thank God!
Take my present room for them too; I will go back to the old one. Of
course they have a numerous suite. Set twenty or thirty slaves to work.
Everything must be ready in two hours at furthest. The two sitting-rooms
are particularly handsome, but where anything is lacking, place
everything in the house at Sebek's command.--Justinus in Egypt!--But make
haste, man! Nay, stay! One thing more. Carry these maps and scrolls--no;
they are too heavy for you. Desire a slave to fetch them, and take them
to Rufinus; he must keep them till I come. Tell him I meant to use them
on the way--he knows."

The secretary rushed off; Orion performed a rapid toilet and had his
mourning dress rearranged in fresh folds; then he went to his mother. She
had often heard of the cordial reception that her son, and her husband,
too, in former days, had met with in the senator's house, and she took it
quite as a matter of course that the strangers' rooms, and among them
that which had been Paula's, should be prepared for the travellers; all
she asked was that it should be explained that she was suffering, so that
she might not have to trouble herself to entertain them.

She advised Orion to put off his journey and to devote himself to his
friends; but he explained that even their arrival must not delay him. He
had entire confidence in Sebek and the upper housekeeper, and the emperor
himself would remit the duties of hostess to a sick woman. Once, at any
rate, she would surely allow the illustrious guests to pay their respects
to her,--but even this Neforis refused It would be quite enough if her
visitors received messages and greetings daily in her name, with
offerings of choice fruit and flowers, and on the last day some costly
gift. Orion thought this proposal quite worthy of them both, and
presently drove off behind his Pannonians to the hostelry.

By the harbor he met the captain of the boat he had hired; to him he held
up two fingers, and the boatman signified by repeated nodding that he had
understood the meaning of this signal: "Be ready at two hours before
midnight."

The sight of this weather-beaten pilot, and the prospect of making some
return to his noble friends for all their kindness, cheered Orion
greatly; and though he regretted being obliged to leave these guests of
all others, the perils that lay before him reasserted their charm. He
could surely win over the abbess in the course of the voyage, and Paula
might be brough