I picked him from the street." Nahoum smiled.

There was no malice in the smile, only, as it might seem, a frank humour.

"Ah, your Excellency used independent judgment.

Thou art a judge of men.

But does it make any difference that the man is a thief and a murderer--a murderer ?" David's eyes darkened, as they were wont to do when he was moved or shocked.
"Shall one only deal, then, with those who have neither stolen nor slain--is that the rule of the just in Egypt ?" Nahoum raised his eyes to the ceiling as though in amiable inquiry, and began to finger a string of beads as a nun might tell her paternosters.
"If that were the rule," he answered, after a moment, "how should any man be served in Egypt?
Hereabouts is a man's life held cheap, else I had not been thy guest to-night; and Kaid's Palace itself would be empty, if every man in it must be honest.