istened in the
light, as the torrent of his words, in the Egyptian tongue, swept about
her like a flood.

"Hast thou come to me in love, thou dove from the nest? Nay, what
knowest thou of love? I ask it not of thee--yet--but the seed I shall
plant within thee shall grow in the passing of the days and the nights
and the months and the years, until it is as a grove of perfumed flowers
which shall change to golden fruit ready to the plucking of my hand."

He pressed her little hands back against her breast so that the light
fell full upon her face, and held her thus-wise, watching the colour rise
and fade.

"Allah!" he whispered. "Allah! God of all, what have I done to deserve
such signs of Thy great goodness? Wilt love me?" He laughed gently.
"Canst thou look into mine eyes and shake thy golden head which shall be
pillowed upon my heart--my wife--the mother of my children? Look at me!
Look at me! Ah! thine eyes, which were as the pools of Lebanon at night,
are as a sun-kissed sea of love. Thou know'st it not, but love is within
thee--for me, thy master."

And was there not truth in what he said? May there not have been love in
the heart of the girl?

Not, maybe, the love which stands sweet and sturdy like the stocky
hyacinth, to bloom afresh, no matter how often the flowers be struck, or
the leaves be bruised, from the humdrum bulb deep in the soil of quiet
content. But the God-given, iridescent love of youth for youth, with its
passion so swift, so sweet; a love like the rose-bud which hangs
half-closed over the door in the dawn; which is wide-flung to the sun at
noon; which scatters its petals at dusk.

The rose!

She has filled your days with the memory of her fragrance; her leaves
still scent the night from out the sealed crystal vase which is your
heart.

But, an' you would attain the priceless boon of peace, see to it that a
humdrum bulb be planted in the brown flower-pot which is your home.

And because of this God-given love of youth which was causing her heart
to thud and the blood to race through her veins, she did not withdraw her
hands when he held and kissed them and pressed his forehead upon them.

"Lotus-flower," he whispered so that she could scarcely hear. "Bud of
innocence! ivory tower of womanhood! temple of love! Beloved, beloved, I
am at thy feet." And he knelt and kissed the little feet in the heelless
little slippers; then, rising, took both her hands and led her to the
do