt, to evade
+the commands of his superiors, but would no more have defied them
+than have confronted Fate; and he at once declared that resistance
+was madness, and that there was no alternative but to yield. Rufinus,
+however, vehemently denied this; he pointed out to him that the same
+punishment awaited him, whether he laid down his arms or defended
+himself, and the old ship-wright eagerly exclaimed:
+
+"We built this boat, and I know you of old, Setnau; You will not turn
+Judas--and, if you do, you know that Christian blood will be shed on
+this deck before we can show our teeth to those Infidels."
+
+The captain, with all the extravagant excitability of his southern
+blood, beat his forehead and his breast, bemoaned himself as a betrayed
+and ruined man, and bewailed his wife and children. Rufinus, however,
+put an end to his ravings. He had consulted with the abbess, and he put
+it strongly to the unhappy man that he could, in any case, hope for no
+mercy from the unbelievers; while, on Christian ground, he would easily
+find a safe and comfortable refuge for himself and his family. The
+abbess would undertake to give them all a passage on board the ship that
+was awaiting her, and to set them on shore wherever he might choose.
+
+Setnau thought of a brother living in Cyprus; still, for him it meant
+sacrificing his house and garden at Doomiat, where, at this very hour,
+fifty date-palms were ripening their fruit; it meant leaving the fine
+new Nile-boat by which he and his family got their living; and as he
+represented this to the old man, bitter tears rolled down his brown
+cheeks. Rufinus explained to him that, if he should succeed in saving
+the sisters, he might certainly claim some indemnification. He might
+even calculate the value of his property, and not only would he have
+the equivalent paid to him out of the convent treasure, now on board in
+heavy coffers, but a handsome gift into the bargain.
+
+Setnau exchanged a meaning glance with his brother, who was a single
+man, and when it was also agreed that he, too, might embark on the
+sea-voyage he shook hands with Rufinus on the bargain. Then, giving
+himself a shake, as if he had thrown off something that cramped him, and
+sticking his leather cap knowingly on one side of his shaven head, he
+drew himself up to his full height and scornfully shouted back to the
+Arab--who had before now treated him and other Egyptian natives with
+insolent haughtiness--that if he wanted anything of him he might come
+and fetch it.
+
+The Moslem's patience was long since exhausted, and at this challenge
+he signed to his followers and sprang first into the river; but the
+foremost horses soon sank so deep in the ooze that further advance was
+evidently impossible, and the signal to return was perforce given. In
+this manoeuvre a refractory horse lost his footing, and his rider was
+choked in the mud.
+
+On this, the men in the boat could see the foe holding council with
+lively gesticulations, and the captain expressed his fears lest they
+should give up all hope of capturing the boat, and ride forward to
+Doomiat to combine with the Arab garrison to cut off their further
+flight. But he had not reckoned on the warlike spirit of these men, who
+had overcome far greater difficulties in twenty fights ere this. They
+were determined to seize the boat, to take its freight prisoners, and
+have them duly punished.
+
+Six horsemen, among them the leader of the party, were now seen to
+dismount; they tied their horses up, and then proceeded to fell three
+tall palms with their battle-axes; the other five went off southwards.
+These, no doubt, were to ride round the morass, and ford the river at
+a favorable spot so as to attack the vessel from the west, while the
+others tried to reach it from the east with the aid of the palm-trunks.
+
+On the right, or eastern shore, where the Arabs were constructing the
+raft, spread solid ground-fields through which lay the road to Doomiat;
+on the other shore, near which the boat was lying, the bog extended for
+a long way. An interminable jungle of papyrus, sedge, and reeds, burnt
+yellow by the heat of the sun and the extraordinary drought, covered
+almost the whole of this parched and baked wilderness; and, when a stiff
+morning breeze rose from the northeast, the captain was inspired with a
+happy thought. The five men who had ridden forward would have to force
+their way through the mass of scorched and dried up vegetation. If the
+Christians could but set fire to it, on the further side of a canal
+which must hinder their making a wide sweep to the north, the wind would
+carry it towards the enemy; and, they would be fortunate if it did
+not stifle them or compel them to jump into the river, where, when the
+flames reached the morass, they must inevitably perish.
+
+As soon as the helmsman's keen eyes had made sure, from the mast-head,
+that the Arabs had forded the river at a point to the south, they set
+fire to several places and it roared and flared up immediately. The wind
+swept it southwards, and with it clouds of pale grey smoke through which
+the rising sun shot shafts of light. The flames writhed and darted over
+the baked earth like gigantic yellow and orange lizards, here shooting
+upwards, there creeping low. Almost colorless in the ardent daylight,
+they greedily consumed everything they approached, and white ashes
+marked their track. Their breath added to the heat of the advancing day;
+and though the smoke was borne southwards by the wind, a few cloudlets
+came over to the boat, choking the sisters and their deliverers.
+
+A large vessel now came towards them from Doomiat and found the narrow
+channel barred by the other one. The captain was related to Setnau, and
+when Setnau shouted to him that they were engaged in a struggle with
+Arab robbers, his friend followed his advice, turned the boat's head
+with considerable difficulty, and cast anchor at the nearest village to
+warn other vessels southward bound not to get themselves involved in so
+perilous an adventure. Any that were coming north would be checked by
+the fire and smoke.
+
+The six horsemen left on the eastern shore beheld the spreading
+blaze with rage and dismay; however, they had by this time bound the
+palm-trunks together, and were preparing by their aid to inflict condign
+punishment on the refractory Christians. These, meanwhile, had not been
+idle. Every man on board was armed, and one of the ship-wrights was sent
+on shore with a sailor, to steal through the reeds, ford the river at
+a point lower down and, as soon as the Arabs put out to the attack, to
+slaughter their horses, or--if one of them should be left to go forward
+on the road to Doomiat--to drag him from his steed.
+
+The six men now laid hold of the slightly-constructed float, on which
+they placed their bows and quivers; they pushed it before them, and
+it supported them above the shallow water, while their feet only just
+touched the oozy bottom. They were all thorough soldiers, true sons of
+the desert and of their race--men whom nature seemed to have conceived
+as a counterpart to the eagle, the master-piece of the winged creation.
+Keen-eyed, strongly-knit though small-boned, bereft of every fibre
+of superfluous flesh on their sinewy limbs, with bold brown faces and
+sharply-cut features, suggesting the king of birds not merely by the
+aquiline nose, they had also the eagle's courage, thirst for blood, and
+greed of victory.
+
+Each held on to the raft by one lean, wiry arm, carrying on the other
+the round bucklers on which the arrows that came whistling from the
+boat, fell and stuck as soon as they were within shot. They ground their
+white teeth with fury and nothing within ken escaped their bright hawk's
+eyes. They had come to fight, even if the boat had been defended by
+fifty Egyptian soldiers instead of carrying a score or so of sailors and
+artisans. Their brave hearts felt safe under their shirts of mail, and
+their ready, fertile brains under their brazen helmets; and they marked
+the dull rattle of the arrows against their metal shields with elation
+and contempt. To deal death was the wish of their souls; to meet it
+caused them no dread; for their glowing fancy painted an open Paradise
+where beautiful women awaited them open-armed, and brimming goblets
+promised to satisfy every desire.
+
+Their keen ears heard their captain's whispered commands; when they
+reached the ship's side, one caught hold of the sill of the cabin
+window, their leader, as quick as thought, sprang on to his shoulders,
+and from thence on to the deck, thrusting his lance through the body of
+a sailor who tried to stop him with his axe. A second Arab was close
+at his heels; two gleaming scimitars flashed in the sun, the shrill,
+guttural, savage war-cry of the Moslems rent the air, and the captain
+fell, the first victim to their blood-thirsty fury, with a deep cut
+across the face and forehead; in a moment, however, a heavy spar sang
+through the air down on the head of the Moslem leader and laid him low.
+The helmsman, the brother of the fallen pilot, had wielded it with the
+might of the avenger.
+
+A fearful din, increased by the shrieks and wailing of the nuns, now
+filled the vessel. The second Arab dealt death on all sides with the
+courage and strength of desperation, and three of his fellows managed
+to climb up the boat's side; but the last man was pushed back into the
+water. By this time two of the shipwrights and five sailors had fallen.
+Rufinus was kneeling by the captain, who was crying feebly for help,
+bleeding profusely, though not mortally wounded. Setnau had spoken with
+much anxiety of his wife and children, and Rufinus, hoping to save his
+life for their sakes, was binding up the wounds, which were wide and
+deep, when suddenly a sabre stroke came down on the back of his head
+and neck, and a dark stream of blood rushed forth. But he, too, was soon
+avenged: the old shipwright hewed down his foe with his heavy axe. On
+the eastern shore, meanwhile, the men charged to kill the Arabs' horses
+were doing their work, so as to prevent any who might escape from
+returning to Fostat, or riding forward to Doormat and reporting what had
+occurred.
+
+On board silence now prevailed. All five Arabs were stretched on the
+deck, and the insatiate boatmen were dealing a finishing stroke to those
+who were only wounded. A sailor, who had taken refuge up a mast, could
+see how the other five horsemen had plunged into the bog to avoid the
+fire and had disappeared beneath the waters; so that none of the Moslems
+had escaped alive--not even that one which Fate and romance love to save
+as a bearer of the disastrous tidings.
+
+By degrees the nuns ventured out on deck again.
+
+Those who were skilled in tending the wounded gathered round them, and
+opened their medicine cases; as they proceeded on their voyage, under
+the guidance of the steersman, they had their hands full of work and the
+zeal they gave to it mitigated the torment of the heat.
+
+The bodies of the five Moslems and eight Christians--among these, two of
+the Greek ship-wrights--were laid on the shore in groups apart, in the
+neighborhood of a village; in the hand of one of them the abbess placed
+a tablet with this inscription:
+
+"These eight Christians met their death bravely fighting to defend a
+party of pious and persecuted believers. Pray for them and bury them as
+well as those who, in obedience to their duty and their commander, took
+their lives."
+
+Rufinus, lying with his head on the gardener's knee, and sheltered from
+the sun under the abbess' umbrella, presently recovered his senses;
+looking about him he said to himself in a low voice, as he saw the
+captain lying by his side:
+
+"I, too, had a wife and a dear child at home, and yet--Ah! how this
+aches! We may well do all we can to soothe such pain. The only reality
+here below is not pleasure, it is pain, vulgar, physical pain; and
+though my head burns and aches more than enough.--Water, a drink of
+water.--How comfortable I could be at this moment with my Joanna, in
+our shady house.--But yet, but yet--we must heal or save, it is all the
+same, any who need it.--A drink--wine and water, if it is to be had,
+worthy Mother!"
+
+The abbess had it at hand; as she put the cup to his lips she spoke her
+warm and effusive thanks, and many words of comfort; then she asked him
+what she could do for him and his, when they should be in safety.
+
+"Love them truly," he said gently. "Pul will certainly never be quite
+happy till she is in a convent. But she must not leave her mother--she
+must stay with her; Joanna-Joanna...."
+
+He repeated the name several times as if the sound pleased his ear
+and heart. Then he shuddered again and again, and muttered to himself:
+"Brrr!--a cold shiver runs all over me--it is of no use!--The cut in my
+shoulder.--It is my head that hurts worst, but the other--it is bad luck
+that it should have fallen on the left side. And yet, no; it is best so;
+for if he--if it had damaged my right shoulder I could not write, and I
+must--I must-before it is too late. A tablet and stylus; quick,
+quick! And when I have written, good mother, close the tablet and seal
+it--close and tight. Promise! Only one person may read it, he to whom it
+must go.--Gibbus, do you hear, Gibbus?--It is for Philippus the leech.
+Take it to him.--Your dream about a rose on your hump, if I read
+rightly, means that peace and joy in Heaven blossom from our misery on
+earth.--Yes, to Philippus. And listen my old school friend Christodorus,
+a leech too, lives at Doomiat. Take my body to him--mind me now? He is
+to pack it with sand which will preserve it, and have it buried by the
+side of my mother at Alexandria. Joanna and the child--they can come and
+visit me there. I have not much to leave; whatever that may cost...."
+
+"That is my affair, or the convent's," cried the abbess.
+
+"Matters are not so bad as that," said the old man smiling. "I can pay
+for my own share of the business; your revenue belongs to the poor,
+noble Mother.--You will find more than enough in this wallet, good
+Gibbus. But now, quick, make haste--the tablets."
+
+When he had one in his hand, and a stylus for writing with, he thought
+for some time, and then wrote with trembling fingers, though exerting
+all his strength. How acutely he was suffering could be seen in
+his drawn mouth and sad eyes, but he would not allow himself to be
+interrupted, often as the abbess and the gardener entreated him to lay
+aside the stylus. At last, with a deep sigh of relief, he closed the
+tablets, handed them to the abbess, and said:
+
+"There! Close it fast.--To Philippus the physician; into his own hand:
+You hear, Gibbus?"
+
+Here he fainted; but after they had bathed his forehead and wounds he
+came to himself, and softly murmured: "I was dreaming of Joanna and the
+poor child. They brought me a comic mask. What can that mean? That I
+have been a fool all my life for thinking of other folks' troubles and
+forgetting myself and my own family? No, no, no! As surely as man is the
+standard of all things--if it were so, then, then folly would be truth
+and right.--I, I--my desire--the aim to which my life was devoted...."
+
+He paused; then he suddenly raised himself, looked up with a bright
+light in his eyes, and cried aloud with joy: "O Thou, most merciful
+Saviour! Yes, yes--I see it all now. I thank thee--All that I strove for
+and lived for, Thou, my Redeemer who art Love itself--Ah how good, how
+comforting to think of that!--It is for this that Thou grantest me to
+die!"
+
+Again he lost consciousness; his head grew very hot, his breath came
+hoarsely and his parched lips, though frequently moistened by careful
+hands, could only murmur the names of those he loved best, and among
+them that of Paula.
+
+At about five hours after noon he fell back on the hunchback's knees;
+he had ceased to suffer. A happy smile lighted up his features, and in
+death the old man's calm face looked like that of a child.
+
+The gardener felt as though he had lost his own father, and his lively
+tongue remained speechless till he entered Doormat with the rescued
+sisters, and proceeded to carry out his master's last orders. The
+abbess' ship took the wounded captain Setnau on board, with his wife,
+his children, his brother the steersman, and the surviving ship-wrights.
+
+At the very hour when Rufinus closed his eyes, the town-watch of
+Memphis, led by Bishop Plotinus, appeared to claim the Melchite convent
+of St. Cecilia, and all the possessions of the sisterhood, in the name
+of the patriarch and the Jacobite church. Next morning the bishop set
+out for Upper Egypt to make his report to the prelate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Philippus started up from the divan on which he had been reclining at
+breakfast with his old friend. Before Horapollo was a half-empty plate;
+he had swallowed his meal less rapidly than his companion, and looked
+disapprovingly at the leech, who drank off his wine and water as he
+stood, whereas he generally would sit and enjoy it as he talked to the
+old man of matters light or grave. To the elder this was always the
+pleasantest hour of the day; but now Philippus would hardly allow
+himself more than just time enough to eat, even at their principal
+evening meal.
+
+Indeed, not he alone, but every physician in the city, had as much as he
+could do with the utmost exertion. Nearly three weeks had elapsed
+since the attack on the nuns, and the fearful heat had still gone on
+in creasing. The river, instead of rising had sunk lower and lower;
+the carrier-pigeons from Ethiopia, looked for day by day with growing
+anxiety and excitement, brought no news of a rising stream even in the
+upper Nile, and the shallow, stagnant and evil-smelling waters by the
+banks began to be injurious, nay, fatal, to the health of the whole
+population.
+
+Close to the shore, especially, the water had a reddish tinge, and the
+usually sweet, pure fluid in the canals was full of strange vegetable
+growths and other foreign bodies putrid and undrinkable. The common
+people usually shirked the trouble of filtering it, and it was among
+them that the greater number died of a mortal and infectious pestilence,
+till then unknown. The number of victims swelled daily, and the approach
+of the comet kept pace with the growing misery of the town. Every one
+connected it with the intense heat of the season, with the delay in the
+inundation, and the appearance of the sickness; and the leech and his
+friend often argued about these matters, for Philippus would not admit
+that the meteor had any influence on human affairs, while Horapollo
+believed that it had, and supported his view by a long series of
+examples.
+
+His antagonist would not accept them and asked for arguments; at the
+same time he, like every one else, felt the influence of a vague dread
+of some imminent and terrible disaster hanging over the earth and
+humanity at large.
+
+And, just as every heart in Memphis felt oppressed by such forebodings,
+and by the weight of a calamity, which indeed no longer threatened them
+but had actually come upon them, so the roads, the gardens, the palms
+and sycamores by the way-side were covered by thick layers of dingy,
+choking dust. The hedges of tamarisk and shrubs looked like decaying
+walls of colorless, unburnt mud-bricks; even in the high-roads the
+wayfarer walked in the midst of dense white clouds raised by his feet,
+and if a chariot, or a horseman galloped down the scorching street,
+fine, grey sand at once filled the air, compelling the foot-passengers
+to shut their eyes and lips.
+
+The town was so silent, so empty, so deserted! No one came out of doors
+unless under pressure of business or piety. Every house was a furnace,
+and even a bath brought no refreshment, for the water had long since
+ceased to be cold. A disease had also attacked the ripening dates as
+they hung; they dropped off in thousands from the heavy clusters under
+the beautiful bending crown of leaves; and now for two days hundreds
+of dead fish had been left on the banks. Even the scaly natives of the
+river were plague-stricken; and the physician explained to his friend
+that this brought the inhabitants a fresh danger; for who could clear
+the shores of the dead fish?--And, in such heat, how soon they would
+become putrid!
+
+The old man did not conceal from himself that it was hard, cruelly hard,
+for the physician to follow his calling conscientiously at such a time;
+but he knew his friend; he had seen him during months of pestilence two
+years since--always brisk, decisive and gay, indeed inspired to greater
+effort by the greater demands on him. What had so completely altered
+him, had poisoned and vexed his soul as with a malignant spell? It was
+not the almost superhuman sacrifices required by his duties;--it came
+of the unfortunate infatuation of his heart, of which he could not rid
+himself.
+
+Philippus had kept his promise. He went every day to the house of
+Rufinus, and every day he saw Paula; but, as a murdered body bleeds
+afresh in the presence of the assassin, so every day the old pain
+revived when he was forced to meet her and speak with her. The only cure
+for this particular sufferer was to remove the cause of his pain: that
+is to say, to take Paula away out of his path; and this the old man made
+his care and duty.
+
+Little Mary and the other patients under Rufinus' roof were on the way
+to recovery; still there was much to cast gloomy shadows over this happy
+termination. Joanna and Pulcheria were very anxious as to the fate
+of Rufinus. No news had been received of him or of the sisters, and
+Philippus was the vessel into which the forsaken wife and Pulcheria--who
+looked up to him as to a kind, faithful, and all-powerful protecting
+spirit-poured all their sorrows, cares, and fears. Their forebodings
+were aggravated by the fact that three times Arab officials had come
+to the house to enquire about the master and his continued absence. All
+that the women told them was written down, and Dame Joanna, whose lips
+had never yet uttered a lie, had found herself forced to give a false
+clue by saying that her husband had gone to Alexandria on business,
+and might perhaps have to proceed to Syria.--What could these enquiries
+forebode? Did they not indicate that Rufinus' complicity in the rescue
+of the nuns was known at Fostat?
+
+The authorities there were, in fact, better informed than the women
+could suspect. But they kept their knowledge a secret, for it would
+never do to let the oppressed people know that a handful of Egyptians
+had succeeded in defeating a party of Arab soldiers; so the Memphites
+heard no more than a dark rumor of what had occurred.
+
+Philippus had known nothing of the old man's purpose till he had gone
+too far to be dissuaded; and it was misery to him now to reflect that
+his dear old friend, and his whole household, might come to ruin for
+the sake of the sisterhood who were nothing to them; for he had received
+private information that there had been a skirmish between the Moslems
+and the deliverers of the nuns, which had cost the lives of several
+combatants on both sides.
+
+And Paula! If only he could have seen her happy--But she was pale;
+and that which robbed the young girl--healthy as she was in mind and
+body--of her proud, frank, independent bearing was not the heat, which
+tormented all creation, but a secret, devouring sorrow; and this sorrow
+was the work of one alone--of him on whom she had set her heart, and who
+made, ah! what a return, for the royal gift of her love.
+
+Philippus had frequent business at the governor's residence, and a
+fortnight since he had plainly perceived what it was that had brought
+Neforis into this strange state. She was taking the opium that her
+husband had had, taking it in excessive quantities; and she could easily
+procure more through some other physician. However, her piteous prayer
+that Philippus would not abandon her to her fate had prevailed to induce
+him to continue to see her, in the hope of possibly restricting her use
+of the drug.
+
+The senator's wife, Martina, also required his visits to the palace. She
+was not actually ill, but she suffered cruelly from the heat, and she
+had always been wont to see her worthy old house-physician every day,
+to hear all the latest gossip, and complain of her little ailments when
+anything went wrong with her usually sound health. Philippus was indeed
+too much overburdened to chatter, but his professional advice was good
+and helped her to endure the fires of this pitiless sky. She liked this
+incisive, shrewd, plain-spoken man--often indeed sharp and abrupt in
+his freedom--and he appreciated her bright, natural ways. Now and then
+Martina even succeeded in winning a smile from "Hermes Trismegistus,"
+who was "generally as solemn as though there was no such thing on earth
+as a jest," and in spurring him to a rejoinder which showed that this
+dolorous being had a particularly keen and ready wit.
+
+Heliodora attracted him but little. There was, to be sure, an
+unmistakable likeness in her "imploring eyes" to those of Pulcheria; but
+the girl's spoke fervent yearning for the grace and love of God, while
+the widow's expressed an eager desire for the admiration of the men she
+preferred. She was a graceful creature beyond all question, but such
+softness, which never even attempted to assert a purpose or an opinion,
+did not commend itself to his determined nature; it annoyed him, when he
+had contradicted her, to hear her repeat his last statement and take his
+side, as if she were ashamed of her own silliness. Her society, indeed,
+did not seem to satisfy the clever older woman, who at home, was
+accustomed to a succession of visitors, and to whom the word "evening"
+was synonymous with lively conversation and a large gathering. She spoke
+of the leech's visits as the oasis in the Egyptian desert, and little
+Katharina even she regarded as a Godsend.
+
+The water-wagtail was her daily visitant, and the girl's gay and
+often spiteful gossip helped to beguile her during this terrific heat.
+Katharina's mother made no difficulties; for Heliodora had gone to
+see her in all her magnificence, and had offered her and her daughter
+hospitality, some day, at Constantinople. They were very likely going
+thither; at any rate they would not remain in Memphis, and then it
+would be a piece of good fortune to be introduced to the society of the
+capital by such people as their new acquaintances.
+
+Martina thus heard a great deal about Paula; and though it was all
+adverse and colored to her prejudice she would have liked to see the
+daughter of the great and famous Thomas whom she had known; besides,
+after all she had heard, she could fear nothing from Paula for her
+niece: uncommonly handsome, but haughty, repellent, unamiable, and--like
+Heliodora herself--of the orthodox sect.--What could tempt "great
+Sesostris" to give her the preference?
+
+Katharina herself proposed to Martina to make them acquainted; but
+nothing would have induced Dame Martina to go out of her rooms,
+protected to the utmost from the torrid sunshine, so she left it to
+Heliodora to pay the visit and give her a report of the hero's daughter.
+Heliodora had devoted herself heart and soul to the little heiress, and
+humored her on many points.
+
+This was carried out. Katharina actually had the audacity to bring the
+rivals together, even after she had reported to each all she knew of
+Orion's position with regard to the other. It was exquisite sport;
+still, in one respect it did not fulfil her intentions, for Paula gave
+no sign of suffering the agonies of jealousy which Katharina had hoped
+to excite in her. Heliodora, on the other hand, came home depressed and
+uneasy; Paula had received her coldly and with polite formality, and the
+young widow had remained fully aware that so remarkable a woman might
+well cast her own image in Orion's heart into the shade, or supplant it
+altogether.
+
+Like a wounded man who, in spite of the anguish, cannot resist touching
+the wound to assure himself of its state, Heliodora went constantly to
+see Katharina in order to watch her rival from the garden or to be taken
+to call on her, though she was always very coldly received.
+
+At first Katharina had pitied the young woman whose superior in
+intelligence she knew herself to be; but a certain incident had
+extinguished this feeling; she now simply hated her, and pricked
+her with needle-thrusts whenever she had a chance. Paula seemed
+invulnerable; but there was not a pang which Katharina would not gladly
+have given her to whom she owed the deepest humiliation her young life
+had ever known. How was it that Paula failed to regard Heliodora as a
+rival? She had reflected that, if Orion had really returned the widow's
+passion, he could not have borne so long a separation. It was on purpose
+to avoid Heliodora, and to remain faithful to what he was and must
+always be to Paula, that he had gone with the senator, far from Memphis.
+Heliodora--her instinct assured her--was the poor, forsaken woman with
+whom he had trifled at Byzantium, and for whom he had committed that
+fatal theft of the emerald. If Fate would but bring him home to her, and
+if she then yielded all he asked--all her own soul urged her to grant,
+then she would be the sole mistress and queen of his heart--she must be,
+she was sure of it! And though, even as she thought of it, she bowed
+her head in care, it was not from fear of losing him; it was only her
+anxiety about her father, her good old friend, Rufinus, and his family,
+whom she had made so entirely her own.
+
+This was the state of affairs this morning, when to his old friend's
+vexation, Philippus had so hastily and silently drunk off his
+after-breakfast draught; just as he set down the cup, the black
+door-keeper announced that a hump-backed man wished to see his master at
+once on important business.
+
+"Important business!" repeated the leech. "Give me four more legs in
+addition to my own two, or a machine to make time longer than it is, and
+then I will take new patients-otherwise no! Tell the fellow...."
+
+"No, not sick...." interrupted the negro. "Come long way. Gardener to
+Greek man Rufinus."
+
+Philippus started: he could guess what this messenger had to say, and
+his heart sank with dread as he desired that he might be shown in.
+
+A glance at Gibbus told him what he had rightly feared. The poor fellow
+was hardly recognizable. He was coated with dust from head to foot, and
+this made him look like a grey-haired old man; his sandals hung to his
+feet in strips; the sweat, pouring down his cheeks, had made gutters as
+it were in the dust on his face, and his tears, as the physician held
+out his hand to him, washed out other channels.
+
+In reply to the leech's anxious, long drawn "Dead?" he nodded silently;
+and when Philippus, clasping his hands to his temples, cried out: "Dead!
+My poor old Rufinus dead! But how, in Heaven's name, did it happen?
+Speak, man, speak!"--Gibbus pointed to the old philosopher and said:
+"Come out then, with me, Master. No third person...."
+
+Philippus, however, gave him to understand that Horapollo was his second
+self; and the hunch-back went on to tell him what he had seen, and
+how his beloved master had met his end. Horapollo sat listening in
+astonishment, shaking his head disapprovingly, while the physician
+muttered curses. But the bearer of evil tidings was not interrupted, and
+it was not till he had ended that Philippus, with bowed head and tearful
+eyes, said:
+
+"Poor, faithful old man; to think that he should die thus--he who leaves
+behind him all that is best in life, while I--I...." And he groaned
+aloud. The old man glanced at him with reproachful displeasure.
+
+While the leech broke the seals of the tablets, which the abbess had
+carefully closed, and began to read the contents, Horapollo asked the
+gardener: "And the nuns? Did they all escape?"
+
+"Yes, Master! on the morning after we reached Doomiat, a trireme took
+them all out to sea."
+
+And the old man grumbled to himself: "The working bees killed and the
+Drones saved!"
+
+Gibbus, however, contradicted him, praising the laborious and useful
+life of the sisters, in whose care he himself had once been.
+
+Meanwhile Philippus had read his friend's last letter. Greatly disturbed
+by it he turned hither and thither, paced the room with long steps, and
+finally paused in front of the gardener, exclaiming: "And what next? Who
+is to tell them the news?"
+
+"You," replied Gibbus, raising his hands in entreaty.
+
+"I-oh, of course, I!" growled the physician. "Whatever is difficult,
+painful, intolerable, falls on my shoulders as a matter of course! But
+I cannot--ought not--I will not do it. Had I any part or lot in devising
+this mad expedition? You observe, Father?--What he, the simpleton,
+brewed, I--I again am to drink. Fate has settled that!"
+
+"It is hard, it is hard, child!" replied the old man. "Still, it is your
+duty. Only consider--if that man, as he stands before us now, were to
+appear before the women...."
+
+But Philippus broke in: "No, no, that would not do! And you,
+Gibbus--this very day there has been an Arab again to see Joanna; and
+if they were to suspect that you had been with your master--for you look
+strangely.--No, man; your devotion merits a better reward. They shall
+not catch you. I release you from your service to the widow, and
+we--what do you say, Father?--we will keep him here."
+
+"Right, very right," said Horapollo. "The Nile must some day rise
+again. Stay with us; I have long had a fancy to eat vegetables of my own
+growing."
+
+But Gibbus firmly declined the offer, saying he wished to return to his
+old mistress. When the physician again pointed out to him how great a
+danger he was running into, and the old man desired to know his reasons,
+the hunch-back exclaimed:
+
+"I promised my master to stay with the women; and now, while in all
+the household I am the only free man, shall I leave them unprotected
+to secure my own miserable life? Sooner would I see a scimitar at my
+throat. When my head is off the rascals are welcome to all that is
+left."
+
+The words came hollow and broken from his parched tongue, and as he
+spoke the faithful fellow's face changed. Even under the dust he turned
+pale, and Philippus had to support him, for his feet refused their
+office. His long tramp through the torrid heat had exhausted his
+strength; but a draught of wine soon brought him to himself again and
+Horapollo ordered the slave to lead him to the kitchen and desire the
+cook to take the best care of him.
+
+As soon as the friends were alone, the elder observed:
+
+"That worthy, foolhardy, old child who is now dead, seems to have left
+you some strange request. I could see that as you were reading."
+
+"There--take it!" replied Philippus; and again he walked up and down the
+room, while Horapollo took the letter. Both faces of the tablets were
+covered with irregular, up-and-down lines of writing to the following
+effect:
+
+   "Rufinus, in view of death, to his beloved Philippus:
+
+   "One shivering fit after another comes over me; I shall certainly
+   die to-day. I must make haste. Writing is difficult. If only I
+   can say what is most pressing.--First: Joanna and the poor child.
+   Be everything you can be to them. Protect them as their guardian,
+   Kyrios, and friend. They have enough to live on and something still
+   to spare for others. My brother Leonax manages the property, and he
+   is honest. Joanna knows all about it.--Tell her and the poor child
+   that I send them ten thousand blessings--and to Joanna endless
+   thanks for all her goodness.--And to you, my friend: heed the old
+   man's words. Rid your heart of Paula. She is not for you: you
+   know, young Orion. But as to yourself: Those who were born in high
+   places rarely suit us, who have dragged ourselves up from below to a
+   better position. Be her friend; that she deserves--but let that be
+   all. Do not live alone, a wife brings all that is best into a man's
+   life; it is she who weaves sweet dreams into his dull sleep. You
+   know nothing of all this as yet; and your worthy old friend--to whom
+   my greetings--has held aloof from it all his life....
+
+   "For your private eye: it is a dying man who speaks thus. You must
+   know that my poor child, our Pul, regards you as the most perfect of
+   men and esteems you above all others. You know her and Joanna.
+   Bear witness to your friend that no evil word ever passed the lips
+   of either of them. Far be it from me to advise you, who bear the
+   image of another woman in your heart,--to say: marry the child, she
+   is the wife for you. But this much to you both--Father and son--I
+   do advise you to live with the mother and daughter as true and
+   friendly house-mates. You will none of you repent doing so. This
+   is a dying man's word. I can write no more. You are the women's
+   guardian, Philip, a faithful one I know. A common aim makes men
+   grow alike. You and I, for many a year.--Take good care of them for
+   me; I entreat you--good care."
+
+The last words were separated and written all astray; the old man could
+hardly make them out. He now sat looking, as Phillipus had done before,
+sorely puzzled and undecided over this strange document.
+
+"Well?" asked the leech at last.
+
+"Aye-well?" repeated the other with a shrug. Then both again were
+silent; till Horapollo rose, and taking his staff, also paced the room
+while he murmured, half to himself and half to his younger friend "They
+are two quiet, reasonable women. There are not many of that sort, I
+fancy. How the little one helped me up from the low seat in the garden!"
+It was a reminiscence that made him chuckle to himself; he stopped
+Philippus, who was pacing at his side, by lightly patting his arm,
+exclaiming with unwonted vivacity: "A man should be ready to try
+everything--the care of women even, before he steps into the grave. And
+is it a fact that neither of them is a scold or a chatter-box?"
+
+"It is indeed."
+
+"And what 'if' or 'but' remains behind?" asked the old man. "Let us
+be reckless for once, brother! If the whole business were not so
+diabolically serious, it would be quite laughable. The young one for
+me and the old one for you in our leisure hours, my son; better washed
+linen; clothes without holes in them; no dust on our books; a pleasant
+'Rejoice' every morning, or at meal-times;--only look at the fruit on
+that dish! No better than the oats they strew before horses. At the old
+man's everything was as nice as it used to be in my own home at
+Philae: Supper a little work of art, a feast for the eye as well as the
+appetite! Pulcheria seems to understand all that as well as my poor dead
+sister did. And then, when I want to rise, such a kind, pretty little
+hand to help one up! I have long hated this dwelling. Lime and dust
+fall from the ceiling in my bedroom, and here there are wide gaps in the
+flooring-I stumbled over one yesterday--and our niggardly landlords, the
+officials, say that if we want anything repaired we may do it ourselves,
+that they have no money left for such things. Now, under that worthy old
+man's roof everything was in the best order." The philosopher chuckled
+aloud and rubbed his hands as he went on: "Supposing we kick over the
+traces for once, Philip. Supposing we were to carry out our friend's
+dying wish? Merciful Isis! It would certainly be a good action, and
+I have not many to boast of. But cautiously--what do you say? We can
+always throw it up at a month's notice."
+
+Then he grew grave again, shook his head, and said meditatively: "No,
+no; such plans only disturb one's peace of mind. A pleasant vision! But
+scarcely feasible."
+
+"Not for the present, at any rate," replied the leech.
+
+"So long as Paula's fate remains undecided, I beg you to let the matter
+rest."
+
+The old man muttered a curse on her; then he said with a vicious, sharp
+flash in his eyes: "That patrician viper! Every where in everything--she
+spoils it all! But wait a while! I fancy she will soon be removed from
+our path, and then.... No, even now, at the present time, I will not
+allow that we should be deprived of what would embellish life, of doing
+a thing which may turn the scale in my favor in the day of judgment. The
+wishes of a dying man are sacred: So our fathers held it; and they were
+right. The old man's will must be done! Yes, yes, yes. It is settled.
+As soon as that hindrance is removed, we will keep house with the two
+women. I have said; and I mean it."
+
+At this point the gardener came in again, and the old man called out to
+him:
+
+"Listen, man. We shall live together after all; you shall hear more of
+this later. Stay with my people till sundown, but you must keep your own
+counsel, for they are all listeners and blabs. The physician here will
+now take the melancholy tidings to the unfortunate widow, and then you
+can talk it all over with her at night. Nothing startling must take
+place at the house there; and with regard to your master, even his death
+must remain a secret from every one but us and his family."
+
+The gardener knew full well how much depended on his silence; Philippus
+tacitly agreed to the old man's arrangement, but for the present he
+avoided discussing the matter with the women. When, at length he set off
+on his painful errand to the widow, Horapollo dismissed him saying:
+
+"Courage, courage, my Son.--And as you pass by, just glance at our
+little garden;--we grieved to see the fine old palm-tree perish; but now
+a young and vigorous shoot is growing from the root."
+
+"It has been drooping since yesterday and will die away," replied
+Philippus shrugging his shoulders.
+
+But the old man exclaimed: "Water it, Gibbus! the palm-tree must be
+watered at once."
+
+"Aye, you have water at hand for that!" retorted the leech, but he added
+bitterly as he reached the stairs, "If it were so in all cases!"
+
+"Patience and good purpose will always win," murmured the old man; and
+when he was alone he growled on angrily: "Only be rid of that dry old
+palm-tree--his past life in all its relations to that patrician hussy
+Away with it, into the fire!--But how am I to get her? How can I manage
+it?"
+
+He threw himself back in his arm-chair, rubbing his forehead with the
+tips of his fingers. He had come to no result when the negro requested
+an audience for some visitors. These were the heads of the senate of
+Memphis, who had come as a deputation to ask counsel of the old sage.
+He, if any one, would find some means of averting or, at any rate,
+mitigating the fearful calamity impending over the town and country, and
+against which prayer, sacrifice, processions, and pilgrimages had proved
+abortive. They were quite resolved to leave no means untried, not even
+if heathen magic should be the last resource.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+All Katharina's sympathy with Heliodora had died finally in the course
+of the past, moonless night. She had secretly accompanied her, with her
+maid and an old deaf and dumb stable-slave, to a soothsayer--for there
+still were many in Memphis, as well as magicians and alchemists; and
+this woman had told the young widow that her line of life led to the
+greatest happiness, and that even the wildest wishes of her heart would
+find fulfilment. What those wishes were Katharina knew only too well;
+the probability of their accomplishment had roused her fierce jealousy
+and made her hate Heliodora.
+
+Heliodora had gone to consult the sorceress in a simple but rich dress.
+Her peplos was fastened on the shoulder, not by an ordinary gold
+pin, but by a button which betrayed her taste for fine jewels, as it
+consisted of a sapphire of remarkable size; this had at once caught the
+eye of the witch, showing her that she had to deal with a woman of rank
+and wealth. She had taken Katharina, who had come very plainly dressed,
+for her companion or poor friend, so she had promised her no more than
+the removal of certain hindrances, and a happy life at last, with a
+husband no longer young and a large family of children.
+
+The woman's business was evidently a paying one; the interior of her
+house was conspicuously superior to the wretched hovels which surrounded
+it, in the poorest and most squalid part of the town. Outside, indeed,
+it differed little from its neighbors; in fact; it was intentionally
+neglected, to mislead the authorities, for witchcraft and the practice
+of magic arts were under the penalty of death. But the fittings of
+the roofless centre-chamber in which she was wont to perform her
+incantations and divinations argued no small outlay. On the walls were
+hangings with occult figures; the pillars were painted with weird
+and grewsome pictures; crucibles and cauldrons of various sizes were
+simmering over braziers on little altars; on the shelves and tables
+stood cups, phials, and vases, a wheel on which a wryneck hopped up
+and down, wax images of men and women--some with needles through their
+hearts, a cage full of bats, and glass jars containing spiders, frogs,
+leeches, beetles, scorpions, centipedes and other foul creatures; and
+lengthways down the room was stretched a short rope walk, used in a
+Thracian form of magic. Perfumes and pungent vapors filled the air, and
+from behind a curtain which hid the performers came a monotonous music
+of children's voices, bells, and dull drumming.
+
+Medea, so the wise woman was called, though scarcely past five and
+forty, harmonized in appearance with this strange habitation, full as it
+was of objects calculated to rouse repulsion, dread, and amazement. Her
+face was pale, and her extraordinary height was increased by a mass of
+coal-black hair, curled high over a comb at the very top of her head.
+
+At the end of the first visit paid her by the two young women, who had
+taken her by surprise, so that several things were lacking which on the
+second occasion proved to be very effective in the exercise of her art,
+she had made Heliodora promise to return in three days' time. The young
+widow had kept her word, and had made her appearance punctually with
+Katharina.
+
+To be in Egypt, the land of sorcery and the magic arts, without putting
+them to the test, was impossible. Even Martina allowed this, though she
+did not care for such things for herself. She was content with her lot;
+and if any change for the worse were in prospect she would rather not be
+tormented beforehand by a wise prophet; nor was it better to be deluded
+by a foolish one. Happiness as of Heaven itself she no longer craved;
+it would only have disturbed her peace. But she was the last person to
+think ill of the young, whose life still lay before them, if they longed
+to look into futurity.
+
+The fair widow and her companion crossed the sorceress' threshold in
+some trepidation, and Katharina was the more agitated of the two; for
+this afternoon she had seen Philippus leave the house of Rufinus, and
+not long after some Arab officials had called there. Paula had come into
+the garden shortly before sundown, her eyes red with weeping; and when,
+soon after, Pulcheria and her mother had joined her there, Paula had
+thrown herself on Joanna's neck, sobbing so bitterly that the mother
+and daughter--"whose tears were near her eyes"--had both followed her
+example. Something serious had occurred; but when she had gone to the
+house to pick up further information, old Betta, who was particularly
+snappish with her, had refused her admission quite rudely.
+
+Then, on their way hither, she and Heliodora had had a painful
+adventure; the chariot, lent by Neforis to convey them as far as the
+edge of the necropolis, was stopped on the way by a troop of Arab horse,
+and they were subjected to a catechism by the leader.
+
+So they entered the house of "Medea of the curls," as the common people
+called the witch, with uneasy and throbbing hearts; they were received,
+however, with such servile politeness that they soon recovered
+themselves, and even the timid Heliodora began to breathe freely again.
+The sorceress knew this time who Katharina was, and paid more respectful
+attention to the daughter of the wealthy widow.
+
+The young crescent moon had risen, a circumstance which Medea declared
+enabled her to see more clearly into the future than she could do at
+the time of the Luna-negers as she called the moonless night. Her inward
+vision had been held in typhornian darkness at the time of their first
+visit, by the influence of some hostile power. She had felt this as soon
+as they had quitted her, but to-day she saw clearer. Her mind's eye was
+as clear as a silver mirror, she had purified it by three days' fasting
+and not a mote could escape her sight.--"Help, ye children of Horapollo!
+Help, Hapi and Ye three holy ones!"
+
+"Oh, my beauties, my beauties!" she went on enthusiastically. "Hundreds
+of great dames have proved my art, but such splendid fortunes I never
+before saw crowding round any two heads as round yours. Do you hear
+how the cauldrons of fortune are seething? The very lids lift! Amazing,
+amazing."
+
+She stretched out her hand towards the vessels as though conjuring them
+and said solemnly: "Abundance of happiness; brimming over, brimming
+over! Bursting storehouses! Zefa-oo Metramao. Return, return, to the
+right levels, the right heights, the right depth, the right measure!
+Your Elle Mei-Measurer, Leveller, require them, Techuti, require them,
+double Ibis!"
+
+She made them both sit down on elegant seats in front of the boiling
+pots, tied the "thread of Anubis" round the ring-finger of each, asked
+in a low whisper between muttered words of incantation for a hair of
+each, and after placing the hairs both in one cauldron she cried out
+with wild vehemence, as though the weal or woe of her two visitors were
+involved in the smallest omission:
+
+"Press the finger with the thread of Anubis on your heart; fix your
+eyes on the cauldron and the steam which rises to the spirits above, the
+spirits of light, the great One on high!"
+
+The two women obeyed the sorceress' directions with beating hearts,
+while she began spinning round on her toes with dizzy rapidity; her
+curls flew out, and the magic wand in her extended hand described a
+large and beautiful curve. Suddenly, and as if stricken by terror, she
+stopped her whirl, and at the same instant the lamps went out and
+the only light was from the stars and the twinkling coals under the
+cauldrons. The low music died away, and a fresh strong perfume welled
+out from behind the curtain.
+
+Medea fell on her knees, lifted up her hands to Heaven, threw her head
+so far back that her whole face was turned up to the sky and her eyes
+gazed straight up at the stars-an attitude only possible to so supple a
+spine. In this torturing attitude she sang one invocation after another,
+to the zenith of the blue vault over their heads, in a clear voice of
+fervent appeal. Her body was thrown forward, her mass of hair no longer
+stood up but was turned towards the two young women, who every moment
+expected that the supplicant would be suffocated by the blood mounting
+to her head, and fall backwards; but she sang and sang, while her white
+teeth glittered in the starlight that fell straight upon her face.
