o
achieve in the busy world of outside human existence? Pleasant as you
may think it to be in Memphis with your lover, fair heart-breaker,
you will have to make way for the plaything you have so lightly tossed
aside! Aye, you certainly will, depend upon that my beauty, depend upon
that!--Here, Anubis!"

He gave the slave, who had fallen asleep again under the table, a
kick with his bare foot, and while Anubis lighted his master to his
sleeping-room, and helped him in his long and elaborate ablutions,
Horapollo never ceased muttering broken sentences and curses, or
laughing maliciously to himself.

BOOK 2.

CHAPTER I.

If Philippus found no sleep that night, neither did Orion. He no longer
doubted Paula, but his heart was full of longing to hear her say once
more that she loved him and him alone, and the yearning kept him awake.
He sprang from his bed at the first glimmer of dawn, glad that the
night was past, and started to cross the Nile in order to place half
of Paula's fortune in the hands of Salech, the brother of Haschim the
merchant.

In Memphis all was still silent, and all he saw in the old town struck
him as strangely worn-out, torpid, and decayed; it seemed only fit to be
left to ruin, while on the other side of the river, in the new town of
Fostat, on all hands busy, eager, new-born vitality met his eyes.

He involuntarily compared the old capital of the Pharaohs to a
time-eaten mummy, and Amru's new city to a vigorous youth. Here every
one was astir and in brisk activity. The money-changer, who had risen,
like all Moslems, to perform his morning prayer, "as soon as a white
thread could be distinguished from a black one," was already busy with
his rolls of gold and silver coin; and how quick, clear, and decisive
the Arab was in concluding his bargain with Orion and with Nilus, who
had accompanied him!

Whichever way the young man turned, bright and flashing eyes met his
gaze, energetic, resolute, and enterprising faces; no bowed heads, no
dull, brooding looks, no gloomy resignation like those in his native
town on the other shore. Here, in Fostat, his blood flowed more swiftly;
there, existence was an oppressive burden. Everything attracted him to
the Arabs!

The changer's shop, like all those in the Sook or Bazaar of Fostat,
consisted of a wooden stall in which he sat with his assistants. On the
side open to the street he transacted business with his customers, who,
when the affair