d such a comforting vision in Orion,--the thief, the false
witness, the corrupt judge!" exclaimed Paula, starting up in indignant
astonishment.

"There! you see," laughed Philippus. "Just like a woman! A little
juggling, and lo! what was only rose color is turned to purple. No. The
son of the Mukaukas has not yet undergone such a dazzling change of hue;
but he has a feeling and impressible heart--and I hold even that in
high esteem. I have no doubt that he loved his father deeply, nay
passionately; though I have ample reason to believe him capable of the
very worst. So long as I was present at the scene of death the father
and son were parting in all friendship and tenderness, and when the good
old man's heart had ceased to beat I found Orion in a state which is
only possible to have when love has lost what it held dearest."

"All acting!" Paula put in.

"But there was no audience, dear friend. Orion would not have got up
such a performance for his mother and little Mary."

"But he is a poet--and a highly-gifted one too. He sings beautiful songs
of his own invention to the lyre; his ecstatic and versatile mind works
him up into any frame of feeling; but his soul is perverted; it is
soaked in wickedness as a sponge drinks up water. He is a vessel full
of beautiful gifts, but he has forfeited all that was good and noble in
him--all!"

The words came in eager haste from her indignant lips. Her cheeks glowed
with her vehemence, and she thought she had won over the physician; but
he gravely shook his head, and said:

"Your righteous anger carries you too far. How often have you blamed me
for severity and suspicions but now I have to beg you to allow me to ask
your sympathy for an experience to which you would probably have raised
no objection the day before yesterday:

"I have met with evil-doers of every degree. Think, for instance, how
many cases of wilful poisoning I have had to investigate."

"Even Homer called Egypt the land of poison," exclaimed Paula. "And
it seems almost incredible that Christianity has not altered it in the
least. Kosmas, who had seen the whole earth, could nowhere find more
malice, deceit, hatred, and ill-will than exist here."

"Then you see in what good schools my experience of the wickedness
of men has ripened," said Philippus smiling, "and they have taught
me chiefly that there is never a criminal, a sinner, or a scapegrace,
however infamous he may be, however cruel or lost to virtue,