elf without the turban on. "No matter how many
mistakes now, Sahib!" grinned the Sikh. "None but a crazy Moslem
would travel in this sun with his head shaved. Better put a cloth
inside the cap, thus, for greater safety."

The only other thing Grim did to me was to throw away my toothbrush.

"They're suspicious in these parts," he said. "They'd figure it
was hog-bristles. You'll have to make shift with a chewed stick,
and pick your teeth between times with a dagger the way the rest
of us do. Hello! Here she comes. You do the honors, 'Crep; we're
in the game from now on."

De Crespigny went to the door and Grim and I squatted cross-legged
in the window-seat. I tried to feel like a middle-aged native
of the East under the rule of that twenty-six-year-old governor;
but it couldn't be done. I don't know yet what the sensations
are of, say, a bachelor of arts of Lahore University who has
to take orders from a British subaltern. I expect you have
to leave off pretending and really be an Indian to find out
that; otherwise your liking for the fellow himself offsets
reason. No white man could have helped liking young de Crespigny.

He came in after a minute perfectly self-possessed, leading a
young woman who took your breath away. I have heard all the usual
stories about the desert women being hags, but every one of them
was pure fiction to me from that minute. If all the rest were
really what men said of them, this one was sufficiently amazing
to redeem the lot. De Crespigny addressed her as Princess, and
she may have really ranked as one for all I know.

She sat on a chair, rather awkwardly, as if not used to it, and
we stared at her like a row of owls, she studying us in return,
quite unabashed. The Badawi don't wear veils, and are not in the
least ashamed to air their curiosity. She stared uncommonly hard
at Grim.

Of middle height, supple and slender, with the grace of all
outdoors, smiling with a dignity that did not challenge and yet
seemed to arm her against impertinence, not very dark, except
for her long eyelashes--I have seen Italians and Greeks much
darker--she somewhat resembled the American Indian, only that her
face was more mobile.

Part of her beauty was sheer art, contrived by the cunning arrangement
of the shawl on her head, and kohl on her eyelashes. That young
woman knew every trick of deportment down to the outward thrust
of a shapely bare foot in an upturned Turkish slipper. Her clothing
was lin