The Golden Silence

en's balcony, waked him early, and dreamily his thou

or she had accepted Lady MacGregor's invitation. Her note had been brought in last night, while he and Nevill walked in the garden. Afterwards Lady MacGregor had show

m, which was one of Nevill's modern improvements in the old house, and by and by went for a walk, thinking to have the gardens to himsel

a stranger. Of course they feel the difference! Why, they know when I praise them, and preen themselves. They curl up when they're scolded,

shaded streets, where masses of bougainvill?a and clematis boiled over high garden-walls of old plaster, once white, now streaked with gold and rose,

eum in its garden,

elle Soubise's sh

the windows on the ground-floor; and these were protected by green persiennes, fanned out like awnings, although the house was shaded

door, out of the shadowy dusk, a blaze of colour leaped to the eyes. Not a soul was there, unless some one hid and spied behind a carved and gilded

ere hung with Tunisian silks and embroidered stuffs from the homes of Jewish families, where they had served as screens for talismanic words too sacred to be seen by common eyes; and there was drapery of ancient banners, Tyrian-

dust, adorned with lucky rings and fetishes to preserve the wearer from evil spirits. There were other bowls, of crystal pure as full-blown bubbles, bowls which would ring at a tap like clear bells of s

fingers, after Arab dinners, eaten without knives or forks. In the depths of half-open drawers glimmered precious stones, strangely cut pink

rans. It was difficult to move without knocking something down, and one stepped delicately in narrow aisles, to avoid islands of piled, precious objects. Everywhere the eye was drawn to glittering points, or patches of splendid colour; so that at a glance the large, dusky room was like a temple

d steal?" asked Stephen, in surp

the poor. And because, if there were one so mean, Haroun el Raschid would soon let her know what was going on,"

cage, shaped like a domed palace. In this cage, in a coral ring, sat a grey parrot

s is out," Nevill explained. "I am an humble friend of His Maj

light tapping of heels on unseen stairs, and from behind a red

. It was the frank and daring expression of her face and great black eyes which gave the look of boyishness. She had thick, straight eyebrows,

at was pretty, though not Parisian. She smiled at Stephen, too, without waiting to be introduced.

, not to buy, but to ask

to cut in. "I see things I can't

ght everything with the idea of selling it, she admits, but now she's got them h

d a beggar's bowl," Jeanne Soubise excused herself, hastily adding more and more to her list of exceptions, as her eyes roved wistfully among her t

the latest news from Mademoiselle Josette at Tlemcen; and when he heard that there was n

nows where. Now he is said to be dead. Have you not heard of him, Monsieur Nevill? You must have. He lived at Djenan el Hadj; close to the Jardin d'Essai. You know the place well. The new rich Americans, Madame Jewe

t sure the name was familiar, somehow, though I couldn't think how. One hears so many Ara

everything that had ever happened in Algiers. A nice compliment to my age. I am not so old as that! But," she added, with a frank smile, "all the hotels and guides expect commissions when they send people to me. I suppose they thought this pretty girl fair game, and that once in my place she woul

men looked a

you her name?"

American. And she told me other things. Her sister, she said, married a Captain Ben Halim of the

come. We didn't know she'd already been to you, but we might ha

aid Stephen. "She

knows. Probably no one ever did know, otherwise gossip would have leaked out. The man may have been jealous of her. You see, I have Arab acquaintances. I go to visit ladies in the harems sometimes, and I hear s

have shut her up?" asked Ne

have shut her up-with

never thought of that possibility. She says he promis

ly families who take but one wife. And he would not tell her if he had already looked at another woman. He would

out that," su

uld ask them, though they are polite. As for you, if you ask men, French or Arab, you will learn nothing. The French would not know. The Arabs, if they did, would not tell. They m

try!" Stephe

faults than others," said Nevill, de

that drove Ben Halim aw

d horse. I believe he had been to Paris before the scandal. What he did afterwards no one can say. But I could not tell Mees Ray what I had heard of that scandal any more than

or-would you rather not talk of

afterwards, and her husband killed himself. Ben Halim had not been considered a good officer before. He was too fond of pleasure, and a mad gambler; so

lgiers. Ben Halim sold his house and everything in it to a Frenchman who went bankrupt soon after.

h you would call oft

h" in Algerian society. And he was in love with a teacher of Arab children far away in Tlemcen, a girl "po

l Miss Ray?" Nevi

uld you? Oh, and I thought of one more thing, when she had gone, which I might have mentioned. But perhaps there is nothing in it. All the rest of the day I was busy with many customers, so I was tired at night, otherwise I would have sent a note to her hotel. And this morning since six I have been hurry

sentence, but Stephen was more impatient than Nevill to know w

tells of her home life to my sister. One thing she did was to serve a beautiful foreign lady in the house of a rich Arab. She was only a child then, not more than thirteen, for such girls grow up early; but she has always thought about that lady, who was good to her, and very sad. Mouni told Josette she had n

s friend, and not at Jeanne Soubise. But she raised her eyebrows, then drew them together, and her frank manner changed. Wi

be a propitious moment to choose such curios as he wished to buy. In a few moments Mademoiselle Soubise wa

nything about Miss Ray's sister as Ben Halim's wife," he said to Nevill w

s he spoke, those blue eyes which seemed at all times to see something that others could not see. And again the sense of an intangible, illusive, yet very real