He--Orion--to dread discovery as a thief! It was inconceivable, and he was afraid, positively afraid for the first time since his boyhood.

His fortunate star, which in the Capital had shone on him so brightly and benevolently, seemed to have proved faithless in this ruinous hole! What had that Persian girl taken into her crazy head that she must rush upon him like some furious beast of prey?
He had been bound to her once, no doubt, by a transient passion--and what youth of his age was blind to the charms of a pretty slave-girl?
She had been a lovely child, and it was a vexation, nay a grief to him, that she should have been so shamefully punished.

If she should recover, and he could have prayed that she might, it would of course be his part to provide for her--of course.

To be just, he could not but confess that she indeed had good reason to hate him: but Paula?
He had shown her nothing but kindness and yet how unhesitatingly, how openly she had displayed her enmity.

He could see her now with the name "murderer" on her quivering lips; the word had stung him like a lance-thrust.