Paula’s arrival presently put an end to Orion’s pacing the room.  He received her with a respectful bow and signed to her to be seated.  Then he bid Nilus recapitulate the results of the proceedings up to the present stage, and what he and his colleagues supposed to be her motive for asserting that the stolen emerald was her property.  He would as far as possible leave it to the others to question her, since she knew full well on what terms she was with himself.  Even before he had come into the council-room she had offered her explanation of the robbery to Nilus, through her nurse Perpetua; but it would have seemed fairer and more friendly in his eyes—­and here he raised his voice—­if she had chosen to confide to him, Orion, her plan for helping the freedman.  Then he might have been able to warn her.  He could only regard this mode of action, independently of him, as a fresh proof of her dislike, and she must hold herself responsible for the consequences.  Justice must now take its course with inexorable rigor.

The wrathful light in his eyes showed her what she had to expect from him, and that he was prepared to fight her to the end.  She saw that he thought that she had broken the promise she had but just now given him; but she had not commissioned Perpetua to interfere in the matter; on the contrary, she had desired the woman to leave it to her to produce her evidence only in the last extremity.  Orion must believe that she had done him a wrong; still, could that make him so far forget himself as to carry out his threats, and sacrifice an innocent man—­to divert suspicion from himself, while he branded her as a false witness?  Aye, even from that he would not shrink!  His flaming glance, his abrupt demeanor, his laboring breath, proclaimed it plainly enough.—­Then let the struggle begin!  At this moment she would have died rather than have tried to mollify him by a word of excuse.  The turmoil in his whole being vibrated through hers.  She was ready to throw herself at his feet and implore him to control himself, to guard himself against further wrong-doing—­but she maintained her proud dignity, and the eyes that met his were not less indignant and defiant than his own.

They stood face to face like two young eagles preparing to fight, with feathers on end, arching their pinions and stretching their necks.  She, confident of victory in the righteousness of her cause, and far more anxious for him than for herself; he, almost blind to his own danger, but, like a gladiator confronting his antagonist in the arena, far more eager to conquer than to protect his own life and limb.

While Nilus explained to her what, in part, she already knew, and repeated their suspicion that she had been tempted to make a false declaration to save the life of her servant, whose devotion, no doubt, to his missing master had led him to commit the robbery; she kept her eye on Orion rather than on the speaker.  At last Nilus referred to the trunk, which had been brought from Paula’s room under her own eyes, informing her that the assembly were ready to hear and examine into anything she had to say in her own defence.