y to allow Paula to
thrust her pride and airs under his nose a second time.

He angrily rejected Pulcheria's attempts to take her friend's part, and
he trotted home again, mumbling curses between his old lips.

Martina, meanwhile, had made friends with Paula in her genial, frank way.
She had met her parents in time past in Constantinople and spoke of them
with heart-felt warmth. This broke the ice between them, and when Martina
spoke of Orion--her 'great Sesostris'--of the regard and popularity he
had enjoyed in Constantinople, and then, with due recognition and
sympathy, of his misfortune, Paula felt drawn towards her indeed. Her
reserve vanished entirely, and the conversation between the new
acquaintances became more and more eager, intimate, and delightful.

When they parted both felt that they could only gain by further
intercourse. Paula was called away at the very moment of leave-taking,
and left the room with warm expressions intended only for the matron:
"Not good-bye--we must meet again. But of course it is my part, as the
younger, to go to you!" And she was no sooner gone than Martina
exclaimed:

"What a lovely creature! The worthy daughter of a noble father! And her
mother! O dame Joanna! A sweeter being has rarely graced this miserable
world; she was born to die young, she was only made to bloom and fade!"
Then, turning to Katharina, she went on: with kindly reproof. "Evil
tongues gave me a very false idea of this girl. 'A silver kernel in a
golden shell,' says the proverb, but in this case both alike are of
gold.--Between you two--good God!--But I know what has blinded your clear
eyes, poor little kitten. After all, we all see things as we wish to see
them. I would lay a wager, dame Joanna, that you are of my opinion in
thinking the fair Paula a perfectly noble creature. Aye, a noble
creature; it is an expressive word and God knows! How seldom is it a true
one? It is one I am little apt to use, but I know no other for such as
she is, and on her it is not ill-bestowed."

"Indeed it is not!" answered Joanna with warm assent; but Martina sighed,
for she was thinking to herself! "Poor Heliodora! I cannot but confess
that Paula is the only match for my 'great Sesostris.' But what in
Heaven's name will become of that poor, unfortunate, love-sick little
woman?"

All this flashed through her quick brain while Katharina was trying to
justify herself, and asserting that she fully recognised Paula's great
quali