Beads of sweat were glistening upon the heavy features of the Count d'Eblis. Von-der-Goltz Pasha, strolling near, did him the honour to remember him, but d'Eblis seemed dazed and unresponsive; and the old Pasha understood, perhaps, when he caught the beady and expressive eyes of Ferez fixed on him in exultation.
"Whose is she?" demanded d'Eblis abruptly. His voice was hoarse and evidently out of control, for he spoke too loudly to please Ferez, who took him by the arm and led him out to the moonlit terrace.
"Mon pauvere ami," he said soothingly, "she is actually the propertee of nobodee at present. Cyril, they say, is following her--quite ready for anything--marriage----"
"That is the gosseep. No doubt som' man of wealth, more acceptable to her----"
"Ask yo'self the question again! Excellenz and his guests have gone quite mad ovaire Nihla----"
"I care nothing for them," retorted d'Eblis thickly; "I wish to know her.... I wish to know her!... _Do you understand?_"
After a silence, Ferez turned in the moonlight and looked at the Count d'Eblis.
"And your newspapaire--_Le Mot d'Ordre_?"
"You sell to me for two million francs the control stock in _Le Mot d'Ordre_?"
"I shall use my influence with Gerhardt. That is all I can do. If your Emperor chooses to decorate him--something--the Red Eagle, third class, perhaps----"
"I attend to those," smiled Ferez. "Hit's ver' fonny, d'Eblis, how I am thinking about those Red Eagles all time since I know Gerhardt. I spik to Von-der-Goltz de votre part, si vous le voulez? Oui? Alors----"
The Count d'Eblis said through closed teeth:
"There is the first woman I ever really wanted in all my life!... I am standing here now waiting for her--waiting to be presented to her now."
"I spik to Von-der-Goltz Pasha," said Ferez; and he slipped through the palms and orange trees and vanished.
For half an hour the Count d'Eblis stood there, motionless in the moonlight.
She came about that time, on the arm of Ferez Bey, her father's friend of many years.
And Ferez left her there in the creamy Turkish moonlight on the flowering terrace, alone with the Count d'Eblis.
When Ferez came again, long after midnight, with Excellenz on one arm and the proud and happy Adolf Gerhardt on the other, the whole cycle of a little drama had been played to a conclusion between those two shadowy figures under the flowering almonds on the terrace--between this slender, dark-eyed girl and this big, bulky, heavy-visaged man of the world.