+Presently, in the midst of the torrent of demoniacal names and magic
+formulas that she sang and warbled out, a piteous and terrifying sound
+came from behind the curtain as of two persons gasping, sighing,
+and moaning: one voice seemed to be that of a man oppressed by great
+anguish; the other was the half-suffocated wailing of a suffering child.
+This soon became louder, and at length a voice said in Egyptian: "Water,
+a drink of water."
+
+The woman started to her feet, exclaiming: "It is the cry of the poor
+and oppressed who have been robbed to enrich those who have too much
+already; the lament of those whom Fate has plundered to heap you with
+wealth enough for hundreds." As she spoke these words, in Greek and
+with much unction, she turned to the curtain and added solemnly, but in
+Egyptian: "Give drink to the thirsty; the happy ones will spare him
+a drop from their overflow. Give the white drink to the wailing
+child-spirit, that he may be soothed and quenched.--Play, music, and
+drown the lamentations of the spirits in sorrow."
+
+Then, turning to Heliodora's kettle she said sternly, as if in obedience
+to some higher power:
+
+"Seven gold pieces to complete the work,"--and while the young widow
+drew out her purse the sorceress lighted the lamps, singing as she did
+so and as she dropped the coin into the boiling fluid: "Pure, bright
+gold! Sunlight buried in a mine! Holy Seven. Shashef, Shashef! Holy
+Seven, marry and mingle--melt together!"
+
+When this was done she poured out of the cauldron a steaming fluid as
+black as ink, into a shallow saucer, called Heliodora to her side, and
+told her what she could see in the mirror of its surface.
+
+It was all fair, and gave none but delightful replies to the widow's
+questioning. And all the sorceress said tended to confirm the young
+woman's confidence in her magic art; she described Orion as exactly as
+though she saw him indeed in the surface of the ink, and said he was
+travelling with an older man. And lo! he was returning already; in the
+bright mirror she could see Heliodora clasped in her lover's arms; and
+now--it was like a picture: A stranger--not the bishop of Memphis--laid
+her hand in his and blessed their union before the altar in a vast and
+magnificent cathedral.
+
+Katharina, who had been chilled with apprehensions and a thrill of awe,
+as she listened to Medea's song, listened to every word with anxious
+attention; what Medea said--how she described Orion--that was more
+wonderful than anything else, beyond all she had believed possible. And
+the cathedral in which the lovers were to be united was the church of
+St. Sophia at Constantinople, of which she had heard so much.
+
+A tight grip seemed to clutch her heart; still, eagerly as she
+listened to Medea's words, her sharp ears heard the doleful gasping and
+whimpering behind the hanging; and this distressed and dismayed her; her
+breath came short, and a deep, torturing sense of misfortune possessed
+her wholly. The wailing child-spirit within, a portion of whose joys
+Medea said had been allotted to her--nay, she had not robbed him,
+certainly not--for who could be more wretched than she? It was only that
+beautiful, languishing young creature who was so lavishly endowed by
+Fortune with gifts enough and to spare for others without number. Oh!
+if she could but have snatched them from her one after another, from the
+splendid ruby she was wearing to-day, to Orion's love!
+
+She was pale and tremulous as she rose at the call of the sorceress,
+after she also had offered seven gold pieces. She would gladly have
+purchased annihilating curses to destroy her happier rival.
+
+The black liquid in the saucer began to stir, and a sharply smelling
+vapor rose from it; the witch blew this aside, and as soon as the murky
+fluid was a little cool, and the surface was smooth and mirror-like,
+she asked Katharina what she most desired to know. But the answer was
+checked on her lips; a fearful thundering and roaring suddenly made
+the house shake; Medea dropped the saucer with a piercing shriek, the
+contents splashed up, and warm, sticky drops fell on the girl's arms and
+dress. She was quite overcome with the startling horror, and Heliodora,
+who could herself scarcely stand, had to support her, for she tottered
+and would have fallen.
+
+The sorceress had vanished; a half-grown lad, a young man, and a very
+tall Egyptian girl in scanty attire were rushing about the room. They
+flew hither and thither, throwing all the vessels they could lay hands
+on into an opening in the floor from which they had lifted a trap-door;
+pouring water on the braziers and extinguishing the lights, while they
+drove the two strangers into a corner of the hall, rating and abusing
+them. Then the lads clambered like cats up to the opening in the roof,
+and sprang off and away.
+
+A shrill whistle rang through the house, and in moment Medea burst into
+the room again, clutched the two trembling women by the shoulders, and
+exclaimed: "For Christ's sake, be merciful! My life is at stake Sorcery
+is punishable by death. I have done my best for you. You came here--that
+is what you must say--out of charity to nurse the sick." She pushed them
+both behind the hanging whence they still heard feeble groans, into a
+low, stuffy room, and the over-grown girl slipped in behind them.
+
+Here, on miserable couches, lay an old man shivering, and showing dark
+spots on his bare breast and face: and a child of five, whose crimson
+cheeks were burning with fever.
+
+Heliodora felt as if she must suffocate in the plague stricken, heavy
+atmosphere, and Katharina clung to her helplessly; but the soothsayer
+pulled her away, saying: "Each to one bed: you to the child, and
+you--the old man."
+
+Involuntarily they obeyed the woman who was panting with fright. The
+water-wagtail, who never in her life thought of a sick person, turned
+very sick and looked away from the sufferer; but the your widow, who had
+spent many and many a night by the death-bed of a man she had loved, and
+who, tender-hearted, had often tended her sick slaves with her own hand,
+looked compassionately into the pretty, pain-stricken face of the child,
+and wiped the dews from his clammy brow.
+
+Katharina shuddered; but her attention was presently attracted to
+something fresh; from the other side of the house came a clatter of
+weapons, the door was pushed open, and the physician Philippus walked
+into the room. He desired the night-watch, who were with him, to wait
+outside. He had come by the command of the police authorities, to whose
+ears information had been brought that there were persons sick of the
+plague in the house of Medea, and that she, nevertheless, continued to
+receive visitors. It had long been decided that she must be taken in the
+act of sorcery, and warning had that day been given that she expected
+illustrious company in the evening. The watch were to find her
+red-handed, so to speak; the leech was to prove whether her house was
+indeed plague-stricken; and in either case the senate wished to have the
+sorceress safe in prison and at their mercy, though even Philippus had
+not been taken into their confidence.
+
+The visitors he had come upon were the last he had expected to
+find here. He looked at them with a disapproving shake of the head,
+interrupted the woman's voluble asseverations that these noble ladies
+had come, out of Christian charity, to comfort and help the sick, with
+a rough exclamation: "A pack of lies!" and at once led the coerced sick
+nurses out of the house. He then represented to them the fearful risk
+to which their folly had exposed them, and insisted very positively
+on their returning home and, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour,
+taking a bath and putting on fresh garments.
+
+With trembling knees they found their way back to the chariot; but
+even before it could start Heliodora had broken down in tears, while
+Katharina, throwing herself back on the cushions, thought, as she
+glanced at her weeping companion: "This is the beginning of the
+wonderful happiness she was promised! It is to be hoped it may
+continue!"
+
+It seemed indeed as though Katharina's guardian spirit had overheard
+this amiable wish; for, as the chariot drove past the guard-house into
+the court-yard of the governor's house, it was stopped by armed men with
+brown, warlike faces, and they had to wait some minutes till an Arab
+officer appeared to enquire who they were, and what they wanted. This
+they explained in fear and trembling, and they then learnt that the
+Arab government had that very evening taken possession of the residence.
+Orion was accused of serious crimes, and his guests were to depart on
+the following day.
+
+Katharina, who was known to the interpreter, was allowed to go with
+Heliodora to the senator's wife; she might also use the chariot to
+return home in, and if she pleased, take the Byzantines with her, for
+the palace would be in the hands of the soldiery for the next few days.
+
+The two young women held council. Katharina pressed her friend to come
+at once to her mother's house, for she felt certain that they were
+plague-stricken, and how could they procure a bath in a house full of
+soldiers? Heliodora could not and must not remain with Martina in this
+condition, and the senator's wife could follow her next day. Her mother,
+she added, would be delighted to welcome so dear a guest.
+
+The widow was passive, and when Martina had gladly consented to accept
+the invitation of her "delivering angel," the chariot carried them to
+Susannah's house. The widow had long been in bed, firmly convinced that
+her daughter was asleep and dreaming in her own pretty room.
+
+Katharina would not have her disturbed, and the bath-room was so far
+from Susannah's apartment that she slept on quietly while Katharina and
+her guest purified themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The inhabitants of the governor's residence passed a fearful night.
+Martina asked herself what sin she had committed that she, of all
+people, should be picked out to witness such a disaster.
+
+And where were her schemes of marriage now? Any movement in such heat
+was indeed scarcely endurable; but she would have moved from one part
+of the house to another a dozen times, and allowed herself to be tossed
+hither and thither like a ball, if it could have enabled her to save her
+dear "great Sesostris" from such hideous peril. And at the bottom of all
+this was, no doubt, this wild, senseless business of the nuns.
+
+And these Arabs! They simply helped themselves to whatever they fancied,
+and were, of course, in a position to strip the son of the great
+Mukaukas of all he possessed and reduce him to beggary. A pretty
+business this!
+
+Heliodora, to be sure, had enough for both, and she and her husband
+would not forget them in their will; but there was more than this in the
+balance now: it was a matter of life and death.
+
+A cold shudder ran through her at the thought; and her fears were only
+too well founded: the black Arab who had come to parley with her, and
+had finally allowed her to remain under this roof till next day, had
+told her as much through the interpreter. A fearful, horrible, nameless
+catastrophe! And that she should be in the midst of it and have to see
+it all!
+
+Then her husband, her poor Justinus! How hard this would fall on him!
+She could not cease weeping; and before she fell asleep she prayed
+fervently indeed, to the saints and the dear Mother of God, that they
+would bring all to a happy issue. She closed her eyes on the thought:
+"What a misfortune!" and she woke to it again early in the morning.
+
+She, however, had known nothing of the worst horrors of that fatal
+night.
+
+A troop of Arab soldiers had crossed the Nile at nightfall, some on
+foot or on horseback and some in boats, led by Obada the Vekeel, and
+had invested the governor's residence. When they had fully assured
+themselves that Orion was indeed absent they took Nilus prisoner. It
+was then Obada's business to inform the Mukaukas' widow of what had
+happened, and to tell her that she must quit the house next day. This
+must be done, because he had views of his own as to what was to become
+of the venerable house of the oldest family in the country.
+
+Neforis was still up, and when the interpreter was announced as Obada's
+forerunner, she was in the fountain-room. He found her a good deal
+excited; for, although she was incapable of any consecutive train of
+thought and, when her mind was required to exert itself, her ideas only
+came like lightning-flashes through her brain, she had observed that
+something unusual was going on. Sebek and her maid had evaded her
+enquiries, and would say no more than that Amru's representative
+had come to speak with the young master. It seemed to be something
+important, perhaps some false accusation.
+
+The interpreter now explained that Orion himself was accused of having
+planned and aided an enterprise which had cost the lives of twelve Arab
+soldiers; and, as she knew, any injury inflicted even on a single Moslem
+by an Egyptian was punished by death and the confiscation of his goods.
+Besides this, her son was accused of a robbery.
+
+At the close of this communication, to which Neforis listened with a
+vacant stare, horrified and at last almost crushed, the interpreter
+begged that she would grant the Vekeel an audience.
+
+"Not just yet--give me a few minutes," said the widow, bringing out
+the words with difficulty: first she must have recourse to her secret
+specific. When she had done so, she expressed her readiness to
+see Obada. Her son's swarthy foe was anxious to appear a mild and
+magnanimous man in her eyes, so it was with flattering servility and
+many smirking grins that he communicated to her the necessity for her
+quitting the house in which she had passed the longest and happiest half
+of her life, and no later than next day.
+
+To his announcement that her private fortune would remain untouched, and
+that she would be at liberty to reside in Memphis or to go to her own
+house in Alexandria, she indifferently replied that "she should see."
+
+She then enquired whether the Arabs had yet succeeded in capturing her
+son.
+
+"Not actually," replied the Vekeel. "But we know where he is hiding,
+and by to-morrow or the next day we shall lay hands on the unhappy young
+man."
+
+But, as he spoke, the widow detected a malicious gleam in his eyes to
+which, so far, he had tried to give a sympathetic expression, and she
+went on with a slight shake of the bead: "Then it is a case of life and
+death?"
+
+"Compose yourself, noble lady," was the reply. "Of death alone."
+
+Neforis looked up to heaven and for some minutes did not speak; then she
+asked:
+
+"And who has accused him of robbery?" "The head of his own Church...."
+
+"Benjamin?" she murmured with a peculiar smile. Only yesterday she had
+made her will in favor of the patriarch and the Church. "If Benjamin
+could see that," said she to herself, "he would change his views of you
+and your people, and have prayers constantly said for us."
+
+As she spoke no more the Vekeel sat looking at her inquisitively and
+somewhat at a loss, till at length she rose, and with no little dignity
+dismissed him, remarking that now their business was at an end and she
+had nothing further to say to him.
+
+This closed the interview; and as the Vekeel quitted the fountain-room
+he muttered to himself: "What a woman! Either she is possessed and her
+brain is crazed, or she is of a rarely heroic pattern."
+
+Neforis was supported to her own room; when she was in bed she desired
+her maid to bring a small box out of her chest and place it on the
+little table containing medicines by the bead of the couch.
+
+As soon as she was alone she took out two letters which George had
+written to her before their marriage, and a poem which Orion had once
+addressed to her; she tried to read them, but the words danced before
+her eyes, and she was forced to lay them aside. She took up a little
+packet containing hair cut from the heads of her sons after death, and
+a lock of her husband's. She gazed on these dear memorials with rapt
+tenderness, and now the poppy juice began to take effect: the images of
+those departed ones rose clear in her mind, and she was as near to them
+as though they were standing in living actuality by her side.
+
+Still holding the curls in her hand, she looked up into vacancy, trying
+to apprehend clearly what had occurred within the last few hours and
+what lay before her: She must leave this room, this ample couch, this
+house--all, in short, that was bound up with the dearest memories of
+those she had loved. She was to be forced to this--but did it beseem
+her to submit to this Negro, this stranger in the house where she was
+mistress? She shook her head with a scornful smile; then opening a glass
+phial, which was still half-full of opium pillules, she placed a few on
+her tongue and again gazed sky-wards.--Another face now looked down on
+her; she saw the husband from whom not even death could divide her, and
+at his feet their two murdered sons. Presently Orion seemed to rise
+out of the clouds, as a diver comes up from the water, and make for
+the shore of the island on which George and the other two seemed to be
+standing. His father opened his arms to receive him and clasped him to
+his heart, while she herself--or was it only her wraith--went to the
+others, who hurried forward to greet her tenderly; and then her husband,
+too, met her, and she found rest on his bosom.
+
+For hours, and long before the incursion of the Arabs, she had been
+feeling half stunned and her mind clouded; but now a delicious,
+slumberous lethargy came over her, to which her whole being urged her
+to yield. But every time her eyes closed, the thought of the morrow shot
+through her brain, and finally, with a great effort, she sat up, took
+some water--which was always close at hand--shook into it the remaining
+pillules in the bottle, and drank it off to the very last drop.
+
+Her hand was steady; the happy smile on her lips, and the eager
+expression of her eyes, might have led a spectator to believe that she
+was thirsty and had mixed herself a refreshing draught. She had no look
+of a desperate creature laying violent hands on her own life; she
+felt no hesitancy, no fear of death, no burthen of the guilt she was
+incurring--nothing but ecstatic weariness and hope; blissful hope of a
+life without end, united to those she loved.
+
+Hardly had she swallowed the deadly draught when she shivered with a
+sudden chill. Raising herself a little she called her maid, who was
+sitting up in the adjoining room; and as the woman looked alarmed at
+her mistress's fixed stare, she stammered out: "A priest--quick--I am
+dying."
+
+The woman flew off to the viridarium to call Sebek, who was standing in
+front of the tablinum with the Vekeel; she told him what had happened,
+and the Negro gave him leave to obey his dying mistress, escorting him
+as far as the gate. Just outside, the steward met a deacon who had
+been giving the blessing of the Church to a poor creature dying of the
+pestilence, and in a few minutes they were standing by the widow's bed.
+
+The locks of her sons' hair lay by her side; her hands were folded over
+a crucifix; but her eyes, which had been fixed on the features of the
+Saviour, had wandered from it and again gazed up to Heaven.
+
+The priest spoke her name, but she mistook him for her son and murmured
+in loving accents:
+
+"Orion, poor, poor child! And you, Mary, my darling, my sweet little
+pet! Your father--yes, dear boy, only come with me.--Your father is
+kind again and forgives you. All those I loved are together now, and no
+one--Who can part us? Husband--George, listen..."
+
+The priest performed his office, but she paid no heed, still staring
+upwards; her smiling lips continued to move, but no articulate sound
+came from them. At last they were still, her eyelids fell, her hands
+dropped the crucifix, a slight shiver ran through her limbs, which then
+relaxed, and she opened her mouth as though to draw a deeper breath.
+But it closed no more, and when the faithful steward pressed her lips
+together her face was rigid and her heart had ceased to beat.
+
+The honest man sobbed aloud; when he carried the melancholy news to the
+Vekeel, Obada growled out a curse, and said to a subaltern officer who
+was super-intending the loading of his camels with the treasures from
+the tablinum:
+
+"I meant to have treated that cursed old woman with conspicuous
+generosity, and now she has played me this trick; and in Medina they
+will lay her death at my door, unless..."
+
+But here he broke off; and as he once more watched the loading of the
+camels, he only thought to himself: "In playing for such high stake's,
+a few gold pieces more or less do not count. A few more heads must fall
+yet--the handsome Egyptian first and foremost.--If the conspirators at
+Medina only play their part! The fall of Omar means that of Amru, and
+that will set everything right."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Katharina slept little and rose very early, as was her habit, while
+Heliodora was glad to sleep away the morning hours. In this scorching
+season they were, to be sure, the pleasantest of the twenty-four, and
+the water-wagtail usually found them so; but to-day, though a splendid
+Indian flower had bloomed for the first time, and the head gardener
+pointed it out to her with just pride, she could not enjoy it and be
+glad. It might perish for aught she cared, and the whole world with it!
+
+There was no one stirring yet in the next garden, but the tall leech
+Philippus might be seen coming along the road to pay a visit to the
+women.
+
+A few swift steps carried her to the gate, whence she called him. She
+must entreat him to say nothing of her last night's expedition; but
+before she had time to prefer her request he had paused to tell her that
+the widow of the Mukaukas, overcome by alarm and horror, had followed
+her husband to the next world.
+
+There had been a time when Katharina had been devoted to Neforis,
+regarding her as a second mother; when the governor's residence
+had seemed to her the epitome of all that was great, venerable, and
+illustrious; and when she had been proud and happy to be allowed to run
+in and out, and to be loved like a child of the family. The tears that
+started to her eyes were sincere, and it was a relief to her, too, to
+lay aside the gay and defiantly happy mien which she wore as a mask,
+while all in her soul was dark, wild, and desperate.
+
+The physician understood her grief; he readily promised not to betray
+her to any one, and did not blame her, though he again pointed out the
+danger she had incurred and earnestly insisted that every article of
+clothing, which she or Heliodora had worn, must be destroyed. The subtle
+germ of the malady, he said, clung to everything; every fragment of
+stuff which had been touched by the plague-stricken was especially
+fitted to carry the infection and disseminate the disease. She
+listened to him in deep alarm, but she could satisfy him on this point;
+everything she or her companion had worn had been burnt in the bath-room
+furnace.
+
+The physician went on; and she, heedless of the growing heat, wandered
+restlessly about the grounds. Her heart beat with short, quick, painful
+jerks; an invisible burthen weighed upon her and prevented her breathing
+freely. A host of torturing thoughts haunted her unbidden; they were not
+to be exorcised, and added to her misery: Neforis dead; the residence in
+the hands of the Arabs; Orion bereft of his possessions and held guilty
+of a capital crime.
+
+And the peaceful house beyond the hedge--what trouble was hanging over
+its white-haired master and his guileless wife and daughter? A storm
+was gathering, she could see it approaching--and beyond it, like another
+murky, death-dealing thunder-cloud, was the pestilence, the fearful
+pestilence.
+
+And it was she, a fragile, feeble girl--a volatile water-wagtail--who
+had brought all these terrors down on them, who had opened the
+sluice-gates through which ruin was now beginning to pour in on all
+around her. She could see the flood surging, swelling--saw it lapping
+round her own house, her own feet; drops of sweat bedewed her forehead
+and hands from terror at the mere thought. And yet, and yet!--If she had
+really had the power to bind calamity in the clouds, to turn the tide
+back into its channel, she would not have done so! The uttermost that
+she longed for, as the fruit of the seed she had sown and which she
+longed to see ripen, had not yet come to pass--and to see that she would
+endure anything, even death and parting from this deceitful, burning,
+unlovely world.
+
+Death awaited Orion; and before it overtook him he should know who had
+sharpened the sword. Perhaps he might escape with his life; but the
+Arab would not disgorge what he once had seized, and if that young
+and splendid Croesus should come out of prison alive, but a beggar,
+then--then.... And as for Paula! As for Heliodora! For once her little
+hand had wrenched the thunderbolts from Zeus' eagle, and she would find
+one for them!
+
+The sense of her terrible power, to which more than one victim had
+already fallen, intoxicated her. She would drive Orion--Orion who had
+betrayed her--into utter ruin and misery; she would see him a beggar at
+her feet!--And this it was that gave her courage to do her worst; this,
+and this alone. What she would do then, she herself knew not; that lay
+as yet in the womb of the Future. She might take a fancy to do something
+kind, compassionate, and tender.
+
+By the time she went into the house again her fears and depression had
+vanished; revived energy possessed her soul, and the little eavesdropper
+and tale-bearer had become in this short hour a purposeful and terrible
+woman, ready for any crime.
+
+"Poor little lamb!" thought Philippus, as he went into Rufinus' garden.
+"That miserable man may have brought pangs enough to her little heart!"
+
+His old friend's garden-plot was deserted. Under the sycamore, however,
+he perceived the figures of a very tall young man and a pretty woman,
+delicate, fair-haired, and rather pale. The big young fellow was holding
+a skein of wool on his huge, outstretched hands; the girl was winding
+it on to a ball. These were Rustem the Masdakite and Mandane, both now
+recovered from their injuries; the girl, indeed, had been restored to
+the new life of a calm and understanding mind. Philippus had watched
+over this wonderful resuscitation with intense interest and care. He
+ascribed it, in the first instance, to the great loss of blood from the
+wound in her head; and secondly, to the fresh air and perfect nursing
+she had had. All that was now needful was to protect her against
+agitation and violent emotions. In the Masdakite she had found a friend
+and a submissive adorer; and Philippus could rejoice as he looked at the
+couple, for his skill had indeed brought him nothing but credit.
+
+His greeting to them was cheery and hearty, and in answer to his
+enquiry: "How are you getting on?" Rustem replied, "As lively as a fish
+in water," adding, as he pointed to Mandane, "and I can say the same for
+my fellow-countrywoman."
+
+"You are agreed then?" said the leech, and she nodded eager assent.
+
+At this Philippus shook his finger at the man, exclaiming: "Do not get
+too tightly entangled here, my friend. Who knows how soon Haschim may
+call you away."
+
+Then, turning his back on the convalescents, he murmured to himself:
+"Here again is something to cheer us in the midst of all this
+trouble-these two, and little Mary."
+
+Rufinus, before starting on his journey, had sent back all the crippled
+children he had had in his care to their various parents; thus the
+anteroom was empty.
+
+The women apparently were at breakfast in the dining-room. No, he was
+mistaken; it was yet too early, and Pulcheria was still busy laying the
+table. She did not notice him as he went in, for she was busy arranging
+grapes, figs, pomegranates and sycamore-figs, a fruit resembling
+mulberries in flavor which grow in clusters from the trunk of the
+tree-between leaves, which the drought and heat of the past weeks had
+turned almost yellow. The tempting heap was fast rising in an elegant
+many-hued hemisphere; but her thoughts were not in her occupation, for
+tears were coursing each other down her cheeks.
+
+"Those tears are for her father," thought the leech as he watched her
+from the threshold. "Poor child!"--How often he had heard his old friend
+call her so!
+
+And till now he had never thought of her but as a child; but to-day he
+must look at her with different eyes--her own father had enjoined it.
+And in fact he gazed at her as though he beheld a miracle.
+
+What had come over little Pulcheria?--How was it that he had never
+noticed it before?--It was a well-grown maiden that he saw, moving
+round, snowwhite arms; and he could have sworn that she had only thin,
+childish arms, for she had thrown them round his neck many a time when
+she had ridden up and down the garden on his back, calling him her fine
+horse.
+
+How long ago was that? Ten years! She was now seventeen!
+
+And how slender, and delicate, and white her hands were--those hands for
+which her mother had often scolded her when, after building castles of
+sand, she had sat down to table unwashed.
+
+Now she was laying the grapes round the pomegranates, and he remembered
+how Horapollo, only yesterday, had praised her dainty skill.
+
+The windows were well screened, but a few sunbeams forced their way into
+the room and fell on her red-gold hair. Even the fair Boeotians, whom he
+had admired in his student-days at Athens, had no such glorious crown of
+hair. That she had a sweet and pretty face he had always known; but now,
+as she raised her eyes and first observed him, meeting his gaze with
+maidenly embarrassment and sweet surprise, and yet with perfect welcome,
+he felt himself color and he had to pause a moment to collect himself
+before he could respond with something more than an ordinary greeting to
+hers. The dialogue that flashed through his mind in that instant began
+with sentences full of meaning. But all he said was:
+
+"Yes, here I am," which really did not deserve the hearty reply:
+
+"Thank God for that!" nor the bewitching embarrassment of the
+explanation that ensued: "on my mother's account."
+
+Again he blushed; he, the man who had long since forgotten his youthful
+shyness. He asked after Dame Joanna, and how she was bearing her
+trouble, and then he said gravely: "I was the bearer of bad news
+yesterday, and to-day again I have come like a bird of ill-omen."
+
+"You?" she said with a smile, and the simple word conveyed so sweet a
+doubt of his capacity for bringing evil that he could not help saying to
+himself that his friend, in leaving this child, this girl, to his
+care, had bequeathed to him the best gift that one mortal can devise
+to another: a dear, trustful, innocent daughter--or no, a younger
+sister--as pure, as engaging, and as lovable as only the child of such
+parents could be.
+
+While he stood telling her of what had happened at the governor's house,
+he noted how deeply, for Paula's and Mary's sake, she took to heart the
+widow's death, though Neforis had been nothing to her; and he decided
+that he would at once make Pulcheria's mother acquainted with her dead
+husband's wishes.
+
+All this did not supplant his old passion for Paula; far from it--that
+tortured him still as deeply and hotly as ever. But at the same time he
+was conscious of its evil influence; he knew that by cherishing it he
+was doing himself harm--nay a real injury since it was not returned.
+He knew that within reach of Paula, and condemned to live with her, he
+could never recover his peace, but must suffer constant pangs. It was
+only away from her, and yet under the same roof with Joanna and her
+daughter, that he could ever hope to be a contented and happy man; but
+he dared not put this thought into words.
+
+Pulcheria detected that he had something in reserve, and feared lest he
+should know of some new impending woe; however, on this head he could
+reassure her, telling her that, on the contrary, he had something in
+his mind which, so far at least as he was concerned, was a source of
+pleasure. Her grieved and anxious spirit could indeed hardly believe
+him; and he begged her not to lose all hope in better days, asking her
+if she had true and entire trust in him.
+
+She warmly replied that he must surely feel that she did; and now, as
+the others came into the room, she nodded to her mother, whom she had
+already seen quite early, and offering him her hand shook his heartily.
+This had been a restful interval; but the sight of Paula, and the news
+he had to give her, threw him back into his old depressed and miserable
+mood.
+
+Little Mary, whose cheeks had recovered their roses and who looked quite
+well again, threw her arms round Paula's neck as she heard the evil
+tidings; but Paula herself was calmer than he had expected. She turned
+very pale at the first shock, but soon she could listen to him with
+composure, and presently quite recovered her usual demeanor. Philippus,
+as he watched her, had to control himself sternly, and as soon as
+possible he took his leave.
+
+It was as though he had been fated once more to see with agonizing
+clearness what he had lost in her; she walked through life as though
+borne up by lofty feeling, and a thoughtful radiance lent her noble
+features a bewitching charm which grieved while it enchanted him.
+
+Orion a prisoner, and all his possessions confiscated! The thought had
+horrified her for a little while; but then it had come to her that this
+was just as it should be--that what had at first looked like a dreadful
+disaster had been sent to enable her love to cast off its husks, to
+appear in all its loftiness and purity, and to give it, by the help of
+the All-merciful, its true consecration.
+
+She did not fear for his life, for he had told her and written to her
+that Amru had been paternal in his kindness; and all that had occurred
+was, she was sure, the work of the Vekeel, of whose odious and cruel
+character he had given her a horrible picture that day when Rufinus had
+gone to warn the abbess.
+
+When Philippus had left his friends, he sighed deeply. How different
+he had found these women from what he had expected. Yes, his old friend
+knew men well!
+
+From trifling details he had succeeded in forming a more accurate idea
+of Pulcheria than the leech himself had gained in years of intimacy.
+Horapollo had foreseen, too, that the danger which threatened the
+Mukaukas' son would fan Paula's passions like a fresh breeze; and
+Joanna, frail, ailing Joanna! she had behaved heroically under the loss
+of the companion with whom she had lived for so many years in faithful
+love. He could not help comparing her with the wretched Neforis; what
+was it that enabled one to bear the equal loss with so much more
+dignity than the other? Nothing but the presence of the tender-hearted
+Pulcheria, who shared her sorrow with such beautiful resignation,
+such ready and complete sympathy. This the governor's widow had wholly
+lacked; and how happy were they who could call such a heart their own!
+He walked through the garden with his head bent, and looking neither to
+the right hand nor the left.
+
+The Masdakite, who was still sitting with Mandane under the sycamore,
+as indifferent to the torrid heat as she was, looked after him, and said
+with a sigh as he pointed to him:
+
+"There he goes. This is the first time he ever said a rude word to you
+or to me: or did you not understand?"
+
+"Oh yes," said she in a low voice, looking down at her needlework.
+
+They talked in Persian, for she had not forgotten the language which her
+mother had spoken till her dying day.
+
+Life is sometimes as strange as a fairy-tale; and the accident was
+indeed wonderful which had brought these two beings, of all others, at
+the same time to the sick room. His distant home was also hers, and he
+even knew her uncle--her father's brother--and her father's sad history.
+
+When the Greek army had taken possession of the province where they
+had lived, the men had fled into the woods with their flocks and herds,
+while the women and children took refuge in the fortress which defended
+the main road. This had not long held out against the Byzantines, and
+the women, among them Mandane with her mother, had been handed over to
+the soldiers as precious booty. Her father had then joined the troops to
+rescue the women, but he and his comrades had only lost their lives in
+the attempt. To this day the valiant man's end was a tale told in his
+native place, and his property and valuable rose gardens now belonged to
+his younger brother. So the two convalescents had plenty to talk about.
+
+It was curious to note how clearly the memories of her childhood were
+stamped on Mandane's mind.
+
+She had laid her wounded head on the pillow of sickness with a darkened
+brain, and the new pain had lifted the veil from her mind as a storm
+clears the oppressive atmosphere of a sultry summer's day. She loved to
+linger now among the scenes of her childhood--the time when she had
+a mother.--Or she would talk of the present; all between was like a
+night-sky black, and only lighted up by an awful comet and shining
+stars. That comet was Orion. All she had enjoyed with him and suffered
+through him she consigned to the period of her craziness; she had taught
+herself to regard it all as part of the madness to which she had been
+a victim. Her nature was not capable of cherishing hatred and she could
+feel no animosity towards the Mukaukas' son. She thought of him as of
+one who, without evil intent, had done her great wrong; one whom she
+might not even remember without running into peril.
+
+"Then you mean to say," the Masdakite began once more, "that you would
+really miss me if Haschim sent for me?"
+
+"Yes indeed, Rustem; I should be very sorry."
+
+"Oh!" said the other, passing his hand over his big head, on which
+the dense mane of hair which had been shaved off was beginning to grow
+again. "Well then, Mandane, in that case--I wanted to say it yesterday,
+but I could not get it out.--Tell me: why would you be sorry if I were
+to leave you?"
+
+"Because--well, no one can have all their reasons ready; because you
+have always been kind to me; and because you came from my country, and
+talk Persian with me as my mother used."
+
+"Is that all?" said the man slowly, and he rubbed his forehead.
+
+"No, no. Because--if once you go away, you will not be here."
+
+"Aye that is it; that is just the thing. And if you would be sorry for
+that, then you must have liked being here--with me."
+
+"And why not? It has been very nice," said the girl blushing and trying
+not to meet his eyes.
+
+"That it has--and that it is!" cried Rustem, striking his palm with the
+other huge fist. "And that is why I must have it out; that is why, if we
+have any sense, we two need never part."
+
+"But your master is sure to want you," said she with growing confusion,
+"and we cannot always remain a burthen on the kind folks here. I shall
+not work at the loom again; but as I am now free, and have the scroll
+that proves it, I must soon look about for some employment. And a
+strong, healthy fellow like you cannot always be nursing yourself."
+
+"Nursing myself!" and he laughed gaily. "I will earn money, and enough
+for three!"
+
+"By your camels always, up and down the country?"
+
+"I have done with that," said he with a grin. "We will go back to our
+own country; there I will buy a good piece of pasture land, for my
+eldest brother has our little estate, and you may ask Haschim whether I
+understand camel-breeding."
+
+"But Rustem, consider."
+
+"Consider! Think this, and think that! Where there's a will there's a
+way. That is the upshot of it all. And if you mean to say that before
+you buy you must have money, and that the best may come to grief, all
+I can tell you is.... Can you read? No? nor I; but here in my pocket
+I have my accounts in the master's own hand. Eleven thousand, three
+hundred and sixty drachmae were due to me for wages the last time we
+reckoned: all the profit the master had set down to my credit since
+I led his caravan. He has kept almost all of it for me; for food was
+allowed, and there was almost always a bit of stuff for a garment to
+be found among the bales, and I never was a sot. Eleven thousand, three
+hundred and sixty drachmae! Hey, little one, that is the figure. And now
+what do you say? Can we buy something with that? Yes or no?"
+
+He looked at her triumphantly, and she eagerly replied: "Yes, yes
+indeed; and in our country I think something worth having."
+
+"And we--you and I--we will begin a quite new life. I was seventeen when
+I first set out with my master, and I was twenty-six last midsummer. How
+many years wandering does that make?"
+
+They both thought this over for some time; then Mandane said doubtfully
+
+"If I am not mistaken it is eight."
+
+"I believe it is nine," he exclaimed. "Let us see. Here, give me your
+little paw! There, I begin with seventeen, that is where I started.
+First your little-finger--what a mite of a thing, and then the rest." He
+took her right hand and counted off her fingers till he ended with the
+last finger of the left. The result puzzled him; he shook his head,
+saying: "There are ten fingers on both hands, sure enough, and yet it
+cannot be ten years; it is nine at most I know."
+
+He began the counting, which he liked uncommonly, all over again; but
+with the same result. Mandane said it was but nine, she had counted it
+up herself; and he agreed, and declared that her little fingers must be
+bewitched. And this game would have gone on still longer but that she
+remembered that the seventeen must not be included at all, and that he
+ought to begin with eighteen. Rustem could not immediately take this in,
+and even when he admitted it he did not release her hand, but went on
+with gay resolution:
+
+"And you see, my girl, I mean to keep this little hand--you may pull it
+away if you choose--but it is mine, and the pretty little maid, and all
+that belongs to it. And I will take you and both your hands, bewitched
+fingers and all, home with me. There they may weave and stitch as much
+as you like; but as man and wife no one shall part us, and we will lead
+a life such a life! The joys of Paradise shall be no better than a rap
+on the skull with an olive-wood log in comparison!"
+
+He tried to take her hand again, but she drew it away, saying in deep
+confusion and without looking up: "No, Rustem. I was afraid yesterday
+that it would come to this; but it can never, never be. I am
+grateful--oh! so grateful; but no, it cannot be, and that must be the
+end of it. I can never be your wife. Rustem."
+
+"No?" he asked with a scowl, and the veins swelled in his low forehead.
+"Then you have been making a fool of me!--as to the gratitude you talk
+of...."
+
+He stood up in hot excitement; she laid her hand on his arm, drew him
+down on to the seat again, and ventured to steal an imploring look into
+his eyes, which never could long flash with anger. Then she said:
+
+"How you break out! I shall really and truly be very grieved to part
+from you; cannot you see that I am fond of you? But indeed, indeed it
+will never do, I--oh! if only I might go back, home, and with you. Yes,
+with you, as your wife. What a proud and happy thought! And how gladly
+would I work for us both--for I am very handy and hard-working, but..."
+
+"But?" he repeated, and he put his big, sun-burnt face close to hers,
+looking as if he could break her in pieces.
+
+"But it cannot be, for your sake; it must not be, positively, certainly.
+I will not make you so bad a return for all your kindness. What! have
+you forgotten what I was, what I am? You, as a freeman, will soon have
+a nice little estate at home, and may command respect and reverence from
+all; but how different it would be if you had a wife like me at your
+heels--if only from the fact that I was once a slave."
+
+"That is the history of it all!" he interrupted, and his brow cleared.
+"That is what is troubling your dear little soul! But do you not know
+who and what I am? Have I not told you what a Masdakite is?
+
+   [Eutychius, Bishop of Alexandria thus describes the communistic
+   doctrine of Masdak: "God has given to men on earth that which is of
+   the earth to the end that it may be divided equally among them, and
+   that no more falls to the lot of one than another. And if one hath
+   more than is seemly of money or wives or slaves or movable goods, we
+   will take it from him to the end that he and the rest may be equal."]
+
+We Masdakites believe, nay, we know, that all men are born equal, and
+that this mad-cap world would be a better place if there were neither
+masters nor servants; however, as things are, so they must remain. The
+great Lord of Heaven will suffer it yet for a season; but sooner or
+later, perhaps very soon, everything will be quite different, and it is
+our business to make ready for the day of equality. Then Paradise will
+return on earth; there will be none greater or less than another, but we
+shall all walk hand-in-hand and stand by each other on an equal footing.
+Then shall war and misery cease; for all that is fair and good on earth
+belongs to all men in common; and then all men shall be as willing to
+give and to help others, as they now are to seize and to oppress.--We
+have no marriage bond like other people; but when a man loves a woman
+he says, 'Will you be mine?' and if her heart consents she follows him
+home; and one may quit the other if love grows cold. Still, no married
+couple, whether Christian or Parsee, ever clung together more faithfully
+than my parents or my grandparents; and we will do the same to the end,
+for our love will bind us firmly together with strong cords that will
+last longer than our lives.--So now you know the doctrine of our master
+Masdak; my father and grandfather both followed it, and I was taught
+it by my mother when I was a little child. All in our village were
+Masdakites; and there was not a slave in the place; the land belonged to
+all in common and was tilled by all, and the harvest was equally
+shared. However, they no longer receive strangers, and I must seek for
+fellow-believers elsewhere. Still, a Masdakite I shall always remain;
+and, if I were to take a slave for my wife, I should only be acting on
+the precepts of the master and helping them on. But as for you, the
+case does not apply to you, for you are the child of a brave freeman,
+respected in all the land; our people will regard you as a prisoner of
+war, not as a slave. They will look up to me as your deliverer. And if I
+had found you, just as you are, the meanest of slaves and keeping pigs,
+I would have put my hand in my wallet at once and have bought your
+freedom and have carried you off home as my wife--and no Masdakite who
+saw you would ever blame me. Now you know all about it, and there, I
+hope, is an end of your coyness and mincing."
+
+Mandane, however, still would not yield; she looked at him with eyes
+that entreated his pity, and pointed to her cropped ears.
+
+Rustem shrugged his shoulders with a laugh. "Of course, that too, into
+the bargain; You will not let me off any part of it! If it had been your
+eyes now, you would not have been able to see, and no countryman can do
+with a blind wife, so I should leave you where you are. But you, little
+one, have hearing as sharp as a bird's? And what bird--pretty little
+things--did you ever see with ears, unless it were a bat or a nasty
+owl?--That is all nonsense. Besides, who can see what you have lost now
+that Pulcheria has brought your hair down so prettily? And do not you
+remember the head-dress our women wear? You might have ears as long as
+a hare's, and what good would it do you?--no one could see them. Just as
+you are, a lily grown like a cypress, you are ten times sweeter to look
+at than the prettiest girl there, if she had three or even four ears.
+A girl with three ears! Only think, Mandane, where could the third ear
+grow?"
+
+How heartily he laughed, and how glad he was to have hit on this jest
+and have turned off a subject which might so well be painful to her! But
+his mirth failed of its effect, and only brought a silent smile to her
+lips. Even this died quickly away, and in its place there came such a
+sad, pathetic expression, as she hung her pretty head, that he
+could neither carry on the joke nor reproach her sharply. He said
+compassionately, with a little shake of the head:
+
+"But you must not look like that, my pigeon: I cannot bear it. What is
+it that is weighing on your little soul? Courage, courage, sweetheart,
+and make a clean breast of it!--But no! Do not speak. I can spare
+you that! I know, poor little darling--it is that old story of the
+governor's son."
+
+She nodded, and her eyes filled with tears; and he, with a loud sigh,
+exclaimed: "I thought as much, I was right, poor child!"
+
+He took her hand, and went on bravely:
+
+"Yes, that has given me some bad hours, too, and a great deal to think
+about; in fact, I came very near to leaving you alone and spoiling my
+own happiness and yours too. But I came to my senses before it was
+too late. Not on account of what Dame Joanna said the day before
+yesterday--though what she says must be true, and she told me that
+all--you know what--was at an end. No; my own sense told me this time;
+for I said to myself: Such a motherless, helpless little thing, a slave,
+too, and as pretty as the angels, her master's son took a fancy to her,
+how could she defend herself? And how cruelly the poor little soul was
+punished!--Yes, little one, you may well weep! Why, my own eyes are full
+of tears. Well, so it had to be and so it was. You and I and the Lord
+Almighty and the Hosts of Heaven--who can do anything against us?--So
+you see that even a poor fool like me can understand how it all came
+about; and I do not accuse you, nor have I anything to forgive. It was
+just a dreadful misfortune. But it has come to a good end, thank God I
+and I can forget it entirely and for ever, if only you can say: 'It is
+all over and done with and buried like the dead!'"
+
+Before he could hinder her, she snatched his hand, to her lips with
+passionate affection and sobbed out:
+
+"You are so good! Oh! Rustem, there is not another man on earth so good
+as you are, and my mother will bless you for it. Do what you will with
+me! And I declare to you, once for all that all that is past and gone,
+and only to think of it gives me horror. And it was exactly as you say:
+my mother dead, no one to warn me or protect me,--I was hardly sixteen,
+a simple, ignorant creature, and he called me, and it all came over me
+like a dream in my sleep; and when I awoke...."
+
+"There we are," he interrupted and he tried to laugh as he wiped his
+eyes. "Both laid up with holes in our heads.--And when I am in my
+own country I always think the prettiest time is just when the hard
+winter-frost is over, and the snow melted, and all the flowers in the
+valleys rush into bloom--and so I feel now, my little girl. Everything
+will be well now, we shall be so wonderfully happy. The day before
+yesterday, do you know, I still was not quite clear about it all. Your
+trouble gave me no peace, and it went against the grain-well, you can
+understand. But then, later, when I was lying in my room and the moon
+shone down on my bed..." and a rapt expression came into his face
+that strangely beautified his harsh features, "I could not help asking
+myself: 'Although the moon went down into the sea this morning, does
+that prevent its shining as brightly as ever to-night, and bringing a
+cooler breeze?' And if a human soul has gone under in the same way, may
+it not rise up again, bright and shining, when it has bathed and rested?
