ou, 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 throug