he Arabian false prophet! It was a tempting creed for shameless men,
allowing them to have half a dozen wives or more without regarding it
as a sin. A man like Orion could afford to keep them, of course; for the
abbess had said that every one knew that the great Mukaukas was a very
rich man, though even the chief magistrate of the city could not fully
satisfy himself concerning the enormous amount of property left. Well,
well; God's ways were past finding out. Why should He smother one under
heaps of gold, while He gave thousands of poor creatures too little to
satisfy their hunger!

By the end of this torrent of words the two women had reached the house;
and not till then was Paula clear in her own mind: Away, away with the
passion which still strove for the mastery, whether it were in deed
hatred or love! For she felt that she could not rightly enjoy her
recovered freedom, her new and quiet happiness in the pretty home she
owed to the physician's thoughtful care, till she had finally given up
Orion and broken the last tie that had bound her to his house.

Could she desire anything more than what the present had to offer her?
She had found a true haven of rest where she lacked for nothing that she
could desire for herself after listening to the admonitions of
Philip pus. Round her were good souls who felt with and for her, many
occupations for which she was well-fitted, and which suited her tastes,
with ample opportunities of bestowing and winning love. Then, a few
steps through pleasant shades took her to the convent where she could
every day attend divine service among pious companions of her own creed,
as she had done in her childhood. She had longed intensely for such food
for the spirit, and the abbess--who was the widow of a distinguished
patrician of Constantinople and had known Paula's parents--could supply
it in abundance. How gladly she talked to the girl of the goodness and
the beauty of those to whom she owed her being and whom she had so early
lost! She could pour out to this motherly soul all that weighed on her
own, and was received by her as a beloved daughter of her old age.

And her hosts--what kind-hearted though singular folks! nay, in their
way, remarkable. She had never dreamed that there could be on earth any
beings at once so odd and so lovable.

First there was old Rufinus, the head of the house, a vigorous, hale
old man, who, with his long silky, snow-white hair and beard, looked
something