the prelate in the face, cast down
his eyes in gloomy bewilderment. The patriarch appeared not to observe
the young man's repulsion and clasped his hand warmly. Then he changed
the subject, speaking of the grieving widow, of the decadence of
Memphis, of Orion's plans for the future, and finally of the gems
dedicated to the Church by the deceased Mukaukas. The dialogue had taken
a calm, conversational tone; the patriarch was sitting in the dead man's
arm-chair, and there was nothing forced or unnatural in his asking,
in the course of discussing the jewels, what had become of the great
emerald.

Orion replied, in the same tone, that this stone was not, strictly
speaking, any part of his father's gift; but Benjamin expressed an
opposite opinion.

All the tortures Orion had endured since that luckless deed in the
tablinum revived in his soul during this discussion; however, it was
some small relief to him to perceive, that neither his mother nor Dame
Susannah seemed to have told the patriarch the guilt he had incurred
by reason of that gem. Susannah, of course, had said nothing of the
incident in order to avoid speaking of her daughter's false evidence;
still, this miserable business might easily have come to the ears of the
stern old man, and to the guilty youth no sacrifice seemed too great to
smother any enquiry for the ill-fated jewel. He unhesitatingly explained
that the emerald had disappeared, but that he was quite ready to make
good its value. Benjamin might fix his own estimate, and name any sum he
wished for some benevolent purpose, and he, Orion, was ready to pay it
to him on the spot.

The prelate, however, calmly persisted in his demand, enjoined Orion to
have a diligent search made for the gem, and declared that he regarded
it as the property of the Church. He added that, when his patience was
at an end, he should positively insist on its surrender and bring every
means at his disposal into play to procure it.

Orion had no choice but to say that he would prosecute his search for
the lost stone; but his acquiescence was sullen, as that of a man who
accedes to an unreasonable demand.

At first the patriarch took this coolly; but presently, when he rose to
take leave, his demeanor changed; he said, with stern solemnity:

"I know you now, Son of Mukaukas George, and I end as I began: The
humility of the Christian is far from you, you are ignorant of the
power and dignity of our Faith, you do not even know