e condemned her unheard.
Many, having looked into her lovely eyes, had they found there what I
found, must have forgiven her almost any crime.

That she valued human life but little was no matter for wonder. Her
nationality--her history--furnished adequate excuse for an attitude not
condonable in a European equally cultured.

But indeed let me confess that hers was a nature incomprehensible to me
in some respects. The soul of Karamaneh was a closed book to my
short-sighted Western eyes. But the body of Karamaneh was exquisite;
her beauty of a kind that was a key to the most extravagant rhapsodies
of Eastern poets. Her eyes held a challenge wholly Oriental in its
appeal; her lips, even in repose, were a taunt. And, herein, East is
West and West is East.

Finally, despite her lurid history, despite the scornful
self-possession of which I knew her capable, she was an unprotected
girl--in years, I believe, a mere child--whom Fate had cast in my way.
At her request, we had booked passages for her brother and herself to
Egypt. The boat sailed in three days. But Karamaneh's beautiful eyes
were sad; often I detected tears on the black lashes. Shall I endeavor
to describe my own tumultuous, conflicting emotions? It would be
useless, since I know it to be impossible. For in those dark eyes
burned a fire I might not see; those silken lashes veiled a message I
dared not read.

Nayland Smith was not blind to the facts of the complicated situation.
I can truthfully assert that he was the only man of my acquaintance
who, having come in contact with Karamaneh, had kept his head.

We endeavored to divert her mind from the recent tragedies by a round
of amusements, though with poor Weymouth's body still at the mercy of
unknown waters Smith and I made but a poor show of gayety; and I took a
gloomy pride in the admiration which our lovely companion everywhere
excited. I learned, in those days, how rare a thing in nature is a
really beautiful woman.

One afternoon we found ourselves at an exhibition of water colors in
Bond Street. Karamaneh was intensely interested in the subjects of the
drawings--which were entirely Egyptian. As usual, she furnished matter
for comment amongst the other visitors, as did the boy, Aziz, her
brother, anew upon the world from his living grave in the house of Dr.
Fu-Manchu.

Suddenly Aziz clutched at his sister's arm, whispering rapidly in
Arabic. I saw her peachlike color fade; saw her be