put in a word, he rolled his big eyes so that only the whites remained
visible; but when he turned them on Orion, their small, black pupils
transfixed him with a keen and, as the young man thought, exceedingly
sinister glare.

The presence of this man oppressed him; he had heard of his base origin,
which to Orion's lofty ideas rendered him contemptible, of his fierce
valor, and remarkable shrewdness; and though he did not understand what
Obada said, more than once there was something in the man's tone that
brought the blood into his face and made him set his teeth. The more
kindly and delightful the effect of the Arab's speech and manner, the
more irritating and repulsive was his subordinate; and Orion was
conscious that he would have expressed himself more freely, and have
replied more candidly to many questions, if he had been alone with Amru.

At first his host made enquiries as to his residence in Constantinople
and asked much about his father; and he seemed to take great interest in
all he heard till Obada interrupted Orion, in the midst of a sentence,
with an enquiry addressed to his superior. Amru hastily answered him in
Arabic and soon after gave a fresh turn to the conversation.

The Vekeel had asked why Amru allowed that Egyptian boy to chatter so
much before settling the matter about which he had sent for him, and his
master had replied that a man is best entertained when he has most
opportunity given him for hearing himself talk; that moreover the young
man was well-informed, and that all he had to say was interesting and
important.

The Moslems drank nothing; Orion was served with capital wine, but he
took very little, and at length Amru began to speak of his father's
funeral, alluding to the Patriarch's hostility, and adding that he had
talked with him that morning and had been surprised at the marked
antagonism he had confessed towards his deceased fellow-believer, who
seemed formerly to have been his friend. Then Orion spoke out; he
explained fully what the reasons were that had moved the Patriarch to
display such conspicuous and far-reaching animosity towards his father.
All that Benjamin cared for was to stand clear in the eyes of Christendom
of the reproach of having abandoned a Christian land to conquerors who
were what Christians termed "infidels" and his aim at present was to put
his father forward as the man wholly and solely responsible for the
supremacy of the Moslems in the land.

"True,