+And such a heart--of course every man would like to have its love all
+to himself, but it may have enough to give more than once. For, as I
+remembered, my mother, though she loved me dearly, when another child
+came and yet another gave them the best she had to give; and I was none
+the worse when she had my youngest sister at the breast, nor was she
+when I was petted and kissed. And it must be just the same with you.
+Thought I to myself: though she once loved another man, she may still
+have a good share left for me!"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Rustem!" she exclaimed, looking tearfully but gratefully
+into his eyes. "All that is in me of love and tenderness is for you--for
+you only."
+
+At this he joyfully exclaimed:
+
+"All, that is indeed good hearing! That will do for me; that is what I
+call a good morning's work! I sat down under this tree a vagabond and
+a wanderer, and I get up a future land-holder, with the sweetest little
+wife in the world to keep house for me."
+
+They sat a long time under the shady foliage; he craved no more than to
+gaze at her and, when he put the old questions asked by all lovers, to
+be answered with lips and eyes, or merely a speechless nod. Her hands no
+longer plied the needle, and the pair would have smiled in pity on
+any one who should have complained of the intolerable heat of this
+scorching, parching forenoon. A pair of turtle doves over their heads
+were less indifferent to the sun's rays than they, for the birds had
+closed their eyes, and the head of the mother bird was resting languidly
+against the dark collar round her mate's neck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The Vekeel, like the Persian lovers, did not allow the heat of the day
+to interfere with his plans. He regarded the governor's house as
+his own; all he found there aroused, not merely his avarice, but his
+interest. His first object was to find some document which might justify
+his proceedings against Orion and the sequestration of his estates, in
+the eyes of the authorities at Medina.
+
+Great schemes were brewing there; if the conspiracy against the Khaliff
+Omar should succeed, he had little to fear; and the greater the sum he
+could ere long forward to the new sovereign, the more surely he could
+count on his patronage--a sum exceeding, if possible, the largest which
+his predecessor had ever cast into the Khaliff's treasury.
+
+He went from room to room with the curiosity and avidity of a child,
+touching everything, testing the softness of the pillows, peeping into
+scrolls which he did not understand, tossing them aside, smelling at the
+perfumes in the dead woman's rooms, and the medicines she had used. He
+showed his teeth with delight when he found in her trunks some costly
+jewels and gold coins, stuck the finest of her diamond rings on his
+finger, already covered with gems, and then eagerly searched every
+corner of the rooms which Orion had occupied.
+
+His interpreter, who could read Greek, had to translate every document
+he found that did not contain verses. While he listened, he clawed and
+strummed on the young man's lyre and poured out the scented oil which
+Orion had been wont to use to smear it over his beard. In front of the
+bright silver mirror he could not cease from making faces.
+
+To his great disgust he could find nothing among the hundred objects
+and trifles that lay about to justify suspicion, till, just as he was
+leaving the room, he noticed in a basket near the writing-table some
+discarded tablets. He at once pointed them out to the interpreter
+and, though there was but little to read on the Diptychon,--[Double
+writing-tablets, which folded together]--it seemed important to the
+negro for it ran as follows:
+
+"Orion, the son of George, to Paula the daughter of Thomas!
+
+"You have heard already that it is now impossible for me to assist in
+the rescue of the nuns. But do not misunderstand me. Your noble, and
+only too well-founded desire to lend succor to your fellow-believers
+would have sufficed..."
+
+From this point the words written on the wax were carefully effaced, and
+hardly a letter was decipherable; indeed, there were so few lines that
+it seemed as though the letter had never been ended-which was the fact.
+
+Though it gave the Vekeel no inculpating evidence against Orion it
+pointed to his connection with the guilty parties: Paula, doubtless, had
+been concerned in the scheme which had cost the lives of so many brave
+Moslems. The negro had learnt, through the money-changer at Fostat,
+that she was on terms of close intimacy with the Mukaukas' son and had
+entrusted her property to his stewardship. They must both be accused as
+accomplices in the deed, and the document proved Orion's knowledge of
+it, at any rate.
+
+Plotinus, the bishop, at whose instigation the fugitives had been
+chased, could fill up what the damsel might choose to conceal.
+
+He had started to follow the patriarch immediately after the pursuers
+had set out, and had only returned from Upper Egypt early on the
+previous day. On his arrival he had forwarded to the Vekeel two
+indictments brought against Orion by the prelate: the first relating
+to the evasion of the nuns; the other to the embezzlement of a costly
+emerald; the rightful property of the church. These accusations were
+what had encouraged the Negro to confiscate the young man's estate,
+particularly as the bitter tone of the patriarch's document sufficiently
+proved that in him he had found an ally.
+
+Paula must next be placed in safe custody, and he had no doubt whatever
+that her statement would incriminate Orion in some degree. He would
+gladly have cross-examined her at once, but he had other matters in hand
+to-day.
+
+The longest part of his task was ransacking the treasurer's office;
+Nilus himself had to conduct the search. Everything which he pointed out
+as a legal document, title-deed, contract for purchase or sale, revenue
+account or the like, was at once placed in oxcarts or on camels, with
+the large sums of gold and silver coin, and carried across the river
+under a strong escort. All the more antique deeds and the family
+archives, the Vekeel left untouched. He was indeed an indefatigable
+man, for although these details kept him busy the whole day, he allowed
+himself no rest nor did he once ask for the refreshment of food or a
+cooling draught. As the day went on he enquired again and again for the
+bishop, with increasing impatience and irritation. It would have been
+his part to wait on the patriarch, but who was Plotinus? Thin-skinned,
+like all up-starts in authority, he took the bishop's delay as an act of
+personal contumely. But the shepherd of the flock at Memphis was not a
+haughty prelate, but a very humble and pious minister. His superior, the
+patriarch, had entrusted him with an important mission to Amru or his
+lieutenant, and yet he could let the Vekeel wait in vain, and not even
+send him a message of explanation; in the afternoon, however, his old
+housekeeper dispatched the acolyte who was attached to his person to
+seek Philippus. Her master, a hale and vigorous man, had gone to bed
+by broad day-light a few hours after his return home, and had not again
+left it. He was hot and thirsty, and did not seem fully conscious of
+where he was or of what was happening.
+
+Plotinus had always maintained that prayer was the Christian's best
+medicine; still, as his poor body had become alarmingly heated the old
+woman ventured to send for the physician; but the messenger came back
+saying that Philippus was absent on a journey. This was in fact the
+case: He had quitted Memphis in obedience to a letter from Haschim. The
+merchant's unfortunate son was not getting better. There seemed to be
+an injury to some internal organ, which threatened his life. The anxious
+father besought the leech, in whom he had the greatest confidence, to
+hasten to Djidda, there to examine the sufferer and undertake the case.
+At the same time he desired that Rustem should join him as soon as his
+health would permit.
+
+This letter--which ended with greetings to Paula, for whose father he
+was making diligent search--agitated Philippus greatly. How could he
+leave Memphis at a time of such famine and sickness?--And Dame Joanna
+and her daughter!
+
+On the other hand he was much drawn to get away on Paula's
+account--away, far away; and then how gladly would he do his best
+to save that fine old man's son. In spite of all this he would have
+remained, but that his old friend, quite unexpectedly, took Haschim's
+side of the question and implored him to make the journey. He would make
+it his business and his pleasure to take charge of the women in Rufinus'
+house; Philip's assistant could fill his place at the bedside of many
+of the sick, and the rest could die without him. Had not he himself said
+that there was no remedy for the disease? Again, Philip had said not
+long since that there could be no peace for him within reach of Paula:
+here was a favorable opportunity for escape without attracting remark,
+and at the same time for doing a work of the truest charity.
+
+So Philippus had yielded, and had started on his journey with very mixed
+feelings.
+
+Horapollo did not devote any particular attention to his personal
+comfort; but in one respect he took especial care of himself. He had
+great difficulty in walking and, as he loved to breathe the fresh air at
+sundown, and sometimes to study the stars at a late hour, he kept an ass
+of the best and finest breed. He did not hesitate to pay a high price
+for such a beast if it really answered his requirements; that is to say
+if it were strong, surefooted, gentle, and light-colored. His father and
+grandfather, priests of Isis, had always ridden white asses, and so he
+would do the same.
+
+During the last few sultry weeks he had rarely gone out of doors, and
+to-day he waited till the hour before sunset before starting to keep his
+promise.
+
+Robed in snowy-white linen, with new sandals on his feet, freshly
+shaven, and protected from the sun's rays by a crisply curled, flowing
+wig, after the manner of his fathers, as well as by an umbrella, he
+mounted his beautiful white ass in the conviction that he had done
+his best for his outer man, and set forth, followed by his black slave
+trotting on foot.
+
+It was not yet dark when he stopped at the house of Rufinus. His heart
+had not beat so high for many a day.
+
+"I feel as if I had come courting," said he, laughing at himself. "Well,
+and I really am come to propose an alliance for the rest of my life!
+Still, curiosity, one would think, might be shed with the hair and the
+teeth!" However, it still clung to him, and he could not deny to himself
+that he was very curious as to the person whom he hated, though he had
+never seen her, simply because she was the daughter of a patrician and a
+prefect, and had made his Philippus miserable. As he was dismounting,
+a graceful young girl and an older woman, in very costly though simple
+dresses, came through the garden. These must be the water-wagtail, and
+Orion's Byzantine guest.--How annoying! So many women at once!
+
+Their presence here could only embarrass and disturb him--a lonely
+student unused to the society of women. However, there was no help for
+it; and the new-comers were not so bad after all.
+
+Katharina was a very attractive, pretty little mouse, and even without
+her millions much too good for the libertine Orion. The matron, who had
+a kind, pleasant face, was exactly what Philippus had described her. But
+then--and this spoilt all--in their presence he must not allude to the
+death of Rufinus, so that he could not mention his proposed arrangement.
+He had swallowed all that dust, and borne that heat for nothing, and
+to-morrow he must ignominiously go through it all again!
+
+The first people he met were a handsome young couple: Rustem and
+Mandane. There could be no doubt as to their identity; so he went up to
+them and gave Rustem the merchant's message, offering in Philip's name
+to advance the money for the journey. But the Masdakite patted his
+sleeve, in which he carried a good round sum in gold pieces, and
+exclaimed cheerily:
+
+"It is all here, and enough for two travellers to the East.--My little
+wife, by your leave; the time has come, little pigeon! Off we go,
+homeward bound!"
+
+The huge fellow shouted it out in his deep voice with such effervescent
+contentment, and the pretty girl, as she looked up at him, was so glad,
+so much in love, and so grateful, that it quite cheered the old man; and
+he, who read an omen in every incident, accepted this meeting as of
+good augury at his first entering the house which was probably to be his
+home.
+
+His visit went on as well as it had begun, for he was welcomed very
+warmly both by the widow and daughter of Rufinus. Pulcheria at once
+pushed forward her father's arm-chair and placed a pillow behind his
+back, and she did it so quietly, so simply, and so amiably that it
+warmed his old heart, and he said to himself that it would be almost
+too much of a good thing to have such care given him every day and every
+hour.
+
+He could not forbear from a kindly jest with the young girl over her
+attentions, and Martina at once entered into the joke. She had seen
+him coming on his fine ass; she praised the steed, and then refused to
+believe that the rider was past eighty. His news of Philip's departure
+was regretted by all, and he was delighted to perceive that Pulcheria
+seemed startled and presently shrank into the background. What a sweet,
+pure, kind face the child had--and pretty withal; she must and should be
+his little daughter; and all the while he was talking, or listening to
+Katharina's small jokes and a friendly catechism from Martina and Dame
+Joanna, in his mind's eye he saw Philippus and that dear little creature
+as man and wife, surrounded by pretty children playing all about him.
+
+He had come to comfort and to condole, and lo! he was having as pleasant
+an hour as he had known in a long time.
+
+He and the other visitors had been received in the vindarium, which was
+now brightly lighted up, and now and then he glanced at the doors which
+opened on this, the centre of the house, trying to imagine what the
+different rooms should by-and-bye be used for.
+
+But he heard a light step behind him; Martina rose, the water-wagtail
+hurried to meet the new-comer, and there appeared on the scene the tall
+figure of a girl dressed in mourning-robes. She greeted the matron with
+distinguished dignity, cast a cordial glance of sympathetic intelligence
+to Joanna and Pulcheria, and when the mistress of the house told her
+who the old man was, she went up to him and held out her hand--a cool,
+slender hand, as white as marble; the true patrician hand.
+
+Yes, she was beautiful, wonderfully beautiful! He could hardly remember
+ever to have seen her equal. A spotless masterpiece of the Creator's
+hand, made like some unapproachable goddess, to command the worship of
+subject adorers; however, she must renounce all hope of his, for those
+marble features, all the whiter by contrast with her black dress, had no
+attraction for him. No warming glow shone in those proud eyes; and under
+that lordly bosom beat no loving or lovable heart; he shivered at the
+touch of her fingers, and her presence, he thought, had a chilling and
+paralyzing influence on all the party.
+
+This was, in fact, the case.
+
+Paula had been sent for to see the senator's wife and Katharina.
+Martina, thought she, had come out of mere curiosity, and she had a
+preconceived dislike to any one connected with Heliodora. She had lost
+her confidence in the water-wagtail, for only two days ago the acolyte
+in personal attendance on the bishop--and whose child Rufinus had cured
+of a lame foot--had been to the house to warn Joanna against the girl.
+Katharina, he told her, had a short while since betrayed to Plotinus
+some important secret relating to her husband, and the bishop had
+immediately gone over to Fostat. It was hard to believe such a thing
+of any friend, still, the girl who, by her own confession, had been so
+ready to play the part of spy in the neighboring garden, was the only
+person who would have told the prelate what plan was in hand for the
+rescue of the sisters. The acolyte's positive statement, indeed, left no
+room for doubt.
+
+It was not in Paula's nature to think ill of others; but in this case
+her candid spirit, incapable of falsehood, would not suffer her to be
+anything but cool to the child; the more effusively Katharina clung to
+her, the more icily Paula repelled her.
+
+The old man saw this, and he concluded that this mien and demeanor
+were natural to Paula at all times patrician haughtiness, cold-hearted
+selfishness, the insolent and boundless pride of the race he
+loathed--noble by birth alone--stood before him incarnate. He hated the
+whole class, and he hated this specimen of the class; and his aversion
+increased tenfold as he remembered what woe this cold siren had wrought
+for the son of his affections and might bring on him if she should
+thwart his favorite project. Sooner would he end his days in loneliness,
+parted even from Philippus, than share his home, his table, and his
+daily life with this woman, who could repel the sincerely-meant caresses
+of that pretty, childlike, simple little Katharina with such frigid and
+supercilious haughtiness. The mere sight of her at meals would embitter
+every mouthful; only to hear her domineering tones in the next room
+would spoil his pleasure in working; the touch of her cold hand as she
+bid him good-night would destroy his night's rest!
+
+Here and now her presence was more than he could bear. It was an offense
+to him, a challenge; and if ever he had wished to clear her out of his
+path and the physician's--by force, if need should be--the idea wholly
+possessed him now.
+
+Irritated and provoked, he took leave of all the others, carefully
+avoiding a glance even at Paula, though, after he rose, she went up to
+him on purpose to say a few pleasant words, and to assure him how highly
+she esteemed his adopted son.
+
+Pulcheria escorted him through the garden and he promised her to return
+on the morrow, or the day after, and then she must take care that he
+found her and her mother alone, for he had no fancy to allow Paula to
+thrust her pride and airs under his nose a second time.
+
+He angrily rejected Pulcheria's attempts to take her friend's part, and
+he trotted home again, mumbling curses between his old lips.
+
+Martina, meanwhile, had made friends with Paula in her genial, frank
+way. She had met her parents in time past in Constantinople and spoke of
+them with heart-felt warmth. This broke the ice between them, and
+when Martina spoke of Orion--her 'great Sesostris'--of the regard
+and popularity he had enjoyed in Constantinople, and then, with due
+recognition and sympathy, of his misfortune, Paula felt drawn towards
+her indeed. Her reserve vanished entirely, and the conversation
+between the new acquaintances became more and more eager, intimate, and
+delightful.
+
+When they parted both felt that they could only gain by further
+intercourse. Paula was called away at the very moment of leave-taking,
+and left the room with warm expressions intended only for the matron:
+"Not good-bye--we must meet again. But of course it is my part, as
+the younger, to go to you!" And she was no sooner gone than Martina
+exclaimed:
+
+"What a lovely creature! The worthy daughter of a noble father! And her
+mother! O dame Joanna! A sweeter being has rarely graced this miserable
+world; she was born to die young, she was only made to bloom and fade!"
+Then, turning to Katharina, she went on: with kindly reproof. "Evil
+tongues gave me a very false idea of this girl. 'A silver kernel in
+a golden shell,' says the proverb, but in this case both alike are of
+gold.--Between you two--good God!--But I know what has blinded your
+clear eyes, poor little kitten. After all, we all see things as we
+wish to see them. I would lay a wager, dame Joanna, that you are of my
+opinion in thinking the fair Paula a perfectly noble creature. Aye, a
+noble creature; it is an expressive word and God knows! How seldom is
+it a true one? It is one I am little apt to use, but I know no other for
+such as she is, and on her it is not ill-bestowed."
+
+"Indeed it is not!" answered Joanna with warm assent; but Martina
+sighed, for she was thinking to herself! "Poor Heliodora! I cannot but
+confess that Paula is the only match for my 'great Sesostris.' But what
+in Heaven's name will become of that poor, unfortunate, love-sick little
+woman?"
+
+All this flashed through her quick brain while Katharina was trying to
+justify herself, and asserting that she fully recognised Paula's great
+qualities, but that she was proud, fearfully proud--she had given
+Martina herself some evidence of that.
+
+At this Pulcheria interposed in zealous defense of her friend. She,
+however, had hardly begun to speak when she, too, was interrupted,
+for men's voices were heard in loud discussion in the vestibule, and
+Perpetua suddenly rushed in with a terrified face, exclaiming, heedless
+of the strangers: "Oh Dame Joanna! Here is another, dreadful misfortune!
+Those Arab devils have come again, with an interpreter and a writer.
+And they have been sent--Merciful Saviour, is it possible?--they have
+brought a warrant to take away my poor dear child, to take her to
+prison--to drag her all through the city on foot and throw her into
+prison."
+
+The faithful soul sobbed aloud and covered her face with her hands.
+Terror fell upon them all; Joanna left the viridarium in speechless
+dismay, and Martina exclaimed:
+
+"What a horrible, vile country! Good God, they are even falling on us
+women. Children, children--give me a seat, I feel quite ill.--In prison!
+that beautiful, matchless creature dragged through the streets to
+prison. If the warrant is all right she must go--she must! Not an angel
+from heaven could save her. But that she should be marched through
+the town, that noble and splendid creature, as if she were a common
+thief--it is not to be borne. So much as one woman can do for another
+at any rate shall be done, so long as I am here to stand on two
+feet!--Katharina, child, do not you understand? Why do you stand gaping
+at me as if I were a feathered ape? What do your fat horses eat oats
+for? What, you do not understand me yet? Be off at once, this minute,
+and have the horses put in the large closed chariot in which I came
+here, and bring it to the door.--Ah! At last you see daylight; now, take
+to your heels and fly!"
+
+And she clapped her hands as if she were driving hens off a garden-bed;
+Katharina had no alternative but to obey.
+
+Martina then felt for her purse, and when she had found it she added
+confidently:
+
+"Thank God! I can talk to these villains! This is a language," and
+she clinked the gold pieces, intelligible to all. "Come, where are the
+rascals?"
+
+The universal tongue had the desired effect. The chief of the guard
+allowed it to persuade him to convey Paula to prison in the chariot,
+and to promise that she should find decent accommodation there, while he
+also granted old Betta the leave she insisted on with floods of tears,
+to share the girl's captivity.
+
+Paula maintained her dignity and composure under this unexpected shock.
+Only when it came to taking leave of Pulcheria and Mary, who clung to
+her in frantic grief and begged to go with her and Betta to prison, she
+could not restrain her tears.
+
+The scribe had informed her that she was charged dy Bishop Plotinus with
+having plotted the escape and flight of the nuns, and Joanna's knees
+trembled under her when Paula whispered in her ear:
+
+"Beware of Katharina! No one else could have betrayed us; if she
+has also revealed what Rufinus did for the sisters we must deny it,
+positively and unflinchingly. Fear nothing: they will get not a word
+out of me." Then she added aloud: "I need not beg you to remember me
+lovingly; thanks to you both--the warmest, deepest thanks for all....
+You, Pul...." And she clasped the mother and daughter to her bosom,
+while Mary, clinging to her, hid her little face in her skirts, weeping
+bitterly.... "You, Dame Joanna, took me in, a forlorn creature, and made
+me happy till Fate fell on us all--you know, ah! you know too well.--The
+kindness you have shown to me show now to my little Mary. And there
+is one thing more--here comes the interpreter again!--A moment yet, I
+beg!--If the messenger should return and bring news of my father or, my
+God! my God!--my father himself, let me know, or bring him to me!--Or,
+if I am dead by the time he comes, tell him that to find him, to see him
+once more, was my heart's dearest wish. And beg my father," she breathed
+the words into Joanna's ear, "to love Orion as a son. And tell them both
+that I loved them to the last, deeply, perfectly, beyond words!" Then
+she added aloud as: she kissed each on her eyes and lips: "I love you
+and shall always love you--you, Joanna, and you, my Pulcheria, and you,
+Mary, my sweet, precious darling."
+
+At this the water-wagtail humed forward with outstretched arms, but Dame
+Joanna put out a significantly warning hand; and they who were one in
+heart clasped each other in a last embrace as though they were indeed
+but one and no stranger could have any part in it.
+
+Once more Katharina tried to approach Paula; but Martina, whose eyes
+filled with tears as she looked on the parting, held her back by the
+shoulder and whispered:
+
+"Do not disturb them, child. Such hearts spontaneously attract those for
+whom they yearn. I, old as I am, would gladly be worthy to be called."
+
+The interpreter now sternly insisted on starting. The three women
+parted; but still the little girl held tightly to Paula, even when she
+went up to the matron and kissed her with a natural impulse. Martina
+took her head between her hands, kissed her fondly, and said in a voice
+she could scarcely control: "God protect and keep you, child! I thank
+Him for having brought us together. A soul so pure and clear as yours is
+not to be found in the capital, but we still know how to be friends to
+our friends--at any rate I and my husband do--and if Heaven but grants
+me the opportunity you shall prove it. You never need feel alone in the
+world; never, so long as Justinus and his wife are still in it. Remember
+that, child; I mean it in solemn earnest."
+
+With this, she again embraced Paula, who as she went out to enter the
+chariot also bestowed a farewell kiss on Eudoxia and Mandane, for they,
+too, stood modestly weeping in the background; then she gave her hand to
+the hump-backed gardener, and to the Masdakite, down whose cheeks tears
+were rolling. At this moment Katharina stood in her path, seized her arm
+in mortified excitement, and said insistently:
+
+"And have you not a word for me?"
+
+Paula freed herself from her clutch and said in a low voice: "I thank
+you for lending me the chariot. As you know, it is taking me to prison,
+and I fear it is your perfidy that has brought me to this. If I am
+wrong, forgive me--if I am right, your punishment will hardly be lighter
+than my fate. You are still young, Katharina; try to grow better."
+
+And with this she stepped into the chariot with old Betta, and the last
+she saw was little Mary who threw herself sobbing into Joanna's arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Susannah had never particularly cared for Paula, but her fate shocked
+her and moved her to pity. She must at once enquire whether it was not
+possible to send her some better food than the ordinary prison-fare.
+That was but Christian charity, and her daughter seemed to take her
+friend's misfortune much to heart. When she and Martina returned home
+she looked so cast down and distracted that no stranger now would ever
+have dreamed of comparing her with a brisk little bird.
+
+Once more a poisoned arrow had struck her. Till now she had been wicked
+only in her own eyes; now she was wicked in the eyes of another. Paula
+knew it was she who had betrayed her. The traitoress had been met by
+treachery. The woman she hated had a right to regard her as spiteful and
+malignant, and for this she hated her more than ever.
+
+Till now she had nowhere failed to find an affectionate greeting and
+welcome; and to-day how coldly she had been repulsed--and not by Paula
+alone, but also by Martina, who no doubt had noticed something, and
+whose dry reserve had been quite intolerable to the girl.
+
+It was all the old bishop's fault; he had not kept his promise that her
+tale-bearing should remain as secret as a confession. Indeed, he must
+have deliberately revealed it, for no one but herself knew of the facts.
+Perhaps he had even mentioned her name to the Arabs; in that case she
+would have to bear witness before the judges, and then in what light
+would she appear to Orion, to her mother, to Joanna and Martina?
+
+She had not failed to understand that old Rufinus must have perished
+in the expedition, and she was truly grieved. His wife and daughter
+had always been kind neighbors to her; and she would not have willingly
+brought sorrow on them. If she were called up to give evidence it might
+go hard with them, and she wished no harm to any one but those who had
+cheated her out of Orion's love. This idea of standing before a court of
+justice was the worst of all; this must be warded off at any cost.
+
+Where could Bishop Plotinus be? He had returned to Memphis the day
+before, and yet he had not been to see her mother, to whom he usually
+paid a daily visit. This absence seemed to her ominous. Everything
+depended on her reminding the old man of his promise as soon as
+possible; for if at the trial next morning--which of course, he
+must attend--he should happen to mention her name, the guards, the
+interpreter, and the scribe would invade her home too and then-horror!
+She had given evidence once already, and could never again go through
+all that had ensued.
+
+But how was she to get at the bishop in the course of the night or early
+to-morrow at latest?
+
+The chariot had not yet returned, and if--it still wanted two hours of
+midnight; yes--it must be done.
+
+She began talking to her mother of the prelate's absence; Susannah, too,
+was uneasy about it, particularly since she had heard that the old man
+had come home ill and that his servant had been out and about in search
+of a physician. Katharina promptly proposed to go and see him: the
+horses were still in harness, her nurse could accompany her. She really
+must go and learn how her venerable friend was going on.
+
+Susannah thought this very sweet; still, she said it was very late for
+such a visit; however, her spoilt child had said that she "must" and the
+answer was a foregone conclusion. Dame Susannah gave way; the nurse was
+sent for, and as soon as the chariot came round Katharina flung her arms
+round her mother's neck, promising her not to stay long, and in a few
+minutes the chariot stopped at the door of the bishop's palace. She bid
+the nurse wait for her and went alone into the vast, rambling house.
+
+The spacious hall, lighted feebly by a single lamp, was silent and
+deserted, even the door-keeper had left his post; however, she was
+familiar with every step and turning, and went on through the impluvium
+into the library where, at this hour, the bishop was wont to be found.
+But it was dark, and her gentle call met with no reply. In the next
+room, to which she timidly felt her way, a slave lay snoring; beside
+him were a wine jar and a hand-lamp. The sight somewhat reassured her.
+Beyond was the bishop's bedroom, which she had never been into. A dim
+light gleamed through the open door and she heard a low moaning and
+gasping. She called the house-keeper by name once, twice; no answer. The
+sleeping slave did not stir; but a familiar voice addressed her from the
+bedroom, groaning rather than saying:
+
+"Who is there? Is he come? Have you found him at last?"
+
+The whole household had fled in fear of the pestilence; even the
+acolyte, who had indeed a wife and children. The housekeeper had been
+forced to leave the master to seek the physician, who had already been
+there once, and the last remaining slave, a faithful, goodhearted,
+heedless sot, had been left in charge; but he had brought a jar of wine
+up from the unguarded cellar, had soon emptied it, and then, overcome by
+drink and the heat of the night, he had fallen asleep.
+
+Katharina at once spoke her name and the old man answered her, saying
+kindly, but with difficulty: "Ah, it is you, you, my child!"
+
+She took up the lamp and went close to the sick man. He put out his lean
+arm to welcome her; but, as her approach brought the light near to him
+he covered his eyes, crying out distressfully: "No, no; that hurts. Take
+away the lamp."
+
+Katharina set it down on a low chest behind the head of the bed; then
+she went up to the sufferer, gave him her mother's message, and asked
+him how he was and why he was left alone. He could only give incoherent
+answers which he gasped out with great difficulty, bidding her go close
+to him for he could not hear her distinctly. He was very ill, he told
+her--dying. It was good of her to have come for she had always been his
+pet, his dear, good little girl.
+
+"And it was a happy impulse that brought you," he added, "to receive an
+old man's blessing. I give it you with my whole heart."
+
+As he spoke he put forth his hand and she, following an instinctive
+prompting, fell on her knees by the side of the couch.
+
+He laid his burning right hand on her head and murmured some words of
+blessing; she, however, scarcely heeded them, for his hand felt like
+lead and its heat oppressed and distressed her dreadfully. It was
+a sincere grief to her to see this true old friend of her childhood
+suffering thus--perhaps indeed dying; at the same time she did not
+forget what had brought her here--still, she dared not disturb him
+in this act of love. He gave her his blessing--that was kind; but his
+mutterings did not come to an end, the weight of the hot hand on her
+head grew heavier and heavier, and at last became intolerable. She
+felt quite dazed, but with an effort she collected her senses and then
+perceived that the old man had wandered off from the usual formulas of
+blessing and was murmuring disconnected and inarticulate words.
+
+At this she raised the terrible, fevered hand, laid it on the bed, and
+was about to ask him whether he had betrayed her to Benjamin, and if he
+had mentioned her name, when--Merciful God! there on his cheeks were the
+same livid spots that she had noticed on those of the plague stricken
+man in Medea's house. With a cry of horror she sprang up, snatched at
+the lamp, held it over the sufferer, heedless of his cries of anguish,
+looked into his face, and pulled away the weary hands with which he
+tried to screen his eyes from the light. Then, having convinced herself
+that she was not mistaken, she fled from room to room out into the hall.
+
+Here she was met by the housekeeper, who took the lamp out of her hand
+and was about to question her; but Katharina only screamed:
+
+"The plague is in the house! Lock the doors!" and then rushed away, past
+the leech who was coming in. With one bound she was in the chariot, and
+as the horses started she wailed out to the nurse:
+
+"The plague--they have the plague. Plotinus has taken the plague!"
+
+The terrified woman tried to soothe her, assuring her that she must be
+mistaken for such hellish fiends did not dare come near so holy a man.
+But the girl vouchsafed no reply, merely desiring her to have a bath
+made ready for her as soon as they should reach home.
+
+She felt utterly shattered; on the spot where the old man's
+plague-stricken hand had rested she was conscious of a heavy, hateful
+pressure, and when the chariot at length drove into their own garden
+something warm and heavy-something she could not shake off, still seemed
+to weigh on her brain.
+
+The windows were all dark excepting one on the ground-floor, where a
+light was still visible in the room inhabited by Heliodora. A diabolical
+thought flashed through her over-excited and restless mind; without
+looking to the right hand or the left she obeyed the impulse and went
+forward, just as she was, into her friend's sitting-room and then,
+lifting a curtain, on into the bedroom. Heliodora was lying on her
+couch, still suffering from a headache which had prevented her going to
+visit their neighbors; at first she did not notice the late visitor who
+stood by her side and bid her good evening.
+
+A single lamp shed a dim light in the spacious room, and the young girl
+had never thought their guest so lovely as she looked in that twilight.
+A night wrapper of the thinnest material only half hid her beautiful
+limbs. Round her flowing, fair hair, floated the subtle, hardly
+perceptible perfume which always pervaded this favorite of fortune. Two
+heavy plaits lay like sheeny snakes over her bosom and the white sheet.
+Her face was turned upwards and was exquisitely calm and sweet; and as
+she lay motionless and smiled up at Katharina, she looked like an angel
+wearied in well-doing.
+
+No man could resist the charms of this woman, and Orion had succumbed.
+By her side was a lute, from which she brought the softest and most
+soothing tones, and thus added to the witchery of her appearance.
+
+Katharina's whole being was in wild revolt; she did not know how she
+was able to return Heliodora's greeting, and to ask her how she could
+possibly play the lute with a headache.
+
+"Just gliding my fingers over the strings calms and refreshes my blood,"
+she replied pleasantly. "But you, child, look as if you were suffering
+far worse than I.--Did you come home in the chariot that drove up just
+now?"
+
+"Yes," replied Katharina. "I have been to see our dear old bishop. He is
+very ill, dying; he will soon be taken from us. Oh, what a fearful
+day! First Orion's mother, then Paula, and now this to crown all! Oh,
+Heliodora, Heliodora!"
+
+She fell on her knees by the bed and pressed her face against her
+pitying friend's bosom. Heliodora saw the tears which had risen with
+unaffected feeling to the girl's eyes; her tender soul was full of
+sympathy with the sorrow of such a gladsome young creature, who had
+already had so much to suffer, and she leaned over the child, kissing
+her affectionately on the brow, and murmuring words of consolation.
+Katharina clung to her closely, and pointing to the top of her head
+where that burning hand had pressed it, she said: "There, kiss there:
+there is where the pain is worst!--Ah, that is nice, that does me good."
+
+And, as the tender-hearted Heliodora's fresh lips rested on the
+plague-tainted hair, Katharina closed her eyes and felt as a gladiator
+might who hitherto has only tried his weapons on the practising
+ground, and now for the first time uses them in the arena to pierce his
+opponent's heart. She had a vision of herself as some one else,
+taller and stronger than she was; aye, as Death itself, the destroyer,
+breathing herself into her victim's breast.
+
+These feelings entirely possessed her as she knelt on the soft carpet,
+and she did not notice that another woman was crossing it noiselessly
+to her comforter's bed-side, with a glance of intelligence at Heliodora.
+Just as she exclaimed: "Another kiss there-it burns so dreadfully,"
+she felt two hands on her temples and two lips, not Heliodora's, were
+pressed on her head.
+
+She looked up in astonishment and saw the smiling face of her mother,
+who had come after her to ask how the bishop was, and who wished to take
+her share in soothing the pain of her darling.
+
+How well her little surprise had succeeded!
+
+But what came over the child? She started to her feet as if lightning
+had struck her, as if an asp had stung her, looked horror-stricken into
+her mother's eyes, and then, as Susannah was on the point of clasping
+the little head to her bosom once more to kiss the aching, the
+cursed spot, Katharina pushed her away, flew, distracted, through the
+sitting-room into the vestibule, and down the narrow steps leading to
+the bathroom.
+
+Her mother looked after her, shaking her head in bewilderment. Then
+she turned to Heliodora with a shrug, and said, as the tears filled her
+eyes:
+
+"Poor, poor little thing! Too many troubles have come upon her at once.
+Her life till lately was like a long, sunny day, and now the hail is
+pelting her from all sides at once. She has bad news of the bishop, I
+fear."
+
+"He is dying, she said," replied the young widow with feeling.
+
+"Our best and truest friend," sobbed Susannah. "It is, it really is too
+much. I often think that I must myself succumb, and as for her--hardly
+more than a child!--And with what resignation she bears the heaviest
+sorrows!--You, Heliodora, are far from knowing what she has gone
+through; but you have no doubt seen how her only thought is to seem
+bright, so as to cheer my heart. Not a sigh, not a complaint has passed
+her lips. She submits like a saint to everything, without a murmur. But,
+now that her clear old friend is stricken, she has lost her self-control
+for the first time. She knows all that Plotinus has been to me." And
+she broke down into fresh sobbing. When she was a little calmer, she
+apologised for her weakness and bid her fair guest good night.
+
+Katharina, meanwhile, was taking a bath.
+
+A bathroom was an indispensable adjunct to every wealthy Graeco-Egyptian
+house, and her father had taken particular pains with its construction.
+It consisted of two chambers, one for men and one for women; both fitted
+with equal splendor.
+
+White marble, yellow alabaster, purple porphyry on all sides; while the
+pavement was of fine Byzantine mosaic on a gold ground. There were no
+statues, as in the baths of the heathen; the walls were decorated with
+bible texts in gold letters, and above the divan, which was covered
+with a giraffe skin, there was a crucifix. On the middle panel of the
+coffered ceiling was inscribed defiantly, in the Coptic language
+the first axiom of the Jacobite creed: "We believe in the single,
+indivisible nature of Christ Jesus." And below this hung silver lamps.
+
+The large bath had been filled immediately for Katharina, as the
+furnace was heated every evening for the ladies of the house. As she was
+undressing, her maid showed her a diseased date. The head gardener, had
+brought it to her, for he had that afternoon, discovered that his palms,
+too, had been attacked. But the woman soon regretted her loquacity, for
+when she went on to say that Anchhor, the worthy shoemaker who, only the
+day before yesterday, had brought home her pretty new sandals, had died
+of the plague, Katharina scolded her sharply and bid her be silent. But
+as the maid knelt before her to unfasten her sandals, Katharina herself
+took up the story again, asking her whether the shoemaker's pretty young
+wife had also been attacked. The girl said that she was still alive, but
+that the old mother-in-law and all the children had been shut into
+the house, and even the shutters barred as soon as the corpse had been
+brought out. The authorities had ordered that this should be done in
+every case, so that the pestilence might not pervade the streets or
+be disseminated among the healthy. Food and drink were handed to the
+captives through a wicket in the door. Such regulations, she added,
+seemed particularly well-considered and wise. But she would have done
+better to keep her opinions to herself, for before she had done speaking
+Katharina gave her an angry push with her foot. Then she desired her not
+to be sparing with the 'smegma',--[A material like soap, but used in a
+soft state.]--and to wash her hair as thoroughly as possible.
+
+This was done; and Katharina herself rubbed her hands and arms with
+passionate diligence. Then she had water poured over her head again
+and again, till, when she desired the maid to desist, she had to lean
+breathless and almost exhausted against the marble.
+
+But in spite of smegma and water she still felt the pressure of the
+burning hand on top of her head, and her heart seemed oppressed by some
+invisible load of lead.
+
+Her mother! oh, her mother! She had kissed her there, where the plague
+had actually touched her, and in fancy she could hear her gasping and
+begging for a drink of water like the dying wretches to whom her fate
+had led her. And then--then came the servants of the senate and shut her
+into the pestilential house with the sick; she saw the pest in mortal
+form, a cruel and malignant witch; behind her, tall and threatening,
+stood her inexorable companion Death, reaching out a bony hand and
+clutching her mother, and then all who were in the house with her, and
+last of all, herself.
+
+Her arms dropped by her side: powerful and terrible as she had felt
+herself this morning, she was now crushed by a sense of miserable and
+impotent weakness. Her defiance had been addressed to a mortal, a frail,
+tender woman; and God and Fate had put her in the front of the battle
+instead of Heliodora. She shuddered at the thought.
+
+As she went up from the bath-room, her mother met her in the hall and
+said:
+
+"What, still here, Child? How you startled me! And is it true? Is
+Plotinus really ill of a complaint akin to the plague?"
+
+"Worse than that, mother," she replied sadly. "He has the plague; and
+I remembered that a bath is the right thing when one has been in a
+plague-stricken house; you, too, have kissed and touched me. Pray have
+the fire lighted again, late as it is, and take a bath too."
+
+"But, Child," Susannah began with a laugh; but Katharina gave her no
+peace till she yielded, and promised to bathe in the men's room, which
+had not been used at all since the appearance of the epidemic. When
+Dame Susannah found herself alone she smiled to herself in silent
+thankfulness, and in the bath again she lifted up her heart and hands
+in prayer for her only child, the loving daughter who cared for her so
+tenderly.
+
+Katharina went to her own room, after ascertaining that the clothes she
+had worn this evening had been sacrificed in the bath-furnace.
+
+It was past midnight, but still she bid the maid sit up, and she did not
+go to bed. She could not have found rest there. She was tempted to go
+out on the balcony, and she sat down there on a rocking chair. The night
+was sultry and still. Every house, every tree, every wall seemed to
+radiate the heat it had absorbed during the day. Along the quay came a
+long procession of pilgrims; this was followed by a funeral train and
+soon after came another--both so shrouded in clouds of dust that the
+torches of the followers looked like coals glimmering under ashes.
+Several who had died of the pestilence, and whom it had been impossible
+to bury by day, were being borne to the grave together. One of these
+funerals, so she vaguely fancied, was Heliodora's; the other her own
+perhaps--or her mother's--and she shivered at the thought. The long
+train wandered on under its shroud of dust, and stood still when it
+reached the Necropolis; then the sledge with the bier came back empty on
+red hot runners--but she was not one of the mourners--she was imprisoned
+in the pestiferous house. Then, when she was freed again--she saw it all
+quite clearly--two heads had been cut off in the courtyard of the Hall
+of justice: Orion's and Paula's--and she was left alone, quite alone and
+forlorn. Her mother was lying by her father's side under the sand in the
+cemetery, and who was there to care for her, to be troubled about her,
+to protect her? She was alone in the world like a tree without roots,
+like a leaf blown out to sea, like an unfledged bird that has fallen out
+of the nest.
+
+Then, for the first time since that evening when she had borne false
+witness, her memory reverted to all she had been taught at school and
+in the church of the torments of hell, and she pictured the abode of
+the damned, and the scorching, seething Lake of fire in which murderers,
+heretics, false witnesses....
+
+What was that?
+
+Had hell indeed yawned, and were the flames soaring up to the sky
+through the riven shell of the earth? Had the firmament opened to pour
+living fire and black fumes on the northern part of the city?
+
+She started up in dismay, her eyes fixed on the terrible sight. The
+whole sky seemed to be in flames; a fiery furnace, with dense smoke and
+myriads of shooting sparks, filled the whole space between earth and
+heaven. A devouring conflagration was apparently about to annihilate
+the town, the river, the starry vault itself; the metal heralds which
+usually called the faithful to church lifted up their voices; the quiet
+road at her feet suddenly swarmed with thousands of people; shrieks,
+yells and frantic commands came up from below, and in the
+confusion of tongues she could distinguish the words "Governor's
+Palace"--"Arabs"--"Mukaukas"--"Orion"--"fire"--"Put it out"--"Save it."
+
+At this moment the old head-gardener called up to her from the
+lotos-tank: "The palace is in flames! And in this drought--God
+All-merciful save the town!"
+
+Her knees gave way; she put out her hands with a faint cry to feel for
+some support, and two arms were thrown about her-the arms which she so
+lately had pushed away: her mother's: that mother who had bent over her
+only child and inhaled death in a kiss on her plague-tainted hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The governor's palace, the pride and glory of Memphis, the magnificent
+home of the oldest and noblest family of the land--the last house that
+had given birth to a race of native Egyptians held worthy, even by the
+Greeks, to represent the emperor and uphold the highest dignity in the
+world--the very citadel of native life, lay in ashes; and just as a
+giant of the woods crushes and destroys in its fall many plants of
+humbler growth, so the burning of the great house destroyed hundreds of
+smaller dwellings.
+
+This night's work had torn the mast and rudder, and many a plank
+besides, from that foundering vessel, the town of Memphis. It seemed
+indeed a miracle that had saved the whole from being reduced to cinders;
+and for this, next to God's providence, they might thank the black
+incendiary himself and his Arabs. The crime was committed with cool and
+shrewd foresight, and carried through to the end. During his visitation
+throughout the rambling buildings Obada had looked out for spots that
+might suit his purpose, and two hours after sunset he had lighted fire
+after fire with his own hand, in secret and undetected. The troops he
+intended to employ later were waiting under arms at Fostat, and when
+the fire broke out, first in the treasury and afterwards in three other
+places in the palace, they were immediately marched across and very
+judiciously employed.
