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Updated: May 5, 2025
In Stamboul it is customary, when a bargain of any importance is completed, for the seller to make the buyer a present of some small object, which is called the backsheesh, or gift. On hearing the offer, Marchetto looked slyly at Gregorios and laughed, without saying anything. Then he slowly began to fold the tapestry together. "Ten pounds," said Balsamides.
Abraham smiled pleasantly, and began to unfold his wares. Before many minutes the sound of angry voices was heard outside. Gregorios had ensconced himself in a corner, whence he could see what went on without being seen. The quarrelers were Marchetto and the Lala. "Dog of a Jew!" screamed the black man in his high, cracked voice. "Will you rob me, and then turn me out of your filthy den?
"They are real English people, and my old friend John Carvel is the patriarch of the establishment. There are maid-servants and men-servants, and more boxes than any house in Pera will hold. The old lady seems perfectly sane again." "Then she will probably die," said Gregorios, reassuringly. "Crazy people almost always have a lucid interval before death." "You take a cheerful view," I observed.
Patoff took the hand Gregorios stretched out towards him in both of his, and would have kissed it had Gregorios allowed him. "God bless you! God bless you!" he repeated fervently. He was evidently still very much shaken, and in order to give him a little strength I handed him a flask of spirits which I had left in the carriage.
"I have heard so," said Gregorios calmly. But in reality he was triumphant. He knew now what had become of Alexander Patoff. The noise outside was rapidly growing to an uproar. Gregorios slipped quickly out of the shop and made his way through the crowd, for he felt that it was time to put a stop to the quarrel.
Gregorios followed Selim into the hall; then, passing under the heavy curtain and through a door which the Lala opened on the other side, he found himself within the precincts of the harem, in a wide vestibule not unlike the one he had just quitted, though more brilliantly lighted, and furnished with low divans covered with pale blue satin.
The Lala turned up his ugly face as Gregorios entered, and then rose from his seat, reluctantly, as though much exhausted. Balsamides laid his hand upon the fellow's arm and looked into his small red eyes. "The Khanum is dead," said the pretended physician. The negro trembled violently, and throwing up his arms would have clapped his hands together. But Balsamides stopped him.
When once the lamps should be lighted the effect would be very pretty, and to the eyes of English people utterly new. Gregorios sat beside me on the garden seat, and we talked of Madame Patoff and her latest doings. My mind was not at rest about her, and I inwardly wished that some accident might prevent her from coming that day.
A tub and a suit of civilized clothes did the rest, even though the latter did not fit him as well as Gregorios had expected. Gregorios is a deceptive man and is larger than he looks, for his coat was too broad for Alexander, and hung loosely over the latter's shoulders and chest.
"It is not impossible, though," I answered. "Nevertheless, if I were acting alone, I would put the matter in the hands of the Russian embassy." "Do you think they would hesitate at any means of getting information, any more than I would?" inquired Gregorios, scornfully. "We shall see," I said. "We must discuss the matter thoroughly before doing anything more.
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