Heliodora clapped her hands, and just as Martina knocked at the door the pair came out into the anteroom:  She, radiant with happiness, and so graceful in her fashionable, costly, and well-chosen garb, so royal-looking in spite of her no more than middle height, that even in the capital she would have excited the admiration of the men and the envy of the women:  He, content, but with a thoughtful smile on his lips.

He had not yet closed the door when in the anteroom he perceived two female figures, who had come in while Martina was knocking at her niece’s door.  These were Katharina and her waiting-maid.

Anubis had been brought to these rooms after his fall from the roof, and notwithstanding the preparations that had been made for illustrious guests Philippus could not be persuaded to allow his patient, for whom perfect quiet was indispensable, to be moved to the lower floor.

The listener who had been so severely punished had with him his mother, Katharina’s old nurse; the water-wagtail, with her maid, had accompanied her to see the lad, for she was very anxious to assure herself whether her foster-brother, before his tumble, had succeeded in hearing anything; but the poor fellow was so weak and his pain so severe that she had not the heart to torment him with questions.  However, her Samaritan’s visit brought her some reward, for to meet Orion coming out of Paula’s room with so beautiful and elegant a woman was a thing worth opening her eyes. to see.  She would have walked from home hither twice over only to see the clothes and jewels of this heaven sent stranger.  Such a being rarely strayed to Memphis,—­and might not this radiant and beautiful creature be “the other” after all, and not Paula?  Might not Orion have been trifling with her rival as he had already trifled with her?  They must have had a rapturous meeting in that room; every feature of the fair beauty’s saint-like face betrayed the fact.  Oh, that Orion!  She would have liked to throttle him; and yet she was glad to think that there was another besides herself—­and she so elegant and lovely—­whom he had betrayed.

“He will stay!” Heliodora exclaimed as she came out of the room; and Martina held out her hand to the young man, with a fervent:  “God bless you for that!”

She was delighted to see how happy her niece looked but the lively old woman’s eyes were everywhere at once, and when she caught sight of Katharina who had stood still with curiosity, she turned to her with a friendly nod and said to Orion: 

“Your sister?  Or the little niece of whom you used to speak?”

Orion called Katharina and introduced her to his guests, and the girl explained what had brought her hither; in such a sweet and pathetic manner—­for she was sincerely fond of her foster-brother and play-fellow—­that she quite charmed Martina and Heliodora, and the younger woman expressed a hope that they might see her often.  Indeed, when she was gone, Martina exclaimed:  “A charming little thing!  As fresh and bright as a newly-fledged bird, so brisk and pretty too—­and how nicely she prattles!”