Sheikh hen Nazir gave the necessary order and it was obeyed at once.

The liquid-eyed rascal with the priceless amber necklace then led away the escort, Ahmed included, to some place where they could stall the horses, andside-by-side, lest any question of precedence should be involved, Anazeh and I followed ben Nazir into the house.

Ben Nazir smiled like a prince out of a picture-bookbeautiful white teeth and exquisite benignance.

Ben Nazir took the chair, I suppose, like the considerate host he was, to give me the sensation of receiving in my own room.

" Nevertheless, ben Nazir did not convince me that he was an altruist who had no private ends to serve.

There was an avaricious gleam in ben Nazir's eyes.

For all his care to seem hospitable before any other consideration, ben Nazir looked ill at ease.

" "Is my host, ben Nazir, the man who is talking that way?

" "Has ben Nazir anything to do with it?"

That Nazir is a knowing one.

So I returned to ben Nazir's house, and found old Sheikh Anazeh sitting outside on the step, as motionless as a tobacco-store Indian but twice as picturesque.

Ben Nazir was a man who had traveled a great deal, and picked up western notions of hospitality to add to the inborn eastern sense of sacredness in the relation between host and guest.

" "Then our host ben Nazir is in on your game?" "Not he!

When you told me ben Nazir had invited you, I saw the way to do it.

There wasn't anybody else except Anazeh that ben Nazir could have sent to fetch you, and the old boy is a dependable friend of ours.

Ben Nazir seemed popular.

" He had kept ben Nazir and me standing all this time.

Now he offered me one of the chairs, took the other himself, and motioned ben Nazir to a cushion near the window.

He was at Sheikh ben Nazir's house yesterday.

" Ben Nazir came out with me, in a blazing bad temper.

Mindful of my charge to keep Anazeh sober, and more deadly afraid of it than of all the other risks, I hung about waiting for him, hoping he would arrive before Abdul Ali or ben Nazir.

"So said ben Nazir!

Perhaps my erstwhile host ben Nazir had understood a little German after all.

The next man on his feet was ben Nazir, my erstwhile host, who had repudiated me.

FAD'LADEEN, the great nazir' or chamberlain of Aurungze'bê's harem.