f its situation near the river. He himself had acquired
it at very small cost shortly before the Arab incursion, and--so quickly
do times change--he had actually bought it from a Jacobite Christian who
had been forced by the Melchite Patriarch Cyrus, then in power, to fly in
haste because he had found means to convert his orthodox slaves to his
confession.

It was Philippus who had persuaded his accomplished and experienced
friend to come to Memphis; he had clung to him faithfully, and they
assisted each other in their works.

Rufinus' wife, a frail, ailing little woman, with a small face and rather
hollow cheeks, who must once have been very attractive and engaging,
might have passed for his daughter; she was, in fact, twenty years
younger than her husband. It was evident that she had suffered much in
the course of her life, but had taken it patiently and all for the best.
Her restless husband had caused her the greatest trouble and alarms, and
yet she exerted herself to the utmost to make his life pleasant. She had
the art of keeping every obstacle and discomfort out of his way, and
guessed with wonderful instinct what would help him, comfort him, and
bring him joy. The physician declared that her stooping attitude, her
bent head, and the enquiring expression of her bright, black eyes were
the result of her constant efforts to discover even a straw that might
bring harm to Rufinus if his callous and restless foot should tread on
it.

Their daughter Pulcheria, was commonly called "Pul" for short, to save
time, excepting when the old man spoke of her by preference as "the poor
child." There was at all times something compassionate in his attitude
towards his daughter; for he rarely looked at her without asking himself
what could become of this beloved child when he, who was so much older,
should have closed his eyes in death and his Joanna perhaps should soon
have followed him; while Pulcheria, seeing her mother take such care of
her father that nothing was left for her to do, regarded herself as the
most superfluous creature on earth and would have been ready at any time
to lay down her life for her parents, for the abbess, for her faith, for
the leech; nay, and though she had known her for no more than two days,
even for Paula. However, she was a very pretty, well-grown girl, with
great open blue eyes and a dreamy expression, and magnificent red-gold
hair which could hardly be matched in all Egypt. Her father had lo