‘This is your doing, woman! Are you not afraid?’
“What of it?” she answered, sullenly; “can I help it if I am pretty, and men fight for me? Also, who are you who ask me whether I am afraid?”
“Fool!” cried the barber from the doorstep; “do you dare to speak thus to the Lord of the Heart?”
The girl started, and replied:
“Why not? Is he then my lord?”
“Listen, girl!” I said; “others besides these have died through you.”
“How do you know that?” she answered. “But what need to ask? If you are the Lord of the Heart you have the evil eye, and can read secrets without their being discovered to you.”
“It is you that have the evil eye, woman, like many another of your sex!” I said. “Hear me, now: you will leave this place, and you will never return to it, for if you do, you die! Also, remember that if harm should come to any more men on your account, wherever you go I shall know of it, and you will die there!”
“Whoever you are, you are not the Government, and have no right to kill me,” she said, trying to hide the fear which crept into her dark eyes.