To this assurance Paula found no answer; indeed, it struck her that—­if Orion had told her the truth—­it was only to please his mother that he had asked Katharina to marry him, while she herself occupied his heart.—­The physician, wishing to change the subject, was about to speak again of the death of the Mukaukas, when one of the crippled serving girls came to announce a woman who asked to speak with Paula.  A few minutes later she was clasped in the embrace of her faithful old friend and nurse, who rejoiced as heartily, laughing and crying for sheer delight, as if no tidings of misfortune had reached her; while Paula, though so much younger, was cut to the heart, and could not shake off the spell of her grief.

Perpetua understood this and owed her no grudge for the coolness with which she met her joyful excitement.

She told Paula that she had been well treated in her hot cell, and that about half an hour since Orion himself, the young Master now, had opened the door of her prison.  He had been very gracious to her, but looked so pale and sad.  The overbearing young man was quite altered; his eyes, which were dim with weeping, had moved her, Perpetua, to tears.  She trusted that God would forgive him for his sins against herself and Paula; he must have been possessed by some evil demon; he had not been at all like himself; for he had a kind, warm heart, and though he had been so hard and unjust yesterday to poor Hiram he had made it up to him the first thing this morning, and had not only let him out of prison but had sent him and his son home to Damascus with large gifts and two horses.  Nilus had told her this.  He who hoped to be forgiven by his neighbor must also be ready to forgive.  The great Augustine, even, had been no model of virtue in his youth and yet he had become a shining light in the Church; and now the son of the Mukaukas would tread in his father’s footsteps.  He was a handsome, engaging man, who would be the joy of their hearts yet, they might be very sure.  Why, he had been as grave and as solemn as a bishop to-day; perhaps he had already turned over a new leaf.  He himself had put her into his mother’s chariot and desired the charioteer to drive her hither:  what would Paula say to that?  Her things were to be given over to her to-morrow morning, and packed under her own eyes, and sent after her.  Nilus, the treasurer, had come with her to deliver a message to Paula; but he had gone first to the convent.

Paula desired the old woman to go thither and fetch him; as soon as Perpetua had left the room, she exclaimed: 

“There, you see, is some one who is quite of your opinion.  What creatures we are!  Last evening my good Betta would have thought no pit of hell too deep for our enemy, and now?  To be led to a chariot by such a fine gentleman in person is no doubt flattering; and how quickly the old body has forgotten all her grievances, how soothed and satisfied she is by the gracious permission to pack her precious and cherished possessions with her own hands.—­You told me once that the Jacobites had made a Saint Orion out of the pagan god Osiris, and my old Betta sees a future Saint Augustine in the governor’s son.  I can see that she already regards him as her tutelary patron, and when we get back to Syria, she will be begging me to join her in a pilgrimage to his shrine!”