of the desert sunset. Before us, away
beyond the little strip of vegetation watered by the broad, ever-flowing
Nile, the clear, pale green sky is aflame with crimson, a sunset mystic
and wonderful, such as one only sees in Egypt, that golden land of the
long-forgotten.

From somewhere behind comes up the long-drawn nasal song of an Arab
boatman--that quaint, plaintive, sing-song rhythm accompanied by a
tom-tom, which encourages the rowers to bend at their oars, while away
still further behind across the river, lays the desolate ruins of the
once-powerful Thebes, and that weird, arid wilderness which is so
impressive--the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.

Phrida has been reading what I have here written, and as I kiss her sweet
lips, she looks lovingly into my eyes and says:

"It is enough, dearest. Say that you and I are happy--ah! so supremely
happy at last, in each other's love. No pair in the whole world could
trust each other as we have done. I know that I was guilty of a very
grave fault--the fault of concealing my friendship with that man from
you. But I foolishly thought I was acting in your interests--that being
your friend, he was mine also. I never dreamed that such a refined face
could hide so black and vile a heart."

"But I have forgiven all, darling," I hasten to reassure her! "I know now
what a clever and ingenious scoundrel that man was, and how full of
resource and amazing cunning. You were his victim, just as I was
myself--just as were the others. No," I add, "life, love, and happiness
are before us. So let us learn to forget."

And as our lips meet once again in a long, fond, passionate caress, I lay
down my pen in order to press her more closely to my breast.

She is mine--my own beloved--mine for now and evermore.

THE END.

Butler & Tanner Frome and London

WARD, LOCK & CO.'S

New and Recent Fiction.

Finished

H. RIDER HAGGARD.

Here we have Mr. Rider Haggard at his best. The book is alive with
adventure, and characters black and white.

Mr. Haggard makes all his characters interesting; they live for us, no
matter how extraordinary the circumstances, and these circumstances are
described in such a way, so vividly and yet so quietly, that we accept
them without question. "Finished" is indeed as full of good points as it
is of adventures.

Thorgils of Treadholt

MAURICE HEWLETT.

This new work by the author of "The Forest Lovers" is told with the
wealth of detail a