or," he suggested, and he and Jinny stepped outside, back into
the everyday world of Egypt where nothing at all had been happening
but the arrival of a caravan from the excavations.

Within the room Ryder stooped and lifted the girl from the case and
set her lightly on the floor. Ruefully she shook out the torn
chiffons of that French audacity of a robe, and with a whimsical
smile surveyed the soiled little slippers that she had discarded in
her disguise when she had ridden behind the turbaned Ryder upon the
Arab horse.

So little time ago, and yet so long away--

Under her long lashes she looked up at the young man, who had set
the old life crumbling about her at a touch. Wistfulness edged the
brave smile with which she murmured, "And so it is all arranged--so
quick. I am safe--I go to the hotel with that nice girl--"

"And I won't be able to see you," he said suddenly.

"But you have seen me, monsieur, these many days--"

"Seen you? I haven't seen you. I've sat outside a tomb on guard,
I've marched beside a mummy case--and--and we've said so little--"

It was true. They had said little. The hours had been absorbed in
action. Their words had always been of explanation, of reassurance,
of anxious planning. Of the future, the future after safety had been
achieved, they had said nothing. It had all been uncertain,
nebulous, vague....

And now it was upon them.

"And I have never said Thank you," she murmured. "I--I think I began
by saying Thank you, monsieur. I remember saying that my education
had proceeded to the Ts!"

"If--if only you never want to unsay it," he muttered. "You don't
know what's ahead--life's so uncertain--"

"No, I do not know what is ahead," she told him, "but I am
free--free for whatever will come."

The brightness of that freedom shone suddenly from her upturned
face.

"Anything is better than that man," she vowed. "Even if my aunt,
that Madame Delcasse, should not like me--you see, I have thought of
everything, and I am not afraid."

"Like you--? She'll love you," said Ryder bitterly. "She'll go mad
over you and give you all she has--she'll marry you to a count--"

"Another marriage?" Aimee raised brows of mockery. "But I am through
with the marriages of convenience--"

"You're so lovely, darling, that you'll have the world at your
feet," said the young man huskily.

He looked at her with eyes that could not hide their pain. "Oh,
I--you--it's not fair--" he muttered incoheren