“You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!” cried Orion.

“Oh yes, yes!  What do I want with them?  But Dame Joanna has my mother’s things in her keeping.”

“And you are afraid to ask her for them?” asked the young man.  He appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her to hand it to Joanna.  Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she would require on this gem.  Mary joyfully took possession of the ring; but presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion as if they were parting for ever.

In the passage leading to Paula’s cell the man suddenly stood still:  some one was approaching up the stairs.—­If it should be the black Vekeel, and he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour!

But no.  Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had often been here before now to console prisoners.

He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned Melchite.  Mary’s dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt who she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always accompanied him when he visited a female prisoner:  “We find her here!” And when he had ascertained with whom the child had come hither at so late an hour, he turned again to his colleague and added in a low voice: 

“The wife and daughter of Rufinus!  Just so:  I have long had my eye on these Greeks.  In church once or twice every year!—­Melchites in disguise!  Allied with this Melchite!  And this is the school in which the Mukaukas’ granddaughter is growing up!  An abominable trick!  Benjamin judged rightly, as he always did!” Then, in a subdued voice, he asked: 

“Shall we take her away with us at once?” But, as the deacon made objections, he hastily replied:  “You are right; for the present it is enough that we know where she is to be found.”

The warder meanwhile had opened Paula’s cell; before the bishop went in he spoke a few kind words to the child, asking her whether she did not long to see her mother; and when Mary replied:  “Very often!” he stroked her hair with his bony hand and said: 

“So I thought.—­You have a pretty name, child, and you, like your mother, will perhaps ere long dedicate your life to the Blessed among women, whose name you bear.”  And, holding the little girl by the hand, he entered the cell.  While Paula looked in amazement at the prelate who came so late a visitor, Joanna and Pulcheria recognized him as the brave ecclesiastic who had so valiantly opposed the old sage and the misled populace, and they bowed with deep reverence.  This the bishop observed, and came to the conclusion that these Greeks perhaps after all belonged to his Church.  At any rate, the child might safely be left in their care a few days longer.