Send for him. He is an Arab, and, if he thinks his interests
are bound up with ours, he will speak."
Abdullah, surveying the conclave from afar, had arrived at an opinion
that justified this estimate. His first words shed light on a dark
place in the records of the two men who were lying side by side in the
safe keeping of the desert. His command of French rendered conversation
easy, except to Stump, and he was quite explicit.
"Madam is beautiful, is it not?" he said, indicating Mrs. Haxton's tent
by a graceful gesture "Seven years ago, she was the most beautiful
woman in Egypt. Her husband should not have brought her here. By
Mahomet, Egypt is no place for the good-looking wife of a poor man.
That is the cause of all the trouble, messieurs. Elegant birds require
glided cages, and Monsieur Hasten had not money enough. I met them
first in Massowah, where she lived in the hotel, while her husband went
up and down the Red Sea in a ship. Alfieri was there, and he also was
poor, but he ruined himself in trying to win her away from Monsieur
Haxton.
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