to forgive!" The clasp of the girl's
arms tightened. "Now we're truly together again. How I love you! How
happy I am!"

"Don't--I don't deserve it," Saidee stammered. "Poor little Babe! I was
cruel to you. And you'd come so far."

"You weren't cruel!" Victoria contradicted her, almost fiercely.

"I was. I was jealous--jealous of you. You're so young and
beautiful--just what I was ten years ago, only better and prettier.
You're what I can never be again--what I'd give the next ten years to
be. Everything's over with me. I'm old--old!"

"You're not to say such things," cried Victoria, horrified. "You weren't
jealous. You----"

"I was. I am now. But I want to confess. You must let me confess, if
you're to help me."

"Dearest, tell me anything--everything you choose, but nothing you don't
choose. And nothing you say can make me love you less--only more."

"There's a great deal to tell," Saidee said, heavily "And I'm
tired--sick at heart. But I can't rest now, till I've told you."

"Wouldn't you come into bed?" pleaded Victoria humbly. "Then we could
talk, the way we used to talk."

Saidee staggered up from her knees, and the girl almost lifted her on to
the bed. Then she covered her with the thyme-scented linen sheet, and
the silk coverlet under which she herself lay. For a moment they were
quite still, Saidee lying with her head on Victoria's arm. But at last
she said, in a whisper, as if her lips were dry: "Did you know I was
sorry you'd come?"

"I knew you thought you were sorry," the girl answered. "Yet I hoped
that you'd find out you weren't, really. I prayed for you to find
out--soon."

"Did you guess why I was sorry?"

"Not--quite."

"I told you I--that it was for your sake."

"Yes."

"Didn't you believe it?"

"I--felt there was something else, beside."

"There was!" Saidee confessed. "You know now--at least you know part. I
was jealous. I am still--but I'm ashamed of myself. I'm sick with shame.
And I do love you!"

"Of course--of course you do, darling."

"But--there's somebody else I love. A man. And I couldn't bear to think
he might see you, because you're so much younger and fresher than I."

"You mean--Cassim?"

"No. Not Cassim."

Silence fell between the two. Victoria did not speak; and suddenly
Saidee was angry with her for not speaking.

"If you're shocked, I won't go on," she said. "You can't help me by
preaching."

"I'm not shocked," the girl protested. "Only sorry--so sor