hose proud eyes; and under
that lordly bosom beat no loving or lovable heart; he shivered at the
touch of her fingers, and her presence, he thought, had a chilling and
paralyzing influence on all the party.

This was, in fact, the case.

Paula had been sent for to see the senator's wife and Katharina.
Martina, thought she, had come out of mere curiosity, and she had a
preconceived dislike to any one connected with Heliodora. She had lost
her confidence in the water-wagtail, for only two days ago the acolyte
in personal attendance on the bishop--and whose child Rufinus had cured
of a lame foot--had been to the house to warn Joanna against the girl.
Katharina, he told her, had a short while since betrayed to Plotinus
some important secret relating to her husband, and the bishop had
immediately gone over to Fostat. It was hard to believe such a thing
of any friend, still, the girl who, by her own confession, had been so
ready to play the part of spy in the neighboring garden, was the only
person who would have told the prelate what plan was in hand for the
rescue of the sisters. The acolyte's positive statement, indeed, left no
room for doubt.

It was not in Paula's nature to think ill of others; but in this case
her candid spirit, incapable of falsehood, would not suffer her to be
anything but cool to the child; the more effusively Katharina clung to
her, the more icily Paula repelled her.

The old man saw this, and he concluded that this mien and demeanor
were natural to Paula at all times patrician haughtiness, cold-hearted
selfishness, the insolent and boundless pride of the race he
loathed--noble by birth alone--stood before him incarnate. He hated the
whole class, and he hated this specimen of the class; and his aversion
increased tenfold as he remembered what woe this cold siren had wrought
for the son of his affections and might bring on him if she should
thwart his favorite project. Sooner would he end his days in loneliness,
parted even from Philippus, than share his home, his table, and his
daily life with this woman, who could repel the sincerely-meant caresses
of that pretty, childlike, simple little Katharina with such frigid and
supercilious haughtiness. The mere sight of her at meals would embitter
every mouthful; only to hear her domineering tones in the next room
would spoil his pleasure in working; the touch of her cold hand as she
bid him good-night would destroy his night's rest!

Here and now he