Part 39 (1/2)

But fro True, Sakr-el-Bahr ed Yet was it not inevitable that the stroke which laid him low must wound her on its repercussion? That was the question to which now she sought an answer For all her eagerness to speed the corsair to his dooh the consequences to herself; she had not overlooked the circumstance that an inevitable result of this irl But at the ti to remove Sakr-el-Bahr definitely and finally from her son's path--which shows that, after all, Fenzileh the mother was capable of some self-sacrifice She comforted herself noith the reflection that the influence, whose waning she feared ht be occasioned by the introduction of a rival into Asad's hareeer be so vitally necessary to herself and Marzak once Sakr-el-Bahr were removed

The rest , and the present state of things left her uneasy, her rasp could not encompass all her desires at once, it seeratification of one, she must bewail the frustration of another Yet in the ainer

In this state of ely joyous and entirely selfish babblings of her cub, who cared little what ht betide his mother as the price of the removal of that hated rival fro but profit in the business, no cause for anything but satisfaction; and that satisfaction he voiced with a fine contes

Anon they witnessed Asad's return They saw the janissaries coe the sloith steps that dragged a little, his head sunk upon his breast, his hands behind hi or carrying the girl he had gone to fetch

But they waited in vain, intrigued and uneasy

They heard the harsh voice in which Asad disate; and they saw hiht, ever in that attitude of dejection

What had happened? Had he killed theirl resisted him to such an extent that he had lost all patience and in one of those rages begotten of such resistance made an end of her?

Thus did Fenzileh question herself, and since she could not doubt but that Sakr-el-Bahr was slain, she concluded that the resther, she sulean from Abdul Mohktar the tale of what had passed In his own hatred of Sakr-el-Bahr, Ayoub illingly enough and hoping for the worst He returned disappointed, with a tale that sowed dismay in Fenzileh and Marzak

Fenzileh, however, made a swift recovery After all, it was the best that could have happened It should not be difficult to transmute that obvious dejection of Asad's into resent Sakr-el-Bahr And so the thing could be accomplished without jeopardy to her own place at Asad's side For it was inconceivable that he should now take Rosamund to his hareem

Already the fact that she had been paraded with naked face a the Faithful must in itself have been a difficult obstacle to his pride But it was utterly impossible that he could so subject his self-respect to his desire as to take to himself a woman who had been the wife of his servant

Fenzileh saw her way very clearly It was through Asad's devoutness--as she herself had advised, though scarcely expecting such rich results as these--that he had been thwarted by Sakr-el-Bahr That same devoutnessup a flimsy silken veil, she went out to hi, alone there in the tepid-scented suraceful, questing movements of a cat, and sat there a moment unheeded alainst his shoulder

”Lord of ” Her voice was in itself a soft and soothing caress

He started, and she caught the gleam of his eyes turned suddenly upon her

”Who told thee so?” he asked suspiciously

”My heart,” she answered, her voice ht?” she wooed him ”Is happiness possible to me when thou art downcast? In there I felt thy melancholy, and thy need of me, and I am come to share thy burden, or to bear it all for thee” Her arers interlocked themselves upon his shoulder

He looked down at her, and his expression softened He needed comfort, and never was she more welcome to him

Gradually and with infinite skill she drew froathered it, she loosed her indignation

”The dog!” she cried ”The faithless, ungrateful hound! Yet have I warned thee against hiht of s uttered by my love Now at last thou knowest hier Thou'lt cast hiain to the dust from which thy bounty raised hiloohed wearily He was just, and he had a conscience, as odd a thing as it ard in a corsair Basha

”In what hath befallen,” he answeredaside the stoutest soldier of Islam My duty to Allah will not suffer it”

”Yet his duty to thee suffered him to thwart thee, O my lord,” she reminded him very softly

”In my desires--ay!” he answered, and for a moment his voice quivered with passion Then he repressed it, and continuedoverwhele me to sacrifice the bravest soldier of Isla down upona e of scorpions unto the infidel--and all this that I e the thwarting of a petty desire?”

”Dost thou still say, O my life, that Sakr-el-Bahr is the stoutest champion of the Prophet's law?” she asked him softly, yet on a note of amazement

”It is not I that say it, but his deeds,” he answered sullenly