grets that so painful a scene
should have occurred under his roof, while the Arab said that he could
quite understand why the daughter of Thomas should have been betrayed to
anger: the massacre of Abyla was quite inexcusable.

"But then," the old man went on, "in what war do not such things take
place? Even the Christian is not always master of himself: you
yourself I know, lost two promising sons--and who were the murderers?
Christians--your own fellow-believers..."

"The bitterest foes of my beliefs," said the governor slowly, and every
syllable was a calm and dignified reproof to the Moslem for supposing
that the creed of those who had killed his sons could be his. As
he spoke he opened his eyes wide with the look of those hard,
opaquely-glittering stones which his ancestors had been wont to set for
eyes in their portrait statues. But he suddenly closed them again and
said indifferently:

"At what price do you value your hanging? I have a fancy to buy it. Name
your lowest terms: I cannot bear to bargain."

"I had thought of asking five hundred thousand drachmae," said the
dealer. "Four hundred thousand drachmae, and it is yours."

The governor's wife clasped her hands at such a sum and made warning
signals to her husband, shaking her head disapprovingly, when Orion,
making a great effort to show that he too took an interest in this
important transaction, said: "It may be worth three hundred thousand."

"Four hundred thousand," repeated the merchant coolly. "Your father
wished to know the lowest price, and I am asking no more than is
right. The rubies and garnets in these grapes, the pearls in the myrtle
blossoms, the turquoises in the forget-me-nots, the diamonds hanging
as dew on the grass, the emeralds which give brilliancy to the green
leaves--this one especially, which is an immense stone--alone are worth
more."

"Then why do you not cut them out of the tissue?" asked Neforis.

"Because I cannot bear to destroy this noble work," replied the Arab. "I
will sell it as it is or not at all." At these words the Mukaukas
nodded to his son, heedless of the disapprobation his wife persisted in
expressing, asked for a tablet which lay near the chessboard, and on it
wrote a few words.

"We are agreed," he said to the merchant. "The treasurer, Nilus, will
hand you the payment to-morrow morning on presenting this order."

A fresh emotion now took possession of Orion, and crying: "Splendid!
Splendid!" he rushed up