"

"Listen then, and by the stone of the Kaabah, keep the faith which has
been throe and mine since my mother, dying, gave me to thy mother, whose
milk gave me health and, in my youth, beauty--and, in my youth, beauty!"
Suddenly she buried her face in her veil, and her body shook with sobs
which had no voice. Presently she continued: "Listen, and by Abraham and
Christ and all the Prophets, and by Mahomet the true revealer, give me
thine aid. When Harrik gave his life to the lions, I fled to her whom I
had loved in the house of Kaid--Laka the Syrian, afterwards the wife of
Achmet Pasha. By Harrik's death I was free--no more a slave. Once Laka
had been the joy of Achmet's heart, but, because she had no child, she
was despised and forgotten. Was it not meet I should fly to her whose
sorrow would hide my loneliness? And so it was--I was hidden in the
harem of Achmet. But miserable tongues--may God wither them!--told
Achmet of my presence. And though I was free, and not a bondswoman, he
broke upon my sleep...."

Mahommed's eyes blazed, his dark skin blackened like a coal, and he
muttered maledictions between his teeth. "... In the morning there was
a horror upon me, for which there is no name. But I laughed also when
I took a dagger and stole from the harem to find him in the quarters
beyond the women's gate. I found him, but I held my hand, for one was
with him who spake with a tone of anger and of death, and I listened.
Then, indeed, I rejoiced for thee, for I have found thee a road to
honour and fortune. The man was a bridge-opener--" "Ah!--O, light of a
thousand eyes, fruit of the tree of Eden!" cried Mahommed, and fell on
his knees at her feet, and would have kissed them, but that, with a cry,
she said: "Nay, nay, touch me not. But listen.... Ay, it was Achmet who
sought to drown thy Pasha in the Nile. Thou shalt find the man in the
little street called Singat in the Moosky, at the house of Haleel the
date-seller."

Mahommed rocked backwards and forwards in his delight. "Oh, now art thou
like a lamp of Paradise, even as a star which leadeth an army of stars,
beloved," he said. He rubbed his hands together. "Thy witness and
his shall send Achmet to a hell of scorpions, and I shall slay the
bridge-opener with my own hand--hath not the Effendina secretly said so
to me, knowing that my Pasha, the Inglesi, upon whom be peace for ever
and forever, would forgive him. Ah, thou blossom of the tree of trees--"

She rose hasti