nt, a chill
creeping up about her heart--like a rising tide....

"You are a flower upon a height," he said, and his tones were soft
again and gently caressing, "laughing at others because you know you
are so high above them, and so proud. The blue of the skies is in
your eyes, and the gold of the sun in your hair. You have a beauty
that is too bright to be endured--it burns a man's heart like a
flame.... It was never meant to shine in a common field. It must be
guarded, revered, adored--a princess upon a height----"

"You have an Oriental imagination," said Arlee Beecher, and prayed
God her voice did not tremble. "I must ask you not to pay me such
compliments while I am your guest."

"No?... Why not?"

"They--are embarrassing."

"Embarrassment is an emotion rare to find among your ladies--it is
the dewy bloom upon your own perfect innocence.... Ah, I wish you
spoke my language! I could tell you many things----"

"Your English is excellent," said the white-faced girl. "Did you
learn it at Oxford or before?"

He did not pause for such foolish questionings. "Why do you not wish
me to tell you what you are?" he said reproachfully. "Is it because
you doubt that I mean it?"

"Because I am not used to such compliments--and I would rather not
hear them now. I am your guest and I am very tired. I must go in."

It was very dark in the garden. And it was still and unutterably
lonely. Only the stars burned above them in the heavens; only the
light wind of the desert stirred. From the far distance the muffled
beat of the tom-tom sounded. Surely, thought Arlee, surely she was
dreaming.... This could not be Arlee Beecher, here with this
man--this Turk.

"I must go in," she repeated, with a heightening of assurance.

As he looked down at her for a moment that chill dread seemed to
lay its icy hands on her very heart as she glimpsed something of the
tumult within his eyes. She had a vision of him as a man capable of
all, reckless, impassioned, poised upon the brink of some desperate
plunge.... Then the hands of consequences seemed to lay compelling
hold upon him; the fire was extinguished; the vision gone like a
mirage. His eyes were friendly, his lips smiling, as he bowed to
her, in deferential courtesy, to all appearances a gentleman of her
world.

"I must not tire my guest," he said, and stood aside to let her pass
up the narrow stone steps.

"We shall have other walks," he added, and the chill, delicate
menace of