on took up his
lute, and while the ladies refreshed themselves he did the maiden's
bidding and sang the song by Alcaeus which she asked for, in a rich
though subdued voice to the lute, playing it like a master. The young
girl's eyes were fixed on his lips, and again, he seemed to be making
music for her alone. When it was time to start homewards, and the ladies
returned to the barge, he went up to the inn to pay the reckoning. As
he presently returned alone the Arab saw him pick up a handkerchief that
the young lady had left on the table, and hastily press it to his lips
as he went towards the barge.

The gorgeous red blossoms had fared worse in the morning. The young
man's heart was given to that maiden on the water. She could not be his
sister; what then was the connection between them?

The merchant soon gained this information, for the guide on his return
could give it him. She was Paula, the daughter of Thomas, the famous
Greek general who had defended the city of Damascus so long and so
bravely against the armies of Islam. She was Mukaukas George's niece,
but her fortune was small; she was a poor relation of the family, and
after her father's disappearance--for his body had never been
found--she had been received into the governor's house out of pity
and charity--she, a Melchite! The interpreter had little to say in her
favor, by reason of her sect; and though he could find no flaw in
her beauty, he insisted on it that she was proud and ungracious, and
incapable of winning any man's love; only the child, little Mary--she,
to be sure, was very fond of her. It was no secret that even her uncle's
wife, worthy Neforis, did not care for her haughty niece and only
suffered her to please the invalid. And what business had a Melchite
at Memphis, under the roof of a good Jacobite? Every word the dragoman
spoke breathed the scorn which a mean and narrow-minded man is always
ready to heap on those who share the kindness of his own benefactors.

But this beautiful and lofty-looking daughter of a great man had
conquered the merchant's old heart, and his opinion of her was quite
unmoved by the Memphite's strictures. It was ere long confirmed indeed,
for Philip, the leech whom the guide had been to find, and whose
dignified personality inspired the Arab with confidence, was a daily
visitor to the governor, and he spoke of Paula as one of the most
perfect creatures that Heaven had ever formed in a happy hour. But the
Almighty