The King's Talisman — page 83: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

74 THE KINGS TALISMAN. fluence, led him back to confidence. When his son was yet scarcely able to walk, Abdah Nazor had strangely offered his services as tutor, and had even then given directions for his first childish developments, though it was several years later that he assumed a complete guardianship. ‘One thing alone puzzled the corn-seller more than all others. Though Abdah Nazor pretended to read the youth’s destiny, like a scroll, and though he fashioned his mind and body for that destiny, as an artisan would fit a lens for its appropriate sphere in the telescope, yet he would never let a word drop from his lips that might reveal his knowledge or his purpose to other ears. Long after the old man left the dwelling, did Ali Kinah pace to and fro in his room, pondering upon these cir- cumstances, and at length, when he had become somewhat calm and composed from reflection, he sought his pillow for the night. ? As Abdah Nazor stepped forth from the corn-seller’s dwelling, he stopped for a moment on the pavement and cast his eye toward the spot where the gilded turrets and domes of the royal palace lifted themselves in the starbeams. He shook his head with a mournful but yet significant motion, as he gazed upon the glittering pile, and raising his finger toward Heaven, he murmured: *“Ah, thou false-hearted king—thou craven, coward heart! Must the city of Idumea’s pride—the queen of the rocky desert, with her thousands of noble souls and brave, be humbled in the dust, because thou art acoward? Sit there upon your throne; let the flattering tongues of thy slaves sound music in thine ears, but oh, there is a God who will not long suffer thee thus to be. Beware, Modad, for the hour draweth near when judgment shall come upon thee, most certain and most fearful!” Slowly the old man turned away, and having crossed the small stream by means of a bridge which was thrown across Gomicbooks (E(@)