er. All she thought about, all she cared for, was
to escape at once and have the one thing she wanted, the thing for which
the whole of her clamoured unceasingly. She was obsessed by the one
idea, as only the woman of her temperament, arrived at her critical age,
can be obsessed.

She might never come back. This might be her last day with Nigel.

In his room near to hers, Isaacson was sitting on his balcony, smoking
the nargeeleh, and thinking that, too. He was not at all sure, but he
was inclined to believe that this departure of Bella Donna was going to
be a flight. Ought he to allow her to go? Instead of writing those
letters, he was pondering, considering this. It was his duty, he
supposed, not to allow her to go. If everything were to be known,
people, the world would say that he ought to have acted already, that in
any case he ought to act now. But he was not bothering about the world.
He was thinking of his friend, how to do the best thing by him.

When he took his long fingers from the nargeeleh he had decided that he
would let Bella Donna go.

And that evening, a little before sunset, she kissed her husband and
bade him good-bye, wondering whether she would ever see him again. Then
she held out her hand to Meyer Isaacson.

"Good-bye, Doctor! Take great care of him," she said, lightly.

Isaacson took her hand. Again now, at this critical moment, despite his
afternoon's decision, he said to himself, not only "Ought I to let her
go?" but "Shall I let her go?" And the influence of the latter question
in his mind caused him unconsciously to grasp her hand arbitrarily, as
if he meant to detain her. Instantly there came into her eyes the look
he had seen in them when in the sanctuary of Edfou she had stood face to
face with him--a look of startled terror.

"You promise only to stay two days, Ruby?"

Nigel's voice spoke.

"You promise?"

"I promise faithfully, Nigel," she said, with her eyes on Isaacson.

Isaacson dropped her hand. She sighed, and went out quickly.

XLII

The departure of Mrs. Armine brought to Meyer Isaacson a sudden and
immense feeling of relief. When he looked at his watch and knew that the
train for Cairo had left the station of Luxor, when half an hour later
Ibrahim came in to tell Nigel that "my lady" had gone off "very nice
indeed," he was for a time almost joyous, as a man is joyous who has got
rid of a heavy burden, or who is unexpectedly released from some cruel
prison