‘There are things that can be done, and there are things that cannot be done.’
‘Let us talk, then, of scammony. But fifteen years ago, when we first met, friend Darkush, you did not say nay to M. de Sidonia. It was the plague alone that stopped us.’
‘The snow on the mountain is not the same snow as fifteen years ago, Effendi. All things change!’
‘Let us talk, then, of scammony. The Ansarey have friends in other lands, but if they will not listen to them, many kind words will be lost. Things also might happen which would make everybody’s shadow longer, but if there be no sun, their shadows cannot be seen.’
Darkush shrugged his shoulders.
‘If the sun of friendship does not illumine me,’ resumed Baroni, ‘I am entirely lost in the bottomless vale. Truly, I would give a thousand piastres if I could save my head by taking the capitani to your mountains.’
‘The princes of Franguestan cannot take off heads,’ observed Darkush. ‘All they can do is to banish you to islands inhabited by demons.’
‘But the capitani of whom I speak is prince of many tails, is the brother of queens. Even the great Queen of the English, they say, is his sister.’
‘He who serves queens may expect backsheesh.’
‘And you serve a queen, Darkush?’