"Did I not command that none should enter ?" he asked presently in a thick voice.
"Am I not thy physician, Effendina, to whom be the undying years?
When the Effendina is sick, shall I not heal?
Have I not waited like a dog at thy door these many years, till that time would come when none could heal thee save Sharif ?" "What canst thou give me ?" "What the infidel physician gave thee not--I can give thee hope.

Hast thou done well, oh, Effendina, to turn from thine own people?
Did not thine own father, and did not Mehemet Ali, live to a good age?
Who were their physicians?
My father and I, and my father's father, and his father's father." "Thou canst cure me altogether ?" asked Kaid hesitatingly.
"Wilt thou not have faith in one of thine own race?
Will the infidel love thee as do we, who are thy children and thy brothers, who are to thee as a nail driven in the wall, not to be moved?
Thou shalt live--Inshallah, thou shalt have healing and length of days!" He paused at a gesture from Kaid, for a slave had entered and stood waiting.
"What dost thou here?
Wert thou not commanded ?" asked Kaid.
"Effendina, Claridge Pasha is waiting," was the reply.
Kaid frowned, hesitated; then, with a sudden resolve, made a gesture of dismissal to Sharif Bey, and nodded David's admittance to the slave.
As David entered, he passed Sharif Bey, and something in the look on the Arab physician's face--a secret malignancy and triumph--struck him strangely.

And now a fresh anxiety and apprehension rose in his mind as he glanced at Kaid.

The eye was heavy and gloomy, the face was clouded, the lips once so ready to smile at him were sullen and smileless now.
David stood still, waiting.
"I did not expect thee till to-morrow, Saadat," said Kaid moodily at last.
"The business is urgent ?" "Effendina," said David, with every nerve at tension, yet with outward self-control, "I have to report--" He paused, agitated; then, in a firm voice, he told of the disaster which had befallen the cotton-mills and the steamer.
As David spoke, Kaid's face grew darker, his fingers fumbled vaguely with the linen of the loose white robe he wore.

When the tale was finished he sat for a moment apparently stunned by the news, then he burst out fiercely: "Bismillah, am I to hear only black words to-day?
Hast thou naught to say but this--the fortune of Egypt burned to ashes!" David held back the quick retort that came to his tongue.
"Half my fortune is in the ashes," he answered with dignity.