n
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 do