tions of their lord's son, whom
they looked up to as a talented and high-minded youth. His dispute with
Paula had struck them painfully, and each one asked himself how it
was that such a favorite with women should have failed to rouse any
sentiment but that of hatred in one of the handsomest of her sex. The
marked hostility she displayed to Orion injured her cause in the eyes
of her judges, who knew only too well how unpleasant her relations were
with Neforis. It was more than audacious in her to accuse the Mukaukas'
son of having broken open her trunk; only hatred could have prompted her
to utter such a charge. Still, there was something in her demeanor which
encouraged confidence in her assertions, and if Katharina could really
testify to having seen the empty medallion on the chain there would
be no alternative but to begin the enquiry again from a fresh point of
view, and to inculpate another robber. But who could have lavished
such a treasure as this gem in exchange for mere rubbish? It was
inconceivable; Ammonius the mechanician was right when he said that a
woman full of hatred was capable of anything, even the incredible and
impossible.

Meanwhile it was growing dusk and the scorching day had turned to the
tempered heat of a glorious evening. The Mukaukas was still in his room
while his wife with Susannah and her daughter, Mary and her governess,
were enjoying the air and chatting in the open hall looking out on the
garden and the Nile. The ladies had covered their heads with gauze veils
as a protection against the mosquitoes, which were attracted in swarms
from the river by the lights, and also against the mists that rose
from the shallowing Nile; they were in the act of drinking some
cooling fruit-syrup which had just been brought in, when Orion made his
appearance.

"What has happened?" cried his mother in some anxiety, for she concluded
from his dishevelled hair and heated cheeks that the meeting had gone
anything rather than smoothly.

"Incredible things," he replied. "Paula fought like a lioness for her
father's freedman..."

"Simply to annoy us and put us in a difficulty," replied Neforis.

"No, no, Mother," replied Orion with some warmth. "But she has a will of
iron; a woman who never pauses at anything when she wants to carry her
point; and at the same time she goes to work with a keen wit that is
worthy of the greatest lawyer that I ever heard defend a cause in the
high court of the capital. Besi