an she hoped, when she sees that thou art weak and
ailing. She has a heart with room in it for the welfare of others."

"Most women have. It is expected of us." Lella M'Barka sighed again,
faintly. "But she is all that thou describedst to me, of beauty and
sweetness. When she has been converted to the True Faith, as thy wife,
nothing will be lacking to make her perfect."

Hsina appeared at the door. "Thy guest, O Lella M'Barka, is having her
coffee, and is eating bread with it," she announced. "In a few minutes
she will be ready. Shall I fetch her down while the gracious lord
honours the house with his presence, or----"

"My guest is a Roumia, and it is not forbidden that she show her face to
men," answered Hsina's mistress. "She will travel veiled, because, for
reasons that do not concern thee, it is wiser. But she is free to appear
before the Lord Maieddine. Bring her; and remember this, when I am gone.
If to a living soul outside this house thou speakest of the Roumia
maiden, or even of my journey, worse things will happen to thee than
tearing thy tongue out by the roots."

"So thou saidst last night to me, and to all the others," the negress
answered, like a sulky child. "As we are faithful, it is not necessary
to say it again." Without waiting to be scolded for her impudence, as
she knew she deserved, she went out, to return five minutes later with
Victoria.

Maieddine's eyes lighted when he saw the girl in Arab dress. It seemed
to him that she was far more beautiful, because, like all Arabs, he
detested the severe cut of a European woman's gowns. He loved bright
colours and voluptuous outlines.

It was only beginning to be daylight when they left the house and went
out to the carriage in which Victoria had been driven the night before.
She and Lella M'Barka were both veiled, though there was no eye to see
them. Hsina and Fafann took out several bundles, wrapped in dark red
woollen haicks, and the Negro servants carried two curious trunks of
wood painted bright green, with coloured flowers and scrolls of gold
upon them, and shining, flat covers of brass. In these was contained the
luggage from the house; Maieddine's had already gone to the railway
station. He wore a plain, dark blue burnous, with the hood up, and his
chin and mouth were covered by the lower folds of the small veil which
fell from his turban, as if he were riding in the desert against a wind
storm. It would have been impossible even for a frie