e they handed to the guests, and each guest took a branch with the
right hand and a citron with the left. The conversation of Besso with
Elias Laurella had been broken by their entrance, and a few minutes
afterwards, the master of the house, looking about, held up his branch,
shook it with a rustling sound, and immediately Eva was at his side.

The daughter of Besso wore a vest of white silk, fitting close to her
shape and descending to her knees; it was buttoned with large diamonds
and restrained by a girdle of pearls; anklets of brilliants peeped
also, every now and then, from beneath her large Mamlouk trousers of
rose-coloured silk that fell over her slippers, powdered with diamonds.
Over her vest she wore the Syrian jacket, made of cherry-coloured
velvet, its open arms and back richly embroidered, though these were
now much concealed by her outer pelisse, a brocade of India, massy with
gold, and yet relieved from heaviness by the brilliancy of its light
blue tint and the dazzling fantasy of its pattern. This was loosely
bound round her waist by a Moorish scarf of the colour of a blood-red
orange, and bordered with a broad fringe of precious stones. Her
head-dress was of the same fashion as when we first met her in the kiosk
of Bethany, except that, on this occasion, her Syrian cap on the back
of her head was covered only with diamonds, and only with diamonds was
braided her long dark hair.

'They will never come,' said Besso to his daughter. 'It was one of his
freaks. We will not wait.'

'I am sure, my father, they will come,' said Eva, earnestly. And indeed,
at this very moment, as she stood at his side, holding in one hand her
palm branch, which was reposing on her bosom, and in the other her fresh
citron, the servants appeared again, ushering in two guests who had just
arrived. One was quite a stranger, a young man dressed in the European
fashion; the other was recognised at once by all present as the Emir of
Canobia.

CHAPTER XLVII.

_The Feast of Tabernacles_

EVA had withdrawn from her father to her former remote position, the
moment that she had recognised the two friends, and was, therefore,
not in hearing when her father received them, and said, 'Welcome, noble
stranger! the noble Emir here, to whom a thousand welcomes, told me that
you would not be averse from joining a festival of my people.'

'I would seize any opportunity to pay my respects to you,' replied
Tancred; 'but this occasion