"I'm sorry you awoke me, Selim," said the master enigmatically. Selim drew back, dismayed. "You drove her away." Selim's eyes blinked with bewilderment. "I'm afraid she'll never come back."
"Excellency!" trembled on the lips of the mystified servant.
"Ah, me!" sighed the master resignedly. "She smiled so divinely. Henner girls never smile, do they, Selim? Have you noticed that they are always pensive? Perhaps you haven't. It doesn't matter. But this one smiled. I say," coming back to earth, "have they begun to distil the water? I've got a frightful thirst."
"Yes, excellency. The Sahib Browne is at work. One of the servants became sick to-day. Now no one is drinking the water. Baillo is bringing in ice from the storehouses and melting it, but the supply is not large. Sahib Browne will not let them make any more ice at present." Nothing more was said until Chase was ready for his rolls and coffee. Then Selim asked hesitatingly, "Excellency, what is a bounder? Mr. Browne says----"
"I believe I did call him a bounder," interrupted Chase reminiscently. "I spoke hastily and I'll give him a chance to demand an explanation. He'll want it, because he's an American. A bounder, Selim? Well," closing one eye and looking out of the window calculatingly, "a bounder is a fellow who keeps up an acquaintance with you by persistently dunning you for money that you've owed to him for four or five years. Any one who annoys you is a bounder."
Selim turned this over in his mind for some time, but the puzzled air did not lift from his face.
"Excellency, you will take Selim to live with you in Paris?" he said after a while wistfully. "I will be your slave."
"Paris? Who the dickens said anything about Paris?" demanded Chase, startled.
"Neenah says you will go there to live, sahib."
"Um—um," mused Chase; "what does she know about it?"