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Yes, that is what happened. Rough old Beki keeps watch at the door of the tablinum. What brought the poor child here I know not, but he caught scent of her and pulled her down." "Or nothing of the kind!" interrupted Neforis, picking up a pair of man's shoes which lay on the ground by the sufferer.
But you shall be made to speak; aye, made to speak! And as to what you, a slanderer, can say about false witness..." "Your own granddaughter," interrupted the leech, "will be compelled to repeat it before all the world, noble lady, if you do not moderate yourself." Neforis laughed hysterically. "So that is the way the wind blows!" she exclaimed, quite beside herself.
Well, then, I will stake my whole fortune on her innocence. That beautiful, passionate creature is incapable of any underhand dealings." "Passionate!" Neforis smiled. "Her heart is as cold and as hard as the lost emerald; we have proved that by experience." "Nevertheless," said Orion, "she is incapable of baseness." "How zealous men can be for a pair of fine eyes!" interrupted his mother.
As Neforis went to her place, she shook her bowed head: she was meditating on the choice offered her by Orion, of yielding to the patriarch's commands or to her son's wishes. How gladly would she have seen her son in bright spirits again.
The bloodhounds and terriers had been let out after being allowed to smell at the shoes, and a couple of them had soon found their way to the side-door where Hiram had waited for Paula. There they paused, sniffing about on all sides, and had then jumped up a few steps. "And those stairs lead to Paula's room," observed Neforis with a shrug.
This closed the interview; and as the Vekeel quitted the fountain-room he muttered to himself: "What a woman! Either she is possessed and her brain is crazed, or she is of a rarely heroic pattern." Neforis was supported to her own room; when she was in bed she desired her maid to bring a small box out of her chest and place it on the little table containing medicines by the bead of the couch.
Neforis, who since the fearful hour of her husband's death had seemed stunned and indifferent to all the claims of daily life, living only in her memories of the departed, had been more than willing to leave to the physician the disposal of these two and their removal from her house.
The moment she entered the room Paula inferred from her beaming expression that she had something to say unpleasant to herself, so she preserved due composure. Her face wore a look of unmoved indifference while she submitted to the overflow of a too-happy mother's heart; and she wished the betrothed couple joy: but she did so with a smile that infuriated Neforis.
And now, one question: Is the dog that guarded the tablinum a watchful, savage beast?" "How savage he is he unfortunately proved on the person of the poor Persian slave; and his watchfulness is known to all the household," cried Orion. "But I would beg you, worthy merchant," said Neforis, "and in the name of all present, to give us the help of your experience.
He could not help comparing her with the wretched Neforis; what was it that enabled one to bear the equal loss with so much more dignity than the other? Nothing but the presence of the tender-hearted Pulcheria, who shared her sorrow with such beautiful resignation, such ready and complete sympathy.
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