The whole truth shall be told! said Paula sternly and firmly.
Of course, replied Orion. Then turning to the physician, he added: I would request you, worthy Esculapius, to leave me and my cousin together for a few minutes. I want to give her a word of counsel which will certainly be to her advantage.
Philippus glanced enquiringly at the girl; she said with clear decision: You and I can have no secrets. What I may hear, Philippus too may know.
Orion, with a shrug, turned to leave the room:
On the threshold he paused, exclaiming with some excitement and genuine distress:
If you will not listen to me for your own sake, do so at least, whatever ill-feeling you may bear me, because I implore you not to refuse me this favor. It is a matter of life or death to one human being, of joy or misery to another. Do not refuse me.I ask nothing unreasonable, Philippus. Do as I entreat you and leave us for a moment alone.
Again the physicians eyes consulted the young girls; this time she said: Go! and he immediately quitted the room.
Orion closed the door.
What have I done, Paula, he began with panting breath, that since yesterday you have shunned me like a leperthat you are doing your utmost to bring me to ruin?
I mean to plead for the life of a trusty servant; nothing more, she said indifferently.
At the risk of disgracing me! he retorted bitterly.
At that risk, no doubt, if you are indeed so base as to throw your own guilt on the shoulders of an honest man.
Then you watched me last night?
The merest chance led me to see you come out of the tablinum....
I do not ask you now what took you there so late, he interrupted, for it revolts me to think anything of you but the best, the highest.But you? What have you experienced at my hands but friendshipnay, for concealment or dissimulation is here follybut what a lover?
A lover! cried Paula indignantly. A lover? Dare you utter the word, when you have offered your heart and hand to anotheryou....
Who told you so? asked Orion gloomily.
Your own mother.
That is it; so that is it? cried the young man, clasping his hands convulsively. Now I begin to see, now I understand. But stay. For if it is indeed that which has roused you to hate me and persecute me, you must love me, Paulayou do love me, and then, noblest and sweetest.... He held out his hand; but she struck it aside, exclaiming in a tremulous voice:
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 womans 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. Gogo 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 tablinumI did tear the emerald from the hanging; but I did it in a fit of recklessness, and in the knowledge that what is my fathers 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 mans 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 fathers 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 myselfhow, I need not tell youthat 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.
Infamous! cried Paula. Hiram did not steal the gem, as you must know who stole it. The emerald he sold was my property; and were those stones really so much alike that even the seller
Yes, indeed. He could not tell one from the other. Evil spirits have been at work all through, devilish, malignant demons. It would be enough to turn ones brain, if life were not so full of enigmas! You yourself are the greatest.Did you give the Syrian your emerald to sell in order to fly from this house with the money?You are silent? Then I am right. What can my father be to youyou do not love my motherand the son!Paula, Paula, you are perhaps doing him an injusticeyou hate him, and it is a pleasure to you to injure him.
I do not wish to hurt you or any one, replied the girl. And you have guessed wrongly. Your father refused me the means of seeking mine.
And you wanted to procure money to search for one who is long since dead!Even my mother admits that you speak the truth; if she is right, and you really take no pleasure in doing me a mischief, listen to me, follow my advice, and grant my prayer! I do not ask any great matter.
Speak on then.
Do you know what a mans honor is to him? Need I tell you that I am a lost and despised man if I am found guilty of this act of the maddest folly by the judges of my own house? It may cost my father his life if he hears that the word guilty is pronounced on me; and IIwhat would become of me I cannot foresee!Ioh God, oh God, preserve me from frenzy!But I must be calm; time presses.... How different it is for your servant; he seems ready even now to take the guilt on himself, for, whatever he is asked, he still keeps silence. Do you do the same; and if the judges insist on knowing what you had to do with the Syrian last nightfor the dogs traced the scent to your staircasehazard a conjecture that the faithful fellow stole the emerald in order to gratify your desire to search for your father, his beloved master. If you can make up your mind to so great a sacrificeoh, that I should have to ask it of you!I swear to you by all I hold sacred, by yourself and by my fathers head, I will set Hiram free within three days, unbeaten and unhurt, and magnificently indemnified; and I will myself help him on the way whither he may desire to go, or you to send him, in search of your father.Be silent; remain neutral in the background; that is all I ask, and I will keep my wordthat, at any rate, you do not doubt? She had listened to him with bated breath; she pitied him deeply as he stood there, a suppliant in bitter anguish of soul, a criminal who still could not understand that he was one, and who relied on the confidence that, only yesterday, he still had had the right to exact from all the world. He appeared before her like a fine proud tree struck by lightning, whose riven trunk, trembling to its fall, must be crushed to the earth by the first storm, unless the gardener props it up. She longed to be able to forget all he had brought upon her and to grasp his hand in friendly consolation; but her deeply aggrieved pride helped her to preserve the cold and repellent manner she had so far succeeded in assuming.