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Show to Dr'Anya, "Talk not to the noble Armand thus! Armand be kind and good. Dr.'Anya looked at the girl in surprise and not a little pity. But Armand whirled around immediately, slapped the girl soundly across the face, and pushed her roughly away- "Be still, thou Seljuk dolt!" he hissed. "Thou knowest naught of the matter!" He had pushed Hoqqam's sister backward and, wide-eyed with shock and hurt, she stumbled, tried to right herself, and then fell. Naught but Janni, standing stock still amongst the shadows, seemed to hear the sickening thud when the girl fell, for Armand had gone right back to shouting. Marry, what shall I do? thought Janni, since she knew she should not have been standing there eavesdropping at all, and she craned her neck in the darkness in order to see Hoqqam's sister who was lying quite still by the cold frames. "And bethink thee, woman-what Doctor has sense enough to run anything?" her father was saying. "Doctors! Indeed, they are worth naught., .naught at all! What thinkest t h o u . . . ? What t h i n k e s t . . . ? " The man had worked himself into a frenzy and was fair gasping for breath. Just then, a slight movement of the ion flare gave Janni a fair look at Hoqqam's sister who was lying with her head near the stone foundation of the cold frames-and the poor maid was deathly still. Janni cast all caution away and ran from the shadows into the light, shouting the whilst- "Quick, quick! Lookest thou, my Mother, at Hoqqam's sister!" The two adults were astounded. Armand had stopped his tirade in midsentence and Dr'Anya stared at her young daughter, following with her eyes the child's path into the quivering circle of light and toward the 222 |