+
+All that was precious in this ancient home of a wealthy race, was
+conveyed to a place of safety, even the numerous fine horses in the
+stables; and the title-deeds of the estate, slaves, and so forth were
+already secured at Fostat; still, the flames consumed vast quantities
+of treasures that could never be replaced. Beautiful works of art,
+manuscripts and books such as were only preserved here, old and splendid
+plants from every zone, vessels and woven stuffs that had been the
+delight of connoisseurs--all perished in heaps. But the incendiary
+regretted none of them, for all possibility of proving how much that was
+precious had fallen into his hands was buried under their ashes.
+
+The worst that could happen to him now was to be deposed from office
+for his too audacious proceedings. Of all the towns he had seen in the
+course of the triumphant incursions of Islam none had attracted him so
+greatly as Damascus, and he now had the means of spending the latter
+half of his life there in luxurious enjoyment.
+
+At the same time it was desirable to rescue as much as possible from the
+flames; for it would have given his enemies a fatal hold upon him, if
+the famous old city of Memphis should perish by his neglect. And he was
+a man to give battle to the awful element.
+
+Not another building fell a prey to it on the Nile quay; but a light
+southerly breeze carried burning fragments to the northwest, and several
+houses in the poorer quarter on the edge of the desert caught fire.
+Thither the larger portion of those who could combat the flames and
+rescue the inhabitants were at once directed; and here, as at the
+palace, he acted on the principle of sacrificing whatever could not be
+saved entire. Thus a whole quarter of the town was destroyed, hundreds
+of beggared families lost all they possessed; and yet he, whose ruthless
+avarice had cast so many into misery, was admired and lauded; for he was
+everywhere at once: now by the river and now by the desert, always where
+the danger was greatest, and where the presence of the leader was most
+needed. Here he was seen in the very midst of the fire, there he swung
+the axe with his own hand; now, mounted on horseback, he rode down the
+line where the dry grass was to be torn up by the roots and soaked with
+water; now, on foot, he directed the scanty jet from the pipes or, with
+Herculean strength, flung back into the flames a beam which had fallen
+beyond the limits he had set. His shrill voice sounded, as his huge
+height towered, above all others; every eye was fixed on his black face
+and flashing eyes and teeth, while his example carried away all his
+followers to imitate it. His shouts of command made the scene of the
+fire like a battle-field; the Moslems, so ably led, regardless of life
+as they were and ready to strain and exert their strength to the utmost,
+wrought wonders in the name of their God and His Prophet.
+
+The Egyptians, too, did their best; but they felt themselves impotent by
+comparison with what these Arabs did, and they hardly felt anything but
+the disgrace of being over-mastered by them.
+
+The light shone far across the country; even he whose splendid
+inheritance was feeding the flames perceived, between midnight and dawn,
+a glow on the distant western horizon which he was unable to account
+for.
+
+He had been riding towards it for about half an hour when the caravan
+halted at the last station but one, on the high road between Kolzum and
+Babylon.
+
+   [Suez, and the Greek citadel near which Amru founded Fostat and
+   Cairo subsequently grew up.]
+
+A considerable troop of horse soldiers dismounted at the same time, but
+Orion had not summoned these to protect him; on the contrary, he was
+in their charge and they were taking him, a prisoner, to Fostat. He had
+quitted the chariot in which he had set out and had been made to mount a
+dromedary; two horsemen armed to the teeth rode constantly at his side.
+His fellow-travellers were allowed to remain in their chariot.
+
+At the inn which they had now reached Justinus got out and desired his
+companion, a pale-faced man who sat sunk into a heap, to do the same;
+but with a weary shake of the head he declined to move.
+
+"Are you in pain, Narses?" asked Justinus affectionately, and Narses
+briefly replied in a husky voice: "All over," and settled himself
+against the cushion at the back of the chariot. He even refused
+the refreshments brought out to him by the Senator's servant and
+interpreter. He seemed sunk in apathy and to crave nothing but peace.
+
+This was the senator's nephew.
+
+With Orion's help, and armed with letters of protection and
+recommendation from Amru, the senator had gained his purpose. He had
+ransomed Narses, but not before the wretched man had toiled for some
+time as a prisoner, first at the canal on the line of the old one
+constructed by the Pharaohs, which was being restored under the Khaliff
+Omar, to secure the speediest way of transporting grain from Egypt to
+Arabia and afterwards in the rock-bound harbor of Aila. On the burning
+shores of the Red Sea, under the fearful sun of those latitudes, Narses
+was condemned to drag blocks of stone; many days had elapsed before
+his uncle could trace him--and in what a state did Justinus find him at
+last!
+
+A week before he could reach him, the ex-officer of cavalry had laid
+himself down in the wretched sheds for the sick provided for the
+laborers; his back still bore the scars of the blows by which the
+overseer had spurred the waning strength of his exhausted and suffering
+victim. The fine young soldier was a wreck, broken alike in heart
+and body and sunk in melancholy. Justinus had hoped to take him home
+jubilant to Martina, and he had only this ruin to show her, doomed to
+the grave.
+
+The senator was glad, nevertheless, to have saved this much at any rate.
+The sight of the sufferer touched him deeply, and the less Narses would
+take or give, the more thankful was Justinus when he gave the faintest
+sign of reviving interest.
+
+In the course of this journey by land and water--and latterly as sharing
+the senator's care of his nephew--Orion had become very dear to his
+old friend; and at the risk of incurring his displeasure he had even
+confessed the reasons that had prompted him to leave Memphis.
+
+He never could cease to feel that everything good or lofty in himself
+was Paula's alone; that her love ennobled and strengthened him; that to
+desert her was to abandon himself. His trifling with Heliodora could but
+divert him from the high aim he had set before himself. This aim he kept
+constantly in view; his spirit hungered for peaceful days in which he
+might act on the resolution he had formed in church and fulfil the task
+set before him by the Arab governor.
+
+The knowledge that he had inherited an enormous fortune now afforded
+him no joy, for he was forced to confess to himself that but for this
+superabundant wealth he might have been a very different man; and
+more than once a vehement wish came over him to fling away all his
+possessions and wrestle for peace of mind and the esteem of the best men
+by his own unaided powers.
+
+The senator had taken his confession as it was meant: if Thomas'
+daughter was indeed what Orion described her there could be but small
+hope for his beautiful favorite. He and Martina must e'en make their way
+home again with two adopted dear ones, and it must be the care of the
+old folks to comfort the young ones instead of the young succoring the
+old as was natural. And in spite of everything Orion had won on his
+affections, for every day, every hour he was struck by some new quality,
+some greater trait than he had looked for in the young man.
+
+Torches were flaring in the inn-yard where, under a palm-thatched roof
+supported on poles and covering a square space in the middle, benches
+stood for the guests to rest. Here Justinus and Orion again met for a
+few minutes' conversation.
+
+His warders were also seated near them; they did not let Orion out of
+their sight even while they ate their meal of mutton, bread, onions, and
+dates. The senator's servants brought some food from the chariot, and
+just as Justinus and Orion had begun their attack on it, a tall man
+came into the yard and made his way to the benches. This was Philippus,
+pausing on his road to Djidda. He had learnt, even before coming in,
+whom he would find here, a prisoner; and the Arabs, to whom the leech
+was known, allowed him to join the pair, though at the same time they
+came a little nearer, and their leader understood Greek.
+
+Philippus was anything rather than cordially disposed towards Orion;
+still, he knew what peril hung over the youth, and how sad a loss he had
+suffered. His conscience bid him do all he could to prove helpful in the
+trial that awaited him in the matter of the expedition in which Rufinus
+had perished. He was the bearer, too, of sad news which the Arabs must
+necessarily hear. Orion was indeed furious when he heard of the seizure
+and occupation of the governor's residence; still, he believed that Amru
+would insist on restitution; but on hearing of his mother's death he
+broke down completely. Even the Arabs, seeing the strong man shaken with
+sobs and learning the cause of his grief, respectfully withdrew; for
+the anguish of a son at the loss of his mother was sacred in their eyes.
+They regard the man who mourns for one he loves as stricken by the
+hand of the Almighty and hallowed by his touch and treat him with the
+reverence of pious awe.
+
+Orion had not observed their absence, but Philippus at once took
+advantage of it to tell him, as briefly as possible, all that related
+to the escape of the nuns. He himself knew not yet of the burning of the
+palace, or of Paula's imprisonment; but he could tell the senator where
+he would find his wife and niece. So by the time he was bidden to mount
+and start once more Orion was informed of all that had happened.
+
+It was with a drooping head, and sunk in melancholy thought that he rode
+on his way.
+
+As for the residence!--whether the Arabs gave it back to him or not,
+what did he care?--but his mother, his mother! All she had been to him
+from his earliest years rose before his mind; in the deep woe of this
+parting he forgot the imminent danger and the dungeon that awaited him,
+and the intolerable insult to his rights; nay, even the image of the
+woman he loved paled by the side of that of the beloved dead. Perhaps he
+might not even gain permission to bury her!
+
+The way lay through a parched tract of rocky desert, and the further
+they went the more intense was that wonderful flush in the west, till
+day broke behind the travellers and the glory of the sunrise quenched
+the vividness of its glow.
+
+Another scorching day! The rocks by the wayside still threw long shadows
+on the sandy desert-road, when a party of Arab horsemen came from Fostat
+to meet the travellers, shouting the latest news to the prisoner's
+escort. It was evidently important; but Orion did not understand a word
+of what they said. Evil tidings fly fast, however; while the men were
+talking together, the dragoman rode up to him and told him that his
+home was burnt to the ground and half Memphis still in flames. Then
+came other newsbearers, on horseback and on dromedaries; and they met
+chariots and files of camels loaded with corn and Egyptian merchandise;
+and each and all shouted to the Arab escort reports of what was going on
+in Memphis, hoping to be the first to tell the homeward bound party.
+
+How many times did Orion hear the story--and each time that a traveller
+began with: "Have you heard?" pointing westward, the wounds the first
+news had inflicted bled anew.
+
+What lay beneath that mass of ashes? How much had the flames consumed
+that never could be replaced! Much that he had silently wished were
+possible had in fact been fulfilled--and so soon! Where now was the
+burthen of great wealth which had hung about his heels and hindered his
+running freely? And yet he did not, even now, feel free; the way was not
+yet open before him; he secretly mourned over the ruined house of his
+fathers and the wrecked home; a miserable sense of insecurity weighed
+him down. No father--no mother-no parental roof! For years he had been,
+in fact, perfectly independent, and yet he felt now like a pilot whose
+boat had lost its rudder.
+
+Before him lay a prison, and the closing act of the great tragedy of
+which he himself had been the hero. Fate had fallen on his house, had
+marked it for destruction as erewhile that of Tantalus. It lay in ashes,
+and the victims were already many: two brothers, father, mother--and,
+far away from home, Rufinus too.
+
+But whose was the guilt?
+
+It was not his ancestors who had sinned; it could only be his own
+that had called down this ruin. But was there then such a power as the
+Destiny of the ancients--inexorable, iron Fate? Had he not repented and
+suffered, been reconciled to his Redeemer, and prepared himself to fight
+the hard fight? Perhaps he was indeed to be the hero of a tragedy; then
+he would show that it was not the blind Inevitable, but what a man can
+make of himself, and what he can do by the aid of the God of might,
+which determines his fate. If he must still succumb, it should only be
+after a valiant struggle and defense. He would battle fearlessly against
+every foe, would press onward in the path he had laid down for himself.
+His heart beat high once more; he felt as though he could see his
+father's example as a guiding star in the sky, so that he must be true
+to that whether to live or to die. And when he turned his eye earthwards
+again, still, even there, he had that which made it seem worth the cost
+of enduring the pangs of living and the brunt of the hardest battle:
+Paula and her love.
+
+The nearer he approached Fostat, the more ardently his heart swelled
+with longing. Heaven must grant him to see her once more, once more to
+clasp her in his arms, before--the end!
+
+It seemed to him that what he had gone through in these few hours must
+have removed and set aside everything that could part them. Now, he
+felt, he had strength to remain worthy of her; if Heliodora were to come
+in his way again he would now certainly, positively, regard and treat
+her only as a sister.
+
+He was conducted at once to the house of the Kadi; but this official was
+at the Divan--the council, which his arch-foe, that black monster Obada,
+had called together.
+
+After the labors of the past night the Negro had allowed himself only a
+few hours rest, and then had met the council, where he had not been slow
+to discover that he had as many enemies as there were members present.
+
+His most determined opponents were the Kadi Othman, the head of the
+Courts of justice and administration, and Khalid the governor of the
+exchequer. Neither of them hesitated to express his opinion; and indeed,
+no one present at this meeting would have suspected for a moment that
+most of the members had, in their peaceful youth, guarded flocks as
+shepherds on the mountains, led caravans across the desert, or managed
+some small trade. In the contests of tribe against tribe they had found
+opportunities for practice in the use of weapons, and for steeling their
+courage; but where had they learnt to choose their words with so much
+care, and emphasize them with gestures of such natural grace that any
+Greek orator would have admired them? It was only when the indignant
+orator "thundered and lightened" and was carried away by the heat of
+passion that he forgot his dignified moderation, and then how grandly
+voice, eye, and action helped each other! And never, even under the
+highest excitement, was purity of language overlooked. These men, of
+whom very few could read and write, had at their command all the most
+effective verses of their poets having thousands of lines stored in
+their minds.
+
+The discussion to-day dealt with the social aspects of an ancient
+civilization, unknown but a few years since to the warlike children of
+the desert, and yet how ably had the four overseers of public buildings
+the comptrollers of the markets, of the irrigation works, and of the
+mills, achieved their ends. These bright and untarnished spirits were
+equal to the hardest task and capable of carrying it through with
+energy, acumen, and success.
+
+And the sons of these men who had passed through no school were already
+well-fitted and invited to give new splendor to cities in their
+decline, and new life to the learning of the countries they had subdued.
+Everything in this council revealed talent, vitality, and ardor; and
+Obada, who had been a slave, found it by no means easy to uphold his
+pre-eminence among these assertive scions of free and respectable
+families.
+
+The Kadi spoke frankly and fearlessly against his recent proceedings,
+declaring in the name of every member of the Divan, that they disclaimed
+all responsibility for what had been done, and that it rested on the
+Vekeel alone. Obada was very ready to accept it; and he announced with
+such fiery eloquence his determination to give shelter at Fostat to the
+natives whom the conflagration had left roofless, he was so fair-spoken,
+and he had shown his great qualities in so clear a light during the past
+night, that they agreed to postpone their attainder and await the reply
+from Medina to the complaints they had forwarded. Discipline, indeed,
+required that they should submit; and many a man who would have flown
+to meet death on the field as a bride, quailed before the terrible
+adventurer who would not shrink from the most hideous deeds.
+
+Obada had won by hard fighting. No one could prove a theft against him
+of so much as a single drachma; but he nevertheless had to take many a
+rough word, and with one consent the assembly refused him the deference
+justly due to the governor's representative.
+
+Bitterly indignant, he remained till the very last in the
+council-chamber, no one staying with him, not even his own subalterns,
+to speak a soothing word in praise of the power and eloquence of
+his address, while the same cursed wretches would, under similar
+circumstances, have buzzed round Amru like swarming bees, and have
+escorted him home like curs wagging their tails. He ascribed the
+contumely and opposition he met with to their prejudice, as haughty,
+free-born men against his birth, and not to any fault of his own, and
+yet he looked down on them all, feeling himself the superior of each by
+himself; if the blow in Medina were successful, he would pick out his
+victims, and then....
+
+His dreams of vengeance were abruptly broken by a messenger, covered
+with dust from head to foot; he brought good news: Orion was taken and
+safely bestowed in the Kadi's house.
+
+"And why not in mine?" asked Obada in peremptory tones. "Who is the
+governor's representative here. Othman or I? Take the prisoner to my
+house."
+
+And he forthwith went home. But instead of the prisoner there presently
+appeared before him an official of the Kadi's household, who informed
+him, from his master, that as the Khaliff had constituted Othman supreme
+judge in Egypt this matter was in his hands; if Obada wished to see the
+prisoner he might go to the Kadi's residence, or visit him later in the
+town prison of Memphis, whither Orion would presently be transferred.
+
+He rushed off, raging, to his enemy's house, but his stormy fury was met
+by the placidity of a calm and judicial mind. Othman was a man between
+forty and fifty years old, but his soft, black beard was already turning
+grey; his noble dark face bore the stamp of a lofty, high-bred soul,
+and a keen but temperate spirit shone in his eyes. There was something
+serene and clear in his whole person; he was a man to bear the burthen
+of life's vicissitudes with dignity, while he had set himself the task
+of saving others from them so far as in him lay.
+
+The patriarch's complaints had come also to the Kadi's knowledge, and
+he, too, was minded to exact retribution for the massacre of the Moslem
+soldiers; but the punishment should fall on none but the guilty. He
+would have been sorry to believe that Orion was one of them, for he had
+esteemed his father as a brave man and a just judge, and had taken many
+a word of good advice from the experienced Egyptian.
+
+The scene between him and the infuriated Vekeel was a painful one even
+for the attendants who stood round; and Orion, who heard Obada's
+raging from the adjoining room, could gather from it some idea of the
+relentless hatred with which his negro enemy would persecute him.
+
+However, as after the wildest storm the sea ebbs in ripples so even this
+tempest came to a more peaceful conclusion. The Kadi represented to the
+Vekeel what an unheard-of thing it would be, and in what a disgraceful
+light it would set Moslem justice if one of the noblest families in
+the country--to whose head, too, the cause of Islam owed so much--were
+robbed of its possessions on mere suspicion. To this the Vekeel replied
+that there were definite accusations brought by the head of the native
+Church, and that nothing had been robbed, but merely confiscated and
+placed in security. As to what Allah had thought fit to destroy by fire,
+no one could be held answerable for that. There was no "mere suspicion"
+in the case, for he himself had in his possession a document which amply
+proved that Paula, Orion's beloved, had been the instigator of the crime
+which had cost the lives of twelve of the true believers.--The girl
+herself had been taken into custody yesterday. He would cross-examine
+her himself, too, in spite of all the Kadis in the world; for though
+Othman might choose to let any number of Moslems be murdered by these
+dogs of Christians he, Obada, would not overlook it; and if he did, by
+tomorrow morning the thousand Egyptians who were digging the canal would
+have killed with their shovels the three Moslems who kept guard over
+them.
+
+At this, Othman assured the Vekeel that he was no less anxious to punish
+the miscreants, but that he must first make sure of their identity,
+and that, in accordance with the law, justly and without fear of man or
+blind hatred, with due caution and justice. He, as judge, was no less
+averse to letting off the guilty than he was to punishing the innocent;
+so the enquiry must be allowed to proceed quietly. If Obada wished to
+examine Paula he, the Kadi, had no objection; to preside over the court
+and to direct the trial was his business, and that he would not abdicate
+even for the Khaliff himself so long as Omar thought him worthy to hold
+his office.
+
+To all this Obada had no choice but to agree, though with an ill-grace;
+and as the Vekeel wished to see Orion, the young man was called in. The
+huge negro looked at him from head to foot like a slave he proposed
+to buy; and, when Othman went to the door and so could not see him, he
+could not resist the malicious impulse: he glanced significantly at the
+prisoner, and drew his forefinger sharply and quickly across his
+black throat as though to divide the head from the trunk. Then he
+contemptuously turned his back on the youth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+In the course of the afternoon the Vekeel rode across to the prison in
+Memphis. He expected to find the bishop there, but instead he was met
+with the news that Plotinus was dead of the pestilence.
+
+This was a malignant stroke of fate; for with the bishop perished the
+witness who could have betrayed to him the scheme plotted for the rescue
+of the nuns.--But no! The patriarch, too, no doubt, knew all.
+
+Still, of what use was that at this moment? He had no time to lose, and
+Benjamin could hardly be expected to return within three weeks.
+
+Obada had met Paula's father in the battle-field by Damascus, and it had
+often roused his ire to know that this hero's name was held famous even
+among the Moslems. His envious soul grudged even to the greatest that
+pure honor which friend and foe alike are ready to pay; he did
+not believe in it, and regarded the man to whom it was given as a
+time-serving hypocrite.
+
+And as he hated the father so he did the daughter, though he had never
+seen her. Orion's fate was sealed in his mind; and before his death he
+should suffer more acutely through the execution of Paula, whether
+she denied or owned her guilt. He might perhaps succeed in making her
+confess, so he desired that she should at once be brought into the
+judge's council-room; but he failed completely in his attempt, though
+he promised her, through the interpreter, the greatest leniency if she
+admitted her guilt and threatened her with an agonizing death if she
+refused to do so. His prisoner, indeed, was not at all what he had
+expected, and the calm pride with which she denied every accusation
+greatly impressed the upstart slave. At first he tried to supplement the
+interpreter by shouting words of broken Greek, or intimidating her by
+glaring looks whose efficacy he had often proved on his subordinates
+but without the least success; and then he had her informed that he
+possessed a document which placed her guilt beyond doubt. Even this did
+not shake her; she only begged to see it. He replied that she would
+know all about it soon enough, and he accompanied the interpreter's
+repetition of the answer with threatening gestures.
+
+He had met with shrewd and influential women among his own people;
+he had seen brave ones go forth to battle, and share the perils of a
+religious war, with even wilder and more blood-thirsty defiance of death
+than the soldiers themselves; but these had all been wives and mothers,
+and whenever he had seen them break out of the domestic circle, beyond
+which no maiden could ever venture, it was because they were under
+the dominion of some passionate impulse and a burning partisanship for
+husband or son, family or tribe. The women of his nation lived for the
+most part in modest retirement, and none but those who were carried away
+by some violent emotion infringed the custom.
+
+But this girl! There she stood, immovably calm, like a warrior at the
+head of his tribe. There was something in her mien that quelled him, and
+at the same time roused to the utmost his desire to make her feel his
+power and to crush her pride. She was as much taller than the women of
+his nation as he was taller than any other captain in the Moslem army;
+prompted by curiosity, he went close up to her to measure her height by
+his own, and passed his hand through the air from his swarthy throat to
+touch the crown of her head; and the depth of loathing with which she
+shrank from him did not escape his notice. The blood mounted to his
+head; he desired the interpreter to inform her that she was to hope for
+no mercy, and inwardly devoted her to a cruel death.
+
+Pale, but prepared to meet the worst, Paula returned to the squalid room
+she occupied with her faithful Betta.
+
+Her arrival at the prison had been terrible. The guards had seemed
+disposed to place her in a room filled with a number of male and female
+criminals, whence the rattle of their chains and a frantic uproar of
+coarse voices met her ear; however, the interpreter and the captain of
+the town-watch had taken charge of her, prompted by Martina's promise
+of a handsome reward if they could go to her next morning with a report
+that Paula had been decently accommodated.
+
+The warder's mother-in-law, too, had taken her under her protection.
+This woman was the inn-keeper's wife from the riverside inn of Nesptah,
+and she at once recognized Paula as the handsome damsel who had
+refreshed herself there after the evening on the river with Orion, and
+whom she had supposed to be his betrothed. She happened to be visiting
+her daughter, the keeper's wife, and induced her to do what she could to
+be agreeable to Paula. So she and Betta were lodged in a separate cell,
+and her gold coin proved acceptable to the man, who did his utmost to
+mitigate her lot. Indeed, Pulcheria had even been allowed to visit her
+and to bring her the last roses that the drought had left in the garden.
+
+Susannah had carried out her purpose of sending her food and fruit;
+but they remained in the outer room, and the messenger was desired to
+explain that no more were to be sent, for that she was supplied with all
+she needed.
+
+Confident in her sense of innocence, she had looked forward calmly
+to her fate building her hopes on the much lauded justice of the Arab
+judges. But it was not they, it would seem, who were to decide it,
+but that black monster Orion's foe; crushed by the sense of impotence
+against the arbitrary despotism of the ruthless villain, whose victim
+she must be, she sat sunk in gloomy apathy, and hardly heard the old
+nurse's words of encouragement.
+
+She did not fear death; but to die without having seen her father once
+more, without saying and proving to Orion that she was his alone, wholly
+his and for ever--that was too hard to bear.
+
+While she was wringing her hands, in a state verging on despair, the man
+who had ruined the happiness, the peace, and the fortunes of so many
+of his fellow-creatures was cantering through the streets of Memphis,
+mounted on the finest horse in Orion's stable, and firmly determined
+to make his defiant prisoner feel his power. When he reached the great
+market-place in the quarter known as Ta-anch he was forced to bring his
+steed to a quieter pace, for in front of the Curia--the senatehouse--an
+immense gathering of people had collected. The Vekeel forced his way
+through them with cruel indifference. He knew what they wanted and
+paid no heed to them. The hapless crowd had for some time past met here
+daily, demanding from the authorities some succor in their fearful need.
+Processions and pilgrimages had had no result yesterday, so to-day they
+besieged the Curia. But could the senate make the Nile rise, or stay
+the pestilence, or prevent the dates dropping from the palm-trees? Could
+they help, when Heaven denied its aid?
+
+These were the questions which the authorities had already put at least
+ten times to the shrieking multitude from the balcony of the town hall,
+and each time the crowd had yelled in reply: "Yes--yes. You must!--it
+is your duty; you take the taxes, and you are put there to take care of
+us!"
+
+Even yesterday the distracted creatures had been wholly unmanageable
+and had thrown stones at the building: to-day, after the fearful
+conflagration and the death of their bishop, they had assembled in vast
+numbers, more furious and more desperate than ever. The senators sat
+trembling on their antique seats of gilt ivory, the relics of departed
+splendor imitated from those of the Roman senators, looking at each
+other and shrugging their shoulders while they listened to a letter
+which had just reached them from the hadi. This document required them,
+in conformity with Obada's determination, to make known to the populace,
+by public proclamation and declaration, that any citizen whose house had
+been destroyed by the fire of the past night would be granted ground and
+building materials without payment, at Fostat across the Nile, where he
+might found a new home provided he would settle there and embrace Islam.
+
+This degrading offer must be announced: no discussion or recalcitrancy
+could help that.
+
+And what could they, for their part, do for the complaining crowd?
+
+The plague was snatching them away; the vegetables, which constituted
+half their food at this season, were dried up; the river, their
+palatable and refreshing drink, was poisoned; the dates, their chief
+luxury, ripened only to be rejected with loathing. Then there was the
+comet in the sky, no hope of a harvest--even of a single ear, for months
+to come. The bishop dead, all confidence lost in the intercessions of
+the Church, God's mercy extinct as it would seem, withdrawn from the
+land under infidel rule!
+
+And they on whose help the populace counted,--poor, weak men,
+councillors of no counsel, liable from hour to hour to be called to
+follow those who had succumbed to the plague, and who had but just
+quitted their vacant seats in obedience to the fateful word.
+
+Yesterday each one had felt convinced that their necessity and misery
+had reached its height, and yet in the course of the night it had
+redoubled for many. Their self-dependence was exhausted; but there still
+was one sage in the city who might perhaps find some new way, suggest
+some new means of saving the people from despair.
+
+Stones were again flying down through the open roof, and the members of
+the council started up from their ivory seats and sought shelter
+behind the marble piers and columns. A wild turmoil came up from the
+market-place to the terror-stricken Fathers of the city, and the mob was
+hammering with fists and clubs on the heavy doors of the Curia. Happily
+they were plated with bronze and fastened with strong iron bolts, but
+they might fly open at any moment and then the furious mob would storm
+into the hall.
+
+But what was that?
+
+For a moment the roar and yelling ceased, and then began again, but in a
+much milder form. Instead of frenzied curses and imprecations shouts
+now rose of "Hail, hail!" mixed with appeals: "Help us, save us, give
+us council. Long live the sage!" "Help us with your magic, Father!" "You
+know the secrets and the wisdom of the ancients!" "Save us, Save us!
+Show those money-bags, those cheats in the Curia the way to help us!"
+
+At this the president of the town-council ventured forth from his refuge
+behind the statue of Trajan--the only image that the priesthood had
+spared--and to climb a ladder which was used for lighting the hanging
+lamps, so as to peep out of the high window.
+
+He saw an old man in shining white linen robes, riding on a fine white
+ass through the crowd which reverently made way for him. The lictors of
+the town marched before him with their fasces, on to which they had tied
+palm branches in token of a friendly embassy. Looking further he could
+see that behind the old man came a slave, besides the one who drove his
+ass, carrying a quantity of manuscript scrolls. This raised his hopes,
+for the scrolls looked very old and yellow, and no doubt contained a
+store of wisdom; nay, probably magic formulas and effectual charms.
+
+With a loud exclamation of "Here he comes!" the senator descended the
+ladder; in a few minutes the door was opened with a rattling of iron
+bolts, and it was with a sigh of relief that they saw the old man come
+in and none attempt to follow him.
+
+When Horapollo entered the council-chamber he found the senators sitting
+on their ivory chairs with as much dignified calm as though the meeting
+had been uninterrupted; but at a sign from the president they all rose
+to receive the old man, and he returned their greeting with reserve, as
+homage due to him. He also accepted the raised seat, which the president
+quitted in his honor while he himself took one of the ordinary chairs at
+his side.
+
+The negotiation began at once, and was not disturbed by the crowd,
+though still from the market-place there came a ceaseless roar, like the
+breaking of distant waves and the buzzing of thousands of swarming bees.
+
+The sage began modestly, saying that he, in his simplicity, could not
+but despair of finding any help where so many wise men had failed; he
+was experienced only in the lore and mysteries of the Fathers, and he
+had come thither merely to tell the council what they had considered
+advisable in such cases, and to suggest that their example should be
+followed.
+
+He spoke low but fluently, and a murmur of approval followed; then, when
+the president went on to speak of the low state of the Nile as the root
+of all the evil, the old man interrupted him, begging them to begin by
+considering the particular difficulties which they might attack by their
+own efforts.
+
+The pestilence was in possession of the city; he had just come through
+the quarter that had been destroyed by the fire, and had seen above
+fifty sick deprived of all care and reduced to destitution. Here
+something could be done; here was a way of showing the angry populace
+that their advisers and leaders were not sitting with their hands in
+their laps.
+
+A councillor then proposed that the convent of St. Cecilia, or the now
+deserted and dilapidated odeum should be given up to them; but Horapollo
+objected explaining very clearly that such a crowd of sick in the midst
+of the city would be highly dangerous to the healthy citizens. This
+opinion was shared by his friend Philippus, who had indeed commended
+the plan he had to propose as the only right one. Whither had their
+forefathers transported, not merely their beneficent institutions,
+but their vast temples and tomb-buildings which covered so much space?
+Always to the desert outside the town. Arrianus had even written these
+verses on the gigantic sphinx near the Pyramids.
+
+"The gods erewhile created these far-shining forms, wisely sparing the
+fields and fertile corn-bearing plain."
+
+The moderns had forgotten thus to spare the arable land, and they
+had also neglected to make good use of the desert. The dead and
+plague-stricken must not be allowed to endanger the living; they must
+therefore be lodged away from the town, in the Necropolis in the desert.
+
+"But we cannot let them be under the broiling sun," cried the president.
+
+"Still less," added another, "can we build a house for them in a day."
+
+To this Horapollo replied:
+
+"And who would be so foolish as to ask you to do either? But there are
+linen and posts to be had in Memphis. Have some large tents pitched in
+the Necropolis, and all who fall sick of the pestilence removed there at
+the expense of the city and tended under their shade. Appoint three or
+four of your number to carry this into execution and there will be
+a shelter for the roofless sick in a few hours. How many boatmen and
+shipwrights are standing idle on the quays! Call them together and in an
+hour they will be at work."
+
+This suggestion was approved. A linen-merchant present exclaimed: "I
+can supply what is needed," and another who dealt in the same wares, and
+exported this famous Egyptian manufacture to remote places, also put in
+a word, desiring that his house might have the order as he could sell
+cheaper. This squabble might have absorbed the attention of the meeting
+till it rose, and perhaps have been renewed the next day, if Horapollo's
+proposal that they should divide the commission equally had not been
+hastily adopted.
+
+The populace hailed the announcement that tents would be erected for the
+sick in the desert, with applause from a thousand voices. The deputies
+chosen to superintend the task set to work at once, and by night the
+most destitute were safe under the first large hospital tent.
+
+The old man settled some other important questions in the same way,
+always appealing to the lore of the ancients.
+
+At length he spoke of the chief subject, and he did so with great
+caution and tact.
+
+All the events of the last few weeks, he said, pointed to the conclusion
+that Heaven was wroth with the hapless land of their fathers. As a sign
+of their anger the Immortals had sent the comet, that terrible star
+whose ominous splendor was increasing daily. To make the Nile rise
+was not in the power of men; but the ancients--and here his audience
+listened with bated breath--the ancients had been more intimately
+familiar with the mysterious powers that rule the life of Nature than
+men in the later times, whether priests or laymen. In those days every
+servant of the Most High had been a naturalist and a student, and
+when Egypt had been visited by such a calamity as that of this year, a
+sacrifice had been offered--a precious victim against which all mankind,
+nay and all his own feelings revolted; still, this sacrifice had never
+failed of its effect, no, never. Here was the evidence--and he pointed
+to the manuscripts in his lap.
+
+The councillors had begun to be restless in their seats, and first the
+president and then the others, one after another, exclaimed and asked:
+
+"But the victim?"
+
+"What did they sacrifice?"
+
+"What about the victim?"
+
+"Allow me to say no more about it till another time," said the old man.
+"What good could it do to tell you that now? The first thing is to find
+the thing that is acceptable to the gods."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Speak--do not keep us on the rack!" was shouted on all sides; but he
+remained inexorable, promising only to call the council together
+when the right time should come and desiring that the president would
+proclaim from the balcony that Horapollo knew of a sacrifice which would
+cause the Nile at last to rise. As soon as the right victim could be
+found, the people should be invited to give their consent. In the time
+of their forefathers it had never failed of its effect, so men, women,
+and children might go home in all confidence, and await the future with
+new and well-founded hopes.
+
+And this announcement, with which the president mingled his praises of
+the venerable Horapollo, had a powerful effect. The crowd hallooed with
+glee, as though they had found new life. "Hail, hail!" was shouted
+again and again, and it was addressed, not merely to the old man who had
+promised them deliverance, but also to the Fathers of the city, who felt
+as if a fearful load had fallen from their souls.
+
+The old man's scheme was, to be sure, not pious nor rightly Christian;
+but had the power of the Church been in any way effectual? And this
+having failed they must of their own accord have had recourse to
+means held reprobate by the priesthood. Magic and the black arts
+were genuinely Egyptian; and when faith had no power, these asserted
+themselves and superstition claimed its own. Though Medea had been taken
+by surprise and imprisoned, this had not been done to satisfy the law,
+but with a view to secretly utilizing her occult science for the benefit
+of the community. In such dire need no means were too base; and though
+the old man himself was horrified at those he proposed he was sure of
+public approbation if only they had the desired result. If only they
+could avert the calamity the sin could be expiated, and the Almighty was
+so merciful!
+
+The bishop had a seat and voice in the council, but Fate itself had
+saved them from the dilemma of having to meet his remonstrances.
+
+When Horapollo went out into the market-place he was received with
+acclamations, and as much gratitude as though he had already achieved
+the deliverance of the people and country.
+
+What had he done?--Whether the work he had set going were to fail or
+to succeed he could not remain in Memphis, for in either case he would
+never have peace again. But that did not daunt him; it would certainly
+be very good for the two women to be removed from the perilous
+neighborhood of the Arab capital, and he was firmly determined to take
+them away with him. For his dear Philip, too, nothing could be better
+than a transplantation into other soil.
+
+At the house of Rufinus he now learnt the fate that had fallen on Paula.
+
+She was out the way, at any rate for the present; still, if she should
+be released to-morrow or the day after, or even a month hence, she would
+be as great a hindrance as ever. His plots against her must therefore be
+carried out. His own isolation provoked him, and what a satisfaction
+it would be if only he should succeed in stirring up the Egyptian
+Christians to the heathen deed to which he was endeavoring to prompt
+them.
+
+If Paula should be condemned to death by the Arabs, the execution of the
+scheme would be greatly promoted; and now the first point was to ensure
+the favor of the black Vekeel, for everything depended on his consent.
+
+Joanna and Pulcheria thought him more good-humored and amiable than they
+had ever known him; his proposal that he and Philippus should join their
+household was hailed with delight even by little Mary, and the women
+conducted him all over the house, supporting his steps with affectionate
+care. All he saw there pleased him beyond measure. Such neatness and
+comfort could only exist where there was a woman's eye to direct and
+watch over everything. The rooms on the ground floor, which had been the
+master's, should be his, and the corresponding wing on the other
+side could be made ready for Philippus. The dining-room, the large
+ante-chamber, and the viridarium would be common ground, and the upper
+story was large enough for the women and any guests. He would move in as
+soon as he had settled some business he had in hand.
+
+It must be something of a pleasant nature, for as the old man spoke of
+it his sunken lips mumbled with satisfaction, while his sparkling eyes
+seemed to say to Pulcheria: "And I have something good in store for you,
+too, dear child."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Paula passed a fearful night in the small, frightfully hot prison-cell
+in which she and Betta were shut up. She could not sleep, and when
+once she succeeded in closing her eyes she was roused by the yells and
+clanking chains of the captives in the common prison and the heavy step
+of another sufferer who paced the room overhead, even more restless than
+herself.
+
+Poor fellow-victim! Was it a tortured conscience that drove him hither
+and thither, or was he as innocent as she was, and was it longing, love,
+and anxiety that bereft him of sleep?
+
+He was no vulgar criminal. There was no room for those in this part
+of the building; and at midnight, when the noise in the large hall was
+suddenly silenced, soft sounds of the lute came down to her from his
+cell, and only a master could strike the strings with such skill.
+
+She cared nothing for the stranger; but she was grateful for his gift of
+music, for it diverted her thoughts from herself, and she listened with
+growing interest. Glad of an excuse for rising from her hard, hot bed,
+she sprang up and placed herself close to the one window, an opening
+barred with iron. But then the music ceased and a conversation began
+between the warder and her fellow-prisoner.
+
+What voice was that? Did she deceive herself, or hear rightly?
+
+Her heart stood still while she listened; and now every doubt was
+silenced: It was Orion, and none other, whom she heard speaking in the
+room above. Then the warder spoke his name; they were talking of her
+deceased uncle; and now, as if in obedience to some sign, they lowered
+their voices. She heard whispering but could not distinguish what was
+said. At length parting words were uttered in louder tones, the door of
+the cell was locked and the prisoner approached his window.
+
+At this she pressed her face close to the heated iron bars, looked
+upwards, listened a moment and, as nothing was stirring, she said, first
+softly, and then rather louder: "Orion, Orion!"
+
+And, from above, her name was spoken in reply. She greeted him and asked
+how and when he had come hither; but he interrupted her at the first
+words with a decisive: "Silence!" adding in a moment, "Look out!"
+
+She listened in expectancy; the minutes crept on at a snail's pace to a
+full half hour before he at last said: "Now!" And, in a few moments,
+she held in her hand a written scroll that he let down to her by a
+lutestring weighted with a scrap of wood.
+
+She had neither light nor fire, and the night was moonless. So she
+called up "Dark!" and immediately added, as he had done: "Look out."
+
+She then tied to the string the two best roses of those Pulcheria had
+brought her, and at her glad "Now!" they floated up.
+
+He expressed his thanks in a few low chords overflowing with yearning
+and passion; then all was still, for the warder had forbidden him to
+sing or play at night and he dared not risk losing the man's favor.
+
+Paula laid down again with Orion's letter in her hand, and when she felt
+slumber stealing upon her, she pushed it under her pillow and ere long
+was sleeping on it. When they both woke, soon after sunrise, they had
+been dreaming of each other and gladly hailed the return of day.
+
+How furious Orion had felt when the prison door closed upon him! He
+longed to wrench the iron bars from the window and kick down or force
+the door; and there is no more humiliating and enraging feeling for a
+man than that of finding himself shut up like a wild beast, cut off from
+the world to which he belongs and which he needs, both to give him all
+that makes life worth having, and to receive such good as he can do and
+give.
+
+Yesterday their dungeon had seemed a foretaste of hell, they had each
+been on the verge of despair; to-day what different feelings animated
+them! Orion had been the victim of blow on blow from Fate--Paula had
+looked forward to his return with an anxious and aching heart; to-day
+how calm were their souls, though both stood in peril of death.
+
+The legend tells us that St. Cecilia, who was led away to the rack from
+her marriage feast, even in the midst of the torments of martyrdom,
+listened in ecstasy to heavenly music and sweet echoes of the organ; and
+how many have had the same experience! In the extremity of anguish and
+danger they find greater joys than in the midst of splendor, ease and
+the intoxicating pleasures of life; for what we call happiness is the
+constant guest of those who have within reach that for which their souls
+most ardently long, irrespective of place and outward circumstances.
+
+So these two in their prison were what they had not been for a long
+time: full of heartfelt bliss; Paula with his letter, which he had begun
+at the Kadi's house, and in which he poured out his whole soul to her;
+Orion in the possession of her roses, on which he feasted his eyes and
+heart, and which lay before him while he wrote the following lines,
+which the kindhearted warder willingly transmitted to her:
+
+   Lo! As night in its gloom and horror fell on my prison,
+   Methought the sun sank black, dark forever in death.
+
+   I drew thy roses up, and behold! from their crimson petals
+   Beamed a glory of light, a glow as of sunshine and day!
+
+   Love! Love is the star that rose with those fragrant flowers;
+   Rose, as Phoebus' car comes up from the tossing waves.
+
+   Is not the ardent flame of a heart that burns with passion
+   Like the sparkling glow-worm hid in the heart of the rose?
+
+   While it yet was day, and we breathed in freedom and gladness,
+   While the sun still shone, that light seemed small and dim;
+
+   But now, when night has fallen, sinister, dark, portentous,
+   Its kindly ray beams forth to raise our drooping souls.
+
+   As seeds in the womb of earth break from the brooding darkness,
+   Or as the soul soars free, heaven-seeking from the grave,
+
+   So the hopeless soil of a dungeon blossoms to rapture,
+   Blooms with roses of Love, more sweet than the wildling rose!
+
+And when had Paula ever felt happier than at the moment when this
+offering from her lover, this humble prison-flower, first reached her.
+
+Old Betta could not hear the verses too often, and cried with joy, not
+at the poem, but at the wonderful change it had produced in her darling.
+Paula was now the radiant being that she had been at home on the
+Lebanon; and when she appeared before the assembled judges in the hall
+of justice they gazed at her in amazement, for never had a woman on her
+trial for life or death stood in their presence with eyes so full of
+happiness. And yet she was in evil straits. The just and clement Kadi,
+himself the loving father of daughters, felt a pang at his heart as he
+noted the delusive confidence which so evidently filled the soul of this
+noble maiden.
+
+Yes, she was in evil straits: a crushing piece of evidence was in their
+hands, and the constitution of the court--which was in strict conformity
+with the law must in itself be unfavorable to her. Her case was to be
+tried by an equal number of Egyptians and of Arabs. The Moslems were
+included because by her co-operation, Arabs had been slain; while Paula,
+as a Christian and a resident in Memphis, came under the jurisdiction of
+the Egyptians.
+
+The Kadi presided, and experience had taught him that the Jacobite
+members of the bench of judges kept the sentence of death in their
+sleeves when the accused was of the Melchite confession. What had
+especially prejudiced them against this beautiful creature he knew not;
+but he easily discovered that they were hostile to the accused, and if
+they should utter the verdict "guilty", and only two Arabs should echo
+it, the girl's fate was sealed.
+
+And what was the declaration which that whiterobed old man among the
+witnesses desired to make--the venerable and learned Horapollo? The
+glances he cast at Paula augured her no good.
+
+It was so oppressively, so insufferably hot in the hall! Each one felt
+the crushing influence, and in spite of the importance of the occasion,
+the proceedings every now and then came to a stand-still and then were
+hurried on again with unseemly haste.
