Pipes and cigarettes smoldered, unsmoked; all eyes turned eagerly toward the Master and Bara Miyan.

Silence fell upon the banquet-hall, where still the thin, perfumed incense-smoke writhed aloft and where still the motionless Maghrabi men stood in those ominous lines along the silk-tapestried walls.
"And what things," began the Olema, "doth thy heart desire, in this city of Jannati Shahr?
Tell thy wish, and perchance it shall be granted thee!" The Master paused, deliberately.

Well he understood the psychological value of slow action in dealing with Orientals.

Bargaining, with such, is a fine art.

Haste, greed, eagerness defeat themselves.
Contemplatively the Master chewed a khat leaf, then smiled a very little, and asked: "Is it permitted to tell thee that this gold, of which thou hast carved thy city--this gold which to thee is as stones and earth to the people of Feringistan--hath great value with us ?" "It is permitted, O Frank.