"
"I've brought Mr. Knight, not to buy, but to ask a favour," said Nevill.
"To buy, too," Stephen hastened to cut in. "I see things I can't live
without. I must own them."
"Well, don't set your heart on anything Mademoiselle Soubise won't sell.
She bought everything with the idea of selling it, she admits, but now
she's got them here, there are some things she can't make up her mind to
part with at any price."
"Oh, only a few tiles--and some Jewish embroideries--and bits of
jewellery--and a rug or two or a piece of pottery--and maybe _one_ copy
of the Koran, and a beggar's bowl," Jeanne Soubise excused herself,
hastily adding more and more to her list of exceptions, as her eyes
roved wistfully among her treasures. "Oh, and an amphora just dug up
near Timgad, with Roman oil still inside. It's a beauty. Will you come
down to the cellar to look at it?"
Nevill thanked her, and reserved the pleasure for another time. Then he
inquired what was the latest news from Mademoiselle Josette at Tlemcen;
and when he heard that there was nothing new, he told the lady of the
curiosity-shop what was the object of the early visit.
"But of course I have heard of Ben Halim, and I have seen him, too," she
said; "only it was long ago--maybe ten years. Yes, I could not have been
seventeen. It is already long that he went away from Algiers, no one
knows where. Now he is said to be dead. Have you not heard of him,
Monsieur Nevill? You must have.
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