till his eyes conveyed no meaning, though Hylda shrank
back--"and I would use them for the good thou wouldst do here. Money
will be needed, and sufficient will not be at thy hand-not till new
ledgers be opened, new balances struck."

He turned to Hylda quietly, and with a continued air of innocence said:
"Shall it not be so-madame? Thou, I doubt not, are of his kin. It would
seem so, though I ask pardon if it be not so--wilt thou not urge his
Excellency to restore me to Kaid's favour? I know little of the English,
though I know them humane and honest; but my brother, Foorgat Bey, he
was much among them, lived much in England, was a friend to many great
English. Indeed, on the evening that he died I saw him in the gallery of
the banquet-room with an English lady--can one be mistaken in an English
face? Perhaps he cared for her; perhaps that was why he smiled as he lay
upon his bed, never to move again. Madame, perhaps in England thou mayst
have known my brother. If that is so, I ask thee to speak for me to his
Excellency. My life is in danger, and I am too young to go as my brother
went. I do not wish to die in middle age, as my brother died."

He had gone too far. In David's mind there was no suspicion that Nahoum
knew the truth. The suggestion in his words had seemed natural; but,
from the first, a sharp suspicion was in the mind of Hylda, and his last
words had convinced her that if Nahoum did not surely know the truth,
he suspected it all too well. Her instinct had pierced far; and as she
realised his suspicions, perhaps his certainty, and heard his words of
covert insult, which, as she saw, David did not appreciate, anger and
determination grew in her. Yet she felt that caution must mark her
words, and that nothing but danger lay in resentment. She felt the
everlasting indignity behind the quiet, youthful eyes, the determined
power of the man; but she saw also that, for the present, the course
Nahoum suggested was the only course to take. And David must not even
feel the suspicion in her own mind, that Nahoum knew or suspected the
truth. If David thought that Nahoum knew, the end of all would come at
once. It was clear, however, that Nahoum meant to be silent, or he would
have taken another course of action. Danger lay in every direction, but,
to her mind, the least danger lay in following Nahoum's wish.

She slowly raised her veil, showing a face very still now, with eyes as
steady as David's. David started at her