d foe. At this moment he really hated her, and
only wished it were possible to fight her, to break her pride, to see
her vanquished and crying for quarter at his feet. It was with a great
effort--with tingling cheeks and constrained utterance that he said:

"Severance from you is indeed best for us all.--Be ready: the judges
will send for you soon."

"Very well," she replied. "I will be silent; you have only to provide
for the Syrian's safety. You have given me your word."

"And so long as you keep yours I will keep mine. Or else..." the words
would come from his quivering lips--"or else war to the knife!"

"War to the knife!" she echoed with flashing eyes. "But one thing more.
I have proof that the emerald which Hiram sold belonged to me. By all
the saints--proof!"

"So much the better for you," he said. "Woe to us both, if you force me
to forget that you are a woman!"

And he left the room with a rapid step.

CHAPTER XII.

Orion went down stairs scowling and clenching his fists. His heart ached
to bursting.

What had he done, what had befallen him? That a woman should dare to
treat him so!--a woman whom he had deigned to love--the loveliest and
noblest of women; but at the same time the haughtiest, most vengeful,
and most hateful.

He had once read this maxim: "When a man has committed a base action, if
only one other knows of it he carries the death-warrant of his peace in
the bosom of his garment." He felt the full weight of this sentence; and
the other--the one who knew--was Paula, the woman of all others whom he
most wished should look up to him. But yesterday it had been a vision of
heaven on earth to dream of holding her in his arms and calling her his;
now he had but one wish: that he could humble and punish her. Oh, that
his hands should be tied, that he should be dependent on her mercy like
a condemned criminal! It was inconceivable--intolerable!

But she should be taught to know him. He had passed through life
hitherto as white as a swan; if this luckless hour and this woman made
him appear as a vulture, it was not his fault, it was hers. She should
soon see which was the stronger of the two. He would punish her in every
way in which a woman can be punished, even if the way to it led
through crime and misery! He was not afraid that the leech bad won her
affections, for he knew, with strange certainty that, in spite of the
hostility she displayed, her heart was his and his alone. "The gold