on the empty air, and breathing rapid and audible breath. And
now, at this last word of Israel, though so sadly spoken, and so solemn
in its note of suffering, she broke into a trill of laughter, and said
lightly, "Ah! I thought your love of the poor was young. Not yet cut its
teeth, poor thing! A babe in swaddling clothes, eh? When was it born?"

"About the time that you were, madam," said Israel, lifting his heavy
eyes upon her.

At that her lighter mood gave place to quick anger. "Husband," she
cried, turning upon Ben Aboo with the bitterness of reproach, "I hope
you now see that I was right about this insolent old man. I told you
from the first what would come of him. But no, you would have your own
foolish way. It was easy to see that the devil's dues were in him. Yet
you would not believe me! You would believe him. Simpleton as you are,
you are believing him now! The poor? Fiddle-faddle and fiddlesticks! I
tell you again this man is trying to put his foot on your neck. How? Oh,
trust him, he's got his own schemes! Look to it, El Arby, look to it!
He'll be master in Tetuan yet!"

Saying this, she had wrought herself up to a pitch of wrath, sometimes
laughing wildly, and then speaking in a voice that was like an angry
cry. And now, rising to her feet and facing towards the Arab soldiers,
who stood aside in silence and wonder, she cried, "Arabs, Berbers,
Moors, Christians, fight as you will, follow the Basha as you may,
you'll lie in the same bed yet! But where? Under the heels of the Jew!"

A hoarse murmur ran from lip to lip among the men, and the ghostly smile
came back into the face of Ben Aboo.

"You must be right," he said, "you must be right! Ya Allah! Ya Allah!
This is the dog that I picked out of the mire. I found him a beggar, and
I gave him wealth. An impostor, a personator, a cheat, and I gave him
place and rank. When he had no home, I housed him, and when he could
find no one to serve him, I gave him slaves. I have banished his
enemies, and imprisoned those he hated. After his wife had died, and
none came near him, and he was left to howk out her grave with his own
hands, I gave him prisoners to bury her, and when he was done with them
I set them free. All these years I have heaped fortune upon him. Ya
Allah! His master! No, but his servant, doing his will at the lifting of
his finger. And all for what? For this! For this! For this! Ingrate!" he
cried in his thick voice, turning hotly upon Israel aga