with abrupt little jerks to conceal her embarrassment, nothing took place
which could surprise the bystander; indeed, Katharina's pretty features
assumed a defiant expression when he enquired how the little white dog
was, and she coldly replied that she had had him chained up in the
poultry-yard, for that the patriarch, who was their guest, could not
endure dogs.

"He honors a good many men with the same sentiments," replied Orion, but
Katharina retorted, readily enough.

"When they deserve it."

The dialogue went on in this key for some few minutes; but the young man
was not in the humor either to take the young girl's pert stings or to
repay her in the same coin; he rose to go but, before he could take
leave, Katharina, observing from the window how low the sun was, cried:
"Mercy on me! how late it is--I must be off; I must not be absent at
supper time. My boat is lying close to yours in the fishing-cove. I
only hope the gate of the treasurer's house is still open."

Orion, too, looked at the sun and then remarked: "To-day is Sanutius."

"I know," said Katharina. "That is why Anubis was free at noon."

"And for the same reason," added Orion, "there is not a soul at work now
in the office."

This was awkward. Not for worlds would she have been seen in the house;
and knowing, as she did from her games with Mary, every nook and corner
of it, she began to consider her position. Her delicate features assumed