“Be under no delusion.  I am not one of the feeble lambs whom you have beguiled by the misuse of your gifts and advantages; and who then are eager to kiss your hands.  I am the daughter of Thomas; and another woman’s betrothed, who craves my embraces on the way to his wedding, will learn to his rueing that there are women who scorn his disgraceful suit and can avenge the insult intended them.  Go—­go to your judges!  You, a false witness, may accuse Hiram, but I will proclaim you, you the son of this house, as the thief!  We shall see which they believe.”

“Me!” cried Orion, and his eyes flashed as wrathfully and vindictively as her own.  “The son of the Mukaukas!  Oh, that you were not a woman!  I would force you to your knees and compel you to crave my pardon.  How dare you point your finger at a man whose life has hitherto been as spotless as your own white raiment?  Yes, I did go to the tablinum—­I did tear the emerald from the hanging; but I did it in a fit of recklessness, and in the knowledge that what is my father’s is mine.  I threw away the gem to gratify a mere fancy, a transient whim.  Cursed be the hour when I did it!—­Not on account of the deed itself, but of the consequences it may entail through your mad hatred.  Jealousy, petty, unworthy jealousy is at the bottom of it!  And of whom are you jealous?”

“Of no one; not even of your betrothed, Katharina,” replied Paula with forced composure.  “What are you to me that, to spare you humiliation, I should risk the life of the most honest soul living?  I have said:  The judges shall decide between you.”

“No, they shall not!” stormed Orion.  “At least, not as you intend!  Beware, beware, I say, of driving me to extremities!  I still see in you the woman I loved; I still offer you what lies within my power:  to let everything end for the best for you. . . .”

“For me!  Then I, too, am to suffer for your guilt?”

“Did you hear the barking of hounds just now?”

“I heard dogs yelping.”

“Very well.—­Your freedman has been brought in, the pack got on his scent and have now been let into the house close to the tablinum.  The dogs would not stir beyond the threshold and on the white marble step, towards the right-hand side, the print of a man’s foot was found in the dust.  It is a peculiar one, for instead of five toes there are but three.  Your Hiram was fetched in, and he was found to have the same number of toes as the mark on the marble, neither more nor less.  A horse trod on his foot, in your father’s stable, and two of his toes had to be cut off:  we got this out of the stammering wretch with some difficulty.—­On the other side of the door-way there was a smaller print, but though the dogs paid no heed to that I examined it, and assured myself—­how, I need not tell you—­that it was you who had stood there.  He, who has no business whatever in the house, must have made his way last night into the tablinum, our treasury.  Now, put yourself in the judges’ place.  How can such facts be outweighed by the mere word of a girl who, as every one knows, is on anything rather than good terms with my mother, and who will leave no stone unturned to save her servant.”