lf-control, and this doubled the alarm of those who
wished the youth well.

It was clear from all this that Obada felt sure that he had the noose
well around his victim's neck, and why he thought so, soon became
evident; for Orion had hardly finished his defence when he rose, and
with a malicious grin, handed to the Kadi the little tablet given him
yesterday by old Horapollo, describing it as a document addressed to
Paula and desiring the Kadi to examine it. The heat had effaced much of
what had been written on the wax, but most of the words could still be
deciphered. The venerable Horapollo had already made them out, and was
quite ready to read to the judges all that the accused--who by his
own account, was a spotless dove--had written in his innocence and
truthfulness for his fair one. He signed to the old man and helped
him as he rose with difficulty, but the Kadi begged him to wait, made
himself acquainted with the contents of the letter by the help of the
interpreter, and when the man had, with much pains, fulfilled his
task, he turned, not to Horapollo, but to Obada, and asked whence this
document had come.

"From Paula's desk," replied the Vekeel. "My old friend found it there."
He pointed to Horapollo, who confirmed his statement by a nod of assent.

The Kadi rose, went up to the girl, whose cheeks were pale with
indignation, and asked whether she recognized the tablets as her
property; Paula, after convincing herself, replied with a flaming glance
of scorn and aversion at Horapollo: "Yes, my lord. It is mine. That base
old man has taken it with atrocious meanness from among my things."
For an instant her voice failed her; then, turning to the judges, she
exclaimed:

"If there is one among you to whom helplessness and innocence are sacred
and malice and cunning odious, I beg him to go to Rufinus' wife, over
whose threshold this man has crept like a ferret into a dovecote, for
no other end but to tread hospitable kindness in the dust, to rifle her
home and make use of whatever might serve his vile purpose--to go, I
say, and warn the lonely woman against this treacherous spy and thief."

At this the old man, gasping and inarticulate, raised his withered arm;
the Christian judges whispered together, but at cross-purposes,
while the Jew fidgeted his round little person on the bench, drumming
incessantly with his fingers on his breast, and trying to meet Orion's
or Paula's eye and to make her understand that he