more try,' he
thought; 'one more--tomorrow somewhere, I'll get to know for certain.
And if I get what Leila's got I shall deserve it, I suppose. Poor Leila!
Where is she? Back at High Constantia?' What was that? A cry--of
terror--in that wood! Crossing to the edge, he called "Coo-ee!" and
stood peering into its darkness. He heard the sound of bushes being
brushed aside, and whistled. A figure came bursting out, almost into his
arms.

"Hallo!" he said; "what's up?"

A voice gasped: "Oh! It's--it's nothing!"

He saw Noel. She had swayed back, and stood about a yard away. He could
dimly see her covering her face with her arms. Feeling instinctively
that she wanted to hide her fright, he said quietly:

"What luck! I was just passing. It's awfully dark."

"I--I got lost; and a man--caught my foot, in there!"

Moved beyond control by the little gulps and gasps of her breathing, he
stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. He held her lightly,
without speaking, terrified lest he should wound her pride.

"I-I got in there," she gasped, "and the trees--and I stumbled over a
roan asleep, and he--"

"Yes, Yes, I know," he murmured, as if to a child. She had dropped her
arms now, and he could see her face, with eyes unnaturally dilated, and
lips quivering. Then moved again beyond control, he drew her so close
that he could feel the throbbing of her heart, and put his lips to her
forehead all wet with heat. She closed her eyes, gave a little choke,
and buried her face against his coat.

"There, there, my darling!" he kept on saying. "There, there, my
darling!" He could feel the snuggling of her cheek against his shoulder.
He had got her--had got her! He was somehow certain that she would not
draw back now. And in the wonder and ecstasy of that thought, all the
world above her head, the stars in their courses, the wood which had
frightened her, seemed miracles of beauty and fitness. By such fortune
as had never come to man, he had got her! And he murmured over and over
again:

"I love you!" She was resting perfectly quiet against him, while her
heart ceased gradually to beat so fast. He could feel her cheek rubbing
against his coat of Harris tweed. Suddenly she sniffed at it, and
whispered:

"It smells good."

VI

When summer sun has burned all Egypt, the white man looks eagerly each
day for evening, whose rose-coloured veil melts opalescent into the dun
drift, of the hill