th his mother, but after complaining
to him of Susannah's conduct in having made a startling display of her
vexation in the women's place behind the screen, she had leaned on him
and fallen fast asleep. Her head was on her son's shoulder when they
reached home, and Orion's anxiety for the mother he truly loved was
enhanced when he found it difficult to rouse her. He felt her stagger
like a drunken creature, and he led her not into the fountain-room but to
her bed-chamber, where she only begged to lie down; and hardly had she
done so when she was again overcome by sleep.

Orion now made his way to Gamaliel the jeweller, to purchase from him a
very large and costly diamond, plainly set, and the Israelite's brother
undertook to deliver it to the fair widow at Constantinople, who was
known to him as one of his customers. Orion, in the jeweller's
sitting-room, wrote a letter to his former mistress, in which he begged
her in the most urgent manner to accept the diamond, and in exchange to
return to him the emerald by a swift and trustworthy messenger, whom
Simeon the goldsmith would provide with everything needful.

After all this he went home hungry and weary, to the late midday meal
which he shared, as for many days past, with no one but Eudoxia, Mary's
governess. The little girl was not yet allowed to leave her room, and of
this, for one reason, her instructress was glad, for a dinner alone with
the handsome youth brought extreme gratification to her mature heart. How
considerate was the wealthy and noble heir in desiring the slaves to
offer every dish to her first, how kind in listening to her stories of
her young days and of the illustrious houses in which she had formerly
given lessons! She would have died for him; but, as no opportunity
offered for such a sacrifice, at any rate she never omitted to point out
to him the most delicate morsels, and to supply his room with fresh
flowers.

Besides this, however, she had devoted herself with the most admirable
unselfishness to her pupil, since the child had been ill and her
grandmother had turned against her, noticing, too, that Orion took a
tender and quite fatherly interest in his little niece. This morning the
young man had not had time to enquire for Mary, and Eudoxia's report that
she seemed even more excited than on the day before disturbed him so
greatly, that he rose from table, in spite of Eudoxia's protest, without
waiting till the end of the meal, to visit the l