f 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 imp