ia, 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 r