She looked at him, at first puzzled, then with a frown. It leaped to
her lips, grown impatient with suffering, to tell him all that she had
evolved of the histories of himself, his lady and of Hesper; but there
seemed to be an element of recklessness in that which threatened to do
away with a means for her success. He did not wait for her answer.
"And I," he said with mock intensity, "am done to death with
weariness--with my moneyer, this lady of mine. Let us be diverted
while we live, for by the signs we shall all die soon."
"Where," he began when her mind wandered entirely from him, "dost thou
think the mysterious man hath taken my other wife?
"I would I knew," he continued, conducting his inquiry alone. "It will
be right simple to have her beauty spoiled in this hungry town, unless
he takes tenderest care of her."
There was still no comment, but the lively sparkle in the Greek's eye
showed that he had touched upon a jealous spot.
"And by the by," he pursued, "what does this stranger, whom I can not
remember having known, look like? A villain?"
She answered now in a voice filled with rancor.
"Win away the girl from him and thou wilt know thyself to be the
better man; but study how much he hath outstripped thee and thou shalt
decide for thyself, then, that he is handsomer, more winsome, stronger
and more profitable. Describe him for thyself."
"Out upon you! How irritable misfortune makes most of us! Now, here is
my lady. She would fail to see the humor in my fetching back this
pretty impostor. Alas! Were I Deucalion or Pyrrha or whoever else it
was that repeopled the world, I should have left jealousy out of the
make-up of wives. It is a needless element. It gives them no pleasure,
and Jove! how inconvenient it is for husbands! Now, I am not jealous
of my wife. In fact, had any man the hardihood to supplant me, I
should not discourage him; I should not, by my soul!"
"Why," she burst out again, irritated beyond control at his manner,
"do you not leave this place?"
He swung his foot idly and smiled.
"I shall when I can take with me this dear pretty impostor who is so
determined to have me," he answered lightly.
"Will you?" she asked eagerly. "Is that why you remain?"
"And for my lady's dowry. She keeps the key. But had I the girl
cloaked and hooded for flight, I might go, even without the treasure.
The times are precarious, you observe."
She rose almost precipitately and hurried over to the swaying curtain
of some heavy white material like samite, covering that which appeared
to be a blind arch in the wall. She drew the hanging aside. It had
hidden the black mouth of a tunnel, closed by a brass wicket which was
locked.