her hand he could comfort himself
by reflecting that it would be unkind and ungrateful to his good friends
to leave them in the lurch just when he could be of use to them. One pair
of protecting arms more or less could not matter to the nuns, while the
captive Narses might very probably perish before he could be rescued
without his interest with the Arab general.

It was high time to decide one way or the other.--Well, no; he ought not
to go away to-day!

That was settled!

Rufinus must at once be informed of his change of purpose. To sit down
and write at such a moment he felt was impossible: Nilus should go and
speak in his name; and he knew how gladly and zealously he would perform
such an errand.

Heliodora clapped her hands, and just as Martina knocked at the door the
pair came out into the anteroom: She, radiant with happiness, and so
graceful in her fashionable, costly, and well-chosen garb, so
royal-looking in spite of her no more than middle height, that even in
the capital she would have excited the admiration of the men and the envy
of the women: He, content, but with a thoughtful smile on his lips.

He had not yet closed the door when in the anteroom he perceived two
female figures, who had come in while Martina was knocking at her niece's
door. These were Katharina and her waiting-maid.

Anubis had been brought to these rooms after his fall from the roof, and
notwithstanding the preparations that had been made for illustrious
guests Philippus could not be persuaded to allow his patient, for whom
perfect quiet was indispensable, to be moved to the lower floor.

The listener who had been so severely punished had with him his mother,
Katharina's old nurse; the water-wagtail, with her maid, had accompanied
her to see the lad, for she was very anxious to assure herself whether
her foster-brother, before his tumble, had succeeded in hearing anything;
but the poor fellow was so weak and his pain so severe that she had not
the heart to torment him with questions. However, her Samaritan's visit
brought her some reward, for to meet Orion coming out of Paula's room
with so beautiful and elegant a woman was a thing worth opening her eyes.
to see. She would have walked from home hither twice over only to see the
clothes and jewels of this heaven sent stranger. Such a being rarely
strayed to Memphis,--and might not this radiant and beautiful creature be
"the other" after all, and not Paula? Might not Orion have be