A tangled black beard hung wisplike from the dirty _chuddah_ that draped his head, and above it two eyes, fevered and furtive, peered strangely forth.
The salaam completed, the intruder straightened himself as far as his infirmity would permit, and in a moment spoke in the weak accents of an old, old man.

"Will his most gracious excellency be pleased to permit one who is as the dust beneath his feet to speak in his presence words which only he may hear ?" It was the whine of the Hindu beggar, halting, supplicatory, almost revoltingly servile.

Stella shuddered with disgust.

The whole episode was so utterly out of place in that moonlit paradise.

But Dacre's curiosity was evidently aroused.