+
+The prisoner herself seemed happily to be quite fresh and not affected
+by the sultriness of the day. It had cost her small effort to adhere to
+her statement that she had had no share in the escape of the sisters,
+when catechised by the ruffianly negro; but she found it hard to defy
+Othman's benevolent questioning. However, there was no choice, and she
+succeeded in proving that she had never quitted Memphis nor the house
+of Rufinus at the time when the Arab warriors met their death between
+Athribis and Doomiat. The Kadi endeavored to turn this to account for
+her advantage and Obada, who had found much to whisper over with his
+grey-headed neighbor on the bench reserved for witnesses, let him talk;
+but no sooner had he ended than the Vekeel rose and laid before the
+judges the note he had found in Orion's room.
+
+It was undoubtedly in the young man's handwriting and addressed to
+Paula, and the final words: "But do not misunderstand me. Your noble,
+and only too well-founded desire to lend succor to your fellow-believers
+would have sufficed...." could not fail to make a deep impression. When
+the Kadi questioned Paula, however, she replied with perfect truth that
+this document was absolutely unknown to her; at the same time she
+did not deny that the sisters of St. Cecilia, who were of her own
+confession, had always had her warmest wishes, and that she had hoped
+they might succeed in asserting their rights in opposition to the
+patriarch.
+
+The deceased Mukaukas, and the Jacobite members of the town-council
+even, had shared these feelings and the Arabs had never interfered with
+the pious sicknurses.
+
+The calm conciseness with which she made these statements had a
+favorable effect, on her Moslem judges especially, and the Kadi began to
+have some hopes for her; he desired that Orion should be called as being
+best able to account for the meaning of the letter he had written but
+never sent.
+
+On this the young man appeared, and though he and Paula did their
+utmost to preserve a suitable demeanor, every one could see the violent
+agitation they felt at meeting each other in such a situation. Horapollo
+never took his eyes off Orion, whom he now saw for the first time, and
+his features put on a darkening and menacing expression.
+
+The young man acknowledged that he had written the letter in question,
+but he and Paula alike referred it to the danger with which the
+sisterhood had long been threatened from the patriarch's hostility.
+The assistance which, in that document, he had refused he would have
+afforded readily and zealously at a later and fit season, and he could
+have counted on the aid of the Arab governor Amru, who, as he would
+himself confirm, shared the views of the Mukaukas George as to the nuns'
+rights.
+
+At this the old sage murmured loud enough to be heard: "Clever, very
+clever!" and the Vekeel laughed aloud, exclaiming:
+
+"I call that a cunning way of lengthening your days! Be on your guard,
+my lords. These two are partners in the game and are intimately allied.
+I have proof of that in my own hands. That youngster takes as good care
+of the damsel's fortune as though it were his own already, and what is
+more...."
+
+Here Paula broke in. She did not know what the malicious man was going
+to say, but it was something insulting beyond a doubt. And there stood
+Orion, just as she had pictured him in moments of tender remembrance;
+she felt his eye resting on her in ecstasy. To go up to him, to tell him
+all she was feeling in this critical struggle for life or death, seemed
+impossible; but as the Vekeel began to disclose to their judges matters
+which concerned only herself and her lover, every impulse prompted her
+to interpose and, in this fateful hour, to do her friend such service
+as she once, like a coward, had shrank from. So with eager emotion, her
+eyes flashing, she interrupted the negro "Stop!" she cried, "you are
+wasting words and trouble. What you are trying to prove by subtlety I am
+proud and glad to declare. Hear it, all of you. The son of the Mukaukas
+is my betrothed!"
+
+At the same time her eye sought to meet Orion's. And thus, in the very
+extremity of danger, they enjoyed a solemn moment of the purest, deepest
+happiness. Paula's eyes were moist with grateful tenderness, when Orion
+exclaimed:
+
+"You have heard from her own lips what makes the greatest bliss of my
+life. The noble daughter of Thomas is my promised bride!"
+
+There was a murmur among the Jacobite judges. 'Till this moment several
+of them, oppressed by the heat, had sat dreaming with their heads sunk
+on their breasts, but now they were suddenly as wide-awake and alert
+as though a jet of cold water had been turned on to them, and one cried
+out: "And your father, young man? You have forgotten him in a hurry!
+What would he have said to such a disgrace to his blood as your marriage
+to a Melchite, the daughter of those who caused your two brothers to be
+murdered? Oh! if the dead could...."
+
+"He blessed our union on his death-bed," Orion put in.
+
+"Did he, indeed?" asked another Jacobite with sarcastic scorn. "Then the
+patriarch was in the right when he refused to let the priests follow his
+corpse. That I should live to be witness to such crimes!"
+
+But such words fell on the ears of the enraptured pair like the chirping
+of crickets. They felt, they cared for nothing but what this blissful
+moment had brought them, and never suspected that Paula's glad avowal
+had sealed her death-warrant.
+
+The wrath of the Jacobite faction now hastened the end. The prosecutor,
+an Arab, now represented how many Moslems had lost their lives in the
+affair of the nuns, and once more read Orion's letter. His Christian
+colleagues tried to prove that this document could only refer to the
+flight, so ingeniously plotted, of the sisters; and now something
+quite new and unlooked-for occurred, which gave a fresh turn to the
+proceedings: the old man interrupted the Kadi to make a statement. At
+this Paula's confidence rose again for the last speaker had somewhat
+shaken it. She felt sure that the tried friend and adoptive father of
+her faithful Philippus would take her part.
+
+But what was this?
+
+The old man seemed to measure her height in a glance which struck to her
+heart with its fierce enmity, and then he said deliberately:
+
+"On the morning of the nuns' flight the accused, Paula, went to the
+convent and there tolled the bell. Contradict me if you can, proud
+prefect's daughter; but I warn you beforehand, that in that case, I
+shall be compelled to bring forward fresh charges."
+
+At this the horror-stricken girl pictured to herself the widow and
+daughter of Rufinus at her side on the condemned bench before the
+judges, and felt that denial would drag her friends to destruction with
+her; with quivering lips she confirmed the old man's statement.
+
+"And why did you toll the bell?" asked the Kadi.
+
+"To help them," replied Paula. "They are my fellow-believers, and I love
+them."
+
+"She was the originator of the treasonable and bloody scheme," cried the
+Vekeel, "and did it for no other purpose than to cheat us, the rulers of
+this country."
+
+The Kadi however signed to him to be silent and bid the Jacobite counsel
+for the accused speak next. He had seen her early in the day, and came
+forward in the Egyptian manner with a written defence in his hand; but
+it was a dull formal performance and produced no effect; though the
+Kadi did his utmost to give prominence to every point that might help to
+justify her, she was pronounced guilty.
+
+Still, could her crime be held worthy of death? It was amply proved that
+she had had a hand in the rescue of the nuns; but it was no less clear
+that she had been far enough away from the sisters and their defenders
+when the struggle with the Arabs took place. And she was a woman, and
+how pardonable it seemed in a pious maiden that she should help the
+fellow-believers whom she loved to evade persecution.
+
+All this Othman pointed out in eloquent words, repeatedly and sternly
+silencing the Vekeel when he sought to argue in favor of the sentence of
+death; and the humane persuasiveness of the lenient judge won the hearts
+of most of the Moslems.
+
+Paula's appearance had a powerful effect, too, and not less the
+circumstance that their noblest and bravest foe had been the father of
+the accused.
+
+When at length it was put to the vote the extraordinary result was that
+all her fellow Christians--the Jacobites--without exception demanded
+her death, while of the infidels on the judges' bench only one supported
+this severe meed of punishment.
+
+Sentence was pronounced, and as the Vekeel Obada passed close
+to Orion--who was led back to his cell pale and hardly master of
+himself--he said, mocking him in broken Greek: "It will be your turn
+to-morrow, Son of the Mukaukas!"
+
+Orion's lips framed the retort: "And yours, too, some day, Son of a
+Slave!"--but Paula was standing opposite, and to avoid infuriating her
+foe he was able to do what he never could have done else: to let the
+Vekeel and Horapollo pass on without a word in reply.
+
+As soon as the door was closed on this couple, Othman nodded approvingly
+at Orion and said:
+
+"Rightly and wisely done, my friend! The eagle should never forget that
+he must not use his pinions in a cage as he does between the desert and
+the sky."
+
+He signed to the guards to lead him away, and stood apart while the
+young man looked and waived an adieu to his betrothed.
+
+Finally the Kadi went up to Paula, whose heroic composure as she heard
+the sentence of death had filled him with admiration.
+
+"The court has decided against you, noble maiden," he said. "But its
+verdict can he overruled by the clemency of our Sovereign Lord the
+Khaliff and the mercy of God the compassionate. Do you pray to Him--I
+and a few friends will appeal to the Khaliff."
+
+He disclaimed her gratitude, and when she, too, had been led away he
+added, in the figurative language of his nation, to the friends who were
+waiting for him:
+
+"My heart aches! To have to pronounce such a verdict oppressed me like
+a load; but to have an Obada for a fellow Moslem and be bound to obey
+him--there is no heavier lot on earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The mysterious old sage had no sooner left the judgment-hall with the
+Vekeel than he begged for a private interview. Obada did not hesitate
+to turn the keeper of the prison, with his wife and infant, out of his
+room, and there he listened while Horapollo informed him of the fate
+to which he destined the condemned girl. The old man's scheme certainly
+found favor with the Negro; still, it seemed to him in many respects
+so daring that, but for an equivalent service which Horapollo was in a
+position to offer Obada, he would scarcely have succeeded in obtaining
+his consent.
+
+All the Vekeel aimed at was to make it very certain that Orion had had a
+hand in the flight of the nuns, and chance had placed a document in the
+old man's hands which seemed to set this beyond a doubt.
+
+He had effected his removal to the widow's dwelling in the cool hours
+of early morning. He had taken with him, in the first instance, only the
+most valuable and important of his manuscripts, and as he was placing
+these in a small desk--the very same which Rufinus had left for Paula's
+use--Horapollo found in it the note which the youth had hastily written
+when, after waiting in vain for Paula as she sat with little Mary,
+he had at last been obliged to depart and take leave of Amru. This
+wax-tablet, on which the writing was much defaced and partly illegible,
+could not fail to convince the judges of Orion's guilt, and the
+production of this piece of evidence enabled the old man to extort
+Obada's consent to his proposal as to the mode of Paula's death. When
+they finally left the warder's room, the Negro once more turned to the
+keeper of the prison and told him with a snort, as he pointed to his
+pretty wife and the child at her breast, that they should all three die
+if he allowed Orion to quit his cell for so much as an instant.
+
+He then swung himself on to his horse, while Horapollo rode off to the
+Curia to desire the president of the council to call a meeting for that
+evening; then he betook himself to his new quarters.
+
+There he found his room carefully shaded, and as cool as was possible
+in such heat. The floor had been sprinkled with water, flowers stood
+wherever there was room for them, and all his properties in scrolls and
+other matters had found places in chests or on shelves. There was not
+a speck of dust to be seen, and a sweet pervading perfume greeted his
+sensitive nostrils.
+
+What a good exchange he had made! He rubbed his withered hands with
+satisfaction as he seated himself in his accustomed chair, and when Mary
+came to call him to dinner, it was a pleasure to him to jest with her.
+
+Pulcheria must lead him through the viridarium into the dining-room; he
+enjoyed his meal, and his cross, wrinkled old face lighted up amazingly
+as he glanced round at his feminine associates; only Eudoxia was absent,
+confined to her room by some slight ailment. He had something pleasant
+to say to each; he frankly compared his former circumstances with his
+present position, without disguising his heartfelt thankfulness; then,
+with a merry glance at Pulcheria, he described how delightful it would
+be when Philippus should come home to make the party complete--a true
+and perfect star: for every Egyptian star must have five rays. The
+ancients had never painted one otherwise nor graven it in stone; nay,
+they had used it as the symbol for the number five.
+
+At this Mary exclaimed: "But then I hope--I hope we shall make a
+six-rayed star; for by that time poor Paula may be with us again!"
+
+"God grant it!" sighed Dame Joanna. Pulcheria, however, asked the old
+man what was wrong with him, for his face had suddenly clouded. His
+cheerfulness had vanished, his tufted eyebrows were raised, and his
+pinched lips seemed unwilling to part, when at length he reluctantly
+said:
+
+"Nothing--nothing is wrong.... At the same time; once for all--I loathe
+that name."
+
+"Paula?" cried the child in astonishment. "Oh! but if you knew..."
+
+"I know more than enough," interrupted the old man. "I love you
+all--all; my old heart expands as I sit in your midst; I am comfortable
+here, I feel kindly towards you, I am grateful to you; every little
+attention you show me does me good; for it comes from your hearts: if I
+could repay you soon and abundantly--I should grow young again with joy.
+You may believe me, as I can see indeed that you do. And yet," and again
+his brows went up, "and yet, when I hear that name, and when you try to
+win me over to that woman, or if you should even go so far as to assail
+my ears with her praises--then, much as it would grieve me, I would go
+back again to the place where I came from."
+
+"Why, Horapollo, what are you saying?" cried Joanna, much distressed.
+
+"I say," the old man went on, "I say that in her everything is
+concentrated which I most hate and contemn in her class. I say that she
+bears in her bosom a cold and treacherous heart; that she blights my
+days and my nights; in short, that I would rather be condemned to
+live under the same roof with clammy reptiles and cold-blooded snakes
+than..."
+
+"Than with her, with Paula?" Mary broke in. The eager little thing
+sprang to her feet, her eyes flashed lightnings and her voice quivered
+with rage, as she exclaimed: "And you not only say it but mean it? Is it
+possible?"
+
+"Not only possible, but positive, sweetheart," replied the old man,
+putting out his hand to take hers, but she shrank back, exclaiming
+vehemently:
+
+"I will not be your sweetheart, if you speak so of her! A man as old as
+you are ought to be just. You do not know her at all, and what you say
+about her heart..."
+
+"Gently, gently, child," the widow put in; and Horapollo answered with
+peculiar emphasis.
+
+"That heart, my little whirlwind!--it would be well for us all if we
+could forget it, forget it for good or for evil. She has been tried
+to-day, and that heart is sentenced to cease beating."
+
+"Sentenced! Merciful Heaven!" shrieked Pulcheria, and as she started up
+her mother cried out:
+
+"For God's sake do not jest about such things, it is a sin.--Is it
+true?--Is it possible? Those wretches, those... I see in your face it is
+true; they have condemned Paula."
+
+"As you say," replied Horapollo calmly. "The girl is to be executed."
+
+"And you only tell us now?" wept Pulcheria, while Mary broke out:
+
+"And yet you have been able to jest and laugh, and you--I hate you! And
+if you were not such a helpless, old, old man..." But here Joanna again
+silenced the child, and she asked between her sobs:
+
+"Executed?--Will they cut off her head? And is there no mercy for her
+who was as far away from that luckless fight as we were--for her, a
+girl, and the daughter of Thomas?"
+
+To which the old man replied:
+
+"Wait a while, only wait! Heaven has perhaps chosen her for great ends.
+She may be destined to save a whole country and nation from destruction
+by her death. It is even possible..."
+
+"Speak out plainly; you make me shudder with your oracular hints," cried
+the widow; but he only shrugged his shoulders and said coolly:
+
+"What we foresee is not yet known. Heaven alone can decide in such a
+case. It will be well for us all--for me, for her, for Pulcheria, and
+even our absent Philip, if the divinity selects her as its instrument.
+But who can see into darkness? If it is any comfort to you, Joanna, I
+can inform you that the soft-hearted Kadi and his Arab colleagues, out
+of sheer hatred of the Vekeel, who is immeasurably their superior in
+talent and strength of will, will do everything in their power...." "To
+save her?" exclaimed the widow.
+
+"To-morrow they will hold council and decide whether to send a messenger
+to Medina to implore pardon for her," Horapollo went on with a horrible
+smile. "The day after they will discuss who the messenger is to be, and
+before he can reach Arabia fate will have overtaken the prisoner. The
+Vekeel Obada moves faster than they do, and the power lies in his hands
+so long as Amru is absent from Egypt. He, they say, perfectly dotes on
+the Mukaukas' son, and for his sake--who knows? Paula as his betrothed."
+
+"His betrothed?"
+
+"He called her by that name before the judges, and congratulated himself
+on his promised bride."
+
+"Paula and Orion!" cried Pulcheria, jubilant in the midst of her tears,
+and clapping her hands for joy.
+
+"A pair indeed!" said the old man. "You may well rejoice, my girl!
+Feeble hearts as you all are, respect the experience of the aged,
+and bless Fate if it should lame the horse of the Kadi's
+messenger!--However, you will not listen to anything oracular, so it
+will be better to talk of something else."
+
+"No, no," cried Joanna. "What can we think of but her and her fate? Oh,
+Horapollo, I do not know you in this mood. What has that poor soul done
+to you, persecuted as she is by the hardest fate--that noble creature
+who is so dear to us all? And do you forget that the judges who have
+sentenced her will now proceed to enquire what Rufinus, and we all of
+us..."
+
+"What you had to do with that mad scheme of rescue?" interrupted
+Horapollo. "I will make it my business to prevent that. So long as this
+old brain is able to think, and this mouth to speak, not a hair of your
+heads shall be hurt."
+
+"We are grateful to you," said Joanna. "But, if you have such power, set
+to work--you know how dear Paula is to us all, how highly your friend
+Philip esteems her--use your power to save her."
+
+"I have no power, and refuse to have any," retorted the old man harshly.
+
+"But Horapollo, Horapollo!--Come here, children!--We were to find in you
+a second father--so you promised. Then prove that those were no empty
+words, and be entreated by us."
+
+The old man drew a deep breath; he rose to his feet with such vigor as
+he could command, a bright, sharply-defined patch of color tinged each
+pale cheek, and he exclaimed in husky tones:
+
+"Not another word! No attempt to move me, not a cry of lamentation!
+Enough, and a thousand times too much, of that already. You have heard
+me, and I now say again--me or Paula, Paula or me. Come what may in the
+future, if you cannot so far control yourselves as never to mention her
+in my presence, I--no, I do not swear, but when I have said a thing I
+keep to it--I will go back to my old den and drag out life the richer by
+a disappointment--or die, as my ruling goddess shall please."
+
+With this he left the room, and little Mary raised her clenched right
+fist and shook it after him, exclaiming: "Then let him go, hard-hearted,
+unjust, old scarecrow! Oh, if only I were a man!" And she burst out
+crying aloud. Heedless of the widow's reproof, she went on quite beside
+herself: "Oh, there is no one more wicked than he is, Dame Joanna!
+He wants to see her die, he wishes her to be dead; I know it, he even
+wishes it! Did you hear him, Pul, he would be glad if the messenger's
+horse went lame before he could save her? And now she is my Orion's
+betrothed--I always meant them for each other--and they want to kill
+him, too, but they shall not, if there is still a God of justice in
+heaven! Oh if I--if I..." Her voice failed her, choked with sobs. When
+she had somewhat recovered she implored Pulcheria and her mother to take
+her to see Paula, and as they shared her wish they prepared to start for
+the prison before it should grow dark.
+
+The nearer they went to the market-place, which they must cross, the
+more crowded were the streets. Every one was going the same way; the
+throng almost carried the women with it; yet, from the market came, as
+it were, a contrary torrent of shouts and shrieks from a myriad of human
+throats. Dame Joanna was terrified in the press by the uproarious doings
+in the market, and she would gladly have turned back with the girls, or
+have made her way through by-streets, but the tide bore her on, and it
+would have been easier to swim against a swollen mountain stream than
+to return home. Thus they soon reached the square, but there they were
+brought to a standstill in the crush.
+
+The widow's terrors now increased. It was dreadful to be kept fast with
+the young people in such a mob. Pulcheria clung closely to her, and
+when she bid Mary take her hand the child, who thoroughly enjoyed the
+adventure, exclaimed: "Only look, Mother Joanna, there is our Rustem. He
+is taller than any one."
+
+"If only he were by our side!" sighed the widow. At this the little girl
+snatched away her hand, made her way with the nimbleness of a squirrel
+through the mass of men, and soon had reached the Masdakite. Rustem had
+not yet quitted Memphis, for the first caravan, which he and his little
+wife were to join, was not to start for a few days. The worthy
+Persian and Mary were very good friends; as soon as he heard that his
+benefactress was alarmed he pushed his way to her, with the child, and
+the widow breathed more freely when he offered to remain near her and
+protect her.
+
+Meanwhile the yelling and shouting were louder than ever. Every face,
+every eye was turned to the Curia, in the evident expectation of
+something great and strange taking place there.
+
+"What is it?" asked Mary, pulling at Rustem's coat. The giant said
+nothing, but he stooped, and to her delight, a moment later she had her
+feet on his arms, which he folded across his chest, and was settling
+herself on his broad shoulder whence she could survey men and things as
+from a tower. Joanna laid her hand in some tremor on the child's little
+feet, but Mary called down to her: "Mother--Pulcheria--I am quite sure
+our old Horapollo's white ass is standing in front of the Curia, and
+they are putting a garland round the beast's neck--a garland of olive."
+
+At this moment the blare of a tuba rang out from the Senate-house across
+the square, through the suffocatingly hot, quivering air; a sudden
+silence fell and spread till, when a man opened his mouth to shout or to
+speak, a neighbor gave him a shove and bid him hold his tongue. At this
+the widow held Mary's ankles more tightly, asking, while she wiped the
+drops from her brow:
+
+"What is going on?" and the child answered quickly, never taking her
+eyes off the scene:
+
+"Look, look up at the balcony of the Curia; there stands the chief of
+the Senate--Alexander the dyer of purple--he often used to come to see
+my grandfather, and grandmother could not bear his wife. And by his
+side--do you not see who the man is close by him?
+
+"It is old Horapollo. He is taking the laurel-crown off his
+wig!--Alexander is going to speak."
+
+She was interrupted by another trumpet call, and immediately after a
+loud, manly voice was heard from the Curia, while the silence was so
+profound that even the widow and her daughter lost very little of the
+speech which followed:
+
+"Fellow-citizens, Memphites, and comrades in misfortune," the president
+began in slow, ringing tones, "you know what the sufferings are which we
+all share. There is not a woe that has not befallen us, and even worse
+loom before us."
+
+The crowd expressed their agreement by a fearful outcry, but they were
+reduced to silence by the sound of the tuba, and the speaker went on:
+
+"We, the Senate, the fathers of the city, whom you have entrusted with
+the care of your persons and your welfare..."
+
+At this point he was interrupted by wild yells, and cries could be
+distinguished of: "Then take care of us--do your duty!"
+
+"Money bags!"
+
+"Keep your pledge!"
+
+"Save us from destruction!"
+
+The trumpet call, however, again silenced them, and the speaker went on,
+almost beside himself with vehement excitement.
+
+"Hearken! Do not interrupt me! The dearth and misery fall on our heads
+as much as on yours. My own wife and son died of the plague last night!"
+
+At this only a low murmur ran through the crowd, and it died away of its
+own accord as the dignified old man on the balcony wiped his eyes and
+went on:
+
+"If there is a single man among you who can prove us guilty of
+neglect--a man, woman, or child--let him accuse us before God, before
+our new ruler the Khaliff, and yourselves, the citizens of Memphis; but
+not now, my fellow-sufferers, not now! At this time cease your cries and
+lamentations; now when rescue is in sight. Listen to me, and let us know
+what you feel with regard to the last and uttermost means of deliverance
+which I now come to propose to you."
+
+"Silence! Hear him! Down with the noisy ones!" was heard on all sides,
+and the orator went on:
+
+"We, as Christians, in the first instance addressed ourselves to our
+Father in Heaven, to our one and only divine Redeemer, and to His Holy
+Church to aid us; and I ask you: Has there been any lack of prayers,
+processions, pilgrimages, and pious gifts? No, no, my beloved
+fellow-citizens! Each one be my witness--certainly not! But Heaven has
+remained blind and deaf and dumb in sight of our need, yea as though
+paralyzed. And yet no; not indeed paralyzed, for it has been powerful
+and swift to move only to heap new woes upon us. Not a thing that human
+foresight and prudence could devise or execute has remained untried.
+
+"The time-honored arts of the magicians, sorcerers, and diviners, which
+aforetime have often availed to break the powers of evil spirits, have
+proved no less delusive and ineffectual. So then we remembered our
+glorious forefathers and ancestors, and we recollected that a man lives
+in our midst who knew many things which we others have lost sight of in
+the lapse of years. He has made the wisdom of our forefathers his own in
+the course of a long life of laborious days and nights. He has the key
+to the writing and the secrets of the ancients, and he has communicated
+to us the means of deliverance to which they resorted, when they
+suffered from such afflictions as have befallen us in these dreadful
+days; and this venerable man at my side, the wise and truthful
+Horapollo, will acquaint us with it. You see the antique scrolls in his
+hand: They teach us the wonders it wrought in times past."
+
+Here the speaker was interrupted by a cry of: "Hail Horapollo, the
+Deliverer!" and thousands took it up and expressed their satisfaction
+and gratitude by loud shouting.
+
+The old man bowed modestly, pointed to his narrow chest and toothless
+mouth and then to the head of the Council as the man who had undertaken
+to transmit his opinion to the populace; so Alexander went on:
+
+"Great favors, my friends and fellow-citizens, must be purchased by
+great gifts. The ancients knew this, and when the river--on which, as we
+know only too well, the weal or woe of this land solely depends--refused
+to rise, and its low ebb brought evils of many kinds upon its banks,
+they offered in sacrifice the thing they deemed most noble of all the
+earth has to show a pure and beautiful maiden.
+
+"It is just as we expected: you are horrified! I hear your murmur, I see
+your horror-stricken faces; how can a Christian fail to be shocked at
+the thought of such a victim? But is it indeed so extraordinary? Have
+we ever wholly given up everything of the kind? Which of us does not
+entreat Saint Orion, either at home or under the guidance of the priests
+in church, whenever he craves a gift from our splendid river; and this
+very year as usual, on the Night of Dropping, did we not cast into the
+waters a little box containing a human finger.
+
+   [So late as in the XIV. century after Christ the Egyptian Christians
+   still threw a small casket containing a human finger into the Nile
+   to induce it to rise. This is confirmed by the trustworthy
+   Makrizi.]
+
+"This lesser offering takes the place of the greater and more precious
+sacrifice of the heathen; it has been offered, and its necessity
+has never at any time been questioned; even the severest and holiest
+luminaries of the Church--Antonius and Athanasius, Theophilus and
+Cyrillus had nothing to say against it, and year after year it has been
+thrown into the waters under their very eyes.
+
+"A finger in a box! What a miserable exchange for the fairest and purest
+that God has allowed to move on earth among men. Can we wonder if the
+Almighty has at last disdained and rejected the wretched substitute, and
+claims once more for His Nile that which was formerly given? But where
+is the mother, where is the father, you will ask, who, in our selfish
+days, is so penetrated with love for his country, his province, his
+native town, that he will dedicate his virgin daughter to perish in the
+waters for the common good? What daughter of our nation is ready of her
+own free will to die for the salvation of others?
+
+"But be not afraid. Have no fears for the growing maiden, the very apple
+of your eye, in your women's rooms. Fear not for your granddaughters,
+sisters, playfellows and betrothed: From the earliest ages a stringent
+law forbade the sacrifice of Egyptian blood; strangers were to perish,
+or those who worshipped other gods than those in Egypt.
+
+"The same law, citizens and fellow-believers, is incumbent on us. And
+mark me well, all of you! Would it not seem as though Fate desired to
+help us to bring to our blessed Nile the offering which for so many
+centuries has been withheld? The river claims it; and, as if by a
+miracle, it has been brought to our hand. For a crime which does not
+taint her purity our judges have to-day condemned to death a beautiful
+and spotless maiden--a stranger, and at the same time a Greek and a
+heretic Melchite.
+
+"This stirs you, this fills your souls with joyful thankfulness; I see
+it! Then make ready for thy bridal, noble stream, Benefactor of our land
+and nation! The virgin, the bride that thou hast longed for, we deck for
+thee, we lead to thine embrace--she shall be Thine!
+
+"And you, Memphites, citizens and fellow-sufferers," and the orator
+leaned far over the parapet towards the crowd, "when I ask you for your
+suffrages, when I appeal to you in the name of the senate, and of this
+venerable sage...."
+
+But here he was interrupted by the triumphant shout of the assembled
+multitude; a thousand voices went up in a mighty, heaven-rending cry:
+
+"To the Nile with her--the maiden to the Nile!"
+
+"Marry the Melchite to the river! Bring wreaths for the bride of the
+Nile, bring flowers for her marriage."
+
+"Let us abide by the teaching of our fathers!"
+
+"Hail to the councillor! Hail to the sage, Horapollo! Hail to our chief
+Senator!"
+
+These were the glad and enthusiastic shouts that rose in loud confusion;
+and it was only on the north side, where the money-changers' tables
+now stood deserted-for gold and silver had long since been placed in
+safety--that a sinister murmur of dissent was heard. The little girl
+in the Persian's arms had long since been breathing hard and deep.
+She thought she knew whom that fiend up there had his eye upon for his
+cursed heathen sacrifice; and as Mary bent down to Dame Joanna to see
+whether she shared her hideous suspicion, she perceived that her eyes
+and Pulcheria's were full of tears.--That was enough; she asked no
+questions, for a new act in the drama claimed her attention.
+
+Close to the money-changer's stalls a hand was lifted on high, holding
+a crucifix, and the child could see it steadily progressing through the
+crowd towards the Curia. Every one made way for the sacred symbol and
+the bearer of it; and to Mary's fancy the throng parted on each side of
+the advancing image of the Redeemer, as the waters of the Red Sea had
+parted at the approach of the people of God. The murmurs in that part of
+the square grew louder; the acclamations of the populace waxed fainter;
+every voice seemed to fail, and presently a frail figure in bishop's
+robes, small but rigidly dignified, was seen to mount the steps and
+finally disappear within the portals of the Curia.
+
+The turmoil sank like an ebbing wave to a low, enquiring mutter, and
+even this died away when the diminutive personage, who looked the
+taller, however, for the crucifix which he still held, came out on the
+balcony, approached the parapet, and stretched forth the arm that held
+the image above the heads of the foremost rows of the people.
+
+At this Horapollo stepped up to Alexander, his eyes flashing with rage,
+and demanded that the intruder should be forbidden to speak; but the
+commanding eye of the new-comer rested on the dyer, who bowed his head
+and allowed him to proceed. Nor did one of the senators dare to
+hinder him, for every one recognized him as the zealous, learned, and
+determined priest who had, since yesterday, filled the place of the
+deceased bishop.
+
+Their new pastor began, addressing his flock in as loud a voice as he
+could command:
+
+"Look on this Cross and hearken to its minister! You languish for the
+blessing of Christ, and you follow after heathen abominations. The
+superstitious triumph, through which I have struggled to reach you, will
+be turned to howls of anguish if you stop your ears and are deaf to the
+words of salvation.
+
+"Yea, you may murmur! You will not reduce me to silence, for Truth
+speaks in me and can never be dumb. I say to each of you that knows it
+not: The staff of the departed Plotinus has been placed in my hands.
+I would fain bear it with gentleness and mercy; but, if I must, I
+will wield it as a sword and a scourge till your wounds bleed and your
+bruises ache.
+
+"Behold in my right hand the image of your Redeemer! I hold it up as a
+wall between you and the heathen abomination which you hail with joy in
+your blindness.
+
+"Ye are accursed and apostate. Lift up your hearts, and look at Him who
+died on the cross to save you. Verily He will not let him perish who
+believeth in Him; but you! where is your faith? Because it is night ye
+lament and cry: The Light is dead!' Because ye are sick ye say: 'The
+physician cannot heal!'
+
+"What are these blasphemies that I hear: 'The Lord and His Church
+are powerless! Magic, enchantments, and heathen abominations may save
+us.'--But, inasmuch as ye trust not in the true Saviour and Redeemer,
+but in heathen wickedness, magic, and enchantments, punishment shall be
+heaped on punishment; and so it will be,--I see it coming--till ye are
+choked in the mud and seek with groans the only Hand that is able to
+save.
+
+"That whereby the blinded sons of men hope to escape from the evil,
+that, and that only, is the source of their sufferings and I stand here
+to stay that spring and dig a channel for its overflow.
+
+"Children of Moloch ye try to be and I hope to make you Christians
+again. But the maiden whom your fury would cast into the abyss of the
+river is under the merciful protection of the supreme Church, for the
+death of her body will bring death to your souls. Saint Orion turns from
+you with horror! Away from the hapless victim! Away, I say, with your
+accursed desires and sacrilegious hands!"
+
+"And sit with them in our laps and wring them in prayer till they ache,
+while want and the plague snatch away those that are left!" interrupted
+the old man's voice, thin and feeble, but audible at a considerable
+distance, and from the market-place thousands proclaimed their approval
+by loud shouts.
+
+The president of the senate had listened with a penitent mien and
+bowed head, but now he recovered his presence of mind and exclaimed
+indignantly:
+
+"The people die, the town and country are going to ruin, plague and
+horrors rise up from the river. Show us some other way of escape, or let
+us trust to our forefathers and try this last means."
+
+But the little man drew himself up more stiffly, pointed with his left
+hand to the crucifix, and cried with unmoved composure:
+
+"Believe, hope, and pray!"
+
+"Perhaps you think that no evil is come upon us!" cried Alexander. "You,
+to be sure, have seen no wife with glazing eyes, no child struggling
+for breath...." And a fresh tumult came up from below, wilder and louder
+than ever. Each one whose home or beasts had been blighted by death,
+whose gardens and fields had perished of drought, whose dates had
+dropped one by one from the trees, lifted up his voice and shrieked:
+
+"The victim, the victim!"
+
+"To the river with the maiden!"
+
+"All hail to our deliverer, the wise Horapollo!" But others shouted
+against them:
+
+"Let us remain Christians! Hail to Bishop John!"
+
+"Think of our souls!"
+
+The prelate made an effort once more to rivet the attention of the
+populace, and failing in this he turned to the senators and the
+trumpeters, whom at length he succeeded in persuading to blow again and
+again, and more loudly through their brazen tuba. But the call produced
+no effect, for in the market square groups had formed on opposite sides,
+and blows and wrestling threatened to end in a sanguinary street-riot.
+
+The women succeeded in getting away from the scene of action under the
+protection of the Masdakite, before the Arab cavalry rode across to
+separate the combatants; but in the Curia Bishop John explained to the
+Fathers that he would make every effort to prevent this inhuman and
+unchristian sacrifice of a young girl, even though she was a Melchite
+and under sentence of death. This very day a carrier pigeon should be
+dispatched to the patriarch in Upper Egypt, and bring back his decision.
+
+When, on this, Horapollo replied that the Khaliff's representative here
+had signified his consent to the proceedings, and that even against the
+will of the clergy the misery of the people must be put an end to, the
+Bishop broke out vehemently and threatened all who had first suggested
+this hideous scheme with the anathema of the Church. But Horapollo
+retorted again with flaming eloquence, the desperate Senators took his
+part, and the Bishop left the Curia in the highest wrath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Few things could be more intolerable to the gentle and retiring widow
+than such a riot of the people. The unchained passion, the tumult, and
+all the vulgar accessories that surrounded her there grieved her tender
+nature; all through the old man's speech she had felt nothing but the
+desire to escape, but as soon as she had acquired the certainty that
+Paula was the hapless being whom her terrible house-mate was preparing
+to hand over to the superstition of the mob, she thought no more of
+getting home, but waited in the crush till at length she and the two
+children could be conducted by Rustem to the prison, though the way
+thither was through the most crowded streets.
+
+Had the nameless horrors that hung over Paula already found their way to
+her ears through the prisonwalls, or might it yet be her privilege to
+be able to prepare the girl for the worst, and to comfort the victim
+who must already have been driven to the verge of desperation by the
+sentence of death?
+
+On the previous day the chief warder had acceded without demur to her
+wish to see Paula, for the Kadi had enjoined him to show her and Orion
+all possible courtesy, but the Vekeel's threats made him now refuse to
+admit Dame Joanna. However, while he was talking with her, his infant
+son stretched out his arms to Pulcheria, who had played with him the day
+before in her sweet way, and she now took him up and kissed him, thus
+bringing a kindly feeling to three hearts at once; and most of all to
+that of the child's mother who immediately interested herself for them,
+and persuaded her husband to oblige them once more.
+
+Pretty Emau had always waited on the mirthful Orion, under the palms by
+her father's inn, more gladly than on most other guests; and her husband
+who, after the manner of the Egyptians, was docile to his better half
+though till now he had not been quite free from jealousy, was even more
+ready to serve his benefactor's son since hearing that he was betrothed
+to the fair Paula.
+
+There was a great uproar in the large common prison to-day, as usual
+when the judges had passed sentence of death on any criminal, and the
+women shuddered as the miserable wretches hallooed and bellowed. Many
+a shriek came up, of which it was hard to say whether it was the
+expression of wild defiance or of bitter jesting, and no more suitable
+accompaniment could be conceived to this terrific riot than the clank of
+chains.
+
+When the women reached Paula's cell their hearts throbbed painfully,
+for within the door which the warder unlocked anguish and despair must
+dwell.
+
+The prisoner was standing at the window, pressing her brow against the
+iron bars and listening to the lute played by her lover, which sounded,
+amid the turmoil of the other prisoners, like a bell above the roar of
+thunder and the storm. By the bed sat Betta on a low stool, asleep with
+the distaff in her lap; and neither she nor her mistress heeded the
+entrance of the visitors. A miserable lamp lighted the squalid room.
+
+Mary would have flown to her friend, but Joanna held her back and called
+Paula tenderly by name in a low voice. But Paula did not hear; her soul
+was no doubt absorbed in anguish and the terror of death. The widow
+now raised her voice, and the ill-fated girl turned round; then, with a
+little cry of joy, she hastened to meet the faithful creatures who could
+find her even in prison, and clasped first the widow, then Pulcheria,
+then the child in a tender embrace. Joanna put her hands fondly round
+her face to kiss it, and to see how far fear and affliction had altered
+her lovely features, and a faint cry of astonishment escaped her, for
+she was looking, not at a grief and terror-stricken face, but a glad and
+calm one, and a pair of large eyes looked brightly and gratefully into
+hers.
+
+Had she not been told then what was hanging over her? Nay--for she at
+once asked whether they had heard that she was condemned to die. And she
+went on to tell them how things had gone with her at her trial, and how
+her good Philip's friend and foster-father had suddenly and inexplicably
+become her bitterest foe.
+
+At this the others could not check their tears; it was Paula who had to
+comfort and soothe them, by telling them that she had found a paternal
+friend in the Kadi who had promised to intercede for her with the
+Khaliff.
+
+Dame Joanna could scarcely take it all in. This girl and her heroic
+demeanor, in the face of such disaster, seemed to her miraculous. Her
+trust was beautiful; but how easily might it be deceived! how insecure
+was the ground in which she had cast the anchor of hope.
+
+Even little Mary seemed more troubled than her friend, and threw herself
+sobbing on her bosom. And Paula returned her fondness, and tried to
+mollify Pulcheria as to the disgraceful conduct of their old housemate,
+and smiled kindly at the widow when she asked where she had found such
+composure in the face of so much misfortune, saying that it was from her
+example that she had learnt resignation to the worst that could befall
+her. Even in this dark hour she found more to be thankful for than to
+lament over; indeed, it had brought her a glorious joy. And this for the
+first time reminded Joanna and the girls that she was now betrothed, and
+again she was clasped in their loving arms.
+
+Just then the warder rapped; Paula rose thoughtfully, and exclaimed in a
+low voice: "I have something to send to Orion that I dare not entrust to
+a stranger: but now, now I have you, my Mary, and you shall take it to
+him."
+
+As she spoke she took out the emerald, gave it to the little girl, and
+charged her to deliver it to her uncle as soon as they should be
+alone together. In the little note which she had wrapped around it she
+implored her lover to regard it as his own property, and to use it to
+satisfy the claims of the Church.
+
+The man was easily induced to take Mary to her uncle; and how happily
+she ran on before him up to Orion's cell, how great was his joy at
+seeing her again, how gratefully he pressed the emerald to his lips! But
+when she exclaimed that her prophecy had been fulfilled, and that Paula,
+was now his, his brow was knit as he replied, with gloomy regret, that
+though he had won the woman he loved, it was only to lose her again.
+
+"But the Kadi is your friend and will gain pardon from the Khaliff!"
+cried the child.
+
+"But then another enemy suddenly starts up: Horapollo!"
+
+"Oh, our old man!" and the child ground her teeth. "If you did but know,
+Orion!--And to think that I must live under the same roof with him!"
+
+"You!" asked the young man.
+
+"Yes, I. And Pulcheria, and Mother Joanna," and Mary went on to tell him
+how the old man had come to live with them and Orion could guess from
+various indications that she was concealing some important fact; so he
+pressed her to keep nothing from him, till the child could not at last
+evade telling him all she had seen and heard.
+
+At this he lost all caution and self-control. Quite beside himself he
+called aloud the name of his beloved, invoking in passionate tones the
+return of the Governor Amru, the only man who could help them in this
+crisis. His sole hope was in him. He had shown himself a real father to
+him, and had set him a difficult but a noble task.
+
+"Into which you have plunged over head and ears!" cried the child.
+
+"I thought it all out while on my journey," replied Orion. "I tried
+yesterday to write out a first sketch of it, but I lacked what I most
+wanted: maps and lists. Nilus had put them all up together; I was to
+have taken them with me on the voyage with the nuns, and I ordered that
+they should be carried to the house of Rufinus...."
+
+"That they should come to us?" interrupted the child with sparkling
+eyes. "Oh, they are all there! I saw the documents myself, when the
+chest was cleared out for old Horapollo, and to-morrow, quite early
+to-morrow, you shall have them." Orion kissed her brow with glad haste;
+then, striking the wall of his cell with his fist, he waited till
+something had been withdrawn with a grating sound on the other side, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Good news, Nilus! The plans and lists are found: I shall have them
+to-morrow!"
+
+"That is well!" replied the treasurer's thin voice from the adjoining
+room. "We shall need something to comfort us! A prisoner has just been
+brought in for having attacked an Arab horseman in a riot in the market
+square. He tells me some dreadful news."
+
+"Concerning my betrothed?"
+
+"Alas! yes, my lord."
+
+"Then I know it already," replied the young man; and after exchanging
+a few words with his master with reference to the old man's atrocious
+proposal, Nilus went on:
+
+"My prison-mate tells me, too, that while he was in custody in the
+guard-house the Arabs were speaking of a messenger from the governor
+announcing his arrival at Medina, and also that he intended making only
+a short stay there. So we may expect his return before long."
+
+"Then he will have started long before the Kadi's messenger can have
+arrived and laid the petition for pardon before the Khaliff!--We have
+no hope but in Amru; if only we could send information to him on his
+way...."
+
+"He would certainly not tarry in Upper Egypt, but hasten his journey,
+or send on a plenipotentiary," said the voice on the other side of the
+wall. "If we had but a trusty man to despatch! Our people are scattered
+to the four winds, and to hunt them up now...."
+
+At this Mary's childish tones broke in with: "I can find a messenger."
+
+"You? What are you thinking of, child?" said Orion. She did not heed his
+remonstrance, but went on eagerly, quite sure of her own meaning:
+
+"He shall be told everything, everything! Ought he to know what I heard
+about your share in the flight of the sisters?"
+
+"No, no; on no account!" cried Nilus and his master both at once; and
+Mary understood that her proposition was accepted. She clapped her
+hands, and exclaimed full of enterprise and with glowing cheeks:
+
+"The messenger shall start to-morrow; rely on me. I can do it as well
+as the greatest. And now tell me exactly the road he is to take. To make
+sure, write the names of the stages on my little tablet.--But wait, I
+must rub it smooth."
+
+"What is this on the wax?" asked Orion. "A large heart with squares all
+over it.--And that means?"
+
+"Oh! mere nonsense," said the child somewhat abashed. "It was only to
+show how my heart was divided among the persons I love. A whole half of
+it belongs to Paula, this quarter is yours; but there, there, there,"
+and at each word she prodded the wax with the stylus, "that is where I
+had kept a little corner for old Horapollo. He had better not come in my
+way again!"
