he
would have curtailed her interferences, it was too late; she had taken
a firm grip of the reins, and Asad was in no better case than many a
European husband--an anomalous and outrageous condition this for a Basha
of the Prophet's House. It was also a dangerous one for Fenzileh; for
should the burden of her at any time become too heavy for her lord there
was a short and easy way by which he could be rid of it. Do not suppose
her so foolish as not to have realized this--she realized it fully; but
her Sicilian spirit was daring to the point of recklessness; her very
dauntlessness which had enabled her to seize a control so unprecedented
in a Muslim wife urged her to maintain it in the face of all risks.

Dauntless was she now, as she paced there in the cool of the orchard,
under the pink and white petals of the apricots, the flaming scarlet of
pomegranate blossoms, and through orange-groves where the golden fruit
glowed and amid foliage of sombre green. She was at her eternal work of
poisoning the mind of her lord against Sakr-el-Bahr, and in her maternal
jealousy she braved the dangers of such an undertaking, fully aware of
how dear to the heart of Asad-ed-Din was that absent renegade corsair.
It was this very affection of the Basha's for his lieutenant that was
the fomenter of her own hate of Sakr-el-Bahr, for it was an affection
that transcended Asad's love for his own son and hers, and it led to
the common rumour that for Sakr-el-Bahr was reserved the high destiny of
succeeding Asad in the Bashalik.

"I tell thee thou'rt abused by him, O source of my life."

"I hear thee," answered Asad sourly. "And were thine own hearing less
infirm, woman, thou wouldst have heard me answer thee that thy words
weigh for naught with me against his deeds. Words may be but a mask upon
our thoughts; deeds are ever the expression of them. Bear thou that in
mind, O Fenzileh."

"Do I not bear in mind thine every word, O fount of wisdom?" she
protested, and left him, as she often did, in doubt whether she fawned
or sneered. "And it is his deeds I would have speak for him, not indeed
my poor words and still less his own."

"Then, by the head of Allah, let those same deeds speak, and be thou
silent."

The harsh tone of his reproof and the scowl upon his haughty face, gave
her pause for a moment. He turned about.

"Come!" he said. "Soon it will be the hour of prayer." And he paced back
towards the yellow huddle of walls of the Kasbah