Orion put his arms round the excited woman, who lead freed herself from his embrace, laid his hand lightly on her lips and kissed her eyes, whispering in her ear: 

“I have not the heart indeed, and could scarcely find it.”  Then, taking both her hands, he looked straight into her face.

“Brrr!” he exclaimed, “your daredevil son was never so much frightened in his life as by your threats.  What dreadful words are these—­and even worse were at the tip of your tongue!  Mother—­Mother Neforis!  Your name means kindness, but you can be cruel, bitterly cruel!”

Still he drew her fondly to him, and kissed her hair and brow and cheeks with eager haste, in a vehemence of feeling which came over him like a revulsion after the shock he had gone through; and when they parted he had given her leave to negotiate for little Katharina’s hand on his behalf, and she had promised in return that it should be not on the morrow but the day after at soonest.  This delay seemed to him a sort of victory and when he found himself alone and reflected on what he had done in yielding to his mother, though his heart bled from the wounds of which he himself knew not the depth, he rejoiced that he had not bound Paula by any closer tie.  His eyes had indeed told her much, but the word “Love” had not passed his lips—­and yet that was what it came to.—­But surely a cousin might be allowed to kiss the hand of a lovely relation.  She was a desirable woman—­ah, how desirable!—­and must ever be:  but to quarrel with his parents for the sake of a girl, were she Aphrodite herself, or one of the Muses or the Graces—­that was impossible!  There were thousands of pretty women in the world, but only one mother; and how often had his heart beat high and won another heart, taken all it had to give, and then easily and quickly recovered its balance.

This time however, it seemed more deeply hit than on former occasions; even the lovely Persian slave for whose sake he had committed the wildest follies while yet scarcely more than a school-boy—­even the bewitching Heliodora at Constantinople for whom he still had a tender thought, had not agitated him so strongly.  It was hard to give up this Paula; but there was no help for it.  To-morrow he must do his best to establish their intercourse on a friendly and fraternal footing; for he could have no hope that she would be content to accept his love only, like the gentle Heliodora, who was quite her equal in birth.  Life would have been fair, unutterably fair, with this splendid creature by his side!  If only he could take her to the Capital he felt sure that all the world would stand still to turn round and gaze at her.  And if she loved him—­if she met him open-armed. . . .  Oh, why had spiteful fate made her a Melchite?  But then, alas, alas!  There must surely be something wrong with her nature and temper; would she not otherwise have been able in two years to gain the love, instead of the dislike, of his excellent and fond mother?—­Well, after all, it was best so; but Paula’s image haunted him nevertheless and spoilt his sleep, and his longing for her was not to be stilled.