could be rescued without his interest with the Arab general.

It was high time to decide one way or the other.--Well, no; he ought not
to go away to-day!

That was settled!

Rufinus must at once be informed of his change of purpose. To sit down
and write at such a moment he felt was impossible: Nilus should go and
speak in his name; and he knew how gladly and zealously he would perform
such an errand.

Heliodora clapped her hands, and just as Martina knocked at the door
the pair came out into the anteroom: She, radiant with happiness,
and so graceful in her fashionable, costly, and well-chosen garb,
so royal-looking in spite of her no more than middle height, that even in
the capital she would have excited the admiration of the men and the envy
of the women: He, content, but with a thoughtful smile on his lips.

He had not yet closed the door when in the anteroom he perceived two
female figures, who had come in while Martina was knocking at her niece's
door. These were Katharina and her waiting-maid.

Anubis had been brought to these rooms after his fall from the roof, and
notwithstanding the preparations that had been made for illustrious
guests Philippus could not be persuaded to allow his patient, for whom
perfect quiet was indispensable, to be moved to the lower floor.

The listener who had been so severely punished had with him his mother,
Katharina's old nurse; the water-wagtail, with her maid, had accompanied