ever about Arabia, faith,
war, and angels; but, if you touch on anything personal, I observe he
is always very shy. He has not my fatal frankness. Did you know him at
Jerusalem?'

'I met him by hazard for a moment at Bethany. I neither asked then,
nor did he impart to me, his name. How then could I tell you we were
acquainted? or be aware that the stranger of my casual interview was
this young Englishman whom you have made a captive?'

'Hush!' said Fakredeen, with an air of real or affected alarm. 'He
is going to be my guest at my principal castle. What do you mean by
captive? You mean whom I have saved from captivity, or am about to save?

'Well, that would appear to be the real question to which you ought
to address yourself at this moment,' said Eva. 'Were I you, I should
postpone the great Asian movement until you had disembarrassed yourself
from your present position, rather an equivocal one both for a patriot
and a friend.'

'Oh! I'll manage the great Sheikh,' said Fakredeen, carelessly. 'There
is too much plunder in the future for Amalek to quarrel with me. When
he scents the possibility of the Bedouin cavalry being poured into Syria
and Asia Minor, we shall find him more manageable. The only thing now
is to heal the present disappointment by extenuating circumstances. If
I could screw up a few thousand piastres for backsheesh,' and he looked
Eva in the face, 'or could put anything in his way! What do you think,
Eva?'

Eva shook her head.

'What an obstinate Jew dog he is!' said Fakre-deen. 'His rapacity is
revolting!'

'An obstinate Jew dog!' exclaimed Eva, rising, her eyes flashing, her
nostrils dilating with contemptuous rage. The manner of Fakredeen had
not pleased her this morning. His temper, was very uncertain, and, when
crossed, he was deficient in delicacy. Indeed, he was too selfish,
with all his sensibility and refined breeding, to be ever sufficiently
considerate of the feelings of others. He was piqued also that he had
not been informed of the previous acquaintance of Eva and Tancred. Her
reason for not apprising him of their interview at Bethany, though not
easily impugnable, was not as satisfactory to his understanding as to
his ear. Again, his mind and heart were so absorbed at this moment by
the image of Tancred, and he was so entirely under the influence of his
own idealised conceptions of his new and latest friend, that, according
to his custom, no other being could interest him. Altho