costume, which was unrelieved by any color save at the waist,
where a gleam of scarlet was shown in the sash which helped to
fasten a murderous-looking dagger and other "correct" weapons of
attack to his belt. He entered the hall with a swift and
singularly light step, and made straight for Denzil Murray.

"Ah! here you are!" he said, speaking English with a slight
foreign accent, which was more agreeable to the ear than
otherwise. "But, my excellent boy, what magnificence! A Medici
costume! Never say to me that you are not vain; you are as
conscious of your good looks as any pretty woman. Behold me, how
simple and unobtrusive I am!"

He laughed, and Murray sprang up from the chair where he had been
despondently reclining.

"Oh, come, I like that!" he exclaimed. "Simple and unobtrusive!
Why everybody is staring at you now as if you had dropped from the
moon! You cannot be Armand Gervase and simple and unobtrusive at
the same time!"

"Why not?" demanded Gervase, lightly. "Fame is capricious, and her
trumpet is not loud enough to be heard all over the world at once.
The venerable proprietor of the dirty bazaar where I managed to
purchase these charming articles of Bedouin costume had never
heard of me in his life. Miserable man! He does not know what he
has missed!"

Here his flashing black eyes lit suddenly on Dr. Dean, who was
"studying" him in the same sort of pertinacious way in which that