+
+Her nimble fingers smoothed the wax, and over the effaced heart--a
+child's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human
+beings depended. He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's
+adroitness and fidelity. Early next morning she was to receive a letter
+to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers.
+
+"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by
+the mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer. "If we put together
+our last gold pieces they will hardly suffice."
+
+"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl. "And
+yet--there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the
+same time...."
+
+"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!" cried
+Orion.
+
+"Oh yes, yes! What do I want with them? But Dame Joanna has my mother's
+things in her keeping."
+
+"And you are afraid to ask her for them?" asked the young man. He
+appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion
+took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her
+to hand it to Joanna. Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she
+would require on this gem. Mary joyfully took possession of the ring;
+but presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction
+suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion
+as if they were parting for ever.
+
+In the passage leading to Paula's cell the man suddenly stood still:
+some one was approaching up the stairs.--If it should be the black
+Vekeel, and he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour!
+
+But no. Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their
+light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had
+often been here before now to console prisoners.
+
+He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned
+Melchite. Mary's dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not
+belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt
+who she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always
+accompanied him when he visited a female prisoner: "We find her here!"
+And when he had ascertained with whom the child had come hither at so
+late an hour, he turned again to his colleague and added in a low voice:
+
+"The wife and daughter of Rufinus! Just so: I have long had my eye
+on these Greeks. In church once or twice every year!--Melchites in
+disguise! Allied with this Melchite! And this is the school in which
+the Mukaukas' granddaughter is growing up! An abominable trick! Benjamin
+judged rightly, as he always did!" Then, in a subdued voice, he asked:
+
+"Shall we take her away with us at once?" But, as the deacon made
+objections, he hastily replied: "You are right; for the present it is
+enough that we know where she is to be found."
+
+The warder meanwhile had opened Paula's cell; before the bishop went in
+he spoke a few kind words to the child, asking her whether she did not
+long to see her mother; and when Mary replied: "Very often!" he stroked
+her hair with his bony hand and said:
+
+"So I thought.--You have a pretty name, child, and you, like your
+mother, will perhaps ere long dedicate your life to the Blessed among
+women, whose name you bear." And, holding the little girl by the hand,
+he entered the cell. While Paula looked in amazement at the prelate who
+came so late a visitor, Joanna and Pulcheria recognized him as the brave
+ecclesiastic who had so valiantly opposed the old sage and the misled
+populace, and they bowed with deep reverence. This the bishop observed,
+and came to the conclusion that these Greeks perhaps after all belonged
+to his Church. At any rate, the child might safely be left in their care
+a few days longer.
+
+After he had exchanged a few cordial words with them the widow prepared
+to withdraw, and was about to take leave when he went up to her and
+announced that he would pay her a visit the next day or the day after;
+that he wished to speak with her of matters involving the happiness
+of one who was dear to them both, and Dame Joanna, believing that he
+referred to Paula, whispered:
+
+"She has no idea as yet of the terrible fate the people have in store
+for her. If possible, spare her the fearful truth before she sleeps this
+night."
+
+"If possible," repeated the prelate. Then, as Mary kissed his hand
+before leaving, he drew her to him and said: "Like the Infant Christ,
+every Christian child is the Mother's. You, Mary, are chosen before
+thousands! The Lord took your father to himself as a martyr; your mother
+has dedicated herself to Heaven. Your road is marked out for you, child,
+reflect on this. To-morrow-no, the day after, I will see you and guide
+you in the new path."
+
+At these words Joanna turned pale. She now understood what the bishop's
+purpose was in calling on her. At the bottom of the stairs, she threw
+her arms round the child and asked her in--a low voice: "Do you pine for
+the cloister--do you wish to go away from us like your mother, to think
+of nothing but saving your soul, to live a nun in the holy seclusion
+which Pulcheria has described to you so often?"
+
+But this the child positively denied; and as Joanna's head drooped
+anxiously and sadly, Mary looked up brightly and exclaimed: "Never fear,
+Mother dear! Things will have altered greatly by the day after tomorrow.
+Let the bishop come! I shall be a match for him!--Oh! you do not know me
+yet. I have been like a lamb among you through all this misfortune and
+serious trouble; but there is something more in me than that. You will
+be quite astonished!"
+
+"Nay, nay. Remain what you are," the widow said.
+
+"Always and ever full of love for you and Pul. But I am a grand and
+trusted person now! I have something very important to do for Orion
+to-morrow. Something--Rustem will go with me.--Important, very
+important, Mother Joanna. But what it is I must not tell--not even you!"
+
+Here she was interrupted, for the heavy prison door opened for their
+exit.
+
+It was many hours before it was again unlocked to let out the bishop, so
+long was he detained talking to Paula in her cell.
+
+To his enquiry as to whether she was an orthodox Greek, or as the common
+people called it, a Melchite, she replied that she was the latter;
+adding that, if he had come with a view to perverting her from the
+confession of her forefathers, his visit was thrown away; at the same
+time she reverenced him as a Christian and a priest; as a learned man,
+and the friend whom her deceased uncle had esteemed above every other
+minister of his confession; she was gladly ready to disclose to him all
+that lay on her soul in the face of death. He looked into the pure,
+calm face; and though, at her first declaration, he had felt prompted to
+threaten her with the hideous end which he had but just done his utmost
+to avert, he now remembered the Greek widow's request and bound himself
+to keep silence.
+
+He allowed her to talk till midnight, giving him the whole history of
+all she had known of joy and sorrow in the course of her young life;
+his keen insight searched her soul, his pious heart rose to meet the
+strength and courage of hers; and when he quitted her, as he walked
+home with the deacon, the first words with which he broke a long silence
+were:
+
+"While you were asleep, God vouchsafed me an edifying hour through that
+heretic child of earth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+When the door in the tall prison-wall was closed behind the women,
+Joanna made her way through streets still sultry under the silence of
+the night, Rustem following with the child.
+
+The giant's good heart was devoted to Mary, and he often passed his
+huge hand over his eyes while she told him all that the scene they had
+witnessed meant, and the fearful end that threatened Paula. He broke
+in now and again, giving utterance to his grief and wrath in strange,
+natural sounds; for he looked up to his beautiful sick nurse as to a
+superior being, and Mandane, too, had often remarked that they could
+never forget all that the noble maiden had done for them.
+
+"If only," Rustem cried at length, clenching his powerful fist, "If
+only I could--they should see..." and the child looked up with shrewd,
+imploring eyes, exclaiming eagerly:
+
+"But you could, Rustem, you could!"
+
+"I?" asked Rustem in surprise, and he shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, you, Rustem; you of all men. We were talking over something in
+the prison, and if only you were ready and willing to help us in the
+matter."
+
+"Willing!" laughed the worthy fellow striking his heart; and he went on
+in his strangely-broken Greek, which was, however, quite intelligible:
+"I would give hair and skin for the noble lady. You have only to speak
+out."
+
+The child clung to the big man with both hands and drew him to her
+saying: "We knew you had a grate ful heart. But you see..." and she
+interrupted herself to ask in an altered voice:
+
+"Do you believe in a God? or stay--do you know what a sacred oath is?
+Can you swear solemnly? Yes, yes..." and drawing herself up as tall as
+possible she went on very seriously: "Swear by your bride Mandane--as
+truly as you believe that she loves you...."
+
+"But, sweet soul...."
+
+"Swear that you will never betray to a living soul what I am going
+to say--not even to Mother Joanna and Pulcheria; no, nor even to your
+Mandane, unless you find you cannot help it and she gives her sacred
+word...."
+
+"What is it? You quite frighten me! What am I to swear?"
+
+"Not to reveal what I am now going to tell you."
+
+"Yes, yes, little Mistress; I can promise you that." Mary sighed, a
+long-drawn "Ah...!" and told him that a trustworthy messenger must be
+found to go forth to meet Amru, so as to be in time to save Paula. Then
+came the question whether he knew the road over the hills from Babylon
+to the ancient town of Berenice; and when he replied that he had lately
+travelled that way, and that it was the shortest road to the sea for
+Djidda and Medina, she repeated her satisfied "Ah!" took his hand, and
+went on with coaxing but emphatic entreaty while she played with his big
+fingers: "And now, best and kindest Rustem, in all Memphis there is but
+one really trusty messenger; but he, you see, is betrothed, and so he
+would rather get married and go home with his bride than help us to save
+the life of poor Paula."
+
+"The cur!" growled the Persian.
+
+At this Mary laughed out: "Yes, the cur!" and went on gaily: "But you
+are abusing yourself, you stupid Rustem. You, you are the messenger I
+mean, the only faithful and trustworthy one far or near. You, you must
+meet the governor...."
+
+"I!" said the man, and he stood still with amazement; but Mary
+pulled him onward, saying: "But come on, or the others will notice
+something.--Yes, you, you must...."
+
+"But child, child," interrupted Rustem lamentably,
+
+"I must go back to my master; and you see, common right and justice...."
+
+"You do not choose to leave your sweetheart; not even if the kind
+creature who watched over you day and night should die for it--die the
+most cruel and horrible death! You were ready enough to call that other,
+as you supposed, a cur--that other whom no one nursed till he was well
+again; but as for yourself...."
+
+"Have patience then! Hear me, little Mistress!" Rustem broke in again,
+and pulled away his hand. "I am quite willing to wait and Mandane must
+just submit. But one man is not good for all tasks. To ride, or guide
+a train of merchandise, to keep the cameldrivers in order, to pitch a
+camp---all that I can do; but to parley with grand folks, to go
+straight up to such a man as the great chief Amru with prayers and
+supplications--all that, you see, sweetheart--even if it were to save my
+own father, that would be...."
+
+"But who asks you to do all that?" said the child. "You may stand as
+mute as a fish: it will be your companion's business to do the talking."
+
+"There is to be another one then? But, great Masdak! I hope that will be
+enough at any rate!"
+
+"Why will you constantly interrupt me?" the little girl put in. "Listen
+first and raise objections after wards. The second messenger--now open
+your ears wide--it is I, I myself;--but if you stand still again, you
+will really betray me. The long and short of it is, that as surely as I
+mean to save Paula, I mean to go forth to meet Amru, and if you
+refuse to go with me I will set out alone and try whether Gibbus the
+hunchback...."
+
+Rustem had needed some time to collect his senses after this stupendous
+surprise, but now he exclaimed: "You--you--to Berenice, and over the
+mountains...."
+
+"Yes, over the mountains," she repeated, "and if need be, through the
+clouds."
+
+"But such a thing was never heard of, never heard of on this earth!" the
+Persian remonstrated. "A girl, a little lady like you--a messenger, and
+all alone with a clumsy fellow like me. No, no, no!"
+
+"And again no, and a hundred times over no!" cried the child merrily.
+"The little lady will stop at home and you will take a boy with you--a
+boy called Marius, not Mary."
+
+"A boy! But I thought.--It is enough to puzzle one...."
+
+"A boy who is a girl and a boy in one," laughed Mary. "But if you
+must have it in plain words: I shall dress up as a boy to go with you;
+to-morrow when we set out you will see, you will take me for my own
+brother."
+
+"Your own brother! With a little face like yours! Then the most
+impossible things will become possible," cried Rustem laughing, and
+he looked down good humoredly at the little girl. But suddenly the
+preposterousness of her scheme rose again before his mind, and he
+exclaimed half-frantically: "But then my master!--It will not do--It
+will never do!"
+
+"It is for his sake that you will do us this service," said Mary
+confidently. "He is Paula's friend and protector; and when he hears what
+you have done for her he will praise you, while if you leave us in the
+lurch I am quite sure..."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That he will say: 'I thought Rustem was a shrewder man and had a better
+heart.'"
+
+"You really think he will say that?"
+
+"As surely as our house stands before us!--Well, we have no time for any
+more discussion, so it is settled: we start together. Let me find you in
+the garden early to-morrow morning. You must tell your Mandane that you
+are called away by important business."
+
+"And Dame Joanna?" asked the Persian, and his voice was grave and
+anxious as he went on: "The thing I like least, child, is that you
+should not ask her, and take her into your confidence."
+
+"But she will hear all about it, only not immediately," replied Mary.
+"And the day after to-morrow, when she knows what I have gone off for
+and that you are with me, she will praise us and bless us; yes, she
+will, as surely as I hope that the Almighty will succor us in our
+journey!"
+
+At these words, which evidently came from the very depths of her heart,
+the Masdakite's resistance altogether gave way--just in time, for their
+walk was at an end, and they both felt as though the long distance had
+been covered by quite a few steps. They had passed close to several
+groups of noisy and quarrelsome citizens, and many a funeral train had
+borne the plague-stricken dead to the grave by torchlight under their
+very eyes, but they had heeded none of these things.
+
+It was not till they reached the garden-gate that they observed what
+was going on around them. There they found the gardener and all the
+household, anxiously watching for the return of their belated mistress.
+Eudoxia too was waiting for them with some alarm. In the house they were
+met by Horapollo, but Joanna and Pulcheria returned his greeting with
+a cold bow, while Mary purposely turned her back on him. The old man
+shrugged his shoulders with regretful annoyance, and in the solitude of
+his own room he muttered to himself:
+
+"Oh, that woman! She will be the ruin even of the peaceful days I hoped
+to enjoy during the short remainder of my life!"
+
+The widow and her daughter for some time sat talking of Mary. She
+had bid them good-night as devotedly and tenderly as though they were
+parting for life. Poor child! She had forebodings of the terrible fate
+to which the bishop, and perhaps her own mother had predestined her.
+
+But Mary did not look as if she were going to meet misfortune; Eudoxia,
+who slept by her side, was rejoiced on the contrary at seeing her so
+gay; only she was surprised to see the child, who usually fell asleep
+as soon as her little head was on the pillow, lying awake so long
+this evening. The elderly Greek, who suffered from a variety of little
+ailments and always went to sleep late, could not help watching the
+little girl's movements.
+
+What was that? Between midnight and dawn Mary sprang from her bed, threw
+on her clothes, and stole into the next room with the night-lamp in her
+hand. Presently a brighter light shone through the door-way. She must
+have lighted a lamp,-and presently, hearing the door of the sitting-room
+opened, Eudoxia rose and noiselessly watched her. Mary immediately
+returned, carrying a boy's clothes--a suit, in point of fact, which
+Pulcheria and Eudoxia had lately been making as a Sunday garb--for the
+lame gardener's boy. The child smilingly tried on the little blue tunic;
+then, after tossing the clothes into a chest, she sat down at the table
+to write. But she seemed to have set herself some hard task; for now she
+looked down at the papyrus and rubbed her forehead, and now she gazed
+thoughtfully into vacancy. She had written a few sentences when she
+started up, called Eudoxia by name, and went towards the sleeping-room.
+
+Eudoxia went forward to meet her; Mary threw herself into her arms, and
+before her governess could ask any questions she told her that she had
+been chosen to accomplish a great and important action. She had been
+intending to wake her, to make her her confidant and to ask her advice.
+
+How sweet and genuine it all sounded, and how charmingly confused she
+seemed in spite of the ardent zeal that inspired her!
+
+Eudoxia's heart went forth to her; the words of reproof died on her
+lips, and for the first time she felt as though the orphaned child were
+her own; as though their joy and grief were one; as though she, who all
+her life long had thought only of herself and her own advantage, and who
+had regarded her care of Mary as a mere return in kind for a salary and
+home, were ready and willing to sacrifice herself and her last coin for
+this child. So, when the little girl now threw her arms round Eudoxia's
+neck, imploring her not to betray her, but, on the contrary, to help her
+in the good work which aimed at nothing less than the rescue of Paula
+and Orion-the imperilled victims of Fate, her dry eyes sparkled through
+tears; she kissed Mary's burning cheeks once more and called her her own
+dear, dear little daughter. This gave the child courage; with tragical
+dignity, which brought a smile to the governess' lips, she took
+Eudoxia's bible from the desk, and said, fixing her beseeching gaze on
+the Greek's face:
+
+"Swear!--nay, you must be quite grave, for nothing can be more
+solemn--swear not to tell a soul, not even Mother Joanna, what I want to
+confess to you."
+
+Eudoxia promised, but she would take no oath. "Yea, yea, and nay, nay,"
+was the oath of the Christian by the law of the Lord; but Mary clung to
+her, stroked her thin cheeks, and at last declared she could not say a
+word unless Eudoxia yielded. In such an hour the Greek could not resist
+this tender coaxing; she allowed Mary to take possession of her hand and
+lay it on the Bible; and when once this was done Eudoxia gave way, and
+with much head shaking repeated the oath that her pupil dictated, though
+much against her will.
+
+After this the governess threw herself on the divan, as if exhausted and
+shocked at her own weakness; and the little girl took advantage of her
+victory, seating herself at her feet, and telling her all she knew about
+Paula and the perils that threatened her and Orion; and she was artful
+enough to give special prominence to Orion's danger, having long since
+observed how high he stood in Eudoxia's good graces. So far Eudoxia had
+not ceased stroking her hair, while she assented to everything that was
+said; but when she heard that Mary proposed to undertake the embassy
+to Amru herself, she started to her feet in horror, and declared most
+positively that she would never, never consent to such rashness, to such
+fatal folly.
+
+Mary now brought to bear her utmost resources of persuasion and
+flattery. There was no other fit messenger to be found, and the lives
+of Orion and Paula were at stake. Was a ride across the mountains such
+a tremendous matter after all? How well she knew how to manage a beast,
+and how little she suffered from the heat! Had she not ridden more than
+once from Memphis to their estates by the seaboard? And faithful Rustem
+would be always with her, and the road over the mountains was the safest
+in all the country, with frequent stations for the accommodation of
+travellers. Then, if they found Amru, she could give a more complete
+report than any other living soul.
+
+But Eudoxia was not to be shaken; though she admitted that Mary's
+project was not so entirely crazy as it had at first appeared.
+
+At this the little girl began again; after reminding Eudoxia once more
+of her oath, she went on to tell her of the doom she herself hoped to
+escape by setting out on her errand. She told Eudoxia of her meeting
+with the bishop, and that even Joanna was uneasy as to her future
+fate. Ah! that life within walls under lock and key seemed to her so
+frightful--and she pictured her terrors, her love of freedom and of a
+busy, useful, active life among men and her friends, and her hope that
+the great general, Amru, would defend her against every one if once she
+could place herself under his protection--painting it all so vividly, so
+passionately, and so pathetically, that the governess was softened.
+
+She clasped her hands over her eyes, which were streaming with tears,
+and exclaimed: "It is horrible, unheard-of--still, perhaps it is the
+best thing to do. Well, go to meet the governor,--ride off, ride off!"
+
+And when the sweet, warm-hearted, joyous creature clang round her neck
+she was glad of her own weakness: this fair, fresh, and blooming bud of
+humanity should not pine in confinement and seclusion; she should find
+and give happiness, to her own joy and that of all good souls, and
+unfold to a full and perfect flower. And Eudoxia knew the widow well;
+she knew that Joanna would by-and-bye understand why she helped the
+child to escape the greatest peril that can hang over a human soul:
+that of living in perpetual conflict with itself in the effort to
+become something totally different from what, by natural gifts and
+inclinations, it is intended to be.
+
+With a sigh of anguish Eudoxia reflected what she herself, forced by
+cruel fate and lacking freedom and pleasurable ease, had become, from an
+ardent and generous young creature; and she, the narrow-hearted teacher,
+could make allowances for the strange, adventurous yearning of a child,
+where a larger souled woman might have derided, and blamed and repressed
+it.
+
+When it was daylight Eudoxia fulfilled the offices she commonly left
+to the maid: she arranged Mary's hair, talking to her and listening the
+while, as though in this night the child had developed into a woman.
+Then she went into the garden with her, and hardly let her out of her
+sight.
+
+At breakfast Joanna and Pulcheria wondered at her singular behavior, but
+it did not displease them, and Marv was radiant with contentment.
+
+The widow made no objection to allowing the child to go into the city
+to execute her uncle's mysterious commission. Rustem was with her; and
+whatever it was that made the child so happy must certainly be right and
+unobjectionable. Orion's maps and lists were sent to the prison early
+in the day, and before the child set out with her stalwart escort Gibbus
+had returned with the prisoner's letter to the Arab governor.
+
+On their way it was agreed that Mary should join Rustem at dusk at the
+riverside inn of Nesptah. In these clays of famine and death beasts
+of burthen of every description were easily procurable, as well as
+attendants and guides; and the Masdakite, who was experienced in such
+matters, thought it best to purchase none but swift dromedaries and to
+carry only a light tent for the "little mistress!"
+
+At the door of Gamaliel's shop Mary bid him wait; the jovial goldsmith
+welcomed her with genuine pleasure....
+
+What had befallen the house of the Mukaukas! Fire had destroyed the
+dwelling-place of justice, like the Egyptian cities to whom the prophet
+had announced a similar fate a thousand years since.
+
+Gamaliel knew in what peril Orion stood, and the fate that hung over
+the noble maiden who had once given him the costliest of gems, and
+afterwards entrusted to him a portion of her fortune.
+
+To see any member of his patron's family alive and well rejoiced his
+heart. He asked Mary one sympathizing question after another, and his
+wife wanted to give her some of her good apricot tarts; but the little
+girl begged Gamaliel to grant her at once a private interview, so
+the jeweller led her into his little work-shop, bidding her trust him
+entirely, for whatever a grandchild of Mukaukas George might ask of him
+it was granted beforehand.
+
+Blushing with confusion she took Orion's ring out of its wrapper,
+offered it to the Jew, and desired him to give her whatever was right.
+
+She looked enquiringly into his face with her bright eyes, in full
+confidence that the kind-hearted man would at once pay her down gold
+coins and to spare; but he did not even take the ring out of her hand.
+He merely glanced at it, and said gravely:
+
+"Nay, my little maid, we do not do business with children."
+
+"But I want the money, Gamaliel," she urged. "I must have it."
+
+"Must?" he repeated with a smile. "Well, must is a nail that drives
+through wood, no doubt; but if it hits iron it is apt to bend. Not that
+I am so hard as that; but money, money, money! And whose money do you
+mean, little maid? If you want money of mine to spend in bread, or in
+cakes, which is more likely, I will shut my eyes and put my hand boldly
+into my wallet; but, if I am not mistaken, you are well provided for by
+Rufinus the Greek, in whose house there is no lack of anything; and I
+have a nice round sum in my own keeping which your grandfather placed in
+my hands at interest two years since, with a remark that it was a legacy
+to you from your godmother, and the papers stand in your name; so your
+necessity looks very like what other folks would call ease."
+
+"Necessity! I am in no necessity," Mary broke in. "But I want the money
+all the same; and if I have some of my own, and you perhaps have it
+there in your box, give me as much of it as I want."
+
+"As much as you want?" laughed the jeweller. "Not so fast, little maid.
+Before such matters can be settled here in Egypt we must have plenty
+of time, and papyrus and ink, a grand law court, sixteen witnesses, a
+Kyrios..."
+
+"Well then, buy the ring! You are such a good, kind man Gamaliel. Just
+to please me. Why, you yourself do not really think that I want to buy
+cakes!"
+
+"No. But in these hard times, when so many are starving, a soft heart
+may be moved to other follies."
+
+"No indeed! Do buy the ring; and if you will do me this favor..."
+
+"Old Gamaliel will be both a rogue and a simpleton!--Have you forgotten
+the emerald? I bought that, and a pretty piece of business that was! I
+can have nothing to say to the ring, my little maid." Mary withdrew her
+hand, and the grief and disappointment expressed by her large, tearful
+eyes were so bitter and touching, that the Jew paused, and then went on
+seriously and heartily:
+
+"I would sooner give my own old head to be an anvil than distress you,
+sweet child; and Adonai! I do not mean to say--why should I--that you
+should ever leave old Gamaliel without money. He has plenty, and though
+he is always ready to take, he is ready to give, too, when it is
+meet and fitting. I cannot buy the ring, to be sure, but do not be
+down-hearted and look me well in the face, little maid. It is much to
+ask, and I have handsomer things in my stores, but if you see anything
+in it that gives you confidence, speak out and whisper to the man of
+whom even your grandfather had some good opinion: 'I want so much, and
+what is more--how did you put it?--what is more, I must have it.'"
+
+Mary did see something in the Jew's merry round face that inspired her
+with trust, and in her childlike belief in the sanctity of an oath she
+made a third person--a believer too, in a third form of religion--swear
+not to betray her secret, only marvelling that the administering of the
+oath, in which she had now had some practice, should be so easy. Even
+grown-up people will sometimes buy another's dearest secret for a light
+asseveration. And when she had thus ensured the Israelite's silence, she
+confided to him that she was charged by Orion to send out a messenger to
+meet Amru, that he and Paula might be reprieved in time. The goldsmith
+listened attentively, and even before she had ended he was busying
+himself with an iron chest built into the wall, and interrupted her to
+ask! "How much?"
+
+She named the sum that Nilus had suggested, and hardly had she finished
+her story when the Jew, who kept the trick by which he opened the chest
+a secret even from his wife, exclaimed:
+
+"Now, go and look out of the window, you wonder among envoys and
+money-borrowers, and if you see nothing in the courtyard, then fancy to
+yourself that a man is standing there who looks like old Gamaliel, and
+who puts his hand on your head and gives you a good kiss. And you may
+fancy him, too, as saying to himself: 'God in Heaven! if only my little
+daughter, my Ruth may be such another as little Mary, grandchild of the
+just Mukaukas!'"
+
+And as he spoke, the vivacious but stout man, who had dropped on his
+knees, rose panting, left the lid of his strong box open, hurried up
+to the child, who had been standing at the window all the while, and
+bending over her from behind pressed a kiss on her curly head, saying
+with a laugh: "There, little pickpocket, that is my interest. But look
+out still, till I call you again." He nimbly trotted back on his short
+little legs, wiping his eyes; took from the strong box a little bag of
+gold, which contained rather more than the desired sum, locked the
+chest again, looking at Mary with a mixture of suspicion and hearty
+approbation; then at last he called her to him. He emptied the money-bag
+before her, counted out the sum she needed, put the remainder of the
+coins into his girdle, and handed the bag to the little girl requesting
+her to count his "advance", back into it, while he, with a cunning
+smile, quitted the room.
+
+He presently returned and she had finished her task, but she timidly
+observed: "One gold piece is wanting." At this he clasped his hands over
+his breast and raised his eyes to Heaven exclaiming: "My God! what a
+child. There is the solidus, child; and you may take my word for it as
+a man of experience: whatever you undertake will prosper. You know what
+you are about; and when you are grown up and a suitor comes he will go
+to a good market. And now sign your name here. You are not of age, to
+be sure, and the receipt is worth no more than any other note scribbled
+with ink--however, it is according to rule."
+
+Mary took the pen, but she first hastily glanced through what Gamaliel
+had written; the Jew broke out in fresh enthusiasm:
+
+"A girl--a mere child! And she reads, and considers, and makes all sure
+before she will sign! God bless thee, Child!--And here come the tarts,
+and you can taste them before.... Just Heaven! a mere child, and such
+important business!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+While Rustem, to whom Mary had entrusted the jeweller's gold, was making
+his preparations for their journey with all the care of a practised
+guide, and while Mary was comforting her governess and Mandane, to whom
+she explained that Rustem's journey was to save Paula's life, a fresh
+trial was going forward in the Court of Justice.
+
+This time Orion was the accused. He had scarcely begun to study the maps
+and lists he required for his undertaking when he was bidden to appear
+before his judges.
+
+The members composing the Court were the same as yesterday. Among the
+witnesses were Paula and the new bishop, as well as Gamaliel, who had
+been sent for soon after Mary had left him.
+
+The prosecutor accused the son of the Mukaukas of having made away, in
+defiance of the patriarch's injunction, with a costly emerald bequeathed
+to the Church by his father.
+
+Orion had determined to conduct his own defence; he recapitulated
+everything that he had told the prelate in self-justification in his
+father's private room, and then added, that to put a speedy end to this
+odious affair he was now prepared to restore the stone, and he placed it
+at the disposal of his judges. He handed Paula's emerald to the Kadi who
+presented it to the bishop. John, however, did not seem satisfied; he
+referred to the written testimony of the widow Susannah, who had been
+present when the deceased Mukaukas had designated all the jewels in
+the Persian hanging as included in his gift to the Church. This was in
+Orion's presence so he was still under suspicion of a fraud; and it
+was difficult to determine whether the fine gem now lying on the table
+before them were indeed the same to which the Church laid claim.
+
+All this was urged with excessive vehemence and bore the stamp of a
+hostile purpose.
+
+Obedience and conviction alike prompted the zealous prelate to this
+demeanor, for the same carrier-pigeon which had brought from the
+patriarch his appointment to the bishopric required him to insist on
+Orion's punishment, for he was a thorn in the flesh of the Jacobite
+church, a tainted sheep who might infect the rest of the flock. If
+the young man should offer an emerald it was therefore to be closely
+examined, to see whether it were the original stone or a substitute.
+
+On these grounds the bishop had expressed his doubts, and though they
+gave rise to an indignant murmur among the judges, the Kadi so far
+admitted the prelate's suspicions as to explain that last evening a
+letter had reached him from his uncle at Djidda, Haschim the merchant,
+in which mention was made of the emerald. His son happened to have
+weighed that stone, without his knowledge, before he started for Egypt,
+and Othman had here a note of its exact weight. The Jew Gamaliel had
+been desired to attend with his balances, and could at once use them to
+satisfy the bishop.
+
+The jeweller immediately proceeded to do so, and old Horapollo, who
+was an expert in such matters, went close up to him, and watched him
+narrowly.
+
+It was in feverish anxiety, and more eagerly than any other bystander,
+that Paula and Orion kept their eyes fixed on the Jew's hands and lips;
+after weighing it once, he did so a second time. Old Horapollo himself
+weighed it a third time, with a keen eye though his hands trembled a
+little; all three experiments gave the same result: this gem was heavier
+by a few grains of doura than that which the merchant's son had weighed,
+and yet the Jew declared that there was no purer, clearer, or finer
+emerald in the world than this.
+
+Orion breathed more freely, and the question arose among the judges as
+to whether the young Arab might have failed in precision, or an exchange
+had in fact been effected. This was difficult to imagine, since in that
+case the accused would have given himself the loss, and the Church the
+advantage.
+
+The bishop, an honest man, now said that the patriarch's suspicions had
+certainly led him too far in this instance, and after this he spoke no
+more.
+
+All through this enquiry the Vekeel had kept silence, but the defiant
+gaze, assured of triumph, which he fixed on Paula and Orion alternately,
+augured the worst.
+
+When the prosecutor next accused the young man of complicity in the
+much discussed escape of the nuns Orion again asserted his innocence,
+pointing out that during the fatal contest between the Arabs and the
+champions of the sisters, he had been with the Arab governor, as Amru
+himself could testify. By an act of unparalleled despotism, he had been
+deprived of his estates and his freedom on mere false suspicion, and he
+put his trust in the first instance in a just sentence from his judges
+and, failing that, he threw himself on the protection and satisfaction
+of his sovereign lord the Khaliff.
+
+As he spoke his eyes flashed flames at the Vekeel; but the negro still
+preserved his self-control, and this doubled the alarm of those who
+wished the youth well.
+
+It was clear from all this that Obada felt sure that he had the noose
+well around his victim's neck, and why he thought so, soon became
+evident; for Orion had hardly finished his defence when he rose, and
+with a malicious grin, handed to the Kadi the little tablet given him
+yesterday by old Horapollo, describing it as a document addressed to
+Paula and desiring the Kadi to examine it. The heat had effaced much of
+what had been written on the wax, but most of the words could still be
+deciphered. The venerable Horapollo had already made them out, and was
+quite ready to read to the judges all that the accused--who by his
+own account, was a spotless dove--had written in his innocence and
+truthfulness for his fair one. He signed to the old man and helped
+him as he rose with difficulty, but the Kadi begged him to wait, made
+himself acquainted with the contents of the letter by the help of the
+interpreter, and when the man had, with much pains, fulfilled his
+task, he turned, not to Horapollo, but to Obada, and asked whence this
+document had come.
+
+"From Paula's desk," replied the Vekeel. "My old friend found it there."
+He pointed to Horapollo, who confirmed his statement by a nod of assent.
+
+The Kadi rose, went up to the girl, whose cheeks were pale with
+indignation, and asked whether she recognized the tablets as her
+property; Paula, after convincing herself, replied with a flaming glance
+of scorn and aversion at Horapollo: "Yes, my lord. It is mine. That base
+old man has taken it with atrocious meanness from among my things."
+For an instant her voice failed her; then, turning to the judges, she
+exclaimed:
+
+"If there is one among you to whom helplessness and innocence are sacred
+and malice and cunning odious, I beg him to go to Rufinus' wife, over
+whose threshold this man has crept like a ferret into a dovecote, for
+no other end but to tread hospitable kindness in the dust, to rifle her
+home and make use of whatever might serve his vile purpose--to go, I
+say, and warn the lonely woman against this treacherous spy and thief."
+
+At this the old man, gasping and inarticulate, raised his withered arm;
+the Christian judges whispered together, but at cross-purposes,
+while the Jew fidgeted his round little person on the bench, drumming
+incessantly with his fingers on his breast, and trying to meet Orion's
+or Paula's eye and to make her understand that he was the man who would
+warn Joanna. But a thump from the Vekeel's fist, that came down on
+his shoulder unawares, reduced him to sitting still; and while he sat
+rubbing the place with subdued sounds of pain, not daring to reproach
+the all-powerful negro for his violence, the Kadi gave the tablets to
+Horapollo and bid him read the letter.
+
+But the terrible accusation cast at him by the hated Patrician maiden,
+ascribing his removal to Rufinus house to a motive which, in truth, had
+been far from his, had so enraged and agitated him that his old lungs,
+at all times feeble, refused their office. This woman had done him a
+fresh wrong, for he had gone to live with the widow from the kindest
+impulse; only an accident had thrown this document in his way. And yet
+it would not fail to be reported to Joanna in the course of the day
+that he had gone to her house as a spy, and there would be an end to the
+pleasant life of which he had dreamed--nay, even Philippus might perhaps
+quarrel with him.
+
+And all, all through this woman.
+
+He could not utter a word but, as he sank back on the seat, a glance
+so full of hatred, so dark with malignant fury, fell on Paula that she
+shuddered, and told herself that this man was ready to die himself if
+only he could drag her down too.
+
+The interpreter now began to read Orion's letter and to translate it
+for the Arabs; and while he blundered through it, declaring that not a
+letter could be plainly made out, she recovered her self-control and,
+before the interpreter had done his task, a gleam as of sunshine lighted
+up her pure features. Some great, lofty, and rapturous thought must have
+flashed through her brain, and it was evident that she had seized it and
+was feeding on it.
+
+Orion, sitting opposite to her, noticed this; still, he did not
+understand what her beseeching gaze had to say to him, what it asked of
+him as she pressed her hand on her breast, and looked into his eyes with
+such urgent entreaty that it went to his very heart.
+
+The interpreter ceased; but what he had read had had a great effect on
+the judges. The Kadi's benevolent face expressed extreme apprehension,
+and the contents of the letter were indeed such as to cause it. It ran
+as follows:
+
+"After waiting for you a long time in vain, I must at last make up my
+mind to go; and how much I still had to say to you. A written farewell."
+
+Here a few lines were effaced, and then came the--fatal and quite
+legible conclusion:
+
+"How far otherwise I had dreamed of ending this day, which has been for
+the most part spent in preparations for the flight of the Sisters; and
+I have found a pleasure in doing all that lay in my power for those kind
+and innocent, unjustly persecuted nuns. We must hope for the best
+for them; and for ourselves we must look to-morrow for an undisturbed
+interview and a parting which may leave us memories on which we can
+live for a long time. The noble governor Amru is, among the Arabs, such
+another as he whom we mourn was among the Egyptians..." Here the letter
+ended; not quite three lines were wanting to conclude it.
+
+The Kadi held the tablets for a few minutes in his hand; then looking
+up again at the assembly, who were waiting in great suspense, he began:
+"Even if the accused was not one of those who raised their hands in
+mutiny against our armed troops, it is nevertheless indisputable, after
+what has just been read, that he not only knew of the escape of
+the nuns, but aided them to the utmost.--When did you receive this
+communication, noble maiden?"
+
+At this Paula clasped her hands tightly and replied with a slightly bent
+head and her eyes fixed on the ground.
+
+"When did I receive it?--Never; for I wrote it myself. The writing is
+mine."
+
+"Yours?" said the Kadi in amazement. "It is from me to Orion," replied
+Paula.
+
+"From you to him? How then comes it in your desk?"
+
+"In a very simple way," she explained, still looking down. "After
+writing the letter to my betrothed I threw it in with the other tablets
+as soon as I had no need for it; for he himself came, and there was no
+necessity for his reading what could be better said by word of mouth."
+
+As she spoke a peculiar smile passed over her lips and a loud murmur ran
+through the room. Orion looked first at the girl and then at the Kadi in
+growing bewilderment; but the Negro started up, struck his fist on the
+table, making it shake, and roared out:
+
+"An atrocious fabrication! Which of you can allow yourself to be taken
+in by a woman's guile?" Horapollo, who had recovered himself by this
+time, laughed hoarsely and maliciously; the judges looked at each other
+much puzzled; but when the Vekeel went on raging the Kadi interrupted
+him, and desired that Orion might speak, for he had twice tried to make
+himself heard. Now, with scarlet cheeks and a choking utterance, he
+said:
+
+"No, Othman--no, no indeed, my lords. Do not believe her. Not she, but
+I--I wrote the letter that...."
+
+But Paula broke in:
+
+"He? Do you not feel that all he wants is to save me, and so he takes my
+guilt on himself? It is his generosity, his love for me! Do not, do not
+believe him! Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by him."
+
+"I? No, it is she, it is she," Orion again asserted; but, before he
+could say more, Paula declared with a flashing glance that it was a poor
+sort of love which sacrificed itself out of false generosity. And as,
+at the same time, she again pressed her hand to her bosom with pathetic
+entreaty, he was suddenly silent, and casting his eyes up to heaven, he
+sank back on the prisoners' bench, deeply affected.
+
+Paula joyfully went on:
+
+"He has thought better of it, and given up his crazy attempt to take
+my guilt on himself. You see, Othman, you all see, worthy men.--Let me
+atone for what I did to help the poor nuns."
+
+"Have your way!" shrieked the old man; but the Negro cried out:
+
+"A hellish tissue of lies, an unheard-of deception! But in spite of
+the shield a woman holds before you, I have my foot on your neck,
+treacherous wretch! Is it credible--I ask you, judges--that a finished
+letter should be found, after weeks had elapsed, in the hands of the
+writer and not those of the person to whom it was addressed?"
+
+The Kadi shrugged his shoulders and replied with calm dignity:
+
+"Consider, Obada, that we are condemning this damsel on the evidence of
+a letter which was found in possession, not of the person to whom it was
+addressed, but of the writer. This document gave rise to no doubts in
+your mind. The judge should mete out equal measure to all, Obada."
+
+The aptness of these words, spoken in a dogmatic tone, aroused the
+approval of the Arabs, and the Jew could not restrain himself from
+exclaiming: "Capital!" but no sooner had it escaped him than he shrank
+as quick as lightning out of the Vekeel's reach; and Obada hardly heard
+him, for he did not allow himself to be interrupted by the Kadi but went
+on to explain in wrathful words what a disgrace it was to them, as
+men and judges, to have dust cast in their eyes by a woman, and allow
+themselves to be molified by the arts of a pair of love-stricken fools;
+and how desirable it must be in the eyes of every Moslem to guard the
+security of life and bring the severest punishment on the instigator of
+a sanguinary revolt against the champions of the Khaliff's power.
+
+His eloquent and stormy address was not without effect; still, the
+Christians, who ascribed every form of evil to the Melchite girl, would
+have been satisfied with her death and have been ready to forgive the
+son of the Mukaukas this crime--supposing him to have committed it. And
+it was after the judges had agreed that it was impossible to decide by
+whom the letter on the tablet had been written, and there had been a
+great deal of argument on both sides, that the real discussion began.
+
+It was long before the assembly could agree, and all the while Orion sat
+now looking as though he had already been condemned to a cruel death,
+and now exchanging glances with Paula, while he pressed his hand to his
+heart as though to keep it from bursting. He perfectly understood her,
+and her magnanimity upheld him. He had indeed persuaded himself to
+accept her self-sacrifice, but he was fully determined that if she
+must die he would follow her to the grave. "Non dolet,"--[It does not
+hurt]--Arria cried to her lover Paetus, as she thrust the knife into her
+heart that she might die before him; and the words rang in his ear; but
+he said to himself that Paula would very likely be pardoned, and that
+then he would be free and have a whole lifetime in which to thank her.
+
+At last--at last. The Kadi announced the verdict: It was impossible to
+find Orion worthy of death, and equally so to give up all belief in his
+guilt; the court therefore declared itself inadequate to pronounce
+a sentence, and left it to be decided by the Khaliff or by his
+representative in Egypt, Amru. The court only went so far as to rule
+that the prisoner was to be kept in close confinement, so that he might
+be within reach of the hand of justice, if the supreme decision should
+be "guilty!"
+
+When the Kadi said that the matter was to be referred to the Khaliff or
+his representative, the Vekeel cried out:
+
+"I--I am Omar's vicar!" but a disapproving murmur from the judges, as
+with one voice, rejected his pretensions, and at a proposal of the
+Kadi it was resolved that the young man should be protected against any
+arbitrary attack on the part of the Vekeel by a double guard; for many
+grave accusations against Obada were already on their way to Medina. The
+negro quitted the court, mad with rage, and concocting fresh indictments
+against Paula with the old man.
+
+When Paula returned to her cell old Betta thought that she must have
+been pardoned; for how glad, how proud, how full of spirit she entered
+it! The worst peril was diverted from her lover, and she and her love
+had saved him!
+
+She gave herself up for lost; but whatever fate might have in store for
+her, life lay open before him; he would have time to prove his splendid
+powers, and that he would do so, as she would have him do it, she felt
+certain.
+
+She had not ended telling her nurse of the judges' decision, when the
+warder announced the Kadi. In a minute or two he made his appearance;
+she expressed her thanks, and he warmly assured her that he regarded the
+disgrace of being perhaps a beguiled judge as a favor of Fortune; then
+he turned the conversation on the real object of his visit.
+
+In the letter, he began, which he had received the evening before from
+his uncle Haschim, there was a great deal about her. She had quite won
+the old merchant's heart, and the enquiries for her father which he had
+set on foot....
+
+Here she interrupted him saying: "Oh, my lord; is the wish, the prayer
+of my life to be granted?"
+
+"Your father, the noble Thomas, before whom even the Moslem bows, has
+been..." and then Othman went on to tell her that the hero of Damascus
+had in fact retired to Sinai and had been living there as a hermit.
+But she must not indulge in premature rejoicing, for the messengers had
+found him ill, consumed by disease arising from his wounded lungs, and
+almost at death's door. His days were numbered....
+
+"And I, I am a prisoner," groaned the girl. "Held fast, helpless, robbed
+of all means of flying to his arms!"
+
+He again bid her be calm, and went on to tell her: in his soft, composed
+manner, that two days since a Nabathaean had come to him and had asked
+him, as the chief administrator of justice in Egypt, whether an old foe
+of the Moslems, a general who had fought in the service of the emperor
+and the cross against the Khaliff and the crescent, and who was now
+sick, weary, and broken, might venture on Egyptian soil without fear of
+being seized by the Arab authorities; and when he, Othman, had learnt
+that this man was no other than Thomas, the hero of Damascus, he had
+promised him his life and freedom, promised them gladly, as he felt
+assured his sovereign the Khaliff would desire.
+
+So this very day her father had reached Fostat, and the Kadi had
+received him as a guest into his house. Thomas, indeed, stood on the
+brink of the grave; but he was inspirited and sustained by the hope of
+seeing his daughter. It had been falsely reported to him that she had
+perished in the massacre at Abyla and he had already mourned her fate.
