seemed angry, cried, "Don't
be idiotic!" and glanced round him nervously.

"I luf you, sir!" pursued Iskender passionately. "By God, I neffer
tell you lies again. You trust me, sir, and just be kind to me. It
kills me when you luf that false Elias."

"Oh, that's all right," was the impatient answer. "I shall trust you
for the future. Can't you talk of something else?"

Then it dawned upon Iskender that his Honour did not like this talk of
love. At a loss, he changed his tone, but not the subject, giving his
patron the true history of his difference with the missionaries, which
arose from his boyish passion for the Sitt Hilda.

"Is that the young one? Not a bad-looking girl, if she dressed
properly!" threw in the Emir; and again Iskender was at a loss, for he
could not conceive how dress could do otherwise than hide a woman's
beauty. He returned to his own case.

"I luf you, sir, and neffer, neffer will deceif you more."

"Oh, shut up, can't you?" said the Frank disgustedly; but presently,
when they had taken leave of Mitri and the brother of Aziz, he grasped
Iskender's arm in friendly wise. As they strolled together down a
sandy path among the gardens, whose dark rich green encroached upon a
sky of living blue, the scent of orange-flowers pervading the still
air, and the murmur of innumerable bees enforcing languor, Iskender
walked in heaven.

"You trust me now, dear sir?"

"Yes, yes, I trust you. I shall never forgive Elias for that dirty
trick."

"It is only just what I did always tell you. He is an imbudent fellow,
and a most horrible liar," returned Iskender lightly, grudging Elias
even his lord's anger.

A pause ensued. Iskender had no more to say, yet dreaded silence,
recalling his uncle's advice to him to keep the Frank amused--advice
which he had so lately seen confirmed in the case of Elias, the amusing
talker. He knew that his patron's mind, unless engaged, was sure to
revert to the adventure of the orange-garden, and recall his rival, of
whom he wished to obliterate the very thought.

Then, of a sudden, while he racked his brain, he was seized with
recollection of his vision of the night before. It returned to him
from without, by no effort of his own; and was first announced to his
consciousness by the sensation of a sudden flush from head to foot.
Here was a subject able to engross the Emir's whole interest, to the
exclusion of Elias from his thoughts for ever.

"Sir," he said