ssomed at the top,
hastily plucked them and offered them to him with a deep blush; she
pushed away the hand he had put out to support her as she stretched
up for the flowers with a saucy slap; and a bright glance of happiness
lighted up her sweet face as the young man kissed the place her fingers
had hit, and then pressed the flowers to his lips. The old man looked on
with sympathetic pleasure, as though it roused the sweetest memories in
his mind; and his kind eyes shone as Orion, no less mischievously happy
than the young girl, whispered something in her ear; she drew the long
stem of grass out of her waist-belt to administer immediate and condign
punishment withal, struck it across his face, and then fled over
grass-plot and flower-bed, as swift as a roe, without heeding his
repeated shouts of "Katharina! bewitching, big damsel, Katharina!" till
she reached the house.

It was a charming little interlude. Old Haschim was still pondering it
in his memory with much satisfaction when he and his caravan had gone
some distance further. He felt obliged to Orion for this pretty scene,
and when he heard the young man's quadriga approaching at an easy trot
behind him, he turned round to gaze. But the Arab's face had lost its
contentment by the time the four Pannonians and the chariot, overlaid
with silver ornamentation and forming, with its driver, a picture of
rare beauty and in perfect taste, had slowly driven past, to fly on
like the wind as soon as the road was clear, and to vanish presently
in clouds of dust. There was something of melancholy in his voice as he
desired his young camel-driver to pick up the flowers, which now lay in
the dust of the road, and to bring them to him. He himself had observed
the handsome youth as, with a glance and a gesture of annoyance with
himself, he flung the innocent gift on the hot, sandy highway.

"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite. "Women are
indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life--and he in theirs, I
fear! Poor little girl!"

"The little water-wagtail do you mean? Oh! with her it may perhaps turn
to real earnest. The two mothers have settled the matter already. They
are both rolling in gold, and where doves nest doves resort.--Thank God,
the sun is low down over the Pyramids! Let your people rest at the
large inn yonder; the host is an honest man and lacks nothing, not even
shade!"

"So far as the beasts and drivers are concerned," said the merch