him suddenly.

The blood mounted to his face. He had made a second mistake, and she was
very quick to catch him up.

"It was but a figure of speech," he corrected himself.

"Thou dost not mean that she's shut up, and no man allowed to see her?"

"I know nothing. Thou wilt find out all for thyself. But thou wert
anxious to go to her, at no matter what cost, and I feared to dishearten
thee, to break thy courage, while I was still a stranger, and could not
justify myself in thine eyes. Now, wilt thou forgive me an evasion,
which was to save thee anxiety, if I say frankly that, travel as we may,
we cannot reach our journey's end for many days yet?"

"I must forgive thee," said Victoria, with a sigh. "Yet I do not like
evasions. They are unworthy."

"I am sorry," Maieddine returned, so humbly that he disarmed her. "It
would be terrible to offend thee."

"There can be no question of offence," she consoled him. "I am very,
very grateful for all thou hast done for me. I often lie awake in the
night, wondering how I can repay thee everything."

"When we come to the end of the journey, I will tell thee of a thing
thou canst do, for my happiness," Maieddine said in a low voice, as if
half to himself.

"Wilt thou tell me now to what place we are going? I should like to
know, and I should like to hear thee describe it."

He did not speak for a moment. Then he said slowly; "It is a grief to
deny thee anything, oh Rose, but the secret is not mine to tell, even to
thee."

"The secret!" she echoed. "Thou hast never called it a secret."

"If I did not use that word, did I not give thee to understand the same
thing?"

"Thou meanest, the secret about Cassim, my sister's husband?"

"Cassim ben Halim has ceased to live."

Victoria gave a little cry. "Dead! But thou hast made me believe, in
spite of the rumours, that he lived."

"I cannot explain to thee," Maieddine answered gloomily, as if hating to
refuse her anything. "In the end, thou wilt know all, and why I had to
be silent."

"But my sister?" the girl pleaded. "There is no mystery about her? Thou
hast concealed nothing which concerns Saidee?"

"Thou hast my word that I will take thee to the place where she is. Thou
gavest me thy trust. Give it me again."

"I have not taken it away. It is thine," said Victoria.

XXIX

That night they spent in a caravanserai, because, after the brief deluge
of rain, the ground was too damp for camping, when an invalid w