those who knew him here on earth. His brother's smallest pain filled his
soft heart with friendly sympathy; his law insists on charity, even
towards the shrub by the, wayside; he pronounces it mortal sin to injure
it, and every Moslem must obey him. Compassion for all is the command of
the Prophet. . . ." Here the Arab was suddenly and roughly interrupted;
Paula, who, till now, had been leaning against a pilaster, contemplating
the hanging and silently listening to the conversation, hastily stepped
nearer to the old man, and with flaming cheeks and flashing eyes pointed
at him wrathfully, while she exclaimed in a trembling voice-heedless
alike of the astonished and indignant bystanders, and of the little dog
which flew at the Arab, barking furiously:

"You--you, the followers of the false prophet--you, the companions of the
bloodhound Khalid--you and Charity! I know you! I know what you did in
Syria. With these eyes have I seen you, and your bloodthirsty women, and
the foam on your raging lips. Here I stand to bear witness against you
and I cast it in your teeth: You broke faith in Damascus, and the
victims of your treachery--defenceless women and tender infants as well
as men--you killed with the sword or strangled with your hands. You--you
the Apostle of Compassion?--have you ever heard of Abyla? You, the
friend of your Prophet--I ask you what did you, who so tenderly spare the
tree by the wayside, do to the innocent folk of Abyla, whom you fell upon
like wolves in a sheepfold? You--you and Compassionate!" The vehement
girl, to whom no one had ever shown any pity, and on whose soul the word
had fallen like a mockery, who for long hours had been suffering
suppressed and torturing misery, felt it a relief to give free vent to
the anguish of her soul; she ended with a hard laugh, and waved her hand
round her head as though to disperse a swarm of gadflies.

What a woman!