the girl compared it with her life at that very
moment.

Up to now she had been her own mistress, in that she had deliberately
and of her own free will done the things she ought and ought not to
have done, and had been content with the result.

True, she was married to the man beside her, bound to him by law, his
in the eyes of the world, and of Allah Who is God, but she knew full
well that until she called to him and surrendered herself in love, that
she was as free as any maiden could be in that land, and, she thought,
that doubtless in time he would tire of her caprice and let her go,
taking unto himself another as wife. In which surmise she was utterly
mistaken!

Should she move forward into the darkness? Should she turn back into
the light?

If she crossed the threshold she knew she would seek the protection of
his arms against the threatenings of the shadows which surely held the
spirits of the past; and in his arms, why! even at the thought her
heart leapt and her face burned beneath the veil.

If she turned back she would return to her position of honoured guest
in the man's house, a barren, unsatisfying position for one in whom
youth cried for love and mastery.

If only Hahmed would make a sign, a movement; if only he would say one
word. But he stood motionless just behind her, waiting himself, with
the oriental's implicit belief for some deciding sign from Fate.

There was no sound, no sign of life as they stood waiting, and then the
night breeze, gently lifting a corner of the Arab's full white cloak,
wrapped it like some great wing about the girl.

A thrill swept her from head to foot as she pressed her hands above her
heart, and then with eyes wide open and alight with love stepped across
the threshold into the shadows, unknowingly turning the corner of that
block of granite which hides the opening, leaving one in complete and
utter darkness.

She flung out her hands and felt nothing, turned swiftly and flung them
out again, vainly searching for the Arab's cloak, and finding nothing
let them fall to her side.

"My God!" she whispered, and moved a step forward, stopped and listened
and moved back. "Hahmed! Hahmed!"

She called aloud in fear, she who had never known what it was to be
afraid, and she gave a little sob of pure relief when the Arab answered
from the distance of a few feet.

"Wherefore are you afraid, O! woman? Behold I am near you, watching
you, for my eyes are trained for