“And in the very cloth in which your people had wrapped it,” added Orion. “Our good old Sebek there was with me. Who fetched away the bale this morning; who brought it here and opened it?”
“Happily for us,” said the Arab, “it was your lady mother herself, with that man—your steward if I mistake not—and your own slaves.”
“Why was it not left where it was?” asked Orion, giving vent to the annoyance which at this moment he really felt.
“Because I had assured your father, and with good reason, that the beauty of this splendid work and of the gems that decorate it show to much greater advantage by daylight and in the sunshine than under the lamps and torches.”
“And besides, your father wished to see his new purchase once more,” Neforis broke in, “and to ask the merchant how the gems might be removed without injury to the work itself. So I went to the tablinum myself with Sebek.”
“But I had the key!” cried Orion putting his hand into the breast of his robe.
“That I had forgotten,” replied his mother. “But unfortunately we did not need it. The tablinum was open.”
“I locked it yesterday; you saw me do it, Sebek...”
“So I told the mistress,” replied the steward. “I perfectly recollect hearing the snap of the strong lock.”
Orion shrugged his shoulders, and his mother went on: