ild's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human beings
depended. He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's
adroitness and fidelity. Early next morning she was to receive a letter
to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers.

"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by the
mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer. "If we put together our
last gold pieces they will hardly suffice."

"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl. "And
yet--there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the same
time. . . ."

"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!" cried
Orion.

"Oh yes, yes! What do I want with them? But Dame Joanna has my mother's
things in her keeping."

"And you are afraid to ask her for them?" asked the young man. He
appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion
took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her to
hand it to Joanna. Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she would
require on this gem. Mary joyfully took possession of the ring; but
presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction
suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion as
if they were parting for ever.

In the passage leading to Paula's cell the man suddenly stood still: some
one was approaching up the stairs.--If it should be the black Vekeel, and
he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour!

But no. Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their
light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had
often been here before now to console prisoners.

He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned
Melchite. Mary's dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not
belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt who
she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always
accompanied him when he visited a female prisoner: "We find her here!"
And when he had ascertained with whom the child had come hither at so
late an hour, he turned again to his colleague and added in a low voice:

"The wife and daughter of Rufinus! Just so: I have long had my eye on
these Greeks. In church once or twice every year!--Melchites in disguise!
Allied with this Melchite! And this is the school in which the Mukaukas'
granddaughter is growing up! An abominable trick! Benja