here was bad
blood between them always, even as boys, and, as men, it was bitterer
than ever because of _her_."

"Suppose you begin at the beginning and tell me the whole story, Major,"
suggested Cleek, studying the man's face narrowly. "How did the Earl of
Wynraven's son come to meet this singularly fascinating lady, and
where?"

"In Turkey or Arabia, I forget which. He was doing his theatrical
nonsense in the East with some barn-storming show or other, having been
obliged to get out of England to escape arrest for some shady
transaction a year before. He was always a bad egg; always a disgrace to
his name and connections. That's why his father turned him off and never
would have any more to do with him. As a boy he was rather clever at
conjuring tricks and impersonations of all sorts; he could mimic
anything or anybody he ever saw, from the German Emperor down to a
Gaiety chorus girl, and do it to absolute perfection. When his father
kicked him out he turned these natural gifts to account, and, having
fallen in with some professional dancing woman, joined her for a time
and went on the stage with her.

"It was after he had parted from this dancer and was knocking about
London and leading a disgraceful life generally that he did the thing
which caused him to hurry off to the East and throw in his lot with the
travelling company I have alluded to. He was always a handsome fellow
and had a way with him that was wonderfully taking with women, so I
suppose that that accounts as much as anything for Zuilika's infatuation
and her doing the mad thing she did. I don't know when nor where nor how
they first met; but the foolish girl simply went off her head over him,
and he appears to have been as completely infatuated by her. Of course,
in that land, the idea of a woman of her sect, of her standing, having
anything to do with a Frank was looked upon as something appalling,
something akin to sacrilege; and when they found that her father had got
wind of it and that the fellow's life would not be safe if he remained
within reach another day, they flew to the coast together, shipped for
England, and were married immediately after their arrival."

"A highly satisfactory termination for the lady," commented Cleek. "One
could hardly have expected that from a man so hopelessly unprincipled as
you represent him to have always been. But there's a bit of good in even
the devil, we are told."

"Oh, be sure that he didn't marry her