“If you do, Hamdi Effendi,” said Pasquale in a light tone of conversation, but with the ugliest snarl of the lips that I have ever beheld, “I shall most certainly kill you.”
Hamdi turned to him with a polite bow.
“Ah, it is Monsieur Pasquale. I thought I recognised you.”
“You have every reason to do so,” said Pasquale.
“I saved you from prison.”
“You accepted a bribe.”
“For heaven’s sake,” cried Judith, “go on speaking in low voices, or we shall have a scene here.”
One or two idlers hung near with an air of curiosity and the huge beuniformed commissionaire watched us with an uncertain eye. I kept a tight hold of Carlotta and drew her more behind the screen of a palm near which we happened to stand.
“Madame is right,” said Hamdi. “We can discuss this little affair like gentlemen.”
“Then, in the most gentlemanly way in the world,” said Pasquale, “I swear to you that if you touch this young lady, I will kill you.”