"So I am afraid I will have to take
her back without her consent."
"If you do, Hamdi Effendi," said Pasquale in a light tone of
conversation, but with the ugliest snarl of the lips that I have
ever beheld, "I shall most certainly kill you."
Hamdi turned to him with a polite bow.
"Ah, it is Monsieur Pasquale. I thought I recognised you."
"You have every reason to do so," said Pasquale.
"I saved you from prison."
"You accepted a bribe."
"For heaven's sake," cried Judith, "go on speaking in low voices,
or we shall have a scene here."
One or two idlers hung near with an air of curiosity and the huge
beuniformed commissionaire watched us with an uncertain eye. I
kept a tight hold of Carlotta and drew her more behind the screen
of a palm near which we happened to stand.
"Madame is right," said Hamdi. "We can discuss this little
affair like gentlemen."
"Then, in the most gentlemanly way in the world," said Pasquale,
"I swear to you that if you touch this young lady, I will kill
you."
"It appears, to be Monsieur," said the obese Turk with a graceful
wave of the hand in my direction, "and not you, who has robbed my
home of its treasure, unless," he added, and I shall always
remember the hideous leer of that pulpy-nosed and small-pox
pitted face, "unless Monsieur has relieved you of your
responsibilities.
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