battle and the excitement of carnage, is almost equally applicable to
their physical constitution; for if, like women of good blood, they have
small extremities, slender limbs, fine and supple forms, this delicate
and often charming exterior always covers muscles of steel, full of an
elasticity, and vigor truly masculine. Djalma's oblong eyes, like black
diamonds set in bluish mother-of-pearl, wandered mechanically from the
exotic flowers to the ceiling; from time to time he raised the amber
mouthpiece of the hookah to his lips; then, after a slow aspiration, half
opening his rosy lips, strongly contrasted with the shining enamel of his
teeth, he sent forth a little spiral line of smoke, freshly scented by
the rose-water through which it had passed.

"Shall I put more tobacco in the hookah?" said the kneeling figure,
turning towards Djalma, and revealing the marked and sinister features of
Faringhea the Strangler.

The young prince remained dumb, either that, from an oriental contempt
for certain races, he disdained to answer the half-caste, or that,
absorbed in his reverie, he did not even hear him. The Strangler became
again silent; crouching cross-legged upon the carpet, with his elbows
resting on his knees, and his chin upon his hands, he kept his eyes fixed
on Djalma, and seemed to await the reply or the orders of him whose sire
had been surnamed the Father of the Generous. How had Faringhea, the
sanguinary worshipper of Bowanee, the Divinity of Murder, been brought to
seek or to accept such humble functions? How came this man, possessed of
no vulgar talents, whose passionate eloquence and ferocious energy had
recruited many assassins for the service of the Good Work, to resign
himself to so base a condition? Why, too, had this man, who, profiting by
the young prince's blindness with regard to himself, might have so easily
sacrificed him as an offering to Bowanee--why had he spared the life of