feel sure that truth
and knowledge and hope are all one."

"I wonder if you'll still feel so when you've married a man of another
race--as I have?"

Victoria did not answer. She had to conquer the little cold thrill of
superstitious fear which crept through her veins, as Saidee's words
reminded her of M'Barka's sand-divining. She had to find courage again
from "her star," before she could speak.

"Forgive me, Babe!" said Saidee, stricken by the look in the lifted
eyes. "I wish I needn't remind you of anything horrid to-night--your
first night with me after all these years. But we have so little time.
What else can I do?"

"I shall know by to-morrow what we are to do," Victoria said cheerfully.
"Because I shall take counsel of the night."

"You're a very odd girl," the woman reflected aloud. "When you were a
tiny thing, you used to have the weirdest thoughts, and do the quaintest
things. I was sure you'd grow up to be absolutely different from any
other human being. And so you have, I think. Only an extraordinary sort
of girl could ever have made her way without help from Potterston,
Indiana, to Oued Tolga in North Africa."

"I _had_ help--every minute. Saidee--did you think of me sometimes, when
you were standing here on this roof?"

"Yes, of course I thought of you often--only not so often lately as at
first, because for a long time now I've been numb. I haven't thought
much or cared much about anything, or--or any one except----"

"Except----"

"Except--except myself, I'm afraid." Saidee's face was turned away from
Victoria's. She looked toward Oued Tolga, the city, whither the
carrier-pigeon had flown.

"I wondered," she went on hastily, "what had become of you, and if you
were happy, and whether by this time you'd nearly forgotten me. You were
such a baby child when I left you!"

"I won't believe you really wondered if I could forget. You, and
thoughts of you, have made my whole life. I was just living for the time
when I could earn money enough to search for you--and preparing for it,
of course, so as to be ready when it came."

Saidee still looked toward Oued Tolga, where the white domes shimmered,
far away in the moonlight, like a mirage. Was love a mirage, too?--the
love that called for her over there, the love whose voice made the
strings of her heart vibrate, though she had thought them broken and
silent for ever. Victoria's arms round her felt strong and warm, yet
they were a barrier. She was