“Save that your lips lack the thickness, and your nose is straighter than those of Nubians, no one would doubt but that you were one of that race; and this is of little consequence, as many of them are of mixed blood, and, though retaining their dark colour, have features that in their outline resemble those of the Arabs.  Now I will take you to Ben Ibyn, so that he may judge whether any further change is required before the servants and slaves see you.”

“That is excellent,” the merchant said, when he had carefully inspected Gervaise, “I should pass you myself without recognizing you.  Now you can take him into the servants’ quarters, Muley, and tell them that he is a new slave whom I have purchased, and that henceforth it will be his duty to wait upon my wife, to whom I have presented him as her special attendant, and that he will accompany her and my daughters when they go abroad to make their purchases or visit their friends.  Give some reason, if you can think of one, why you have bestowed him in a chamber separate from the rest.”

Gervaise at once took up his new duties, and an hour later, carrying a basket, followed them into the town.  It was strange to him thus to be walking among the fanatical Moors, who, had they known the damage that he had inflicted upon their galleys, would have torn him in pieces.  None gave him, however, more than a passing look.  Nubian slaves were no uncommon sight in the town, and in wealthy Moorish families were commonly employed in places of trust, and especially as attendants in the harems.  The ladies were now as closely veiled as the Moorish women, it being only in the house that they followed the Berber customs.  Gervaise had learnt from Muley that Ben Ibyn was one of the richest merchants in Tripoli, trading direct with Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople, besides carrying on a large trade with the Berber tribes in the interior.  He returned to the house with his basket full of provisions, and having handed these over to the cook, he went to the private apartments, as Khadja had requested him to do.  Here she and her daughters asked him innumerable questions as to his country and its customs, and then about Rhodes and the Order to which he belonged.  Their surprise was great when they heard that the knights were bound to celibacy.

“But why should they not marry if they like?  Why should they not have wives, children, and homes like other people?” Khadja asked.

“It is that they may devote their whole lives to their work.  Their home is the convent at Rhodes, or at one of the commanderies scattered over Europe, where they take charge of the estates of the Order.”

“But why should they not marry then, Gervaise?  At Rhodes there might be danger for women and children, but when they return to Europe to take charge of the estates, surely they would do their duty no worse for having wives?”

Gervaise smiled.

“I did not make the rules of the Order, lady, but I have thought myself that although, so long as they are doing military work at the convent, it is well that they should not marry, yet there is no good reason why, when established in commanderies at home, they should not, like other knights and nobles, marry if it so pleases them.”