e
impossible it seemed at first sight, the more gladly, in his present
mood, would he undertake it. He stepped out into the road and closed the
door behind him with a feeling of combative energy.

It was growing dusk. Philippus must now be with Mary and, with the
leech's aid, he was resolved to get the child away from his mother's
house. Not till he felt that she was safe with Paula in Rufinus' house,
could he be free to attempt the enterprise which floated before his
eyes. On the stairs he shouted to a slave:

"My chariot with the Persian trotting horse!" and a few minutes after
he entered the little girl's room at the same time with a slave girl who
carried in a lamp. Neither Mary nor the physician observed him at first,
and he heard her say to Philippus, who sat holding her wrist between his
fingers.

"What is the matter with you this evening? Good heavens, how pale and
melancholy you look!" The lamplight fell full on his face. "Look here, I
have just made such a smart little man out of wax..."

She hoped to amuse the friend who was always so kind to her with this
comical work of art; but, as she leaned forward to reach it, she caught
sight of her uncle and exclaimed: "Philippus comes here to cure me, but
he looks as if he wanted a draught himself. Take care, or you will have
to drink that bitter brown stuff you sent yesterday; then you will
know for once how nasty it can be." Though the child's exclamation was
well-meant, neither of the men took any notice of it. They stood face
to face in utter silence and with only a formal greeting; for Orion,
without Mary's remark, had been struck by the change that had come over
the physician since yesterday. Ignoring Orion's presence, he asked the
child a few brief questions, begged Eudoxia to persevere in the same
course of treatment, and then hastily bid a general farewell to all
present; Orion, however, did not respond, but said, with an affectionate
glance at the little patient: "One word with you presently."

This made Philippus turn to look at Mary and, as the eyes of the rivals
met, they knew that on one subject at any rate they thought and felt
alike. The leech already knew how tenderly the young man had taken to
Mary, and he followed him into the room which Orion now occupied, and
which, as Philippus was aware, had formerly been Paula's.

"In the cause of duty," he said to himself again and again, to keep
himself calm and enable him to gather at least the genera