“Don’t faint,” he said, sternly, yet in such a low voice that she alone heard it, and she recalled her wandering wits and rose slowly from the seat where she had sunk down. With trembling hands she turned over the pedlar’s stock, and commented on it with lips quivering with agitation. It was a tremendous effort, but she was nerved to it by the sound of Azim Bey’s voice at the other end of the verandah. “You see I remembered what you said, and came as a Christian this time,” said Charlie, in a hurried whisper, while he held up a pair of scissors for her inspection. Cecil gave him a look of agony. She dared not speak to him, dared not even let him touch her hand again, and it was misery that they should be so close and yet so widely separated. It was almost a relief when Azim Bey came to complete his purchases by buying a pair of scissors for old Ayesha, for even Charlie would not venture to address her when her pupil was so near. Again the thought of his danger made her turn sick and faint, and she sat down on the divan and listened to the details of the bargaining as though in a dream. At last Azim Bey had chosen all he wanted, the money was paid down, and Mrs Howard White told the servant to show the pedlar out. Cecil breathed freely once more. She had not heard the words which Azim Bey whispered to the negro lad who was officially known as his slipper-bearer. “Keep those men in sight, and bring me word of whatever they do. If they leave the town without my hearing of it, it shall be upon thy head.” “Upon my head be it, O my lord,” said the boy, and departed; while Cecil, unsuspecting, though sick at heart and racked with anxiety, accompanied her pupil back to the house of Said Bey. * * * * * * * “O, my mistress, here is the Christian pedlar again,” said Habib to Mrs Howard White early the next morning. “Bring him in,” said the lady, with evident displeasure; and as soon as the order had been obeyed, and Habib was gone, she turned on Charlie. “Well, Dr Egerton, I hope you are satisfied. You have given poor Miss Anstruther a terrible fright, and probably made her miserable for weeks; and you ought to be now on your way to Baghdad, where, you assured me, you would go as soon as you had caught a glimpse of her.” “But I am not going to Baghdad,” said Charlie. “Then I shall simply write to Sir Dugald Haigh and tell him everything,” said Mrs Howard White, angrily. “Listen to me a moment,” said Charlie. “I was fully intending to start at sunrise this very morning; but last night I was talking to some of Said Bey’s servants, and I hear that the Pasha is to be accompanied on this journey by Karalampi, the Greek of whom I have told you. I cannot, and will not, leave Miss Anstruther exposed to his machinations.”