ay many chests. There were twenty in
all."

"And--and he will return for these?" queried the Princess in alarm.

"Assuredly, most glorious one. Soon, perhaps. But be not afraid. Selim
can close the passage door. He cannot get in. He will be fooled, eh? Why
should you be afraid? Have you not with you the most wonderful, the most
brave sahib? Would he not give his life for you?" The dark eyes sparkled
with understanding--aye, even mischief. Genevra felt that this Oriental
witch knew everything. For a long time she looked in uncertain mood upon
that smiling, wistful face. Then she said softly, moved by an
irresistible impulse to confess something, even obscurely:

"Oh, if only I were such as you, Neenah, and could live forever on this
dear island!"

Neenah's smile deepened, her eyes glowed with discernment. With a
meaning gleam in their depths, she said: "But, most high, there are no
princes here. There is no one to whom the most gracious one could be
sold. No one who could pay more than a dozen rubies. Women are cheap
here, and you would be a woman, not a most beautiful princess."

"I would not care to be a princess, perhaps."

"You love my Sahib Chase?" demanded Neenah abruptly, eagerly.

"Neenah!" gasped Genevra, with a startled look. Neenah looked intently
into the unsteady, blue-grey eyes and then bent over to kiss the hand of
the Princess. The latter laughed almost aloud in her confusion. She
caught herself up quickly and said with some asperity: "You foolish
child, I am to become a prince's wife. How can I love your sahib? What
nonsense! I am to marry a prince and he is not to pay for me in rubies."

"Ah, how wonderful!" cried Neenah, with ravishing candour. "A prince for
a husband and the glorious Sahib Chase for a lover all your life! Ah!"
The exclamation was no less than a sigh of rapturous endorsement.

The Princess stared at her first in consternation, then in dismay.
Before she could find words to combat this alarming prophecy, so
ingenuously presented to her reflections, Selim and Hollingsworth Chase
returned to the chamber. She was distressed, even confounded, to find
that she was staring at Chase with a strange, abashed curiosity growing
in her eyes--a stare that she suddenly was afraid he might observe and
appreciate. A wave of revulsion, of shame, spread over her whole being.
She shuddered slightly as she turned her face away from his eager gaze:
it was as if she recognised the fear that he was e