+
+It was now his duty to fulfil the wish of a dying man, and he had
+ordered the prison servants to prepare the room adjoining Paula's cell
+with furniture which was on the way from his house. The door between the
+two would be opened for her.
+
+"And I shall see him again, have him again to live with--to close his
+eyes, perhaps to die with him!" cried Paula; and, seizing the good man's
+hand, she kissed it gratefully.
+
+The Moslem's eyes filled with tears as he bid her not to thank him,
+but God the All-merciful; and before the sun went down the head of the
+doomed daughter was resting on the breast of the weary hero who was so
+near his end, though his unimpaired mind and tender heart rejoiced in
+their reunion as fully and deeply as did his beloved and only child. A
+new and unutterable joy came to Paula in the gloom of her prison; and
+that same day the warder carried a letter from her to Orion, conveying
+her father's greetings; and, as he read the fervent blessing, he felt
+as though an invisible hand had released him for ever from the curse his
+own father had laid upon him. A wonderful glad sense of peace came over
+him with power and pleasure in work, and he gave his brains and pen no
+rest till morning was growing grey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Horapollo made his way home to his new quarters from the court of
+justice with knit and gloomy brows. As he passed Susannah's garden hedge
+he saw a knot of people gathered together and pointing out furtively to
+the handsome residence beyond.
+
+They, like a hundred other groups he had passed, hailed him with words
+of welcome, thanks, and encouragement and, as he bowed to them slightly,
+his eyes followed the direction of their terrified gaze and he started;
+above the great garden gates hung the black tablet; a warning that
+looked like a mark of disgrace, crying out to the passer-by: "Avoid this
+threshold! Here rages the destroying pestilence!"
+
+The old man had a horror of everything that might remind him of death,
+and a cold shiver ran through him. To live so near to a focus of the
+disease was most alarming and dangerous! How had it invaded this, the
+healthiest part of the town, which the last raging epidemic had spared?
+
+An officer of the town-council, whom he called to him, told him that two
+slaves, father and son, whose duty it was to take charge of the baths
+in the widow's house, had been first attacked, but they had been
+carried quietly away in the night to the new tents for the sick; to-day,
+however, the widow herself had fallen ill. To prevent the spread of the
+infection, the plot of ground was now guarded on all sides.
+
+"Be strict, be sharp; not a rat must creep out!" cried the old man as he
+rode on.
+
+He was later than he had been yesterday; supper must be ready. After a
+short rest he was preparing to join the family at their meal, washing
+and dressing with the help of his servant, when a lame slave-girl came
+into his room and placed a tray covered with steaming dishes on the low
+table by the divan.
+
+What was the meaning of this? Before he could ask, he was informed that
+for the future the women wished to eat by themselves; he would be served
+in his own room.
+
+At this a bright patch of red colored his cheeks; after brief reflection
+he cried to his servant. "My ass!" and added to the girl: "Where is your
+mistress?"
+
+"In the viridarium with Gamaliel the goldsmith; but they are going to
+supper immediately."
+
+"And without their guest? I understand!" muttered the old man, taking up
+his hat and marching past the maid out of the room. In the hall he met
+Gamaliel, to whom a slave-girl was handing his stick. Horapollo could
+guess that the Jew had come only to warn the women against him and,
+without vouchsafing him a glance, he went into the dining-room. There he
+found Pulchena and Mary kneeling in tears by the side of Joanna, who was
+weeping too.
+
+He guessed for whom were these lamentations, and prompted by the wish to
+prove the falsity of the accusation that charged him with having entered
+the house as a spy, he spoke to the widow. She shuddered as he entered,
+and she now pointed to the door with an outstretched finger; when
+he nevertheless stood still and was about to make his defence, she
+interrupted him loudly and urgently: "No, no, my lord! This house is
+henceforth closed against you! You yourself have broken every tie that
+bound us! Do not any longer disturb our peace! Go back to the place you
+came from."
+
+At this the old man made one more attempt to speak; but the widow rose,
+and saying: "Come, my children," she hastily withdrew with the girls
+into the adjoining room, and closed the door.
+
+Horapollo was left alone on the threshold.
+
+Old as he was, in all his life he had never suffered such an insult; but
+he did not lay it to the score of those who had shown him the door, but
+to the already long one of the Syrian girl; as he rode back to his
+own home on his white ass, he stopped several times to speak to the
+passers-by.
+
+During the following day or two he heeded not the heat of the weather,
+nor his own need of rest for his body, and quiet occupation for his
+mind; morning, noon and night he was riding about the streets stirring
+up the people, and setting forth in insinuating speeches that they must
+perish miserably if they rejected the only means of deliverance which he
+had pointed out to them. He was present at every meeting of the Senate,
+and his inflammatory eloquence kept the town council on his side, and
+nullified the efforts of the bishop, while he pressed them to fix the
+day of the marriage of the Nile with his bride.
+
+He knew the Egyptians and their passion for the intoxicating joys of a
+splendid ceremonial. This festival: the wedding of the Bride of the Nile
+to her mighty and unresting spouse, on whom the weal or woe of the
+land depended, was to be as a flowery oasis in the waste of dearth
+and desolation. He recalled every detail of the reminiscences of his
+childhood as to the processions in Honor of Isis, and the festivals
+dedicated to her and her triad; every record of his own experience
+and that of former generations; all he had read in books of the great
+pilgrimages and dramas of heathen Egypt--and he described it all in his
+speeches, painted it in glowing colors to the Senate and the mob,
+and counselled the authorities to reproduce it all with unparalleled
+splendor on the occasion of this marriage.
+
+Every man in whose veins flowed Egyptian blood listened to him
+attentively, took pleasure in his projects, and was quite ready to do
+his utmost to enhance the glories of this ceremonial, in which every one
+was to take part either active or passive. Thousands were ruined, but
+there was yet enough and to spare for this marriage feast, and the
+Senate did not hesitate to raise a fresh loan.
+
+"Destruction or Deliverance!" was the watch-word Horapollo had given
+the Memphites. If everything came to ruin their hoarded talents would be
+lost too; if, on the other hand, the sacrifice produced its result, if
+the Nile should bless its children with renewed prosperity, what need
+the town or country care for a few thousand drachmae more or less?
+
+So the day was fixed!
+
+Not quite two weeks after Paula's trial, on the day of Saint Serapis
+the miraculous, saving, auspicious ceremonial was to take place. And how
+glowing was the picture given of the Bride's beauty by the old man,
+and by the judges and officials who had seen her! How brightly old
+Horapollo's eyes would flash with hate as he described it! The eyes of
+love could not be more radiant.
+
+All that this patrician hussy had done to aggrieve him--she should
+expiate it all, and his triumph meant woe, not only to that one woman,
+but to the Christian faith which he hated!
+
+Bishop John, however, had not been idle meanwhile. Immediately after
+his interference with the popular vote he had despatched a letter by
+a carrier-pigeon to the patriarch in Upper Egypt, and Benjamin's reply
+would no doubt give him powers for still more vigorous measures. In
+church, before the Senate, and even in the highways, he and his clergy
+did their utmost to combat the atrocious project of the authorities and
+the populace, but the zeal which was stirred up by old Horapollo soon
+broke into brighter flames than the conservatism, orthodoxy and breadth
+of view which the ecclesiastics did their utmost to fan. The wind
+blew with equal force from both quarters, but on one side it blew on
+smoldering fuel, and on the other on overflowing and flaming stores.
+Famine and despair had undermined faith, and weakened discipline;
+even the mightiest weapons of the Church--Cursing and blessing--were
+powerless. A floating beam was held out to sinking men, and they would
+no longer wait for the life-boat that was approaching to rescue them,
+with strong hands at the oars and a trusty pilot at the helm.
+
+Horapollo went no more to the widow's home. A few hours after she had
+shown him the door, his slaves came and fetched away the various things
+he had carried there with him. His body servant at the same time brought
+a large sealed phial and a letter to Dame Joanna, as follows:
+
+"It is wrong to judge a man without hearing his defence. This you have
+done; but I owe you no grudge. Philippus, on his return, will perhaps
+pick up the ends of the tie and join again what you have this day cut.
+I send you a portion of the remedy he left with me at parting to use
+against the plague in case of need. Its good effects have been tested
+within the last few days. May the sickness which has fallen on your
+neighbors, spare you and yours."
+
+Joanna was much pleased with this letter but, when she had read it
+aloud, little Mary exclaimed:
+
+"If any one should fall ill he shall not take a drop of that mixture! I
+tell you he only wants to poison us!"
+
+Joanna, however, maintained that the old man was not bad hearted in
+spite of his unaccountable hatred of Paula; and Pulcheria declared that
+it must be so, if only because Philip esteemed him so highly. If only
+he were here, everything would have been different and have turned out
+well.
+
+Mary remained with the mother and daughter till it grew dark; her
+chatter always led them back to Paula; and when, in the afternoon, the
+Nabathaean messenger came to them, and told them from their captive
+friend that he had brought her father home to her, the women once more
+began to hope, and Mary could allow herself to give free expression
+to her fond love before she quitted them, without exciting their
+suspicions.
+
+At length she said she must go to her lessons with Eudoxia; she had
+a hard task before her and they must think of her and wish her good
+success. She threw her arms first round the widow's neck and then round
+Pulcheria's; and, as the tears would start to her eyes, she asked them
+if she were not indeed a silly childish thing--but they were to think of
+her all the same and never to forget her.
+
+She met the governess in her own room; Eudoxia cut off the fine, soft
+curls, shedding her first tears over them; and those tears flowed faster
+as she placed round Mary's neck a little reliquary containing a lock
+from the sheep-skin of St. John the Baptist, which had belonged to her
+own mother. It was very dear and sacred to her, and she had never
+before parted from it, but now it was to protect the child and bring her
+happiness--great happiness.
+
+Had it brought her such happiness?--Not much, in truth; and yet she
+believed in the saving and beneficent influence of the relic.
+
+At last Mary stood before her with short hair and in a boy's dress; and
+what a sweet and lovely little fellow it was; Eudoxia could not weary
+of looking at him. But Mary was too pretty, too frail for a boy; and
+Eudoxia advised her to pull her broad travelling hat low over her eyes
+as soon as she came in sight of men, or else to darken her color.
+
+Gamaliel, who had in fact come to warn Dame Joanna against Horapollo,
+had kept them informed of the progress of this day's sitting, and
+Paula's conduct to save her lover had increased Mary's admiration for
+her. When she should confront Amru she could answer him on every head,
+so she felt equipped at all points as she stole through the garden with
+Eudoxia, and down to the quay.
+
+When she had passed the gateway she once more kissed her hand to the
+house she loved and its inmates; then, pointing with a sigh to the
+neighboring garden, she said:
+
+"Poor Katharina! she is a prisoner now.--Do you know, Eudoxia, I am
+still very fond of her, and when I think that she may take the plague,
+and die but no!--Tell Mother Joanna and Pulcheria to be kind to her.
+To-morrow, after breakfast, give them my letter; and this evening, if
+they get anxious, you can only quiet them by saying you know all and
+that it is of no use to fret about me. You will set it all right and not
+allow them to grieve."
+
+As they passed a Jacobite chapel that stood open, she begged Eudoxia to
+wait for her and fell on her knees before the crucifix. In a few minutes
+she came out again, bright and invigorated and, as they passed the last
+houses in the town, she exclaimed:
+
+"Is it not wicked, Eudoxia? I am leaving those I love dearly, very
+dearly, and yet I feel as glad as a bird escaping from its cage. Good
+Heaven! Only to think of the ride by night through the desert and over
+the hills, a swift beast under me, and over my head no ceiling but the
+blue sky and countless stars! Onward and still onward to a glorious
+end, left entirely to myself and entrusted with an important task like a
+grownup person! Is it not splendid? And by God's help--and if I find the
+governor and succeed in touching his heart.... Now, confess, Eudoxia,
+can there be a happier girl in the whole wide world?"
+
+They found the Masdakite at Nesptah's inn with some capital dromedaries
+and the necessary drivers and attendants. The Greek governess gave her
+pupil much good advice, and added her "maternal" blessing with her whole
+heart. Rustem lifted the child on to the dromedary, carefully settling
+her in the saddle, and the little caravan set out. Mary waved repeated
+adieux to her old governess and newly-found friend, and Eudoxia was
+still gazing after her long after she had vanished in the darkness.
+
+Then she made her way home, at first weeping silently with bowed head,
+but afterwards tearless, upright, and with a confident step. She was
+in unusually good spirits, her heart beat higher than it had done for
+years; she felt uplifted by the sense of relief from a burthensome
+duty, and of freedom to act independently on the dictates of her own
+intelligence. She would assert herself, she would show the others that
+she had acted rightly; and when at supper-time Mary was missing, and
+had not returned even at bed-time, there was much to do to soothe and
+comfort them, and much misconstruction to endure; but she took it all
+patiently, and it was a consolation to her to bear such annoyance for
+her little favorite.
+
+Next morning, when she had delivered Mary's letter to Dame Joanna,
+her love and endurance were put to still severer proof; indeed, the
+meek-tempered widow allowed herself to be carried away to such an
+outbreak as hitherto would undoubtedly have led Eudoxia to request her
+dismissal, with sharp recrimination; but she took it all calmly.
+
+It was not till noon-day--when the bishop made his appearance to
+carry the child off to the convent, and was highly wrathful at Mary's
+disappearance, threatening the widow, and declaring that he would search
+the whole country through for the little girl and find her at last,
+that Eudoxia felt that the moment of her triumph had come. She quietly
+allowed the bishop to depart, and then only did she send her last and
+best shaft at Joanna by informing her that she had in fact encouraged
+the child in her exploit on purpose to save her from the cloister. Her
+newly-found motherly feeling made her eloquent, and with a result that
+she had almost ceased to hope for: the warm-hearted little woman, who
+had hurt her with such cruel words, threw her arms round Eudoxia's tall,
+meagre figure, put up her face to kiss her, called her a brave, clever
+girl, and begged her forgiveness for all she had said and done the day
+before.
+
+So, when the Greek went to bed, she felt as if her life had turned
+backwards and she had grown more like the happy young creature she had
+once been with her sisters in her parents' house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Paula now understood what hung over her. It is Bishop John who had told
+her, as gently as he could, and with every assurance that he still clung
+to the hope that he could stop the hideous heathen abomination; but
+even without this she would certainly have known what was impending,
+for large crowds of people gathered every day under the prisonwalls, and
+loud cries reached her, demanding to see the "Bride of the Nile."
+
+Now and again shouts of "Hail!" came up to her; but when the demented
+creatures had shrieked themselves hoarse, and in vain, they would abuse
+her vilely. The cry for the "Bride" never ceased from morning till
+night, and the head warder of the prison was glad that the bishop had
+relieved him of the task of explaining to Paula the meaning of the
+fateful word, whose significance she had repeatedly asked him.
+
+At first this fresh and terrible peril had startled and shaken her; but
+she did her utmost to cling to the hope held out by the bishop so as
+to appear calm, and as far as possible cheerful, in her sick father's
+presence. And in this she succeeded so long as it was day; but at night
+she was a prey to agonizing terrors. Then, in fancy she saw herself
+surrounded by a raging mob, dragged to the river and cast into a watery
+grave before a thousand eyes. Then, prayer was of no avail, nor any
+resolve or effort; not the tender messages that constantly reached her
+from Orion, nor the songs he would sing for her in the brief moments of
+leisure he allowed himself; not the bishop's words of comfort, nor the
+visits of those she loved. The warder would admit her friends as often
+as he was able; and among those who found their way to her cell were the
+Senator Justinus and his wife.
+
+By great good fortune Martina had quitted Susannah's house as soon
+as the two slaves had fallen ill and she had heard that the physician
+pronounced them to be sickening of the plague. She had returned to her
+rooms in the inn kept by Sostratus, but her nephew Narses had remained
+with Katharina and her mother. He was indeed intending to follow her
+with Heliodora; but, by the time they were ready to set out, Susannah,
+too, had fallen a victim to the pestilence and the authorities had
+forbidden all egress from her house.
+
+Heliodora might have succeeded in leaving in time, alone; but she would
+not abandon her unfortunate brother-in-law; for he never felt easy but
+in her presence, would allow no one else to wait on him, and would take
+neither food nor drink unless they were offered him by her. Besides
+this, the cavalry officer, once so stalwart, had in his weakness become
+pathetically like her lost husband, and she knew that Narses had been
+the first to love her, and that it was only for his brother's sake that
+he had concealed his passion. Her motherly instincts found an outlet
+in the care of the half-crushed, but not hopelessly lost man; and the
+desire to drag him back to life kept her busy day and night, and made
+her regard everything else as trivial and of secondary importance. Her
+life had once more found a purpose; her efforts were for an attainable
+end, and she devoted herself to him body and soul.
+
+Her uncle had told her that Orion was bound to Paula by a supreme
+passion.--This had been a painful blow, but the Syrian girl had
+impressed her; she looked up to her, and it soothed her wounded
+self-esteem to reflect that she had lost her lover to no inferior woman.
+Though her longing for him still surged up in many a silent hour, she
+felt it an injustice, a stint of love to her invalid charge.
+
+So far as Katharina was concerned, next to her mother, Heliodora was the
+object of her deepest anxiety. The least word of complaint from either
+terrified her; and if Susannah sank on the divan exhausted by the heat,
+or Heliodora had a headache after watching through the night by the sick
+man, the girl would turn pale, her heart would beat painfully, she would
+paint them in fancy stricken by the plague, with burning brows and the
+horrible, fatal spots on their foreheads and cheeks; and whenever these
+alarms pressed on the young criminal she felt the ominous weight on the
+top of her head where the dead bishop's hand had rested.
+
+The senator's wife had so completely changed in her demeanor to the
+water-wagtail, since Paula's imprisonment, that to Katharina she was
+as a living reproach, so she had no regret at seeing the worthy pair
+depart. But scarcely had they left when misfortune took their place as
+an unbidden guest.
+
+The slave whose duty it was to heat the baths had reserved a portion of
+the infected garments that had been given to him to burn; his son had
+helped him, and Katharina's nurse, the mother of her foster-brother
+Anubis, had come into direct contact with her immediately after her
+return from the soothsayer's and from the bishop's. All three had caught
+the disease. They had all three been removed to the hospital tents--the
+slave and the nurse as corpses.
+
+But had the fearful infection been taken away with them? If not, it
+would be the turn next of those whom she herself had pushed into the
+arms of the fell monster: First Heliodora, and then her mother! And
+she, rightfully, ought to have fallen before them; and if the pestilence
+should seize her and death should drag her down into the grave it would
+be showing her mercy. She was still so young, and yet she hated life. It
+had nothing in store for her but humiliation and disappointment, arrows
+which, sent from the prison, pierced her to the heart, and a torturing
+fear which never gave her any peace, day or night.
+
+When the physician came to transport the sick to the hospital in the
+desert, he mentioned incidentally that the judges had condemned Paula
+to death, and that the populace and senate, in spite of the new bishop's
+prohibition, had determined to cast her into the river in accordance
+with an ancient custom. Orion's fate was not to be decided till the
+following day; but it would hardly be to his advantage in the eyes of
+his Jacobite judges, that his betrothed was this Syrian Melchite.
+
+At this Katharina was forced to support herself against her mother's
+arm-chair to save herself from sinking on her knees; with tingling
+cheeks she questioned the leech till he lost all patience and turned
+away much annoyed at such excessive feminine curiosity.
+
+Yes! "The other" was his betrothed before all the world; but only to
+die! The blood rushed through her veins in a hot tide at the thought;
+she could have laughed aloud and fallen on the neck of every one she
+met. What she felt was hideous; malignant spite possessed her; but it
+gave her rapture--delicious rapture--a flower of hell, but with splendid
+petals and intoxicating perfume. But its splendor dazzled her and its
+fragrance presently sickened her. Sheer horror of herself came over
+her, and yet she could have shouted with joy each time that the thought
+flashed through her brain: "The other must die!"
+
+Her mother feared that her daughter, too, was about to fall ill,
+her eyes glowed so strangely and she was so restless and nervously
+excitable.
+
+Since Heliodora had taken the overwhelming news of Orion's betrothal
+to Paula with astonishing though sorrowful calmness, to the hot-blooded
+girl she was nothing, nobody, utterly unworthy of her notice.
+
+To spite her she had committed a crime as like murder as one snake is
+like another, and imperilled her own mother's life! It was enough to
+drive her to despair, to make her scourge herself with rods!
+
+When Susannah kissed her at parting for the night she complained of a
+slight sore throat and of her lips, which she fancied must be swollen.
+Katharina detained her, questioned her with a trembling voice, put the
+lamp close to her, and held her breath while she examined her face, her
+neck, and her arms for the dreadful spots. But none were to be seen and
+her mother laughed at her terrors, called her a dutiful, anxious child,
+and warned her not to be too full of fears, as they were supposed to
+invite the disease.
+
+All night the girl could not sleep. Her malicious triumph was past;
+nothing but painful thoughts and grewsome images haunted her while
+awake, and pursued her more persistently when she dozed. By dawn of day
+her alarm for her mother was so great that she sprang out of bed and
+went to her room; Susannah was sleeping so soundly that she did not even
+hear her. Much relieved Katharina crept back to bed; but in the morning
+the worst had happened: Susannah could no longer leave her bed; she was
+feverish, and on her lips, the very lips which had kissed her child's
+infected hair, there were indeed, between her nose and mouth, the first
+terrible, unmistakable spots.
+
+The leech came and confirmed the fact.--The house was closed and barred.
+
+The physician and Susannah, who was still in full possession of her
+senses, wished and insisted that Katharina should withdraw to the
+gardener's house, but she refused with defiant obstinacy, saying she
+would rather die with her mother than leave her.
+
+Quite beside herself she threw herself on the sick woman, and kissed
+the spots on her mouth to divert the poison into her own blood; but the
+physician angrily pulled her away, and the sufferer reproved her with
+tears in her eyes which spoke her fervent affection.
+
+She was now allowed to nurse her mother. Two nuns came to her
+assistance, and said, not only to the rich widow but behind her back,
+that they had never seen so devoted and loving a daughter. Even Bishop
+John, who did not shrink from entering the houses of the sick to give
+them spiritual consolation, praised Katharina's conduct; and he, who had
+hitherto regarded the water-wagtail as no more than a bright, restless
+child, treated her with respect, talked to her as to a grown-up
+person, and answered her questions--which for the most part referred to
+Paula--gravely and fully.
+
+The prelate, who was full of admiration for Thomas' daughter, told
+Katharina how, to save her lover, she had taken a crime upon herself
+which deprived her of every claim to mercy. The Syrian girl was only a
+Melchite, but to take another's guilt, out of love, was treading indeed
+in the footsteps of Christ, if ever anything was. At this Katharina
+shrugged her shoulders, as though to say: "Do you think so much of that?
+Could not I gladly have done the same?"
+
+The priest saw this and admonished her kindly to be on her guard against
+spiritual pride, though she had indeed earned the right to believe
+herself capable of the sternest devotion, and did not cease to set an
+example of filial and Christian love.
+
+He departed; and Katharina, to whom every word in praise of her
+behavior to her mother, whom her sin had brought to her death-bed, was a
+torturing mockery, felt that she had deceived one more worthy soul. She
+did not, to be sure, deserve to be charged with spiritual pride; for
+in this silent chamber, where death stood on the threshold, she thought
+over all the horrible things she had done, and told herself repeatedly
+that she was the chief and most vile of sinners.
+
+Many times she felt impelled to confide in another soul, to invite a
+pitying eye to behold and share her inward suffering.
+
+To the bishop above all, the most venerable priest she knew, she
+would most readily have confessed everything and have submitted to any
+penance, however severe, at his hands, but shame held her back; and even
+more did another more urgent consideration. The prelate, she knew, would
+demand of her that she should forsake her old life, root out from her
+soul the old feelings and desires, and begin a new existence; but for
+this the time had not yet come: her love was still an indispensable
+condition of life, and her hatred was even more dear to her. When
+Paula's terrible doom should indeed have overtaken her, and Katharina,
+her heart full of those old feelings, had gloated over it; when she
+should have been able to prove to Orion that her love was no less great
+and strong and self-sacrificing than that of Thomas' daughter; when she
+should have compelled him--as she would and must--to acknowledge that
+he had cruelly misprized her and sinned against her; then, and not till
+then, would she make peace with herself, with the Church, and with her
+Saviour. Nay, if need be, she would take the veil and mourn away
+the rest of her young life as a penitent, in a convent or a solitary
+rock-cell. But now--when Paula, his betrothed, had done this great thing
+for him--to perish now, with her love unseen, unknown, uncared for,
+perhaps forgotten by him, to retire into herself and vanish from his
+ken--that was too much for human nature! Sooner would she be lost
+forever; body and soul in everlasting perdition, a prey to Satan and
+hell--in which she believed as firmly as in her own existence.
+
+So she went on nursing her mother, saw the red spots spread over the
+sick woman's whole body--watched the fever that increased from day
+to day, from hour to hour; listened with a mixture of horror and
+gladness--at which she herself shuddered, though she fed her heart on
+it--to the reports of the preparations for the sacrifice of the Bride of
+the Nile, and to all the bishop could tell her of Paula, and her dying
+father, and Orion. She trembled for little Mary, who had disappeared
+from the neighboring garden, till she heard that the child had fled to
+escape the cloister; each day she learnt that Heliodora, who had
+moved to the gardener's house with her invalid, had as yet escaped the
+pestilence; while in the prayers, which even now she never failed to
+offer up morning and evening, she implored the Almighty and her patron
+saints to rescue the young widow, to save her from causing the death of
+her own mother, and to forgive her for having indirectly caused that of
+worthy old Rufinus, who had always been so good to her, and of so many
+innocent creatures by her treachery.
+
+Thus the terrible days and nights of anguish passed by; and the captives
+whom the girl's sins had brought to prison were happier than she, in
+spite of the doom that threatened them.
+
+The fate of his betrothed tortured Orion more than a hundred aching
+wounds. Paula's terrible end was fast approaching, and his brain burned
+at the mere thought. Now, as he was told by the warder, by the bishop,
+and by Justinus, the day after to-morrow was fixed for the bridal of his
+betrothed. In two days the bride, decked by base and mocking hands for
+an atrocious and accursed farce, would be wreathed and wedded, not to
+him, the bridegroom whom she loved, but to the Nile--the insensible,
+death-dealing element. He rushed up and down his cell like a madman, and
+tore his lute-strings when he tried to soothe his soul with music; but
+then a calm, well-intentioned voice would come from the adjoining room,
+exhorting him not to lose hope, to trust in God, not to forget his duty
+and the task before him. And Orion would control himself resolutely,
+pull himself together, and throw himself into his work again.
+
+Day and night were alike to him. The senator had provided him with a
+lamp and oil. When he was wearied out, he allowed himself no longer
+sleep on his hard couch than human nature imperatively demanded; and as
+soon as he had shaken it off he again became absorbed in maps and lists,
+plied his pen, thought, sketched, calculated, and reflected. Then, if
+a doubt arose in his mind or he could not trust his own memory and
+judgment, he knocked at the wall, and his shrewd and experienced friend
+was at all times ready to help him to the best of his knowledge and
+opinion. The senator went to Arsinoe for him, to gain information as
+to the seaboard from the archives preserved there; and so the work went
+forward, approaching its end, strengthening and raising his sinking
+spirit, bringing him the pleasures of success, and enabling him not
+unfrequently to forget for hours that which otherwise might have brought
+the bravest to despair.
+
+The warder, the senator or his worthy wife, Dame Joanna or Eudoxia--who
+twice had the pleasure of accompanying her--each time they visited him
+had some message or note to carry to Paula, telling her how far his work
+had progressed; and to her it was a consolation and heartfelt joy to be
+able to follow him in his labors. And many a token of his love, esteem,
+and admiration gave her courage, when even her brave heart began to
+quail.
+
+Ah! It was not alone her terror of a horrible death that tortured her
+soul. Her father, whom she considered it her greatest joy in life to
+have found again, was fading beyond all hope under her loving hands.
+His poor wounded lungs refused its service. It was with great difficulty
+that he could swallow a few drops of wine and mouthfuls of food; and
+in these last days his clear mind had lain as it were under a
+shroud--perhaps it was happier so, as she told herself and as her
+friends said to comfort her.
+
+He, too, had heard the cries of: "Hail to the Bride of the Nile!"
+
+"Bring out the Bride!"
+
+"Away with the Bride of the Nile!" Though he had no suspicion of their
+meaning, they had haunted his thoughts incessantly during the last few
+days; and the terrible, strange words had seemed to charm his fancy,
+for to Paula's distress he would murmur them to himself tenderly or
+thoughtfully as the case might be.
+
+Many times the idea occurred to her that she might put an end to her
+life before the worst should befall, before she became a spectacle for a
+whole nation, to be jeered at and made a delightful and exciting show to
+rouse their cruelty or their compassion. But dared she do it? Dared she
+defy the Most High, the Lord in whom she put her trust, into whose hand
+she commended herself in a thousand dumb but fervent prayers.
+
+No. To the very last she would trust and hope. And wonderful to say!
+Each time she had reached the very limits of her powers of endurance,
+feeling she could certainly bear no more and must succumb, something
+came to her to revive her faith or her courage: a message would be
+brought her from Orion, or Dame Joanna or Pulcheria came to see her; the
+bishop sought an interview, or her father's mind rallied and he could
+speak to her in beautiful and stimulating words. Often the warder would
+announce the senator and his wife, and their vigorous and healthy minds
+always hit on the very thing she needed. Martina, particularly, with her
+subtle motherly instinct, always understood whatever was agitating her;
+and once she showed her a letter from Heliodora, in which she spoke of
+the calmness she had won through nursing their dear invalid, and said
+how thankful she was to see the reward of her care and toil. Narses was
+already quite another man, and she could know no higher task than that
+of reconciling the hapless man to life, nay, of making it dear to him
+again. She no longer thought of Orion but as she might of a beautiful
+song she once had heard in a delightful hour.
+
+Thus time passed, even for the imprisoned maiden, till only two nights
+remained before St. Serapis' day when the fearful marriage was to be
+solemnized.
+
+It was evening when the bishop came to visit Paula. He regarded it as
+his duty to tell her that the execution of her sentence was fixed for
+the day after to-morrow. He should hope and believe till the last, but
+his own power over the misguided mob was gone from him. In any case, and
+if the worst should befall, he would be at her side to protect her by
+the dignity of his office. He had come now, so as to give her time to
+prepare her self in every respect. The care of her noble father till his
+last hour on earth he would take upon himself as a dear and sacred duty.
+
+Though she had believed herself surely prepared long since for the
+worst, this news fell on her like a thunderbolt. What lay before her
+seemed so monstrous, so unexampled, that it was impossible that she ever
+could look forward to it firmly and calmly.
+
+For a long time she could not help clinging desperately to her faithful
+Betta, and it was only by degrees that she so far recovered herself as
+to be able to speak to the bishop, and thank him. He, however, could
+only lament his inability to earn her fullest gratitude, for the
+patriarch's reply to his complaint of those who promised rescue to the
+people by the instrumentality of a heathen abomination--a document on
+which he had founded his highest hopes for her--had had a different
+result from that which he had expected. The patriarch, to be sure,
+condemned the abominable sacrifice, but he did it in a way which lacked
+the force necessary to terrify and discourage the misled mob. However,
+he would try what effect it might have on the people, and a number of
+scribes were at work to make copies of it in the course of the night.
+These would be sent to the Senators next morning, posted up in the
+market-place and public buildings, and distributed to the people; but he
+feared all this would have no effect.
+
+"Then help me to prepare for death," said Paula gloomily. "You are not
+a priest of my confession, but no church has a more worthy minister. If
+you can absolve me in the name of your Redeemer, mine will pardon me. We
+look at Him, it is true, with different eyes, but He is the Saviour of
+us both, nevertheless." A contradictory reply struggled for utterance in
+the strict Jacobite's mind, but at such a moment he felt he must repress
+it; he only answered:
+
+"Speak, daughter, I am listening."
+
+And she poured forth all her soul, as though he had been a priest of her
+own creed, and his eyes grew moist as he heard this confession of a
+pure and loving heart, yearning for all that was highest and best.
+He promised her the mercy of the Redeemer, and when he had ended with
+"Amen," and blessed her, he looked down at the ground for some minutes
+and presently said, "Follow me, Child."
+
+"Whither?" she asked in surprise; for she thought that her last hour
+had already come, and that he was about to lead her away to the place
+of execution, or to her watery, ever-flowing tomb; but he smiled as he
+replied: "No, child. To-day I have only the pleasing duty of blessing
+your betrothal before God; if only you will promise not to estrange your
+husband from the faith of his fathers--for what will not a man sacrifice
+to win the love of a woman.--You promise? Then I will take you to your
+Orion."
+
+He rapped on the door of the cell, and when the warder had opened it
+he whispered his orders; Paula followed him silently and with blushing
+cheeks, and in a few minutes she was clasped to her lover's breast
+while, for the first time--and perhaps the last--their lips met in a
+kiss.
+
+The prelate gave them a few minutes together; when he had blessed
+them both and solemnized their betrothal, he led her back to her cell.
+However, she had hardly time to thank him out of the fulness of her
+overflowing heart, when a town-watchman came to fetch him to see
+Susannah; her last hour was at hand, if not already past. John at once
+went with the messenger, and Paula drew a deep breath as she saw him
+depart. Then she threw herself on to her nurse's shoulders, crying:
+
+"Now, come what may! Nothing can divide us; not even death!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+The bishop was too late. He found the widow Susannah a corpse;
+standing at the head of the bed was little Katharina, as pale as death,
+speechless, tearless, utterly annihilated. He kindly tried to cheer her,
+and to speak words of comfort; but she pushed him away, tore herself
+from him, and before he could stop her, she had fled out of the room.
+
+Poor child! He had seen many a loving daughter mourning for her mother,
+but never such grief as this. Here, thought he, were two human souls all
+in all to each other, and hence this overwhelming sorrow.
+
+Katharina had escaped to her own room, had thrown herself on the
+couch--cowering so close that no one entering the room would have taken
+the undistinguishable heap for a human being, a grown up, passionately
+suffering girl.
+
+It was very hot, and yet a cold shiver ran through her slender frame.
+Was she now attacked by the pestilence? No; it would be too merciful of
+Fate to take such pity on her woes.
+
+The mother was dead, dragged to the grave by her own daughter. The
+disease had first shown itself on her lips; and how many times had the
+physician expressed his surprise at the plague having broken out in this
+healthy quarter of the town, and in a house kept so scrupulously clean.
+She knew at whose bidding the avenging angel had entered there, and
+whose criminal guile had trifled with him. The words "murdered your
+mother" haunted her, and she remembered the law of the ancients which
+refused to prescribe a punishment for the killing of parents, because
+they considered such a monstrous deed impossible.
+
+A scornful smile curled her lip. Laws! Principles! Was there one that
+she had not defied? She had contemned God, meddled with magic, borne
+false witness, committed murder--and as to the one law with promise,
+which, if Philippus was right, was exactly the same in the code of her
+forefathers as on the tables of Moses, how had she kept that? Her own
+mother was no more, and by her act!
+
+All through this frightful retrospect she had never ceased to shiver
+and, as this was becoming unendurable, she took to walking up and down
+and seeking excuses for her sinful doings: It was not her mother, but
+Heliodora whom she had wished to kill; why had malicious Fate...?
+
+Here she was interrupted, for the young widow, who had heard the sad
+news, sought her out to comfort her and offer her services. She spoke
+to the girl with real affection; but her sweet, low tones reminded
+Katharina of that evening after the old bishop's death; and when
+Heliodora put out her arm to draw her to her, she shrank from her,
+begging her in a dry, hoarse voice, not to touch her for her clothes
+were infected. She wanted no comfort; all she asked was to be left
+alone--quite alone--nothing more. The words were hard and unkind, and as
+the door closed on the young woman Katharina's eyes glared after her.
+
+Why had this doom passed over Heliodora's head and demanded the
+sacrifice of one whose loss she could never cease to mourn?
+
+This brought her mother vividly to her mind. She flew back to her
+death-bed and fell on her knees--but even there she could not bear to
+stay long, so she wandered into the garden and visited every spot
+where she and her mother had been together. But there were such strange
+crackings in the shrubs, and the trees and bushes cast such uncanny
+shadows that she hailed daybreak as a deliverance.
+
+She was on her way back to the house when her foster-brother Anubis came
+limping to meet her. Poor fellow! She had made a cripple of him, too,
+and his mother had died through her fault.
+
+The lad spoke to her, giving expression to his sympathy, and she
+accepted it; but she said such strange things, and answered him so
+utterly at random, that he began to fear that grief had turned her
+brain. She went on to ask him point-blank how much money she now had,
+and as he happened to know approximately, he could tell her; she clasped
+her hands, for how could any one human being who was not a king possess
+such enormous wealth! Finally she enquired whether he knew how a will
+should be drawn up, and that, too, he answered affirmatively.
+
+She made him describe it all, and then he added that the signature must
+be made valid by those of two witnesses; but she, he added, was too
+young to be thinking of making her will.
+
+"Why?" said she. "Is Paula much older than I am?"
+
+"And the day after to-morrow," the boy went on, "she is to be cast into
+the Nile. All the people call her the Bride of the Nile."
+
+At this that hideous, malignant smile again curled her lips, but she
+hastily suppressed it and walked straight on into the house. At the door
+he timidly asked her whether he might once more look on his mistress;
+but she was obliged to forbid it for fear of infection. However, he
+proudly replied: "What you do not fear, has no terrors for me," and he
+followed her to the side of the bed where the corpse now lay washed and
+in fine array; and when he saw Katharina kiss the dead woman's hand he,
+too, as soon as she looked away, pressed his lips on the place hers had
+touched. Then he sat down by the bed and remained there till she sent
+him away.
+
+Before noon the bishop arrived to perform the last rites. He found the
+body surrounded by beautiful flowers. Katharina had been out in the
+garden again and had cut all the rarest and finest; and though she had
+allowed the gardener to carry the basket for her, she would not have him
+help her in gathering them. The feeling that she was doing something for
+her mother had been a comfort to her; still, by day everything about her
+seemed even more intolerable than by night. Everything looked so large,
+so coarse, so insistent, so menacing, and reminded her at every step
+of some injustice or some deed of which she was ashamed. Every eye, she
+fancied, must see through her; and now and then it seemed as though the
+pillars of the great banqueting-hall, where her mother still lay, were
+tottering, and the ceiling about to fall in and crush her.
+
+She answered the bishop's questions absently and often quite at random,
+and the old man supposed that she was stunned by her great sorrow; so to
+give her thoughts a new direction he began telling her about Paula, and
+believing that Katharina was fond of her, he confided to her that he
+had taken Paula, the day before, to Orion's cell, and consecrated their
+betrothal.
+
+At this her face was convulsed in a manner that alarmed the bishop; a
+fearful tumult raged in her soul, her bosom rose and fell spasmodically,
+and all she could utter was the question: "But they will sacrifice her
+all the same?"
+
+The bishop thought he understood. She was horror stricken by the idea
+of the sudden, cruel end that hung over the young bride, and he replied
+sadly; "I shall not be able to restrain the wretches; still, no means
+shall remain untried. The patriarch's rescript, condemning this mad
+crime, shall be made public to-day, and I will read and expound it at
+the Curia, and try to give it keener emphasis.--Would you like to read
+it?"
+
+As she eagerly assented, the prelate signed to the acolyte who had
+waited on him with the holy vessels, and he produced from a packet a
+written sheet which he handed to Katharina. As soon as she was alone
+she read the patriarch's epistle; at first superficially, then more
+carefully, and at last in deep attention and growing interest, stirred
+by it to strange thoughts, till at length her eyes flashed and her
+breath came fast, as though this paper referred to herself, and could
+seal her fate for life.
+
+When the bearers came in to fetch away the body she was still sitting
+there, gazing as if spell-bound at the papyrus; but she sprang up, shook
+herself, and then bid farewell to the cold rigid form of the mother on
+whose warm heart she had so often rested, and to whom she had been the
+dearest thing on earth--and even then the solace of tears was denied
+her.
+
+She no longer suffered the deep remorse that had tormented her; for she
+felt now that her intercourse with her last mother had not been put an
+end to by death; that after a short parting they would meet again--soon
+perhaps, perhaps even to-morrow--meet for a fulness of speech, an
+outpouring of the heart, a revelation of all the past more open and
+unreserved than could ever be between mortal beings, even between mother
+and daughter. And when she who was sleeping there, blind, deaf, and
+senseless, should awake again, up there, with eyes clearer than those of
+men below, and the ears and senses of a spiritual being to see and hear
+and judge all she had known and done, all she had felt and made others
+feel--then, she told herself, her mother might perhaps blame her and
+punish her more than she had ever done on earth, but she would also
+clasp her more closely to her heart and comfort her more earnestly.
+
+She whispered gently in her ear as if she were still alive: "Wait
+awhile, only wait: I shall come soon and tell you everything!"
+
+And then she kissed her so passionately and recklessly that the nuns
+were shocked and dragged her away, ordering the bearers to close the
+coffin. They obeyed, and when the wooden lid fell over the sleeping
+form, shutting it in with a slam, and hiding it from the girl's sight,
+the barrier gave way which had hitherto restrained her tears and she
+began to weep bitterly; now, too, the feeling that she had indeed lost
+her mother took complete possession of her--the sense of being an orphan
+and alone, quite alone in the wide world.
+
+She saw and heard no more of what took place round the beloved dead; for
+when she took her hands from her face streaming with tears, the house
+of the rich widow no longer sheltered its mistress; her remains had been
+borne away to the nearest mortuary. The law forbade its being any longer
+kept within doors, but did not allow of its being buried till night
+fell. The child might not follow her own mother to the cemetery.
+
+With a drooping head Katharina withdrew to her room and there stood
+looking out into the garden. It all was hers now; she was mistress of it
+all and of much besides, as free and unfettered to command as hitherto
+she had been over the birds, her little dog, or the jewels that lay on
+her toilet-table. She could make hundreds happy with a word, a wave of
+the hand--but not herself. She had never felt so grown-up, independent,
+womanly, nay powerful, and at the same time so unutterably wretched and
+helpless as she felt in this hour.
+
+What did she care for all these vanities? They could not suffice to
+check one sigh of disappointed yearning.
+
+She had parted from her mother with a promise; the fervent longing that
+filled her soul was never still; and now the patriarch's letter had
+given her a hint as to how she might fulfil the one and silence the
+other. She hastily took the document up again, and read it through once
+more.
+
+Its instructions were precise to stop the proceedings of the misguided
+Memphites with stern promptitude. It explained that the death of the
+Christ Jesus, who shed His blood to redeem the world, had satisfied
+the need for a human victim. Throughout the wide realms which the Cross
+overshadowed with blessing human sacrifice must therefore be accounted
+a useless and accursed abomination. It went on to point out how the
+heathen had devised their gods in the image of weak, sinful, earthly
+beings, and chosen victims in accordance with this idea. "But our God,"
+it said, "is as high above men as the Spirit is above the flesh, and the
+sacrifice He demands is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. Will He
+not turn away in wrath and sorrow from the blinded Christians of Memphis
+who, in their straits, feel and are about to act like the cruel and
+foolish heathen? They take for their victim a heretic and a stranger,
+deeming that that will diminish the abomination in the eyes of the Lord;
+but it moves Him to loathing all the same, for no human blood may stain
+the pure and sacred altars of our mild faith, which gives life and not
+death.
+
+"Ask your blind and misguided flock, my brother: Can the Father of
+Love feel joy at the sight of one of His children, even an erring
+one, suffocated in the waters to the honor of the Most High, while
+struggling, and cursing her executioners?
+
+"If, indeed, there were a pure maiden, possessed with the blessed
+intoxication of the love of God, who was ready to follow the example
+of Him who redeemed man by His death, to fling herself into the waters
+while she cried to Heaven with her dying breath: 'Take me and my
+innocence as an offering, O Lord! Release my people from their
+extremity!'--that would be a victim indeed; and perchance, the Lord
+might say: 'I will accept it; but the will alone is enough. No child of
+mine may cast away the life that I have lent her as the most sacred and
+precious of gifts.'"
