‘Sir,’ she asked, by habit, ‘is this true?’ ‘It is quite true,’ said the Old Man.  ’In proof of it regard his hand, which one of my Assassins, the survivor, has brought me.’  He drew from his bosom a pale hand, and would have laid it in Jehane’s lap if she had let him.  As she would not, he placed it beside him on the floor.  Pursuing his discourse, he said—­

’I might fairly claim my reward for that.  And so I should if I had not got it already.’

Again Jehane pondered him gravely.  ‘What reward more have you, sire?’

The Old Man, smiling very wisely, pressed her waist.  Jehane thought.

‘Why, what will you do with me now, sire?’ she inquired.  ’Will you kill me?’

‘Can you ask?’ said the Old Man.  Then he went on more seriously to say that he supposed the life of King Richard to be safe for the immediate future, but that he foresaw great difficulties in his way before he could be snug at home.  ’The Marquess of Montferrat was by no means his only enemy,’ he told her.  ’The Melek suffers, what all great men suffer, from the envy of others who are too obviously fools for him to suppose them human creatures.  But there is nothing a fool dislikes so much as to behold his own folly; and as your Melek is a looking-glass for these kind, you may depend upon it they will smudge him if they can.  He is the bravest man in the world, and one of the best rulers; but he has no discretion.  He is too absolute and loves too little.’

Jehane opened her eyes very wide.  ‘Why, do you know my lord, sire?’ she asked.  The Old Man took her hand.

’There are very few personages in the world of whom I do not know something,’ he said; ’and I tell you that there are terms to the Melek’s government.  A man cannot say Yea and Nay as he chooses without paying the price.  The debt on either hand mounts up.  He may choose with whom he will settle—­those he has favoured or those he has denied.  As a rule one finds the former more insatiable.  Let him then beware of his brother.’

Jehane leaned towards him, pleading with eyes and mouth.  ‘Oh, sire,’ she said, trembling at the lips, ’if you have any regard for me, tell me when any danger threatens King Richard.  For then I must leave you.’

‘Why, that is as it may be,’ said her master; ’but I will let you know what I think good for you to know, and that must content you.’

Jehane’s beauty, enhanced as it was now by the sumptuous attire which she loved and by her bodily well-being, was great, and her modesty greater; but her heart was the greatest thing she had.  She raised her eyes again to the twinkling eyes of her possessor, and kept them there for a few steady seconds, while she turned over his words in her mind.  Then she looked down, saying, ’I will certainly stay with you till my lord’s danger is at hand.  It is a good air for my baby.’

‘It is good for all manner of things,’ said the Old Man; ’and remarkably good for you, my Garden of Exhaustless Pleasure.  And I will see to it that it continues to water the roses in your cheeks, beautiful child.’  Jehane folded her hands.