Egypt -- History -- Fiction; German fiction -- Translations into English
What was there against Philippus but his homely face and humble birth?
And how many a woman had he not seen set her heart on quite other
things! The physician was not more than five years his senior; and
recalling the expression in his eyes as he looked at Paula only that
morning Orion felt more and more uneasy.
Philippus loved Paula.--A trifling incident suddenly occurred to
his mind which made him certain on that point; he had only too much
experience in such matters. Yesterday, it had struck him that ever
since his father’s death--that was ever since Paula’s change of
residence--Philippus dressed more carefully than had been his wont. “Now
this,” thought he, “is a change that does not come over so serious a man
unless it is caused by love.”
A mingled torment of pain and rage shot through him as he again saw the
tall shadow cross the window. For the first time in his life he felt the
pangs of jealousy, which he had so often laughed at in his friends; but
was it not absurd to allow it to torture him; was he not sure, since
that morning’s meeting, quite sure of Paula? And Philippus! Even if he,
Orion, must retire into the background before a higher judge, in the
eyes of a woman he surely had the advantage!--But in spite of all this
it troubled him to know that the physician was with Paula at such an
hour; he angrily pulled his horse’s head round, and it was a pleasure
to him to feel the fiery creature, unused as it was to such rough
treatment, turn restive at it now. By the time he had gone a hundred
steps from those windows with their cursed glare, the horse was
displaying all the temper and vice that had been taken out of him as a
foal. Orion had to fight a pitched battle with his steed, and it was a
relief to him to exercise his power with curb and knee. In vain did
the creature dance round and round; in vain did he rear and plunge; the
steady rider was his master; and it was not till he had brought him to
quietness and submission that Orion drew breath and looked about him
while he patted the horse’s smooth neck.
Close at hand, behind a low hedge, spread the thick, dark groves of
Susannah’s garden and between them the back of the house was visible,
being more brilliantly lighted than even Paula’s rooms. Three of the
windows showed lights; two were rather dim, however, the result probably
of one lamp only.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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