the sun, and as she sat watching and listening in this lurking place,
which she was not using for the first time, her heart began to beat more
quickly; indeed, in her excitement she quite forgot some sweetmeats which
she had brought to wile away the time and had poured into a large leaf in
her lap.

Happily she had not long to wait; Orion arrived in his mother's four-
wheeled covered chariot. By the side of the driver sat a servant, and a
slave was perched on the step to the door on each side of the vehicle.
It was followed by a few idlers, men and women, and a crowd of half-naked
children. But they got nothing by their curiosity, for the carruca did
not draw up in the road, but was driven into Rufinus' garden, and the
trees and shrubs hid it from the gaze of the expectant mob, which
presently dispersed.

Orion got out at the principal door of the house, followed by the
treasurer; and while the old man welcomed the son of the Mukaukas, Nilus
superintended the transfer of a considerable number of heavy sacks to
their host's private room.

Nothing of all this had seemed noteworthy to Katharina but the quantity
and size of the bags--full, no doubt, of gold--and the man, whom alone
she cared to see. Never had she thought Orion so handsome; the long,
flowing mourning robe, which he had flung over his shoulder in rich
folds, added to the height of his stately form; his abundant hair, not
curled but waving naturally, set off his face which, pale and grave as it
was, both touched and attracted her ir resistibly. The thought that this
splendid creature had once courted her, loved her, kissed her--that he
had once been hers, and that she had lost him to another, was a pang
like physical agony, mounting from her heart to her brain.