. Starnworth began to describe the native quarters. Presently he
spoke of the hashish cafe to which he had taken Isaacson. He told his
friend where it was. Mrs. Armine heard the name of the street, Bab-el
Meteira. Then he spoke of the rich Egyptians who frequented the cafe,
and he mentioned the name of Baroudi. Almost immediately afterwards he
and his companion got up and strolled into the hotel.

That night, quietly dressed and veiled, Mrs. Armine, accompanied by a
native guide, made a pilgrimage into the strange places of the city;
stayed long, very long, beneath the blackened roof of the cafe where the
hashish was smoked. She was exhausted, yet she felt feverishly, almost
crazily alive. She drank coffee after coffee. She watched the dreaming
smokers, the dreaming dancers, till she seemed to be living in a
nightmare, to be detached from earth and all things she had ever known
till now.

But Baroudi did not come. And at last she returned through the dancing
quarters, where her sense of nightmare deepened.

Again she did not sleep.

When day came, she felt really ill. Yet her body was still pulsing, her
brain was still throbbing, with an activity that was like a fever within
her. Directly after breakfast, which she scarcely touched, she again
took a carriage and drove to Baroudi's house.

The sleepy Arab met her at the grille, and in an almost trembling voice
she made enquiries.

"Gone away," was the reply.

"Gone? Where to?"

"Him gone to Luxor. Him got one dahabeeyah at Luxor."

"Gone to Luxor! When did he go?"

"We know last night."

"Did he get a note I sent him yesterday morning?"

The Arab shook his head.

"Not bin back heeyah at all."

Mrs. Armine telegraphed to the villa, and took the night train back to
Luxor.

She arrived in the morning about nine, after another sleepless night. As
she drove by the Winter Palace Hotel, she saw a man walking alone upon
the terrace, and, to her great surprise, recognized Meyer Isaacson. He
saw her--she was certain of that--but he immediately looked away, and
did not take off his hat to her. Had she, or had she not, bowed to him?
She did not know. But in either case his behaviour was very strange. And
she could not understand why he was at the hotel. Had something happened
at the villa? Almost before she had had time to wonder, the horses were
pulled up at the gate.

She had expected Ibrahim to meet her at the station. But he had not
come. Nor did he meet he