"Till I had gone through the Esoteric tests?" exclaimed Orion with an
angry shrug. "Now go,--go and lie down. This hour, which should have
been the sweetest of our lives, a stranger has embittered and darkened.
You are not sure of yourself--nor I of myself. Anything more that we
could say now and here would lead to no good issue for either you or me.
Go and rest; sleep off your pain, and I--I will try to forget.--If you
could but see the turmoil in my soul!--But farewell till our next, more
friendly--I hardly dare trust myself to say our happier meeting."

He hastily turned away, but she called after him in sad lament: "Orion do
not forget--Orion, you know that I love you."

But he did not hear; he burried on with his head bowed over his breast,
down to the road, without reentering Rufinus' house.




CHAPTER VII.

When Orion reached home, wounded to the quick, he flung himself on a
divan. Paula had said that her heart was his indeed, but what a cool and
grudging love was this that would give nothing till it had insured its
future. And how could Paula have allowed a third person to come between
them, and rule her feelings and actions? She must have revealed to that
third person all that had previously passed between them--and it was for
this Melchite nun, his personal foe, that he was about to--it was enough
to drive him mad!--But he could not withdraw; he had pledged himself to
the brave old man to carry out this crazy enterprise. And in the place
of the lofty, noble mistress of his whole being, his fancy pictured Paula