n and on to infinity.

They had stood side by side on its high ridge, with their eyes looking
towards the plain below, the historic plain which once held the capital
of the world. The plain of Thebes reached to the river, and across the
river lay gay Luxor, with its lights and the luxuries of modern
civilization.

Their walk was finished. It had drawn them still closer together. The
solitude of the Sahara, with its sense of Divinity, had established a
new link in their sympathies; it had created a feeling between them
similar to that which is the outcome of two people having been together
through strenuous and trying circumstances. They had, as usual, spoken
very little; yet they were conscious of having enjoyed each other's
society intensely and in the best possible manner, the enjoyment of
complete understanding.

Earlier in the evening, when Michael asked her to go for a walk,
because Freddy was absorbed in some business letters, he had made the
proposal in his habitual way.

"May I come and keep silence with you to-night in the great Sahara?"

And Meg had said, "Yes, do. You know, we really talk to each other all
the time--my mind has so much more the gift of speech than my tongue."

And so their silence had been as golden as the sand at their feet,
which under Egypt's moon never pales.

Freddy was only too glad that Michael had "cottoned on to Meg," as he
expressed it--in fact, he was extremely pleased, for Meg would drive
"the other woman" out of his thoughts, and if anything should come of
it--well, Mike was one of the very best; Meg could not have a better
husband.

But so far no such thought had entered Mike's head, nor yet Margaret's.
She was too interested and busy in her new life to think of love; she
was only conscious of living as she had never lived before, and as she
would have asked to live if she had possessed a wishing-ring. Every
hour and minute of her days were a delight. To be with her best "pal"
Freddy in Egypt seemed too good to be true, and added to that, there
was this unexpected pleasure, the friendship and companionship of the
nicest man she had ever met. His rather "drifting" temperament and
nature appealed to her as it appealed to Freddy, for the very reason,
perhaps, that keenly sensitive as she was and susceptible to her
surroundings, her nature and brains were of a practical order. She was
not imaginative or moody.

She loved to listen to Michael's vivid, unpractical,