carefully inspected
Gervaise, "I should pass you myself without recognizing you. Now you can
take him into the servants' quarters, Muley, and tell them that he is a
new slave whom I have purchased, and that henceforth it will be his
duty to wait upon my wife, to whom I have presented him as her special
attendant, and that he will accompany her and my daughters when they go
abroad to make their purchases or visit their friends. Give some reason,
if you can think of one, why you have bestowed him in a chamber separate
from the rest."

Gervaise at once took up his new duties, and an hour later, carrying a
basket, followed them into the town. It was strange to him thus to be
walking among the fanatical Moors, who, had they known the damage that
he had inflicted upon their galleys, would have torn him in pieces.
None gave him, however, more than a passing look. Nubian slaves were
no uncommon sight in the town, and in wealthy Moorish families were
commonly employed in places of trust, and especially as attendants in
the harems. The ladies were now as closely veiled as the Moorish women,
it being only in the house that they followed the Berber customs.
Gervaise had learnt from Muley that Ben Ibyn was one of the
richest merchants in Tripoli, trading direct with Egypt, Syria, and
Constantinople, besides carrying on a large trade with the Berber
tribes in the interior. He returned to the house with his basket full
of provisions, and having handed these over to the cook, he went to the
private apartments, as Khadja had requested him to do. Here she and
her daughters asked him innumerable questions as to his country and its
customs, and then about Rhodes and the Order to which he belonged.
Their surprise was great when they heard that the knights were bound to
celibacy.

"But why should they not marry if they like? Why should they not have
wives, children, and homes like other people?" Khadja asked.

"It is that they may devote their whole lives to their work. Their home
is the convent at Rhodes, or at one of the commanderies scattered over
Europe, where they take charge of the estates of the Order."

"But why should they not marry then, Gervaise? At Rhodes there might be
danger for women and children, but when they return to Europe to take
charge of the estates, surely they would do their duty no worse for
having wives?"

Gervaise smiled.

"I did not make the rules of the Order, lady, but I have thought myself
that althou