And now these shoes! The owner must have come there with the crazy girl, and if he had seen him in the tablinum and betrayed what he was doing there, how could he ever again appear in his parents presence? He had looked upon it as a good joke, but now it had turned to bitter earnest. At any cost he must and would prevent his nocturnal doings from becoming known! Some new wrong-doing-nay, the worst was preferable to a stain on his honor.Whose could the shoes be? He suddenly held them up on high, crying with a loud voice: Do these shoes belong to any of you, you people? To the gate-keeper perhaps?
When all were silent, and the porter denied the ownership, he stood thinking; then he added with a defiant glare, and in a husky voice: Then some one who had broken into the house has been startled and dropped them. Our house-stamp is here on the leather: they were made in our work-shop, and they still smell of the stable-here, Sebek, you can convince yourself. Take them into your keeping, man; and tomorrow morning we will see who has left this suspicious offering in our vestibule.You were the first to reach the spot, fair Paula. Did you see a man about?
Yes, she replied with a hostile and challenging stare.
And which way did he go?
He fled across the viridarium like a coward, running across the poor, well-kept grass-plot to save time, and vanished upstairs in the dwelling-rooms.
Orion ground his teeth, and a mad hatred surged up in him of this mystery in womans form in whose power, as it seemed, his ruin lay, and whose eyes mashed with revenge and the desire to undo him. What was she plotting against him? Was there a being on earth who would dare to accuse him, the spoilt favorite of great and small? And her look had meant more than aversion, it had expressed contempt.... How dare she look so at him? Who in the wide world had a right to accuse him of anything that could justify such a feeling? Never, never had he met with enmity like this, least of all from a girl. He longed to annihilate the high-handed, cold-hearted, ungrateful creature who could humble him so outrageously after he had allowed her to see that his heart was hers, and who could make him quaila man whose courage had been proved a hundred times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forget that she was a woman.What had happened? What demon had been playing tricks on himWhat had so completely altered him within this half-hour that his whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any one dared to treat him so?
His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her sons face when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms; but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm: Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? Merciful Heaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Runfly, Sebek.
Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascalhe had trodden down the grassyou must find himyou must not let him escape.
The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who had come in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, which must yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heart beat wildly, and again she tried to catch the young mans eye. Orion, however, started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as he went: That is my concern.
But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight was throttling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in the act, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that he was indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fatal deed in the tablinum.
Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as to falsify the evidence, and to declare that the grooms broad sole fitted the tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet she could have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he might not do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he could not be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks, she drew a breath of relief and turned again to the wounded girl and the physician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed her example she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, he looked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: That poor girls fate and he pointed to the Persian slave.It troubles me.
You are so soft-heartedyou were as a boy! said his mother soothingly. She had seen the moisture sparkling in his eyes; but his tears were not for the Persian, but for the mysterious somethinghe himself knew not what to call itthat he had forfeited in this last hour, and of which the loss gave him unspeakable pain.
But their dialogue was interrupted: the first misfortune of this luckless night had brought its attendant: the body of Rustem, the splendid and radiantly youthful Rustem, the faithful Persian leader of the caravan, was borne into the hall, senseless. He had made some satirical remark on the quarrel over creeds, and a furious Jacobite had fallen upon him with a log of wood, and dealt him a deep and perhaps mortal wound. The leech at once gave him his care, and several of the crowd of muttering and whispering men, who had made their way in out of curiosity or with a wish to be of use, now hurried hither and thither in obedience to the physicians orders.
As soon as he saw the Masdakites wound he exclaimed angrily:
A true Egyptian blow, dealt from behind!What does this mob want here? Out with every man who does not belong to the place! The first things needed are litters. Will you, Dame Neforis, desire that two rooms may be got ready; one for that poor, gentle creature, and one for this fine fellow, though all will soon be over with him, short of a miracle.
To the north of the viridarium, replied the lady, there are two rooms at your service.
Not there! cried the leech. I must have rooms with plenty of fresh air, looking out upon the river.
There are none but the handsome rooms in the visitors quarters, where my husbands niece has hers, Sick persons of the family have often lain there, but for such humble folkyou understand?
NoI am deaf, replied the physician.
Oh, I know that, laughed Neforis. But those rooms are really just refurnished for exalted guests.
It would be hard to find any more exalted than such as these, sick unto death, replied Philippus. They are nearer to God in Heaven than you are; to your advantage I believe. Here, you people! Carry these poor souls up to the guests rooms.
CHAPTER IX
It is impossible, impossible, impossible! cried Orion, jumping up from his writing-table. He thought of what he had done as a misfortune, and not as a crime; he himself hardly knew how it had all come about. Yes, there must be demons, evil, spiteful demonsand it was they who had led him to so mad a deed.
Yesterday evening, after the buying of the hanging, he had yielded to his mothers request that he should escort the widow Susannah home. At her house he had met her husbands brother, a jovial old fellow named Chrysippus; and when the conversation turned on the tapestry, and the Mukaukas purpose of dedicating this work of art with all the gems worked into it, to the Church, the old man had clasped his hands, fully sharing Orions disapproval, and had exclaimed laughing What, you the son, and is not even a part of the precious stones to fall to your share? Why Katharina? Just a little diamond, a tiny opal might well add to the earthly happiness of the young, though the old must lay up treasure in heaven.Do not be a fool! The Churchs maw is full enough, and really a mouthful is your due.