painful memories. How many loved ones a cruel fate had snatched from
her! Father, brother, her nearest relations and friends; all at once, by
the hand of the Moslems to whom he had abandoned her native land almost
without resistance.

"I do not hear Paula to-night," he remarked, glancing up as though he
missed something. "The poor child has no doubt gone to bed early after
what passed."

"Leave her alone!" said Neforis who did not like to be interrupted in
her jubilant effusiveness, and she shrugged her shoulders angrily. "How
she behaved herself again! We have heard a great deal too much about
charity, and though I do not want to boast of my own I am very ready to
exercise it--indeed, it is no more than my duty to show every kindness
to a destitute relation of yours. But this girl! She tries me too far,
and after all I am no more than human. I can have no pleasure in her
presence; if she comes into the room I feel as though misfortune had
crossed the threshold. Besides!--You never see such things; but Orion
thinks of her a great deal more than is good. I only wish she had been
safe out of the house!"

"Neforis!" her husband said in mild reproach; and he would have reproved
her more sharply but that since he had become a slave to opium he had
lost all power of asserting himself vigorously whether in small matters
or great.

Ere long the Mukaukas had fallen into an uneasy sleep; but he opened his
eyes more frequently than usual. He missed the light footfall overhead
to which he had been accustomed for these two years past; but she who was
wont to pace the floor above half the night through had not gone to rest