+
+The letter ended with pious exhortations to the community.
+
+Then a maiden who should voluntarily sacrifice herself in the river to
+save the people in their need would be a victim pleasing in the sight
+of the Lord--so said the Man of God, through whose mouth the Most High
+spoke. And this opinion, this hint, was to Katharina like a distaff from
+which she spun a lengthening thread to warp to the loom and weave from
+it a tangible tissue.
+
+She would be the maiden whom the patriarch had imagined--the real,
+true Bride of the Nile, inspired to cast off her young life to save her
+people in their need. In this there was expiation such as Heaven might
+accept; this would release her from the burthen of life that weighed
+upon her, and would reunite her to her mother; in this way she could
+show her lover and the bishop and all the world the immensity of her
+self-sacrifice, which was in nothing behind that of "the other"--the
+much-vaunted daughter of Thomas! She would do the great deed before
+Paula's eyes, in sight of all the people. But Orion must know whose
+image she bore in her heart and for whose sake she made that leap from
+blooming life into a watery grave.
+
+Oh! it was wonderful, splendid! Would she not thus compel him inevitably
+to remember her whenever he should think of Paula? Yes, she would force
+him to allow her image to dwell in his soul, inseparable from that
+"other;" and would not such an unparalleled act add such height to
+her figure, that it would be equal to that of her Syrian rival in the
+estimation of all men--even in his?
+
+She now began to long for the supreme moment. Her vain little heart
+laughed in anticipation of the delight of being seen, praised and
+admired by all. Tomorrow she, her little self, would tower above all the
+world; and the more she felt the oppressive heat of the scorching day,
+the more delicious it seemed to look forward to finding rest from the
+torments of life in the cool element.
+
+She saw no difficulties in the way of her achievement; she was mistress
+now, and her slaves and servants must obey her orders. At the same time
+she remembered, too, to protect her large possessions from falling into
+the hands of relations for whom she did not care; with a firm hand she
+drew up a will in which she bequeathed part of her fortune to her uncle
+Chrysippus, small portions to her foster-brother Anubis, and to Rufinus'
+widow, to whom she owed reparation for great wrong; then the larger
+half, and she owned many millions, she bequeathed to her dear friend
+Orion, whom she freely forgave, and who, she hoped, would see that even
+in the little "water-wagtail" there had been room for some greatness.
+She begged him also to take her house, since she had not been altogether
+guiltless of the destruction of the home of his fathers.
+
+The condition she attached to this bequest showed the same keen, alert
+spirit that had guided her through life.
+
+She knew that the patriarch's indignation might be fatal to the young
+man, so to serve as a mediator, and at the same time to ensure for
+herself the prayers of the Church, which she desired, she enjoined Orion
+to bestow the greater part of his inheritance on the patriarch for the
+Church and for benevolent purposes. But not at once, not for ten
+years, and in instalments of which Orion himself was to determine the
+proportion. In the event of his dying within the next three years all
+his claims were to be transferred to her uncle Chrysippus. She added a
+request to the Church, to which she belonged with her whole heart, that
+every year on her saint's day and her mother's they should be prayed for
+in every church in the land. A chapel was to be erected on the scene
+of her self-immolation, and if the patriarch thought her worthy of the
+honor, it was to bear the name of the Chapel of Susannah and Katharina.
+
+She gave all her slaves their freedom and devised legacies to all the
+officials of her household.
+
+As she sat for long hours of serious meditation, drawing up this last
+will, she smiled frequently with satisfaction. Then she copied it out
+fair, and finally called the physician and all the free servants in the
+house to witness her signature.
+
+Though no one had suspected the "water-wagtail" of such forethought,
+it was no matter of surprise that the young heiress, shut up in the
+plague-stricken house, should dispose of her estates, and before
+night-fall the physician brought Alexander, the chief of the Senate,
+to the garden gate by her desire, and there they spoke to each other
+without opening it. He was an old friend of her father's, and since the
+death of the Mukaukas, had been her guardian; he now agreed to stand as
+her Kyrios, and as such he ratified her will and the signature, though
+she would not allow him to read the document.
+
+Finally she went to the slaves quarters, from whence a few more
+sufferers had been removed to the Necropolis, and desired her boatman to
+get the holiday barge in readiness early in the morning, as she purposed
+seeing the ceremonial from the river. She gave particular orders to the
+gardener as to how it was to be decorated, and what flowers he was to
+cut for her personal adornment.
+
+She went to bed far less excited than she had been the night before,
+and before she had ended her evening prayer, slumber overtook her weary
+brain.
+
+When she awoke at sunrise, the large and splendid boat, which her father
+had had built at great cost in Alexandria, was manned and ready to put
+out. No one interfered to prevent her embarking with Anubis and a few
+female servants, for all the guards who had surrounded the house till
+yesterday had been withdrawn to do duty at the great ceremonial of
+the marriage and sacrifice, since a popular tumult was not unlikely to
+arise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+A great number of persons had collected during the night on the quay
+near Nesptah's inn. The crowd was increasing every minute, and in spite
+of the intense heat, not a Memphite could bear to stop within doors,
+Men, women and children were flocking to the scene of the festival; they
+came in thousands from the neighboring towns, hamlets and villages,
+to witness the unprecedented sacrifice which was to put an end to
+the misery of the land. Who had ever heard of such a marriage? What a
+privilege, what a happiness, to be so fortunate as to see it!
+
+The senate had not been idle and had done all in their power to surround
+it with magnificence and to enable as many as possible to enjoy
+the pageant, which had been planned with a lavish hand and liberal
+munificence.
+
+Round the cove by Nesptah's inn a semi-circular wooden stand had been
+constructed, on which thousands found seats or standing-room. Stalls
+furnished with hangings were erected in the middle of the tribune for
+the authorities and their families as well as for the leading Arab
+officials, and arm-chairs were placed in them for the Vekeel, for the
+Kadi, for the head of the senate, for old Horapollo and also for the
+Christian priesthood, though it was well known that they would not be
+present at the ceremony.
+
+The lower classes, who could not afford to pay for admission to these
+seats, had established themselves on the banks of the river; wandering
+dealers had followed them, and wherever the crowd was densest they had
+displayed their wares--light refreshments or solid food--on two-wheeled
+trucks, or on little carpets spread on the ground. In the tribune itself
+the cries of the water-sellers were incessant as they offered filtered
+Nile water and fruit syrups for sale.
+
+The parched tops of the palms, where turtle doves, lapwings and
+sparrow-hawks were wont to perch, were crowded with the vagabond boys of
+the town, who whiled away the time by pulling the withered and diseased
+dates from the great clumps and flinging them down on the bystanders
+below, till the guard took aim at them with their arrows and stopped the
+game.
+
+The centre of attraction to all eyes was a wooden platform or pontoon,
+built far out into the stream; from thence the bride was to be flung
+into the watery embrace of the expectant bridegroom. Here the masters
+of the ceremonies had put forth their best efforts, and it was
+magnificently decorated with hangings and handkerchiefs, palm-leaves and
+flags; with heavy garlands of tamarisk and willow, mingled with bright
+blossoms of the lotos and mallow, lilies and roses; with devices
+emblematic of the province, and other gilt ornaments. Only the furthest
+end of it was unadorned and without even a railing, that there might be
+nothing to intercept the view of the "marriage."
+
+Three hours before noon none were absent but those whose places were
+secured, and ere long curiosity brought them also to the spot. The
+town-watch found it required all their efforts to keep the front ranks
+of the people from being pushed into the river by those behind; indeed,
+this accident could not be everywhere guarded against; but, thanks to
+the shallow state of the water, no one was the worse. But the cries of
+those who were in danger nevertheless drowned the music of the bands
+performing on raised platforms and the shouts of applause which rose
+on all sides to hail Horapollo--who was here, there, everywhere on his
+white ass as brisk as a lad--or to greet some leading official.
+
+And now and again loud cries of anguish were heard, or the
+closely-packed throng parted with exclamations of horror. A citizen had
+had a sunstroke, or had been seized by the plague. Then the fugitives
+dragged others away with them; screaming mothers trying to save their
+little ones from the crush on one hand and the contagion on the other,
+oversetting one dealer's truck, smashing the eggs and cakes of another.
+A whole party were pushed into a deep but half-dried up water-course;
+the guardians of the peace flourished their staves, yelling and making
+their victims yell in their efforts to restore order--but all this
+hardly affected the vast body of spectators, and suddenly peace reigned,
+the confusion subsided, the shrieks were silenced. Those who were doomed
+might fall or die, be crushed or plague-stricken. Trumpet calls and
+singing were heard approaching from the town: the procession, the Bridal
+procession was coming! Not a man but would have perished rather than be
+deprived of seeing a single act of this stupendous drama.
+
+Those Arabs--what fools they were! Besides the Vekeel only three of
+their magnates were present, and those men whom no one knew. Even the
+Kadi was nowhere to be seen; and he must have forbidden the Moslem women
+to come, for not a single veiled beauty of the harem was visible. Not
+one Egyptian woman would have failed to appear if the plague had not
+kept so many imprisoned in their houses. Such a thing would never
+be seen again; this day's doings would be a tale to tell to future
+great-grandchildren!
+
+The music and singing came nearer and nearer; and it did not indeed
+sound as if it were escorting a hapless creature to a fearful end. Blast
+after blast rang out from the trumpets, filling the air with festive
+defiance; cheerful bridal songs came nearer and nearer to the listeners,
+the shrill chorus of boys and maidens sounding above the deeper and
+stronger chant of youths and men of all ages; flutes piped a gay
+invitation to gladness; the dull roar of drums muttered like the distant
+waves in time to a march, broken by the clang of cymbals and the tinkle
+of bells hung around tambourines held high by girlish hands which
+struck, rattled and waved them above their flowing curls; lute players
+discoursed sweet music on the strings; and as this vast tide of mingled
+tones came closer, behind it there was still more music and more song.
+
+To the ear the procession seemed endless, and the eye soon confirmed the
+impression.
+
+All were listening, gazing, watching to see the Bride and her escort.
+Every eye seemed compelled to turn in the same direction; and presently
+there came: first the trumpeters on spirited horses, and these ranged
+themselves on each side of the road by the shore leading to the scene of
+the "marriage." In front of them the choir of women took their stand
+to the left and, on the right, the men who had marched after them.
+All alike were arrayed in light sea-green garments, and loaded with
+lotos-flowers. The women's hair, twined with white blossoms, flowed over
+their shoulders; the men carried bunches of papyrus and reeds;--they
+represented river gods that had risen from the stream.
+
+Then came boys and bearded men, in white robes, with panther-skins on
+their shoulders, as the heathen priests had been wont to wear them. They
+were headed by two old men with long white beards, one holding a silver
+cup and the other a golden one, ready to fling them into the waves as
+a first offering, according to the practise of their forefathers, as
+Horapollo had described and ordered it. These went on to the pontoon,
+to its farthest end, and took their place on one side of the platform
+whence the Bride was to be cast into the river. Behind them came a large
+troop of flute-players and drummers, followed by fifty maidens holding
+tambourines, and fifty men all dressed and carrying emblems as followers
+of Dionysus, or Osiris-Bacchus, who had been worshipped here in the time
+of the Romans; with these came the drunken Silenus, goathoofed Satyrs
+and Pan, with his reed-pipes, all riding grey asses strangely bedaubed
+with yellow.
+
+Then followed giraffes, elephants, ostriches, antelopes, gazelles; even
+some tamed lions and panthers were led past the wondering crowd; for
+this had been done in the famous procession in honor of the second
+Ptolemy, described by Callixenus of Rhodes.
+
+Next came a large car drawn by twelve black horses, and on it a
+symbolical group of Famine and Pestilence overthrown; they were
+surrounded by shrieking black children, with pointed wings on their
+shoulders and horns on their foreheads, bound to stakes to represent the
+hosts of hell--a performance which they tried to make at once ghastly
+and droll.
+
+On another car the Goddess of the Inundation was to be seen. She sat
+amid sheaves, fruits, and garlands of vine; while round her were groups
+of children with apples and corn, pomegranates and bunches of dates,
+wine-jars and cups in their hands.
+
+Presently there appeared in a large shell, as though lounging in a bath,
+the goddess of health; she was drawn by eight snow-white horses, and
+held in one hand a golden goblet and in the other a caduceus. After her
+came the river-god Nile, the bridegroom of the marriage, studied from
+the famous statue carried away from Alexandria by the Romans: a
+splendid and mighty bearded man, resting against an urn. Sixteen naked
+children--the sixteen ells that the river must rise for its overflow to
+bless the land--played round his herculean form, and a bridal wreath of
+lotos-flowers crowned his flowing locks. This car, which was decorated
+with crocodiles, sheaves, dates, grapes, and shells, was hailed with
+shouts of enthusiasm; it was escorted by old men in the costume of the
+heathen priesthood.
+
+Behind this came more music and singers, with a troop of young men
+and maidens led by lute-players singing. These too were dressed as the
+genie, and nymphs of the river and were the groomsmen and bridesmaids in
+attendance on the betrothed.
+
+The longer the procession lasted and the nearer the looked-for victim
+approached, the more eagerly attent were the gazing multitude.
+
+When this group of youths and maidens had gone by, there was hardly a
+sound to be heard in the tribune and among the crowd. No one felt the
+fierce heat of the sun, no one heeded the thirst that parched every
+tongue; all eyes were bent in one direction; only the black Vekeel,
+whose colossal form towered up where he stood, occasionally sent a
+sinister and anxious glance towards the town. He expected to see smoke
+rising from the quarter near the prison, and suddenly his lips parted
+and he displayed his dazzlingly white teeth in a scornful laugh. That
+which he looked for had come to pass; the little grey cloud which he
+discerned grew blacker, and then, in the heart of it, rose a crimson
+glow which did not take its color from the sun. But of all those
+thousands he was the only one who looked behind him and observed it.
+
+The bride's attendants had by this time taken their station on the
+pontoon; here came another band of youths with panther skins on their
+shoulders; and now--at last, at last--a car came swaying along, drawn
+by eight coal-black oxen dressed with green ostrich-feathers and
+water-plants.
+
+The car was shaded by a tall canopy, supported by four poles, against
+which leaned four men in the robes of the heathen priesthood; this
+awning was lavishly decorated with wreaths of lotos and reeds, and
+fenced about with papyrus, bulrushes, tall grasses and blossoming
+river-weeds. Beneath it sat the queen of the festival--the Bride of the
+Nile.
+
+Robed in white and closely veiled, she was quite motionless. Her long,
+thick brown hair fell over her shoulders; at her feet lay a wreath, and
+rare rose-colored lotos-flowers were strewn on the car.
+
+The bishop had been sitting at her side, the first Christian priest,
+certainly, of all the swarms of monks and ecclesiastics in Memphis, who
+had ever appeared at such a scene of heathen abomination. He was now
+standing, looking down at the crowd with a deeply knit brow and menacing
+gaze. What good had come of the penitential sermons in all the
+churches, of his and his vicar's warnings and threats? In spite of all
+remonstrance he had mounted the car with the condemned victim, after
+administering the last consolations to her soul. It might cost him his
+life, but he would keep his promise.
+
+In her hand Paula held two roses: one was Orion's last greeting
+delivered by Martina; the other Pulcheria had brought her early in the
+morning. Yesterday, in a lucid moment, her dying father had given her
+his fondest blessing, little knowing what hung over her; to-day he had
+not come to himself, and had neither noticed nor returned her parting
+kiss. Quite unconscious, he had been moved from the prison out of doors
+and to the house of Rufinus. Dame Joanna would not forego the privilege
+of giving him a resting-place and taking care of him till the end.
+
+Orion's last note was placed in Paula's hands just before she set out;
+it informed her that his task was now successfully ended. He had been
+told that it was to-morrow, and not to-day, that the hideous act would
+be accomplished; and it was a consolation to her to know that he was
+spared the agony of following her in fancy in her fearful progress.
+
+She had allowed the women who came to clothe her in bridal array to
+perform their task; among them was Emau, the chief warder's wife,
+and her overflowing compassion had done Paula good. But even in the
+prison-yard she had felt it unendurable to exhibit herself decked in her
+bridal wreaths to the gaping multitude; she had torn them from her and
+thrown them on the ground.
+
+How long--how interminably long--had the road to the river appeared; but
+she had never raised her eyes to look at the curious crowd, never ceased
+lifting up her heart in prayer; and when her proud blood boiled, or
+despair had almost taken possession of her, she had grasped the bishop's
+hand and he had never wearied of encouraging her and exhorting her to
+cling to love and faith, and not even yet abandon all hope.
+
+Thus they at last reached the pontoon at whose further end life would
+begin for her in another world. The shouts of the crowd were as loud,
+as triumphant, as expectant as ever; music and singing mingled with the
+roar of thousands of spectators; she allowed herself to be lifted from
+the car as though she were stunned, and followed the young men and
+maidens who formed the bridal train, and in alternate choruses sang the
+finest nuptial song of Sappho the fair Lesbian.
+
+The bishop now made an attempt to address the people, but he was soon
+reduced to silence. So he once more joined Paula, and hand in hand they
+went on to the pier.
+
+All she had in her of strength, pride, and heroic courage she summoned
+to her aid to enable her to walk these last few paces with her head
+erect, and without tottering; she had gone half way along the wooden
+structure, with a mien as lofty and majestic as though she were marching
+to command the obedience of the mob, when hoofs came thundering after
+her on the boards.
+
+Old Horapollo, on his white ass, had overtaken her and stopped her on
+her road. Breathless, bathed in perspiration, scornful and triumphant,
+he desired her to remove her veil, and ordered the bishop to leave her
+and give up his place to the man who represented Father Nile--a gigantic
+farrier who followed him, somewhat embarrassed in his costume, but very
+ready to perform his part to the end.
+
+The priest and Paula, however, refused to obey. At this the old man tore
+the veil from her face and signed to the Nile-God; he stepped forward
+and assumed his rights, after bowing respectfully to the prelate--who
+was forced to make way--and then led the Bride to the end of the
+platform. Here the two elders who had headed the procession in honor
+of Bacchus, cast the gold cups as offerings into the river, and then a
+lawyer, in the costume of a heathen priest, proceeded to expound, in a
+well-set speech, the meaning of this betrothal and sacrifice. He took
+Paula's hand to place in that of the farrier, who made ready to cast her
+into the river for which he stood proxy.
+
+But an obstacle intervened before he could do so. A large and splendid
+barge had drawn up close to the platform, and shouts were heard from
+the tribune and from the mob which had till now looked on in breathless
+suspense and profound silence:
+
+"Susannah's barge!"
+
+"Look at the Nile, look at the river!"
+
+"It is the water-wagtail--Philammon's rich heiress!"
+
+"A pretty sight!"
+
+"Another Bride--a second Bride!"
+
+And the gaze of the multitude was now, as one eye, fixed on Katharina.
+
+Susannah's handsome barge had been passing up and down near the platform
+for the last hour, and the guards on duty had several times desired that
+it was to be kept at a distance from the scene of the "marriage;" but
+in vain; and they in their little boats were not strong enough to take
+active measures against the larger vessel manned by fifty rowers. It
+had now steered quite close to the pontoon, and the splendid gilding
+and carving, the tall deck-house supported on silver pillars, and the
+crimson embroidered sails would have been a gorgeous feast for the eye,
+but that the black flag floating from the mast gave it a melancholy and
+gloomy aspect.
+
+Within the cabin Katharina had made her waiting-women dress her in
+white and deck her with white flowers-myrtle, roses and lotos; but she
+vouchsafed no reply to their anxious enquiries.
+
+The maid who fastened the flowers on her bosom could feel her mistress's
+heart beating under her hand, and the lotos-blossoms which drooped from
+her shoulder rose and fell as though they were already rocking on the
+waves of the Nile. Her lips, too, never ceased moving, and her cheeks
+were as pale as death.
+
+"What is she going to do?" her attendants asked each other.
+
+Her mother dead only yesterday, and now she chose to be present at this
+ceremonial, desiring the steersman to run close to the platform and keep
+near to it, where all the world could see her. But she evidently wished
+to display herself to the people in all her finery and be admired, for
+she presently went up on the roof of the deck-house. And she looked
+lovely, as lovely as a guileless angel, as she mounted the steps
+with childlike diffidence-timidly, but with wide open eyes, as though
+something grand was awaiting her there--something she had long yearned
+for with her whole heart.
+
+Anubis had to help her up the last steps, for her knees gave way; but
+once at the top she sent him down again to remain below with the others,
+as she wished to be alone. The lad was accustomed to obey; and Katharina
+now stepped on a seat close to the side of the boat, turned to Paula,
+whom she was now rapidly approaching, and held out to her and the bishop
+two tall lily-stems covered with splendid blossoms. At the very moment
+when the farrier was measuring by eye the distance between the platform
+and the barge, and had judged it impossible to cast the Bride into the
+stream till the vessel had moved on, Katharina cried out:
+
+"Reverend Father John--and all of you! Take me, me and not the daughter
+of Thomas! It is I, not she--I am the true Bride of the Nile. Of my own
+free will--hear me, John!--of my own free will I am ready to give my
+life for my hapless land and the misery of the people, and the patriarch
+said that such a sacrifice as mine would be acceptable to Heaven.
+Farewell! Pray for me!--Lord have mercy upon me! Mother, dear Mother, I
+am coming to you!"
+
+Then she called to the steersman: "Put out from the platform!" and as
+soon as a few strokes of the oars had carried the barge into the deeper
+channel she stepped nimbly on to the edge of the bulwark, dropped the
+lilies into the river, and then with a smile, her head gracefully bent
+on one side and her skirt modestly held round her, she slipped into the
+water.
+
+The waves closed over her; but she was a good swimmer and could not help
+coming once to the surface. Her expression was that of a bather enjoying
+the cool fresh water that laved and gurgled round her. Perhaps the
+wild storm of applause, the mingled cries of horror, compassion and
+thanksgiving that went up from the assembled thousands once more reached
+her ear--but she dived head foremost to rise no more.
+
+The "River-God," a good-hearted man, who in his daily life could never
+have let a fellow-creature drown under his very eyes, forgot his part,
+released Paula, and sprang after Katharina, as did Anubis and a few
+boatmen; but they could not reach her, and the boy, who found swimming
+difficult with his crippled leg followed the girl to whom his young
+heart was wholly devoted to a watery death.
+
+Her speech had reached no ears but those to whom it was addressed; but
+before she was lost in the waters Bishop John turned to the people, took
+Paula's hand--and she felt free once more when her terrible bridegroom
+had deserted her--and holding up the Crucifix which hung at his girdle
+he shouted loudly:
+
+"Behold the desires of our holy Father Benjamin, by whom God himself
+speaks to you, have met with fulfilment. A pure and noble Jacobite
+maiden, of her own free and beautiful impulse, has sacrificed herself
+after the example of the Saviour, for the sufferings of her nation,
+before your eyes. This one," and he drew Paula to him, "this one is
+free; the Nile has had his victim!"
+
+But almost before he had done speaking--before the people could proclaim
+their vote--Horapollo had rushed at him and interrupted him. He had
+dismounted from his ass during the earlier part of the proceedings, and,
+not to let his prey escape, he now came between Paula and the bishop,
+grasped her dress and cried to the chorus of youths:
+
+"Come on--at once! One of you take the part of the Nile-God--into the
+river with the Bride!" The bishop however forced himself between the
+speaker and the girl to protect her. But Horapollo flew into a fury and
+rushed at the prelate to snatch away the image of the Saviour, while
+John exclaimed in a voice of ominous thunder: "Anathema!"
+
+This word of fear roused the Christian blood in the Egyptians; the
+sacrilegious attempt stirred the zeal which they had proved in many a
+struggle, and which had only been kept under by an effort during these
+times of trouble: the leader of the choir dragged the old man away and
+took part with the bishop. Others followed his example, while several,
+on the contrary, sided with old Horapollo who clung tightly to Paula,
+preferring to die himself rather than allow her to escape his hatred and
+vengeance.
+
+At this moment the clang of bells was heard from the town with a
+terrific and unaccountable uproar, and a young man was seen forcing his
+way through the throng, a naked sword in his hand, and in spite of his
+torn garments, his wild hair, and his blackened face, he was at once
+recognized as Orion. Every one made way for him, for he rushed on like a
+madman; as he reached the pontoon and took in at a glance what was
+going forward there, he sprang past the mummers with mighty leaps to the
+platform, pushing aside sundry groups of fighting champions; and before
+the principal actors were aware of his presence, he had snatched Paula
+from the old man's clutch, and called her by her name. She sank on his
+breast half-fainting with terror, surprise and unspeakable rapture, and
+he clasped her to him with his left arm, while the flashing sword in his
+right hand and his flaming looks warned all bystanders that it would
+be as wise to attack a lioness defending her young as to defy this
+desperate man, who was prepared to face death with the woman he loved.
+
+His push had sent Horapollo tottering to some distance; and when the
+old man had pulled himself together, to throw himself once more on
+his victim, he found himself the centre of a fight. A wild troop had
+followed Orion and beset the struggling mob, whom they presently drove
+over the edge of the pontoon into the river, and with them Horapollo.
+Most of these saved themselves by swimming, but the old man sank, and
+nothing more was seen of him but his clenched fist, which rose in menace
+for some minutes above the waters.
+
+Meanwhile the Vekeel had become aware of what was going forward on the
+platform; he leaped in fury from his seat to restore order, intending
+to seize Orion whom he fancied he had seen, or, if necessary to cut him
+down with his own hand.
+
+But a vast multitude stopped his progress, for a fearful horde of
+released prisoners with Orion at their head had come rushing down to the
+scene of the festival yelling: "Fire! the prison is burning, the town is
+in flames!"
+
+Every one who could run fled at once to Memphis to save his house, his
+possessions and those dear to him. Like a flock of doves scared by
+the scream of a hawk, like autumn leaves driven before the wind, the
+multitude dispersed. They hurried back to the town in wild tumult and
+inextricable confusion, jumping into the festal cars, cutting loose the
+horses from that of the goddess of health, to mount them and ride home,
+overthrowing everything that stood in their way and dragging back the
+Vekeel who was striving, sword in hand, to get to the pontoon.
+
+The smoke and flames of the city were rising every moment, and acted
+like magic in spurring the flying crowd to reach their homes in time.
+But, before Obada had succeeded in his efforts, the pushing throng were
+once more brought to a standstill; horses were heard approaching. Dense
+masses of dust hid them and their riders; but it was certainly an armed
+troop that was coming clattering onwards, for flashing gleams were
+seen here and there through the dull clouds that shrouded them, the
+reflection of the sun's bright rays from polished and glittering
+helmets, breast-plates, and sabres.
+
+Now they were visible even where the Vekeel was. Foremost rode the Kadi,
+and just as he came up with Obada he sprang from the saddle on to the
+wooden structure, and with a loud cry of: "Free-saved!" in which all
+the joy of his heart found utterance, he stretched out both his hands to
+Paula, who was advancing towards the shore clinging closely to Orion.
+
+Othman did not observe the Vekeel, who was but a few paces distant.
+The words "Free!" "Saved!" from the supreme judge, gave the negro to
+understand that a pardon must have arrived for his youthful foe, and
+this of course implied the condemnation of his own proceedings. All his
+hopes were wrecked, for this meant that Omar still ruled and that the
+attempt on the Khaliff's life had failed. Dismissal, punishment or death
+must be his doom, when Amru should return. Still, he would not succumb
+till the instrument of his ruin had preceded him to the grave. Taking
+the Kadi by surprise he thrust him aside, and prepared to deal a fearful
+blow that should fell Orion before he himself should fall. But the
+captain of the body-guard, who had followed Othman, had watched his
+movements: Swift as lightning he rose in his saddle and swung his
+cimeter, which cut deep into the Vekeel's neck. With a hideous curse
+Obada let his arm drop, and fell struggling for his last breath at the
+feet of the newly united couple.
+
+The populace afterwards declared that his blood was not red like that of
+other men, but black like his skin and his soul. They had good cause to
+curse his memory, for his villainy had reduced more than half Memphis to
+ashes that day, and brought the city to beggary.
+
+He had hired two venial wretches to set fire to the prison while the
+festival was proceeding, with a view to suffocating Orion in his cell;
+but the gang were detected and all the prisoners were released in time.
+Thus the young man had been able to reach the scene of the ceremonial at
+the head of his fellow-captives. The fire, however, had gained the upper
+hand in the deserted town. It had spread from house to house along the
+sun-scorched streets, and next day nothing remained of the city of the
+Pyramids but the road along the shore, and a few wretched alleys.
+The ancient Capital of the Pharaohs was reduced to a village, and the
+houseless residents moved across to the eastern bank, to people as
+Moslems the newly-founded town of Fostat, or sought a home on Christian
+territory.
+
+Among the houses that had escaped was that of Rufinus, and thither the
+Kadi escorted Orion and Paula. It was to serve as their prison till the
+return of Amru, and there they spent delightful days in the society of
+their friends, and there Thomas was so happy as to clasp his children to
+his heart once more, and bless them before he died.
+
+A few minutes before the Kadi had reached the scene of the festival two
+carrier pigeons had arrived, each bearing the Arab governor's commands
+that the sacrifice of Paula was at any rate to be stopped, and her life
+spared till his return. He also reserved the right of deciding Orion's
+fate.
+
+Mary and Rustem had met Amru at Berenice, on the Egyptian coast of
+the Red Sea. This decaying sea-port was connected with Medina by a
+pigeon-post, and in reply to his viceroy's enquiry with reference to the
+victim about to be offered by the despairing Egyptians to the Nile, Omar
+had sent a reply which had been immediately forwarded to the Kadi.
+
+The burning of their town had brought new and fearful suffering on the
+stricken Memphites, and notwithstanding Katharina's death the Nile still
+did not rise. The Kadi therefore once more summoned a meeting of all
+the inhabitants from both sides of the river, three days after the
+interrupted marriage-festival. It was held under the palms by Nesptah's
+inn, and there he proclaimed to the multitude, Moslem and Christian,
+by means of the Arab herald and Egyptian interpreter, what the Khaliff
+commanded him to declare, namely: that God, the One, the All-merciful,
+scorned human sacrifice. In this firm conviction he, Omar, would beseech
+Allah the Compassionate, and he sent a letter which was to be cast into
+the river in his name.
+
+And this letter was addressed:
+
+"To the River of Egypt." And its contents were as follows:
+
+"If thou, O River, flowest of thyself, then swell not; but if it be God,
+the One, the Compassionate, that maketh thee to flow, then we entreat
+the All-merciful that he will bid thee rise!"
+
+"That which is not of God," wrote Amru in the letter which enclosed
+Omar's, "what shall it profit men? But all things created are by Him,
+and so is your noble river. The Most High will hearken to Omar's prayers
+and ours, and I therefore command that all of you--Moslems, Christians,
+and Jews, shall gather together in the Mosque on the other side of the
+Nile which I have built to the glory of the All-merciful, and that you
+there lift up your souls in one great common prayer, to the end that God
+may hear you and take pity on your sufferings!"
+
+And the Kadi bid all the people to go across the Nile and they obeyed
+his bidding. Bishop John called on his clergy and marched at their head,
+leading the Christians; the priests and elders of the Jews led their
+people next to the Jacobites; and side by side with these the Moslems
+gathered in the magnificent pillared sanctuary of Amru, where the three
+congregations of different creeds lifted up, their hearts and eyes and
+voices to the pitying Father in Heaven.
+
+And this very Mosque of Amru has more than once been the scene of the
+same sublime spectacle; even within the lifetime and before the eyes
+of the narrator of this tale have Moslems, Christians, and Jews united
+there in one pious prayer, which must have been acceptable indeed in the
+ears of the Lord.
+
+Not long after the letter from the Khaliff Omar had been cast into the
+Nile, and the prayer of the united assembly had gone up to Heaven from
+the Mosque of Armu, a pigeon came in announcing a sudden rise in the
+waters at the cataracts; and after some still anxious but hopeful days
+of patience, the Nile swelled higher and yet higher, overflowed its
+banks, and gave the laborer a right to look forward to a rich harvest;
+and then, when a heavy storm of rain had laid the choking dust, the
+plague, too, disappeared.
+
+Just when the river was beginning to rise perceptibly Amru returned;
+bringing in his train little Mary and Rustem, Philippus the leech and
+Haschim, who had joined the governor's caravan at Djidda.
+
+In the course of their journey they received news of all that had been
+happening at Memphis, and when the travellers were approaching their
+last night-quarters, and the Pyramids were already in sight, the
+governor said to little Mary:
+
+"What do you say little one? Do we not owe the Memphites the treat of a
+splendid marriage festival?"
+
+"No, my lord, two," replied the child.
+
+"How is that?" laughed Amru, "You are too young and do not count yet,
+and I know no other maiden in Memphis whose wedding I should care to
+provide for."
+
+"But there is a man towards whom you feel most kindly, and who lives as
+lonely as a recluse. I should like to see him married, and at the same
+time as Orion and Paula. I mean our good friend Philippus."
+
+"The physician? And is he still unwed?" asked Amru in surprise; for no
+Moslem of the leech's age and position could remain unmarried without
+exposing himself to the contempt of his fellow-believers. "He is a
+widower then!"
+
+"No," replied Mary. "He has never yet found a wife to suit him; but I
+know one created on purpose for him by God himself!"
+
+"You little Khatbe!"--[A professional go-between]--cried the governor.
+"Well, settle the matter, and it shall be no fault of mine if the second
+wedding lacks magnificence."
+
+"And we will have a third!" interrupted the child, clapping her hands
+and laughing. "My worthy escort Rustem....
+
+"The colossus! Why, child, to you all things are possible! Have you
+found a wife for him too?"
+
+"No, he found Mandane for himself without my help."
+
+"It is the same thing!" cried the governor jovially. "I will provide for
+her. But that must satisfy you, or else all those unbelievers whom we
+are settling here will drive us Moslem Arabs out of the land."
+
+The great man had often held such discourse as this with the child since
+she had entered his tent at Berenice, there to lay before him the case
+of the couple she loved, and for whom she had taken on herself great
+risk and hardship; she had pleaded so eloquently, so kindly, and with
+such fervent and pathetic words, that Amru had at once made up his
+mind to grant her everything that lay in his power. Mary had done him a
+service, too, by bringing him the information she could give him, for
+it enabled him to avert perils which threatened the interests of the
+Crescent, and also to save the children of two men he honored--the son
+of the Mukaukas, and the daughter of Thomas--from imminent danger.
+
+He found, on his return home, that the Vekeel's crimes far exceeded his
+worst fears. Obada's proceedings had begun to undermine that respect for
+Arab rule and Moslem justice which Amru had done his utmost to secure.
+It was only by a miracle that Orion had escaped his plots, for he had
+three times sent assassins to the prison, and it was entirely owing to
+the watchful care of pretty Emau's husband that the youth had been able
+to save himself in the fire. Obada had done all this to clear out of his
+path the hated man whose statements and impeachments might ruin him.
+The wretch had met a less ignominious death than his judges would
+have granted him. The wealth found hoarded in his dwelling was sent
+to Medina; and even Orion was forced to see the vast sums of which the
+Negro had plundered his treasury, appropriated by the Arabs. The Arab
+governor thought it only right to inflict this penalty for the share
+he had taken in the rescue of the nuns; and the young man submitted
+willingly to a punishment which restored him and his bride to freedom,
+and enabled Amru to apply a larger proportion of the revenues of his
+native land for its own benefit.
+
+The Khaliff Omar, however, never received these moneys, which
+constituted far more than half of Orion's patrimony. The Prophet's
+truest friend, the wise and powerful ruler, fell by the assassin's
+hand, and the world now learnt that the Vekeel had been one of the chief
+conspirators and had been spurred on to the rashest extremes by his
+confidence of success.
+
+Amru received the son of the Mukaukas as a father might; after examining
+the result of his labors he found it far superior to his own efforts in
+the same direction, and he charged Orion to carry out the new division
+of the country, which he confirmed excepting in a few details.
+
+"Perform your duty and do your utmost in the future to go on as you have
+begun!" cried Amru; and the young man replied:
+
+"In this bitter and yet happy interval I have become clear on many
+points."
+
+"And may I ask on what?" asked the governor. "I would gladly hear."
+
+"I have discovered, my lord," replied Orion, "that there is no such
+thing as happiness or unhappiness in the sense men give to the words.
+Life appears to each of us as we ourselves paint it. Hard times which
+come into our lives from outside are often no more than a brief night
+from which a brighter day presently dawns--or the stab of a surgeon's
+knife, which makes us sounder than before. What men call grief is, times
+without number, a path to greater ease; whereas the ordinary happiness
+of mankind flows, swiftly as running waters, down from that delightful
+sense of ease. Like a ship, which, when her rudder is lost, is more
+likely to ride out the storm on the high seas than near the sheltering
+coast, so a man who has lost himself may easily recover himself and
+his true happiness in the wildest turmoil of life, but rarely and with
+difficulty if his existence runs calmly on. All other blessings are
+comparatively worthless if we are not upheld by the consciousness of
+fulfilling the task of life in faithful earnest, and of cheerfully
+dealing with the problems it sets before us. The lost one was found
+as soon as he placed his whole being and faculties at the service of a
+higher duty, with God in his heart and before his eyes. I have learnt
+from my own experience, and from Paula's good friends, to strive
+untiringly after what is right, and to find my own weal in that of
+others.
+
+"The sense of lost liberty is hard to bear; but leave me love, and give
+me room and opportunity to prove my best powers in the service of the
+community, even in a prison--and though I cannot be perfectly happy, for
+that is impossible without freedom--I will be far happier than such an
+idle and useless spendthrift of time and abilities as I used to be among
+the dissipations of the capital."
+
+"Then enjoy the consciousness of duty well performed, with liberty and
+love," replied the governor. "And believe me, my friend, your father in
+Paradise will no more grudge you all that is loveliest and best than I
+do. You are on the road where every curse is turned to blessing."
+
+The three marriages which Amru had promised to provide for, were
+celebrated with due splendor.
+
+That of Orion and Paula was a day never to be forgotten by the gay world
+of Memphis. Bishop John performed the ceremony, and the young couple at
+once took possession of the beautiful house left them by Katharina, the
+real Bride of the Nile. If it could have been granted to her to read
+Paula's and Orion's hearts, and see how they held her in remembrance,
+she would have found that to them she was no longer the childish
+water-wagtail, and that they knew how to value the sacrifice of her
+young life.
+
+Their first beloved guest, who went with them to their new home, was
+little Mary, and she remained their dearest companion till she married
+happily. The governess, Eudoxia, to whom also Orion offered an asylum,
+accompanied Mary to her own delightful home; and there at last Mary
+closed her old friend's eyes, after the good woman had brought up her
+little ones, not like a hireling but as a true mother.
+
+The Patriarch Benjamin, too, who was led by many considerations--and not
+least by Katharina's will to remain on good terms with the son of the
+Mukaukas, was a visitor to the youthful pair. Neither he nor the Church
+ever had reason to repent his alliance with Orion; and when Paula
+presented her husband with a son, the prelate offered to be his sponsor,
+and named him George after his grandfather.
+
+Orion's son, too, inherited the office of Mukaukas, when he came to
+man's estate, from his father who was appointed to it, but under a new
+Arab title, shortly after his marriage.
+
+Ere long, however, Orion, as the highest Christian authority in his
+native land, had to change his place of residence and leave Memphis,
+which was doomed to ruin, for Alexandria. From thence his power extended
+over the whole Nile-valley, and he devoted himself to his charge with so
+much zeal, fidelity, justice, and prudence, that his name was remembered
+with veneration and affection by generations long after.
+
+Paula was the pride and joy of his life, and they lived together in
+devoted union to an advanced age. He regarded it as one of the duties of
+his life, to care for the woman who had made him what he was from a lost
+and reprobate creature, and to fill every day of her life with joy. When
+he built his palace at Alexandria, he graced it with the inscription
+that had been engraved on Thomas' ring: "God hath set the sweat of man's
+brow before virtue."
+
+Philippus and his Pulcheria also found a new home in Alexandria. He had
+no long wooing to do; for when, on his return, the girl of whom he had
+thought constantly during his long journeying, met him for the first
+time in her mother's house and held out both her hands with trustful
+warmth of welcome, he clasped her to him and would not release her till
+Joanna had given them her maternal blessing. The widow lived in the
+leech's house with her children and grandchildren, and often visited
+her husband's grave. At length she was laid to rest by him and his
+soft-hearted mother, in the cemetery of Alexandria.
+
+Rustem, made a rich man by Orion, became a famous breeder of horses and
+camels in his own country, while Mandane ruled mildly but prudently over
+his possessions--which he never shared with others, though he remained
+a Masdakite till he died. The first daughter his wife bore him was named
+Mary, and the first boy Haschim; but she would not agree to Rustem's
+proposal that the second should be called Orion; she preferred to give
+him the name of Rufinus, and his successors were Rustem and Philippus.
+
+The senator and his wife were only too glad to quit Egypt. Martina,
+however, had the satisfaction of assisting at the marriage of her
+dear Heliodora on the shores of the Nile; not, indeed, to her "Great
+Sesostris," but to her nephew Narses, who by the young widow's devoted
+care was restored, if not to perfect vigor, at any rate to very
+endurable good health.
+
+Paula's wedding gift to her was the great emerald, which had meanwhile
+been brought back again to Memphis. Justinus and Martina always remained
+on terms of cordial friendship with the young Mukaukas and his wife:
+Nilus lived long after to perform his duties with industry and judgment;
+and whenever Haschim came to Alexandria there was a contest between
+Orion and Philippus, for neither would yield him to the other. But
+Philip could no longer envy his former rival the wife he had won. He had
+not, indeed, ceased to admire her; but at the same time he would say:
+"My comfortable little Pulcheria has not her match; our rooms would be
+too small for Paula, but they suit my golden-haired girl best."
+
+He remained unselfishly devoted to his work till the end, and, when he
+saw Orion wearing himself out in energetic toil, he would often say: "He
+knows now what life demands, and acts accordingly; and that is why he
+grows no older, and his laugh is as winning and gay as ever. It is an
+honor to be called friend by a woman who like the Bride of the Nile.
+saved herself from certain death, and a man who, like the young
+Mukaukas, has freed himself from the heaviest of all curses."
+
+To this day the Bride of the Nile is not forgotten. Before the river
+begins to rise on the Night of Dropping the inhabitants of the town of
+Cairo, which grew up after the ruin of Memphis, on the eastern shore by
+the side of Fostat, erect a figure of clay, representing a maiden form,
+which they call Aroosa or the Bride.
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+     A knot can often be untied by daylight
+     Abandon to the young the things we ourselves used most to enjoy
+     Ancient custom, to have her ears cut off
+     Caught the infection and had to laugh whether she would or no
+     Gave them a claim on your person and also on your sorrows
+     Hatred and love are the opposite ends of the same rod
+     He was made to be plundered
+     How could they find so much pleasure in such folly
+     In whom some good quality or other may not be discovered
+     Life is not a banquet
+     Life is a function, a ministry, a duty
+     Love has two faces: tender devotion and bitter aversion
+     Of two evils it is wise to choose the lesser
+     Old age no longer forgets; it is youth that has a short memory
+     Prepared for the worst; then you are armed against failure
+     Sea-port was connected with Medina by a pigeon-post
+     Self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave
+     So hard is it to forego the right of hating
+     Spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the women
+     Talk of the wolf and you see his tail
+     Temples of the old gods were used as quarries
+     The man who avoids his kind and lives in solitude
+     Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in authority
+     Those who will not listen must feel
+     Use their physical helplessness as a defence
+     Who can hope to win love that gives none
+     Who can take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face?
+     Women are indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life
+     You have a habit of only looking backwards
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Bride of the Nile, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
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