sure, since
that morning's meeting, quite sure of Paula? And Philippus! Even if he,
Orion, must retire into the background before a higher judge, in the
eyes of a woman he surely had the advantage!--But in spite of all this
it troubled him to know that the physician was with Paula at such an
hour; he angrily pulled his horse's head round, and it was a pleasure
to him to feel the fiery creature, unused as it was to such rough
treatment, turn restive at it now. By the time he had gone a hundred
steps from those windows with their cursed glare, the horse was
displaying all the temper and vice that had been taken out of him as a
foal. Orion had to fight a pitched battle with his steed, and it was a
relief to him to exercise his power with curb and knee. In vain did
the creature dance round and round; in vain did he rear and plunge; the
steady rider was his master; and it was not till he had brought him to
quietness and submission that Orion drew breath and looked about him
while he patted the horse's smooth neck.

Close at hand, behind a low hedge, spread the thick, dark groves of
Susannah's garden and between them the back of the house was visible,
being more brilliantly lighted than even Paula's rooms. Three of the
windows showed lights; two were rather dim, however, the result probably
of one lamp only.

All this could not matter to him; nevertheless he remained gazing at the
roof of the colonnade which went round the house below the upper floor;
for, on the terrace it formed, leaning against a window-frame, stood a
small figure with her head thrust so far forth to listen that the light
shone through the curls that framed it. Katharina was trying to overhear
a dialogue between the Patriarch Benjamin--whose bearded and
apostolic head Orion could clearly recognize--and the priest John,
an insignificant looking little man, of whom, however, the deceased
Mukaukas had testified that he was far superior to old Plotinus the
Bishop in intellect and energy.

The young man could easily have watched Katharina's every movement,
but he did not think it worth while. Nevertheless, as he rode on, the
water-wagtail's little figure dwelt in his mind; not alone, however, for
that of Paula immediately rose by her side; and the smaller Katharina's
seemed, the more ample and noble did the other appear. Every word he
had heard that day from Paula's lips rushed to his remembrance, and the
vivid and lovely memory drove out all care. That woma