TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
penciled brows and a forehead that denoted an intelligence that was belied by neither her eyes, her manner, nor her speech, “I am glad that you like my name, but I do not understand why I should be glad. You say that you are a barbarian. Your appearance and your manner are those of a patrician, though perhaps you are overbold with a young woman you have never met before, but that I ascribe to the ignorance of the barbarian and so I forgive it.”
“Being a barbarian has its compensations,” laughed von Harben, “and perhaps I am a barbarian. I may be again forgiven if I say you are quite the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and the only one—I—could—,” he hesitated.
“You could what?” she demanded.
“Even a barbarian should not dare to say what I was about to say to one whom I have known scarce half a dozen minutes.”
“Whoever you may be, you show rare discrimination,” came in a sarcastic tone in a man’s voice directly behind von Harben.
The girl looked up in surprise and von Harben wheeled about simultaneously, for neither had been aware of the presence of another. Facing him von Harben saw a short, dark, greasy-looking young man in an elaborate tunic, his hand resting upon the hilt of the short sword that hung at his hip. There was a sarcastic sneer upon the face of the newcomer.
“Who is your barbarian friend, Favonia?” he demanded.
“This is Erich von Harben, a guest in the home of Septimus Favonius, my father,” replied the girl, haughtily; and to von Harben, “This is Fulvus Fupus, who accepts the hospitality of Septimus Favonius so often that he feels free to criticize another guest.”
Fupus flushed. “I apologize,” he said, “but one may never know when to honor or when to ridicule one of Septimus Favonius’s guests of honor. The last, if I recall correctly, was an ape, and before that there was a black barbarian from some outer village—but they are always interesting and I am sure that the barbarian, Erich von Harben, will prove no exception to the rule.” The man’s tone was sarcastic and ob-
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