there now were acquaintances of his. Would she like to see
Djenan el Hadj?

The suggestion pleased her so much that Stephen found himself envying
Nevill her gratitude. And it was arranged that Mrs. Jewett should be
asked to appoint an hour for a visit next day.

XII

While Victoria was still in the lily-garden with her host and his
friend, the cab which she had ordered to return came back to fetch her.
It was early, and Lady MacGregor had expected her to stop for tea, as
most people did stop, who visited Djenan el Djouad for the first time,
because every one wished to see the house; and to see the house took
hours. But the dancing-girl, appearing slightly embarrassed as she
expressed her regrets, said that she must go; she had to keep an
engagement. She did not explain what the engagement was, and as she
betrayed constraint in speaking of it, both Stephen and Nevill guessed
that she did not wish to explain. They took it for granted that it was
something to do with her sister's affairs, something which she
considered of importance; otherwise, as she had no friends in Algiers,
and Lady MacGregor was putting herself out to be kind, the girl would
have been pleased to spend an afternoon with those to whom she could
talk freely. No questions could be asked, though, as Lady MacGregor
remarked when Victoria had gone (after christening the baby panther), it
did seem ridiculous that a child should be allowed to make its own plans
and carry them out alone in a place like Algiers, without having any
advice from its elders.

"I've been, and expect to go on being, what you might call a perpetual
chaperon," said she resignedly; "and chaperoning is so ingrained in my
nature that I hate to see a baby running about unprotected, doing what
it chooses, as if it were a married woman, not to say a widow. But I
suppose it can't be stopped."

"She's been on the stage," said Nevill reassuringly, Miss Ray having
already broken this hard fact to the Scotch lady at luncheon.

"I tell you it's a baby! Even John Knox would see that," sharply replied
Aunt Caroline.

There was nothing better to do with the rest of the afternoon, Nevill
thought, than to take a spin in the motor, which they did, the chauffeur
at the wheel, as Nevill confessed himself of too lazy a turn of mind to
care for driving his own car. While Stephen waited outside, he called at
Djenan el Hadj (an old Arab house at a little distance from the town,
buried deep in