an whose courage had been proved a
hundred times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forget
that she was a woman.--What had happened? What demon had been playing
tricks on him--What had so completely altered him within this half-hour
that his whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any one
dared to treat him so?

His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her son's
face when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms;
but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm:
"Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? Merciful
Heaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Run--fly, Sebek.

"Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to
bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down the
grass--you must find him--you must not let him escape."

The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who had
come in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, which
must yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heart
beat wildly, and again she tried to catch the young man's eye. Orion,
however, started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as he
went: "That is my concern."

But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight was
throttling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in the
act, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that he
was indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fatal
deed in the tablinum.

Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as to
falsify the evidence, and to declare that the groom's broad sole fitted
the tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet she
could have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he might
not do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he could
not be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks,
she drew a breath of relief and turned again to the wounded girl and the
physician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed her
example she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, he
looked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: "That poor
girl's fate..." and he pointed to the Persian slave.--"It troubles me."

"You are so soft-hearted--you were as a boy!" said his mother
soothingly. She had seen the mois