Now we'll go indoors. You haven't an idea
what the house is like yet. By the way, I nearly forgot this chap."
He put his hand into the pocket of his grey flannel coat, and pulled out
a green frog, wrapped in a lettuce leaf which was inadequate as a
garment, but a perfect match as to colour.
"I bought him on the way down to meet you," Nevill explained. "Saw an
Arab kid trying to sell him in the street, poor little beast. Thought it
would be a friendly act to bring him here to join my happy family, which
is large and varied. I don't remember anybody living in this fountain
who's likely to eat him, or be eaten by him."
Down went the frog on the wide rim of the marble fountain, and sat
there, meditatively, with a dawning expression of contentment, so
Stephen fancied, on his green face. He looked, Stephen thought, as if he
were trying to forget a troubled past, and as if his new home with all
its unexplored mysteries of reeds and lily pads were wondrously to his
liking.
"I wish you'd name that person after me," said Stephen. "You're being
very good to both of us,--taking us out of Hades into Paradise."
"Come along in," was Nevill Caird's only answer. But he walked into the
house with his hand on Stephen's shoulder.
IX
Djenan El Djouad was a labyrinth. Stephen Knight abandoned all attempt
at keeping a mental clue before he had reached the drawing-room. Nevill
led him there by way of many tile-paved corridors, lit by hanging Arab
lamps suspended from roofs of arabesqued cedar-wood.
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