one of the handsomest of her sex. The marked
hostility she displayed to Orion injured her cause in the eyes of her
judges, who knew only too well how unpleasant her relations were with
Neforis. It was more than audacious in her to accuse the Mukaukas' son of
having broken open her trunk; only hatred could have prompted her to
utter such a charge. Still, there was something in her demeanor which
encouraged confidence in her assertions, and if Katharina could really
testify to having seen the empty medallion on the chain there would be no
alternative but to begin the enquiry again from a fresh point of view,
and to inculpate another robber. But who could have lavished such a
treasure as this gem in exchange for mere rubbish? It was inconceivable;
Ammonius the mechanician was right when he said that a woman full of
hatred was capable of anything, even the incredible and impossible.

Meanwhile it was growing dusk and the scorching day had turned to the
tempered heat of a glorious evening. The Mukaukas was still in his room
while his wife with Susannah and her daughter, Mary and her governess,
were enjoying the air and chatting in the open hall looking out on the
garden and the Nile. The ladies had covered their heads with gauze veils
as a protection against the mosquitoes, which were attracted in swarms
from the river by the lights, and also against the mists that rose from
the shallowing Nile; they were in the act of drinking some cooling
fruit-syrup which had just been brought in, when Orion made his
appearance.

"What has happened?" cried his mother in some anxiety, for she concluded
from his dishevelled hair and heated cheeks that the meeting had gone
anything rather than smoothly.

"Incredible things," he replied. "Paula fought like a lioness for her
father's freedman. . ."

"Simply to annoy us and put us in a difficulty," replied Neforis.

"No, no, Mother," replied Orion with some warmth. "But she has a will of
iron; a woman who never pauses at anything when she wants to carry her
point; and at the same time she goes to work with a keen wit that is
worthy of the greatest lawyer that I ever heard defend a cause in the
high court of the capital. Besides this her air of superiority, and her
divine beauty turn the heads of our poor household officers. It is fine
and noble, of course, to be so zealous in the cause of a servant; but it
can do no good, for the evidence against her stammering favorite is
overwhelming, a