ade 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next evening, Anubis, who had withdrawn respectfully to a little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 decid