he seemed to take great interest in
all he heard till Obada interrupted Orion, in the midst of a sentence,
with an enquiry addressed to his superior. Amru hastily answered him in
Arabic and soon after gave a fresh turn to the conversation.

The Vekeel had asked why Amru allowed that Egyptian boy to chatter so
much before settling the matter about which he had sent for him, and
his master had replied that a man is best entertained when he has most
opportunity given him for hearing himself talk; that moreover the young
man was well-informed, and that all he had to say was interesting and
important.

The Moslems drank nothing; Orion was served with capital wine, but he
took very little, and at length Amru began to speak of his father's
funeral, alluding to the Patriarch's hostility, and adding that he
had talked with him that morning and had been surprised at the marked
antagonism he had confessed towards his deceased fellow-believer,
who seemed formerly to have been his friend. Then Orion spoke out; he
explained fully what the reasons were that had moved the Patriarch to
display such conspicuous and far-reaching animosity towards his
father. All that Benjamin cared for was to stand clear in the eyes of
Christendom of the reproach of having abandoned a Christian land to
conquerors who were what Christians termed "infidels" and his aim at
present was to put his father forward as the man wholly and solely
responsible for the supremacy of the Moslems in the land.

"True, true; I understand," Amru put in, and when the young man went on
to tell him that the final breach between the Patriarch and the Mukaukas
George had been about the convent of St. Cecilia, whose rights the
prelate had tried to abrogate by an illegal interpretation of certain
ancient and perfectly clear documents; the Arab exchanged rapid glances
with the Vekeel and then broke in:

"And you? Are you disposed to submit patiently to the blow struck at you
and at your parent's worthy memory by this restless old man, who hates
you as he did your father before you?"

"Certainly not," replied the youth proudly.

"That is right!" cried the general. "That is what I expected of you; but
tell me now, with what weapons you, a Christian, propose to defy this
shrewd and powerful man, in whose hands--as I know full well--you have
placed the weal and woe, not of your souls alone...."

"I do not know yet," replied Orion, and as he met a glance of scorn from
the Vekeel