wn. Servants and
officials, in unscrupulous collusion, had managed to transport her to a
country-house belonging to the Mukaukas on the other side of the Nile,
and there Orion had been able to visit her undisturbed as often as
fancy prompted him. The slave-girl, scarcely yet sixteen, ignorant and
unprotected, had not dared nor desired to resist her master's handsome
son, and when Orion had set out for Constantinople--heedless and weary
already of the girl who had nothing to give him but her beauty--Dame
Neforis found out her connection with her son and ordered the head
overseer to take care that the unhappy girl should not "ply her
seductive arts" any more. The man had carried out her instructions by
condemning the fair Persian, according to an ancient custom, to have her
ears cut off. After this cruel punishment the mutilated beauty sank into
a state of melancholy madness, and although the exorcists of the Church
and other thaumaturgists had vainly endeavored to expel the demon of
madness, she remained as before: a gentle, good-humored creature, quiet
and diligent at her work, under the women who had charge of her, and
now in the common work-shop. It was only when she was idle that her
craziness became evident, and of this the other girls took advantage for
their own amusement.

They now led Mandane to the fire, and with farcical reverence requested
her to be seated on her throne--an empty color cask, for she suffered
under the strange permanent delusion that she was the wife of the
Mukaukas George. They laughingly did her homage, craved some favor or
made enquiries as to her husband's health and the state of her affairs.
Hitherto a decent instinct of reserve had kept these poor ignorant
creatures from mentioning Orion's name in her presence, but now a
woolly-headed negress, a lean, spiteful hussy, went up to her, and said
with a horrible grimace:

"Oh, mistress, and where is your little son Orion?" The crazy girl did
not seem startled by the question; she replied very gravely: "I have
married him to the emperor's daughter at Constantinople."

"Hey day! A splendid match!" exclaimed the black girl. "Did you know
that the young lord was here again? He has brought home his grand wife
to you no doubt, and we shall see purple and crowns in these parts!"

These words brought a deep flush into the poor creature's face. She
anxiously pressed her hands on the bandage that covered her ears and
said: "Really Has he really com