He lived at Djenan el Hadj; close to the
Jardin d'Essai. You know the place well. The new rich Americans, Madame
Jewett and her daughter, have it now. There was a scandal about Ben
Halim, and then he went away--a scandal that was mysterious, because
every one talked about it, yet no one knew what had happened--never
surely at least."
"I told you Mademoiselle would be able to give you information!"
exclaimed Nevill. "I felt sure the name was familiar, somehow, though I
couldn't think how. One hears so many Arab names, and generally there's
a 'Ben' or a 'Bou' something or other, if from the South."
"Flan-ben-Flan," laughed Jeanne Soubise. "That means," she explained,
turning to Stephen, "So and So, son of So and So. It is strange, a young
lady came inquiring about Ben Halim only yesterday afternoon; such a
pretty young lady. I was surprised, but she said they had told her in
her hotel I knew everything that had ever happened in Algiers. A nice
compliment to my age. I am not so old as that! But," she added, with a
frank smile, "all the hotels and guides expect commissions when they
send people to me. I suppose they thought this pretty girl fair game,
and that once in my place she would buy. So she did. She bought a string
of amber beads. She liked the gold light in them, and said it seemed as
if she might see a vision of something or some one she wanted to find,
if she gazed through the beads. Many a good Mussulman has said his
prayers with them, if that could bring her luck.
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