d
this is Mr. Wenlock, a passenger of mine, who heard that you were
English, and has come to put you in the way of some property at home."

The lady sat more upright, and set back her great shoulders. "I am
English," she said. "I was called in the Giaour faith Teresa Anderson."

"That's the name," said Kettle. "Mr. Wenlock's come to take you away to
step into a nice thing at home."

"I am Emir here. Am I asked to be Emir in your country?"

"Why, no," said Kettle; "that job's filled already, and we aren't
thinking of making a change. Our present Emir in England (who, by the
way, is a lady like yourself) seems to suit us very well. No, you'll be
an ordinary small-potato citizen, like everybody else, and you will
probably find it a bit of a change."

"I do not onderstand," said the woman. "I have not spoke your language
since I was child. Speak what you say again."

"I'll leave it to Mr. Wenlock, your Majesty, if you've no objections, as
he's the party mostly interested; and if you'd ask one of your young men
to bring me a long drink and a chair, I'll be obliged. It's been a hot
walk up here. I see you don't mind smoke," he added, and lit a cheroot.

Now, it was clear from the attitude of the guards and the civilians
present, that Kettle was jostling heavily upon court etiquette, and at
first the Lady Emir was very clearly inclined to resent it, and had
sharp orders for repression ready upon her lips. But she changed her
mind, perhaps through some memory that by blood she was related to this
nonchalant race; and presently cushions were brought, on which Captain
Kettle bestowed himself tailor-fashion (with his back cautiously up
against a wall), and then a negro slave knelt before him and offered
sweet sticky sherbet, which he drank with a wry face.

But in the mean while Mr. Wenlock was stating his case with small
forensic eloquence. The sight of Miss Teresa Anderson in the flesh awed
him. He had pictured to himself some slim, quiet exile, perhaps a little
gauche and timid, but at any rate amenable to instruction and to his
will. He had forgotten the developing power of tropical suns. The woman
before him, whose actual age was twenty-nine, looked fifty, and even for
a desperate man like himself was impossible as a wife in England.

He felt daunted before her already. It flashed through his mind that it
was she who had ordered those grisly heads to be stuck above the
water-gate, and he heartily wished himself away