aid. She doesn't understand my ways."

"Or she understands them too well," said Baroudi calmly, "When she is
gone, I shall burn the alum upon the coals and give it to be eaten by a
dog that is black. That girl has the evil eye."

XX

In the lodge in the garden of oranges, when the noon-tide was past and
the land lay in the very centre of the gaze of the sun, Baroudi offered
to Mrs. Armine an Egyptian dinner, or El-Ghada, served on a round tray
of shining gold, which was set upon a low stool cased with
tortoise-shell and ornamented with many small squares of
mother-of-pearl. When she and Baroudi came into the room where they were
to eat, the tray was already in its place, set out with white silk
napkins, with rounds of yellow bread, and with limes cut into slices.
The walls were hung with silks of shimmering green, and dull gold, and
deep and sultry red. Upon the floor were strewn some more of the
marvellous rugs, of which Baroudi seemed to have an unlimited supply.
Round the room was the usual deep divan. Incense burned in a corner.
Through a large window space, from which the hanging shutters were
partially pushed back, Mrs. Armine saw a vista of motionless
orange-trees.

She sat down on a pile of silken cushions which had been laid for her on
the rugs. As she arranged her skirt and settled herself, from an earthen
drum just outside the house and an arghool there came a crude sound of
native music, to which almost immediately added itself a high and
quavering voice, singing:

"_Doos ya' lellee! Doos ya' lellee!_"

At the same moment Aiyoub came into the room, without noise, and handed
to Baroudi, who was sitting opposite to Mrs. Armine, with his left knee
touching the rug and his right knee raised with his napkin laid over it,
a basin of hammered brass with a cover, and a brass jug. Baroudi held
forth his hands, and Aiyoub poured water upon them, which disappeared
into the basin through holes pierced in the cover. Then, making a cup of
his hands turned upwards, Baroudi received more water into it, conveyed
it to his mouth, rinsed his mouth elaborately, and spat out the water
upon the cover of the basin. Aiyoub carried away the basin and jug,
Baroudi dried his hands on his napkin, and then muttered a word. It was
"Bi-smi-llah!" but Mrs. Armine did not know that. She sat quite still,
for a moment unseen, unthought of; she listened to the quavering voice,
to the beaten drum and arghool, she smelt the incens