She spoke slowly and lazily, pausing between her phrases, and turning her eyes to him now and then without moving her head; and her talk amused him much more than that of European women, though it was so very simple, like that of a gifted child brought suddenly to a new country, or to see a fairy pantomime.
'Tell me,' he said after a time, 'if it were the portion of Kralinsky to be gathered to his fathers before you saw him, what would you do?'
Baraka now turned not only her eyes to him but her face.
'Why do you ask me this? Is it because he is dead, and you are afraid to tell me?'
'He was alive this morning,' Logotheti answered, 'and he is a strong man. But the strong die sometimes suddenly, by accident if not of a fever.'
'It is emptiness,' said Baraka, still looking at him. 'He will not die before I see him.'
'Allah forbid! But if such a thing happened, should [{386}] you wish to go back to your own people? Or would you learn to speak the Frank and live in Europe?'
'If he were dead, which may Allah avert,' Baraka answered calmly, 'I think I would ask you to find me a husband.'
'Ah!' Logotheti could not repress the little exclamation of surprise.
'Yes. It is a shame for a woman not to be married. Am I an evil sight, or poor, that I should go down to the grave childless? Or is there any reproach upon me? Therefore I would ask you for a husband, because I have no other friend but only you among the Feringhis. But if you would not, I would go to Constantinople again, and to the Persian merchant's house, and I would say to his wife: "Get me a husband, for I am not a cripple, nor a monster, nor is there any reproach upon me, and why should I go childless?" Moreover, I would say to the merchant's wife: "Behold, I have great wealth, and I will have a rich husband, and one who is young and pleasing to me, and who will not take another wife; and if you bring me such a man, for whatsoever his riches may be, I will pay you five per cent."'