to bring away the two thousand drachmae for
the messenger, and fetch the remainder at another season.

The Syrian led the way, and when, after a long leave-taking, she quitted
her nurse's pleasant little room, Hiram had done her bidding and was
waiting for her at the little side door.

CHAPTER VIII.

As Hiram had supposed, the better class of the household were still
sitting with their friends, and they had been joined by the guide and
by the Arab merchant's head man: Rustem the Masdakite, as well as his
secretary and interpreter.

With the exception only of Gamaliel the Jewish goldsmith, and the Arab's
followers, the whole of the party were Christians; and it had gone
against the grain to admit the Moslems into their circle--the Jew had
for years been a welcome member of the society. However, they had done
so, and not without marked civility; for their lord had desired that
the strangers should be made welcome, and they might expect to hear much
that was new from wanderers from such a distance. In this, to be sure,
they were disappointed, for the dragoman was taciturn and the Masdakite
could speak no Egyptian, and Greek very ill. So, after various futile
attempts to make the new-comers talk, they paid no further heed to them,
and Orion's secretary became the chief speaker. He had already told them
yesterday much that was fresh and interesting about the Imperial court;
to-day he entered into fuller details of the brilliant life his young
lord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. He
described the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses;
gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followers
through a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St.
Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion's successes among the beauties of the
Capital.

"The queen of them all," he went on in boastful accents, "was
Heliodora--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, but
a rich, elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus,
nephew to Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. All
Constantinople was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to win
her, but of course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers in
all Egypt, not even in Alexandria. The governor's residence here--for
I think nothing of mere size--is a peasant's hut--a wretched barn by
comparison! I will tell you another time what that casket of treasures
is l