The senator had taken his confession as it was meant:  if Thomas’ daughter was indeed what Orion described her there could be but small hope for his beautiful favorite.  He and Martina must e’en make their way home again with two adopted dear ones, and it must be the care of the old folks to comfort the young ones instead of the young succoring the old as was natural.  And in spite of everything Orion had won on his affections, for every day, every hour he was struck by some new quality, some greater trait than he had looked for in the young man.

Torches were flaring in the inn-yard where, under a palm-thatched roof supported on poles and covering a square space in the middle, benches stood for the guests to rest.  Here Justinus and Orion again met for a few minutes’ conversation.

His warders were also seated near them; they did not let Orion out of their sight even while they ate their meal of mutton, bread, onions, and dates.  The senator’s servants brought some food from the chariot, and just as Justinus and Orion had begun their attack on it, a tall man came into the yard and made his way to the benches.  This was Philippus, pausing on his road to Djidda.  He had learnt, even before coming in, whom he would find here, a prisoner; and the Arabs, to whom the leech was known, allowed him to join the pair, though at the same time they came a little nearer, and their leader understood Greek.

Philippus was anything rather than cordially disposed towards Orion; still, he knew what peril hung over the youth, and how sad a loss he had suffered.  His conscience bid him do all he could to prove helpful in the trial that awaited him in the matter of the expedition in which Rufinus had perished.  He was the bearer, too, of sad news which the Arabs must necessarily hear.  Orion was indeed furious when he heard of the seizure and occupation of the governor’s residence; still, he believed that Amru would insist on restitution; but on hearing of his mother’s death he broke down completely.  Even the Arabs, seeing the strong man shaken with sobs and learning the cause of his grief, respectfully withdrew; for the anguish of a son at the loss of his mother was sacred in their eyes.  They regard the man who mourns for one he loves as stricken by the hand of the Almighty and hallowed by his touch and treat him with the reverence of pious awe.

Orion had not observed their absence, but Philippus at once took advantage of it to tell him, as briefly as possible, all that related to the escape of the nuns.  He himself knew not yet of the burning of the palace, or of Paula’s imprisonment; but he could tell the senator where he would find his wife and niece.  So by the time he was bidden to mount and start once more Orion was informed of all that had happened.

It was with a drooping head, and sunk in melancholy thought that he rode on his way.

As for the residence!—­whether the Arabs gave it back to him or not, what did he care?—­but his mother, his mother!  All she had been to him from his earliest years rose before his mind; in the deep woe of this parting he forgot the imminent danger and the dungeon that awaited him, and the intolerable insult to his rights; nay, even the image of the woman he loved paled by the side of that of the beloved dead.  Perhaps he might not even gain permission to bury her!