rode off at a round trot, his slave following him.

"Katharina, child, Katharina!" was shouted from Susannah's house in
a woman's high-pitched voice. The water-wagtail started up, hastily
smoothing her hair and casting an evil glance at her rival, "the other,"
the supplanter who had basely betrayed her under the sycamores; she
clenched her little fist as she saw Paula watching Orion's retreating
form with beaming eyes. Paula went back into the house, happy and
walking on air, while the other poor, deeply-wounded child burst into
violent weeping at the first hasty words from her mother, who was not at
all satisfied with the disorder of her dress; and she ended by declaring
with defiant audacity that she would not present the flowers to the
patriarch, and would remain in her own room, for she was dying of
headache.--And so she did.




CHAPTER XXIV.

In the course of the afternoon Orion paid his visit to the Arab governor.
He crossed the bridge of boats on his finest horse.

Only two years since, the land where the new town of Fostat was now
growing up under the old citadel of Babylon had been fields and gardens;
but at Amru's word it had started into being as by a miracle; house after
house already lined the streets, the docks were full of ships and barges,
the market was alive with dealers, and on a spot where, during the siege
of the fortress, a sutler's booth had stood, a long colonnade marked out
the site of a new mosque.