I told him I'd
promised to wait for you to help me; and though I didn't see what you
could possibly do, still, your faith was contagious. I said that in
spite of myself I felt some vague stirrings of hope now and then. There!
does that please you?"

"Oh Saidee, I _am_ so happy!" cried the girl, flinging both arms round
her sister. "Then I did come at the right time, after all."

"The right time to keep me from happiness in this world, perhaps. That's
the way I feel about it sometimes. But I can't be sorry you're here,
Babe, as I was at first. You're too sweet--too like the child who used
to be my one comfort."

"I could almost die of happiness, when you say that!" Victoria answered,
with tears in her voice.

"What a baby you are! I'm sure you haven't much more than I have, to be
happy about. Cassim has promised Maieddine that you shall marry him,
whether you say 'yes' or 'no'. And it's horrible when an Arab girl won't
consent to marry the man to whom her people have promised her. I know
what they do. She----"

"Don't tell me about it. I'd hate to hear!" Victoria broke in, and
covered her ears with her hands. So Saidee said no more. But in black
hours of the night, when the girl could not sleep, dreadful imaginings
crept into her mind, and it was almost more than she could do to chase
them away by making her "good pictures." "I won't be afraid--I won't, I
won't!" she would repeat to herself. "I've called him, and my thoughts
are stronger than the carrier pigeons. They fly faster and farther. They
travel like the light, so they must have got to him long ago; and he
_said_ he'd come, no matter when or where. By this time he is on the
way."

So she looked for Stephen, searching the desert; and at last, one
afternoon long before sunset, she saw a man riding toward the Zaouia
from the direction of the city, far away. She could not see his face,
but he seemed to be tall and slim; and his clothes were European.

"Thank God!" she said to herself. For she did not doubt that it was
Stephen Knight.

Soon she would call Saidee; but she must have a little time to herself,
for silent rejoicing, before she tried to explain. There was no great
hurry. He was far off, still.

She kept her eyes to Maieddine's glasses, and felt it a strange thing
that they should have come to her from him. It was almost as if he gave
her to Stephen, against his will. She was so happy that she seemed to
hear the world singing. "I knew--I knew, th