"You are in love with Orion--and he is a man whom few can match, over
head and ears in love; and because Paula looks like a queen by the side
of you, and is so much handsomer and taller than you are, and Orion, till
yesterday--I could see it all--cared a thousand times more for her than
for you, you were jealous and envious of her. Oh, I know all about it.
--And I know that all the women fall in love with him, and that Mandaile
had her ears cut off on his account, and that it was a lady who loved him
in Constantinople that gave him the little white dog. The slave-girls
tell me what they hear and what I like.--And after all, you may well be
jealous of Paula, for if she only made a point of it, how soon Orion
would make up his mind never to look at you again! She is the handsomest
and the wisest and the best girl in the whole world, and why should she
not be proud? The false witness you bore will cost poor Hiram his life:
but the merciful Saviour may forgive you at last. It is your affair, and
no concern of mine; but when Paula is forced to leave the house and all
through you, so that I shall never, never, never see her any more--I
cannot forget it, and I do not think I ever shall; but I will pray God to
make me."

She burst into loud sobs, and the governess had started up to put an end
to a dialogue which she could not understand, and which was therefore
vexatious and provoking, when the water-wagtail fell on her knees before
the little girl, threw her arms round her, and bursting into tears,
exclaimed:

"Mary--darling little Mary forgive me.

[The German has the diminutive 'Mariechen'. To this Dr. Ebers
appends this note. "An ignorant critic took exception to the use of