With a sudden movement, Aylmer sat up. A frown and a gesture of command warded back Daoud's outstretched hand.
"Art thou my servant?" he cried, and the Moor spread out his palms in alert assent.
"Of a surety, Sidi, but the dispenser of medicines--"
"What have I to do with medicines--I, a strong man with no more than a bruised skull? Give me my clothes!"
"My clothes, or return instantly to the gutter from which my favor yesterday lifted you!"
"If Allah has written it that you are to die by the weapon of thine own obstinacy, oh, Sidi, He has written it. This is thy shirt."
With an accustomedness which spoke of previous practice, he presided over his master's toilet. He fetched water, honed a razor, shaved Aylmer with deftness and despatch, produced trousers from a press, handed coat and waistcoat brushed and folded to the last pinnacle of neatness. It was as he laced the boots that he looked up inquiringly and put a question which had been obviously hanging upon his lips since the moment of his master's rising.
"And what, oh, Sidi, are your intentions now?"
"First, to see my host. Afterwards," he made a vague gesture, "afterwards, my friend, I shall act as is directed by your perpetual gossip--Fate!"
"May Allah direct our councils!" aspired Daoud, piously. "Lean upon me, Sidi! There is no need to overtax thy returning strength!"
But Aylmer leaned upon nothing. Slowly, but walking erect, he paced across the wide entrance hall, and then halted, indeterminate.
The hangings across a door opposite him were drawn aside. Claire Van Arlen stood confronting him, her lips parted in amazement.
"You!" she protested breathlessly. "You!"
"Myself," he said quietly. "I must present my excuses for an ... intrusion which it was not within my power to prevent."
"When you were wounded in our service!" she cried. "When you were doing your best for us!"
"No," he said. "I am working, I shall go on working, for myself. I should like that to be clear."
She half turned away with a little startled motion and the ghost of a frown. Words trembled on her lips and were thrust back. She understood, and would have sought, at any other time, this opportunity to make things clear indeed, but ... the man was wounded ... serving her and hers. No, for the moment the opportunity must go by.