tened the intense
blue of the sky on her right.

She was absolutely terrified and ravenously hungry, also unwashed,
therefore altogether unhappy, so with no more ado she flung out her
arms, and with a great sob rushed headlong into that which frightened
her most, the unlimited, uninhabited desert.

Her shoeless feet made hardly a sound as she sped like a deer from the
desolation she imagined, to the certain desolation and death in front
of her, but she had hardly cut her little feet over more than twenty
yards when Hahmed, the swiftest runner in Egypt, was speeding after her.

"Allah! Be merciful to me! For behold, I fail to keep from harm that
which Thou hast placed in my keeping," he murmured, as he ran abreast
with the girl for a few yards, then putting his arm around her lifted
her off her feet, holding her gently to him, and speaking no word until
the paroxysm of sobs had subsided.

"Where to fly you, O! woman, and whyfore are you thus afraid?"

"I was simply terrified. I--I--thought you had left me all alone to
die, and I just ran and ran to find someone or something else beside
myself in the desert," answered a voice, muffled by the snowy garments
of the man who held her so gently against his heavily beating heart.

"I will take you back to your tent, to the bath and repast which awaits
you. I dared not loosen your raiment without your permission, so
having removed the shoes from off your feet, laid you upon your bed,
but when you are bathed, I pray you wrap yourself in the soft garments
you will find, and clapping your hands make known to your slave that
you are ready to eat."

"Oh, there is a servant to wait on me. I thought we were quite alone."

"I am your slave," simply replied the Arab, as he placed Jill upon her
feet in front of her tent, where she stood with her hand on his arm,
rooted to the spot by the glory of the sky, whilst the man gazed down
upon her, as the dying sun struck the gold of her hair, the blue of her
eyes, and the cream of her neck.

"You, who are of those who are versed in music, and of those who can
make poetry, describe that glory to me," imperiously demanded Jill,
after a moment of silence, with that suddenness and complete change of
mood which falls occasionally upon all women, causing the meek to
scratch like cats, and the strong to give in, often to their
everlasting undoing.

"Bathe the white body of thy beloved in the blue-green of Egypt's
river, so that the coo