r! I always suspected," he added, facing about
upon his attendants, "I always suspected that I was served by a woman.
Now I am sure of it."

Israel felt the indignity. He had given good proof of his manhood in the
past by standing five-and-twenty years scapegoat for Ben Aboo between
him and his people, making him rich by his extortions, keeping him safe
in his seat, and thereby saving him from the wooden jellab which Abd
er-Rahman, the Sultan, kept for Kaids that could not pay. But Israel
mastered his anger and held his peace.

Word went through the town that Israel had fallen from the favour of
the Basha, and then some of the more bold and free laughed at him in
the streets when they saw him relieve the miseries of the poor, thinking
himself accountable to God for their sufferings. He could have crushed
the better part of his insulters to death in his brawny arms, but he was
slow to anger and long-suffering. All the heed he paid to their insults
was to do his good work with more secrecy.

Remembering his Moorish jellab, and how effectually it had disguised
him on the night of his return home, he had recourse to it in this
difficulty. When darkness fell he donned it again, drawing the hood well
down over his black Jewish skull-cap and as far as might be over his
face. In this innocent disguise he went out night after night for many
nights among the poorer Moors that lived in the dismal quarters of the
grain markets near the Bab Ramooz. How he bore himself being there,
with what harmless deceptions he unburdened his soul by stealth, what
guileless pretences he made that he might restore to the poor the money
that had been stolen from them, would be a long story to tell.

"Who are you?" he was asked a hundred times.

"A friend," he answered

"Who told you of our trouble?"

"Allah has angels," he would reply.

Often, on his nightly rambles, he heard himself reviled, and saw the
very children of the streets spit over their fingers at the mention
of his name. And sometimes as he passed he heard blind people whisper
together and say, "He is a saint. He comes from the Kabar at nightfall.
Allah sends him to help poor men who have been in the clutches of Israel
the Jew."

Nevertheless, Israel kept his secret. What did the word of man avail for
good or evil? It would count for nothing at the last. Do justice and ask
nought; neither praise, for it was a wayward wind, nor gratitude, for it
was the breath of angels.

On