but narrow, and bounded on either side by extensive premises. Not far
from the spot where it lay nearest to the river was the bridge of boats
connecting Memphis with the island of Rodah. To the right was the
magnificent residence--a palace indeed--belonging to Susannah; to the
left was an extensive grove, where tall palms, sycamores with spreading
foliage, and dense thickets of blue-green tamarisk trees cast their
shade. Above this bower of splendid shrubs and ancient trees rose a
long, yellow building crowned with a turret; and this too was not unknown
to her, for she had often heard it spoken of in her uncle's house, and
had even gone there now and then escorted by Perpetua. It was the
convent of St. Cecilia, the refuge of the last nuns of the orthodox creed
left in Memphis; for, though all the other sisterhoods of her confession
had long since been banished, these had been allowed to remain in their
old home, not only because they were famous sick-nurses, a distinction
common to all the Melchite orders, but even more because the decaying
municipality could not afford to sacrifice the large tax they annually
paid to it. This tax was the interest on a considerable capital
bequeathed to the convent by a certain wise predecessor of the Mukaukas',
with the prudent proviso, ratified under the imperial seal of Theodosius
II., that if the convent were at any time broken up, this endowment, with
the land and buildings which it likewise owed to the generosity of the
same benefactor, should become the property of the Christian emperor at
that time reigning.

Mukaukas George, notwithstanding his well-founded aversion for everything
Melchite, had taken good care not to press this useful Sisterhood too
hardly, or to deprive his impoverished capital of its revenues only to
throw them into the hands of the wealthy Moslems. The title-deed on
which the Sisters relied was good; and the governor, who was a good
lawyer as well as a just man, had not only left them unmolested, but in