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 quail--a 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
him--What 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 son's
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! Run--fly, Sebek.

"Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to
bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down the
grass--you must find him--you 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 man's 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