s of the dead," scarabs, winged discs,
and mummy-cases; the mosque, a Coptic church, cafes, the garden of the
Hotel de Luxor. He greeted several friends of humble origin: the black
barber who called himself "Mr. White"; Ahri Achmed, the Folly of Luxor,
who danced and gibbered at Mrs. Armine and cried out a welcome in many
languages; Hassan, the one-eyed pipe-player; and Hamza, the praying
donkey-boy, who in winter stole all the millionaires from his protesting
comrades and in summer sat with the dervishes in the deep shadows of the
mosques.

"You seem to be as much at home here as in London," said Mrs. Armine, in
a voice that was rather vague.

"Ten times more, Ruby. And so will you be soon. I love a little place."

"Yes?"

After a pause she added:

"Are there many villas here?"

"Only two on the bank of the Nile. One belongs to a Dutchman. Our villa
is the other."

"Only two--and one belongs to a Dutchman!" she thought.

And she wondered about their winter.

"When I've settled you in, I must run off to the Fayyum to see how the
work is going, and rig up something for you. I want to take you there
soon, but it's really in the wilds, and I didn't like to straight away.
Besides I was afraid you might be dull and unhappy without any of your
comforts. And I do want you to be happy."

There was an anxiety that was almost wistful in his voice.

"I do want you to like Egypt," he added, like an eager boy.

"I am sure I shall like it, Nigel. There's no Casino, I suppose!"

"Good heavens, no! What should one do with a Casino here!"

"Oh, they sometimes have one, even in places like this. A friend of mine
who went to Biskra told me there was one there."

"Look at that, Ruby! That's better than any Casino--don't you think?"

They had turned to the left and come to the river bank.

All the Nile was flooded with gold, in which there were eddies of pale
mauve and distant flushes of a red that resembled the red on the wing of
a flamingo. The clear and radiant sky was drowned in a quivering
radiance of gold, that was like a thing alive and sensitively
palpitating. The far-off palms, the lofty river banks that framed the
Nile's upper reaches, the birds that flew south, following the direction
of the breeze, the bats that wheeled about the great columns of the
temple, the boats that with wide-spread lateen sails went southward with
the birds, were like motionless and moving jewels of black against the
vibrant gold. An