ulf her. She felt like a butterfly in a cage of angry lions.

"It is terrible!" she exclaimed, letting the glasses fall from her eyes.
The cageful of lions sat down, calmed, but now that the butterfly had
seen them roused, never could they look the same again.

The effect upon the girl was exactly what Maieddine had wanted. For once
Victoria acted as he expected her to do in given circumstances. "She is
only a woman after all," he thought.

"If thou wert alone in this sea of gold, abandoned, to find thine own
way, with no guide but the stars, then indeed thou mightst say 'it is
terrible,'" he answered. "For these waves roll between thee and the
north, whence thou hast come, and still higher between thee and the
desired end of thy journey. So high are they, that to go up and down is
like climbing and descending mountains, one after another, all day, day
after day. And beyond, where thou must soon go if thou art to find thy
sister, there are no tracks such as those we have followed thus far. In
these shifting sands, not only men and camels, but great caravans, and
even whole armies have been lost and swallowed up for ever. For
gravestones, they have only the dunes, and no man will know where they
lie till the world is rolled up as a scroll in the hand of Allah."

Victoria grew pale.

"Always before thou hast tried to make me love the desert," she said,
slowly. "If there were anything ugly to see, thou hast bidden me turn my
head the other way, or if I saw something dreadful thou wouldst at once
begin to chant a song of happiness, to make me forget. Why dost thou
wish to frighten me now?"

"It is not that I mean to give thee pain, Ourieda." Maieddine's voice
changed to a tone that was gentle and pleading. "It is only that I would
have thee see how powerless thou wouldst be alone among the dunes, where
for days thou mightst wander, meeting no man. Or if thou hadst any
encounter, it might be with a Touareg, masked in blue, with a long knife
at his belt, and in his breast a heart colder than steel."

"I see well enough that I would be powerless alone," Victoria repeated.
"Dost thou need to tell me that?"

"It may be not," said Maieddine. "But there is a thing I need to tell
thee. My need is very sore. Because I have kept back the words I have
burned to speak, my soul is on fire, oh Rose! I love thee. I die for
thee. I must have thee for mine!"

He snatched both her hands in his, and crushed them against his lips.
Th