Part 26 (2/2)
It happened, however, that Tsamanni washe had consu smiles and profound salaams included also her servants
There was none in all the world of whoreasy eunuch Ayoub-el-Saait and fat, supercilious lips
It ritten, too, that in the courtyard of the Kasbah he should stumble upon Ayoub, who indeed had by his mistress's commands been set to watch for the wazeer The fat fellow rolled forward, his hands supporting his paunch, his little eyes agleam
”Allah increase thy health, Tsa ”Thou bearest news?”
”News? What news?” quoth Tsaladden thy mistress”
”Merciful Allah! What now? Doth it concern that Frankish slave-girl?”
Tsaround he trod was beco insecure; it followed that if his mistress fell from influence he fell with her, and became as the dust upon Tsamanni's slippers
”By the Koran thou tremblest, Ayoub!” Tsa; and well it ”
”Dost deride er
”Callest ? Thou?” Deliberately Tsamanni spat upon his shadow ”Go tell thy irl
Tell her that my lord will take her to wife, even as he took Fenzileh, that he may lead her into the True Belief and cheat Shaitan of so fair a jewel Add that I ah she cost e, O father of wind, and one, lithe, active, and hters become harlots,” roared the eunuch, maddened at once by this evil news and the insult hich it was accohed, as he answered him over his shoulder--
”May thy sons be sultans all, Ayoub!”
Quivering still with a rage that entirely obliterated his alarm at what he had learnt, Ayoub rolled into the presence of his e
She listened to hi her lord and the slave-girl in a breath, and called upon Allah to break their bones and blacken their faces and rot their flesh with all the fervour of one born and bred in the True Faith When she recovered froth she sprang up and bade Ayoub see that none lurked to listen about the doorways
”We must act, Ayoub, and act swiftly, or I am destroyed and with ainst his father's face Sakr-el-Bahr will traht ”By Allah it ht hither that white-faced wench But we must thwart him and we must thwart Asad, or thou art ruined too, Ayoub”
”Thwart hiy of mind and body hich this woman was endowed, the like of which he had never seen in any woman yet ”Thwart hiirl beyond his reach”
”That is well thought--but how?”
”How? Can thy wit suggest no way? Hast thou wits at all in that fat head of thine? Thou shalt outbid Tsamanni, or, better still, set soirl for me Then we'll contrive that she shall vanish quietly and quickly before Asad can discover a trace of her”
His face blanched, and the wattles about his jaere shaking ”And
and the cost? Hast thou counted the cost, O Fenzileh? What will happen when Asad gains knowledge of this thing?”
”He shall gain no knowledge of it,” she answered hione beyond recall, he shall sub hi his bunches of fat fingers ”I dare not engage in this!”
”Engage in what? If I bid thee go buy this girl, and give thee the ? What else is to be done, a man shall do Come now, thou shalt have the money, all I have, which is a matter of some fifteen hundred philips, and what is not laid out upon this purchase thou shalt retain for thyself”