seen Stephen. Her eyes flashed from him to the figure
of the girl, which she saw in profile. She did not speak, but walked
faster; and Victoria, realizing that their talk was to be interrupted by
somebody, looked round, expecting Lady MacGregor or Saidee.

"It is Miss Lorenzi," Stephen said, in a low voice. "I don't know
how--or why--she has come here. But for your sake--it will be better if
you go now, at once, and let me talk to her."

There was another path by which Victoria could reach the house. She
might have gone, thinking that Stephen knew best, and that she had no
more right than wish to stay, but the tall young woman in grey began to
walk very fast, when she saw that the girl with Stephen was going.

"Be kind enough to stop where you are, Miss Ray. I know you must be Miss
Ray," Margot called out in a loud, sharp voice. She spoke as if Victoria
were an inferior, whom she had a right to command.

Surprised and hurt by the tone, the girl hesitated, looking from the
newcomer to Stephen.

At first glance and at a little distance, she had thought the young
woman perfectly beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful creature she had
ever seen--even more glorious than Saidee. But when Miss Lorenzi came
nearer, undisguisedly angry and excited, the best part of her beauty was
gone, wiped away, as a face in a picture may be smeared before the paint
is dry. Her features were faultless, her hair and eyes magnificent. Her
dress was pretty, and exquisitely made, if too elaborate for desert
travelling; her figure charming, though some day it would be too stout;
yet in spite of all she looked common and cruel. The thought that
Stephen Knight had doomed himself to marry this woman made Victoria
shiver, as if she had heard him condemned to imprisonment for life.

She had thought before seeing Miss Lorenzi that she understood the
situation, and how it had come about. She had said to Stephen, "I
understand." Now, it seemed to her that she had boasted in a silly,
childish way. She had not understood. She had not begun to understand.

Suddenly the girl felt very old and experienced, and miserably wise in
the ways of the world. It was as if in some other incarnation she had
known women like this, and their influence over men: how, if they tried,
they could beguile chivalrous men into being sorry for them, and doing
almost anything which they wished to be done.

A little while ago Victoria had been thinking and speaking of Margot
Lo