“Would it seem strange to you if I did hesitate—if even now—”
“Yes,” he interrupted violently, “it would seem strange to me.”
“Why?”
“You would rely on an Arab and not rely upon me,” he said with intense bitterness.
“I did not say so.”
“Yet at first you wished to keep Batouch.”
“Yes.”
“Then——”
“Batouch is my attendant.”
“And I? Perhaps I am nothing but a man whom you distrust; whom—whom others tell you to think ill of.”