ster; and
he thought of her while he walked on deck, under the stars.

"For a moment white, then gone forever."

Again the words came singing into his head. She was white--white as this
lacelike foam that silvered the Mediterranean blue; but she had not gone
forever, as he had thought when he likened her whiteness to the
spindrift on the dark Channel waves. She had come into his life once
more, unexpectedly; and she might brighten it again for a short time on
land, in that unknown garden his thoughts pictured, behind the gate of
the East. Yet she would not be of his life. There was no place in it for
a girl. Still, he thought of her, and went on thinking, involuntarily
planning things which he and Nevill Caird would do to help the child, in
her romantic errand. Of course she must not be allowed to travel about
Algeria alone. Once settled in Algiers she must stay there quietly till
the authorities found her sister.

He used that powerful-sounding word "authorities" vaguely in his mind,
but he was sure that the thing would be simple enough. The police could
be applied to, if Nevill and his friends should be unable to discover
Ben Halim and his American wife. Almost unconsciously, Stephen saw
himself earning Victoria Ray's gratitude. It was a pleasant fancy, and
he followed it as one wanders down a flowery path found in a dark
forest.

Victoria's thoughts of him were as many, though different.

She had never filled her mind with nonsense about men, as many girls do.
As she would have said to herself, she had been too busy. When girls at
school had talked of being in love, and of marrying, she had been
interested, as if in a story-book, but it had not seemed to her that she
would ever fall in love or be married. It seemed so less than ever, now
that she was at last actually on her way to look for Saidee. She was
intensely excited, and there was room only for the one absorbing thought
in mind and heart; yet she was not as anxious as most others would have
been in her place. Now that Heaven had helped her so far, she was sure
she would be helped to the end. It would be too bad to be true that
anything dreadful should have happened to Saidee--anything from which
she, Victoria, could not save her; and so now, very soon perhaps,
everything would come right. It seemed to the girl that somehow Stephen
was part of a great scheme, that he had been sent into her life for a
purpose. Otherwise, why should he have been so kind sinc