ee
will, had for a whole year done everything in his power to learn the
truth as to the lost man's end, from Christian or Moslem, till, many
months since, Neforis had declared that any further exertions in the
matter were mere folly, and her weak-willed husband had soon been
brought to share her views and give up the search for the missing hero.
He had secured for Paula, not without some personal sacrifice, much
of her father's property, had sold the landed estates to advantage,
collected outstanding debts wherever it was still possible, and was
anxious to lay before her a statement of what he had recovered for her.
But she knew that her interests were safe in his hands and was satisfied
to learn that, though she was not rich in the eyes of this Egyptian
Croesus, she was possessed of a considerable fortune. When once and
again she had asked for a portion of it to prosecute her search, the
Mukaukas at once caused it to be paid to her; but the third time he
refused, with the best intentions but quite firmly, to yield to her
wishes. He said he was her Kyrios and natural guardian, and explained
that it was his duty to hinder her from dissipating a fortune which
she might some day find a boon or indeed indispensable, in pursuit of a
phantom--for that was what this search had long since become.

[Kyrios: The woman's legal proxy, who represented her in courts of
justice. His presence gave her equal rights with a man in the eyes
of the Law.]

The money she had already spent he had replaced out of his own coffers.

This, she felt, was a noble action; still she urged him again and
again to grant her wish, but always in vain. He laid his hand with
firm determination on the wealth in his charge and would not allow her
another solidus for the sole and dearest aim of her life.

She seemed to submit; but her purpose of spending her all to recover any
trace of her lost parent never wavered in her determined soul. She had
sold a string of pearls, and for the price, her faithful Hiram had been
able first to make a long journey himself and then to send out a number
of messengers into various lands. By this time one at least might very
well have reached home with some news, and she must see the freed-man.

But how could she get to him undetected? For some minutes she stood
watching and listening for a favorable moment for crossing the
court-yard. Suddenly a blaze lighted up a face--it was Hiram's.

At this moment the merry s