The room vibrated with the thunder of his fury as he placed both feet
on the book and glared about him.

"I know," said Jill as she read the message over the old woman's
shoulder. "She has gone to my son. To his tents in the desert." She
spoke quietly and with a certain dignity and authority which checked
all questions. "He will take her straight to me. Shall we go back to
Khargegh, or shall I go to them, to his tents?" There was no sign of
the triumph in the mother-heart at the thought of the happiness which
was to come to her first-born; neither had she a single thought for the
others.

A mother's love is the most surpassing of all loves; it is the eighth
wonder of the world; it is a mystery before which that of the Sphinx
shrinks to insignificance; it is the one love which asks for so very
little in return for all it gives.

Blessed, sanctified refuge against all harm!

Five minutes of quick discussion; rapid weighing of the pros and cons
as to the best way to keep from the ears that which would serve as a
whetstone to the tongues of the scandalmongers; a sharp, clear
understanding and decision.

The manager of the hotel salaamed deeply in the doorway before the
high-born women, and showed no surprise at the tale--which he believed,
perhaps--of Miss Hethencourt, who had gone to meet her grace and having
undoubtedly mixed up instructions, had either gone up to Kulla to meet
her, crossing her on the river, or had crossed to the other side,
thinking, as her grace had suggested doing, that the return from Kulla
would be made by camel on the far side of the Nile.

Good gracious! no. He had long since given up showing or feeling
surprise at anything any of the great white races might elect to do.
He had harboured them for several winters in his hotel, you see.

Certainly everything should be ready in the quickest possible time. A
hamper and some brandy; the boat; and upon the other side the swiftest
camel from the hotel stables for her Excellency the wife of the Sheikh
el-Umbar; the swiftest men to carry a litter--ah! two litters, as her
grace's maid would join in the search. Not Miss Coop; she was staying
behind, of course, to have everything in readiness for Miss
Hethencourt, who would doubtless be very tired and a little frightened.

"There is nothing to fear," he added. "Nobody has ever really been
lost in Egypt, and as Miss Hethencourt will not want a crowd of friends
to meet her on her safe return