ly, and when he would have kissed her hand she drew back
to the wall. "Touch me not--nay, then, Mahommed, touch me not--"

"Why should I not pay thee honour, thou princess among women? Hast thou
not the brain of a man, and thy beauty, like thy heart, is it not--"

She put out both her hands and spoke sharply. "Enough, my brother," she
said. "Thou hast thy way to great honour. Thou shalt yet have a thousand
feddans of well-watered land and slaves to wait upon thee. Get thee to
the house of Haleel. There shall the blow fall on the head of Achmet,
the blow which was mine to strike, but that Allah stayed my hand that
I might do thee and thy Pasha good, and to give the soul-slayer and the
body-slayer into the hands of Kaid, upon whom be everlasting peace!" Her
voice dropped low. "Thou saidst but now that I had beauty. Is there yet
any beauty in my face?" She lowered her yashmak and looked at him with
burning eyes.

"Thou art altogether beautiful," he answered, "but there is a
strangeness to thy beauty like none I have seen; as if upon the face of
an angel there fell a mist--nay, I have not words to make it plain to
thee."

With a great sigh, and yet with the tenseness gone from her eyes, she
slowly drew the veil up again till only her eyes were visible. "It is
well," she answered. "Now, I have heard that to-morrow night Prince Kaid
will sit in the small court-yard of the blue tiles by the harem to feast
with his friends, ere the army goes into the desert at the next sunrise.
Achmet is bidden to the feast."

"It is so, O beloved!"

"There will be dancers and singers to make the feast worthy?"

"At such a time it will be so."

"Then this thou shalt do. See to it that I shall be among the singers,
and when all have danced and sung, that I shall sing, and be brought
before Kaid."

"Inshallah! It shall be so. Thou dost desire to see Kaid--in truth, thou
hast memory, beloved."

She made a gesture of despair. "Go upon thy business. Dost thou not
desire the blood of Achmet and the bridge-opener?"

Mahommed laughed, and joyfully beat his breast, with whispered
exclamations, and made ready to go. "And thou?" he asked.

"Am I not welcome here?" she replied wearily. "O, my sister, thou art
the master of my life and all that I have," he exclaimed, and a moment
afterwards he was speeding towards Kaid's Palace.

For the first time since the day of his banishment Achmet the Ropemaker
was invited to Kaid's Palace. Coming, he