. . .

These are affairs men seldom speak about--seldom write; yet his
experience was one that a multitude of men have felt vaguely at least.
There was a laugh about it, a sense of self-deprecation; but above all,
Skag knew for the sake of the future that he must get himself better in
hand against this incredible pull to the place where she was. It
seemed quite enough to reach the compound or the grass plot and hear
her step.

She was not at the gate. He halted. Malcolm M'Cord was expected home
this day. He might have come. Surely he might give two such rare good
friends a chance to have a chat together . . . in Malcolm's own house,
too. Besides there was no better chance than now for a bit of moral
calisthenics. Skag turned back. No one was very near to note that he
was a bit pale. Still he was laughing. Even Nels, his Great Dane,
would have thought him weird, he reflected. Had Bhanah been along,
there could have been no possible explanation. . . . He was walking
toward the city, but his eyes were called back again. Carlin had come
to the gate. She held up her right arm full and straight--her signal
always, such an impulse of joy in it.

He waved and made a broken sort of gesture toward Hurda, as if he had
forgotten something. Minute by minute he fought them out after
that--sixty of them, ninety of them, good measure, sixty seconds each,
before he started at last to the bungalow again. The sun was low. The
bazaars were but a little distance back, when he met Bhanah and Nels
out for their evening exercise. . . . No, M'Cord-Sahib had not yet
come. . . . Yes, all was quite well with the Hakima, Hantee-Sahiba,
who was reading in the playhouse. . . .

Quite alone. Skag quickened, but repressed himself again. It was
business for contemplation--the way Bhanah had spoken of Carlin as
Hantee Sahiba, after her usual title. . . . He heard the birds. The
great Highway was deserted; the noise of the city all behind. . . . If
he had merely "acknowledged love" so far, as the learned man had
said--what must be the nature of the emotion that would reveal the full
secret to him? Always when his thoughts fled away like this, his steps
seized the advantage and he would find himself in full stride like a
man doing road-work for the ring.

She wasn't at the gate this time. Just now Skag felt the first
coolness of evening, the shadow of the great trees. . . . She did not
come to the gate. His hand touched it