g anything by it," he said.

"This? What?"

"Go back to Kurun. Tell me. Will you not presently need to have a
dahabeeyah?"

"And if we do?"

"You shall have the _Loulia_."

"You mean to come with us?"

"Are you a child? I shall let it to your husband at a price that will
suit his purse, so that you may be housed as you ought to be. I shall
let it with my crew, my servants, my cook. Then you must take your
husband away with you quietly up the Nile."

Again Mrs. Armine was conscious of a shock of cold.

"Quietly up the Nile?" she repeated.

"Yes."

"What is the use of that?"

"Perhaps he will like the Nile so much that he will not come back."

He looked into her eyes. She heard the snarl of a camel.

"Your camel is ready," he said.

They walked towards the fire where Ibrahim was awaiting them. Before
Mrs. Armine had settled herself in the palanquin Baroudi moved away
without another word, and as the camel rose, complaining in the night,
she saw him lift the canvas of the Ghawazee's tent and disappear within
it.

When she reached the camp by the lake, Nigel had not returned. She
undressed quickly, got into bed, and lay there shivering, though heavy
blankets covered her.

Just at dawn Nigel came back.

Then she shut her eyes and pretended to sleep.

Always she was shivering.

XXV

"Ruby," Nigel said, as he stood with her on the deck of the _Loulia_ and
looked up at the Arabic letters of gold inscribed above the doorway
through which they were going to pass, "what is the exact meaning of
those words? Baroudi told us that day at Luxor, but I've forgotten. It
was some lesson of fate, something from the Koran. D'you remember?"

She turned up her veil over the brim of her burnt-straw hat. "Let me
see!" she said.

She seemed to make an effort of memory, and lines came on her generally
smooth forehead.

"I fancy it was 'The fate of every man have we bound about his neck,' or
something very like that."

"Yes, that was it. We discussed it, and I said I wasn't a fatalist."

"Did you? Come along. Let's explore."

"Our floating home--yes."

He took hold of her arm.

"If my fate is bound about my neck, it's a happy fate," he said--"a fate
I can wear as a jewel instead of bearing as a burden."

They went down the steps together, and vanished through the doorway into
the shadows beyond.

The _Loulia_ was moored at Keneh, not far from the temple of Denderah.
She had been sent up the river