The glow heightened
her beauty, effacing the weariness which the face had worn.
"Bring her forth," said the Basha shortly.
She was seized by two of the negroes, and to avoid being roughly handled
by them she came at once, bracing herself to bear with dignity whatever
might await her. A golden-haired young man beside her, his face haggard
and stubbled with a beard of some growth, looked up in alarm as she was
taken from his side. Then, with a groan, he made as if to clutch her,
but a rod fell upon his raised arms and beat them down.
Asad was thoughtful. It was Fenzileh who had bidden him come look at
the infidel maid whom Sakr-el-Bahr had risked so much to snatch from
England, suggesting that in her he would behold some proof of the bad
faith which she was forever urging against the corsair leader. He
beheld the woman, but he discovered about her no such signs as Fenzileh
had suggested he must find, nor indeed did he look for any. Out of
curiosity had he obeyed her prompting. But that and all else were
forgotten now in the contemplation of this noble ensample of Northern
womanhood, statuesque almost in her terrible restraint.
He put forth a hand to touch her arm, and she drew it back as if his
fingers were of fire.
He sighed. "How inscrutable are the ways of Allah, that He should
suffer so luscious a fruit to hang from the foul tree of infidelity!"
Tsamanni watching him craftily, a master-sycophant profoundly learned in
the art of playing upon his master's moods, made answer:
"Even so perchance that a Faithful of the Prophet's House may pluck it.
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