er's undertaking; she
only longed to go with him and help him to save her dear nuns. The
ship-builder had brought with him, besides his sons, three other Greeks
of the orthodox confession, shipwrights like himself, who were out
of work in consequence of the low ebb of the Nile, which had greatly
restricted the navigation. Hence they were glad to put a hand to such
a good work, especially as it would be profitable, too, for Orion had
provided the old man with ample funds.

As the evening grew cooler after sundown Paula had got better. She did
not, indeed, know what to think of Orion's refusal to start. First she
was grieved, then she rejoiced; for it certainly preserved him from
great perils. In the early days after his return from Constantinople she
had heard his praise of the senator's kindness and hospitality, in which
the Mukaukas, who had pleasant memories of the capital, heartily joined.
He must, of course, be glad to be able to assist those friends, of all
others; and Nilus, who was respectfully devoted to her, had greeted her
from Orion with peculiar warmth. He would come to-morrow, no doubt;
and the oftener she repeated to herself his assertion that he had never
betrayed affectionate trust, the more earnestly she felt prompted, in
spite of the abbess' counsel, to abandon all hesitancy, to follow
the impulse of her heart, and to be his at once in full and happy
confidence.

The waning moon had not yet risen, and the night was very dark when the
nuns set forth. The boat was too large to come close to the shore in
the present low state of the river, and the sisters, disguised as
peasant-women, had to be carried on board one by one from the convent
garden. Last of all the abbess was to be lifted over the shallow water,
and the old ship-builder held himself in readiness to perform this
service. Joanna, Pulcheria, Perpetua, and Eudoxia, who was also
zealously orthodox, were standing round as she gave Paula a parting kiss
and whispered: "God bless thee, child!--All now depends on you, and you
must be doubly careful to abide by your promise."

"I owe him, in the first place, friendly trust," was Paula's whispered
reply, and the abbess answered: "But you owe yourself firmness and
caution." Rufinus was the last; his wife and daughter clung around him
still.

"Take example from that poor girl," cried the old man, clasping his wife
in his arms. "As sure as man is the standard of all things, all must go
well with me thi