They had gone out of hearing again when Orion explained to Paula that all arrangements for the little girl must be postponed till the morrow, as he had business now with Amru, on the other shore of the Nile.  He decisively confuted her fears lest he should allow himself to be perverted by the Moslems to their faith; for though he ardently desired to let the Patriarch feel that he had no mind to submit patiently to the affront to his deceased father, he clung too firmly to his creed, and knew too well what was due to the memory of the dead, and to Paula herself, ever to take this extreme step.  He spoke in glowing terms as he described how, for the future, he purposed to devote his best powers to his hapless and oppressed country, whether it were in the service of the Khaliff or in some other way; and she eagerly entered into his schemes, quite carried away by his noble enthusiasm, and acknowledging to herself with silent rapture the superiority of his mind and the soaring loftiness of his soul.

When, presently, they began talking again of the past she asked him quite frankly, but in a low voice and without looking up, what had become of the emerald he had taken from the Persian hanging.  He turned pale at this, looked at the ground, and hesitatingly replied that he had sent it to Constantinople—­“to have it set—­set in an ornament—­worthy of her whom—­whom he. . . .”

But here he broke off, stamped angrily with his foot, and looking straight into the girl’s eyes exclaimed: 

“A pack of lies, foul and unworthy lies!—­I have been truthful by nature all my life; but does it not seem as though that accursed day forced me to some base action every time it is even mentioned?  Yes, Paula; the gem is really on its way to Byzantium.  But the stolen gift was never meant for you, but for a fair, gentle creature, in nothing blameworthy, who gave me her heart.  To me she was never anything but a pretty plaything; still, there were moments when I believed—­poor soul!—­I first learnt what love meant through you, how great and how sacred it is!—­Now you know all; this, indeed, is the truth!”

They walked on again, and Katharina, who had not been able to gather the whole of this explanation, could plainly hear Paula’s reply in warm, glad accents: 

“Yes, that is the truth, I feel.  And henceforth that horrible day is blotted out, erased from your life and mine; and whatever you tell me in the future I shall believe.”

And the listener heard the young man answer in a tremulous voice: 

“And you shall never be deceived in me.  Now I must leave you; and I go, in spite of my griefs, a happy man, entitled to rejoice anew.  O Paula, what do I not owe to you!  And when we next meet you will receive me, will you not, as you did that evening on the river after my return?”

“Yes, indeed; and with even more glad confidence,” replied Paula, holding out her hand with a lovely graciousness that came from her heart; he pressed it a moment to his lips, and then sprang on to his horse and rode off at a round trot, his slave following him.