upon rare occasions alone betrays some emotional upheaval.

"Listen, woman of the West, who even at this moment stands in my
shadow, between that faint engine whistle and the grinding of the
brakes as the train comes to a standstill, you must make your choice.
A few moments ago I saw you toss a silver coin and decide quickly that
which had been decided already for you since the beginning of all time.

"Once more you shall cast your die. The table is the sand of Egypt,
the dice-cup is your hand, the dice are your life and my life, the
stakes our happiness. Decide again and quickly for I hear the rumbling
of wheels. Make known your choice, for although we travellers through
the desert of life lie down to sleep, and rise again to live, to fight,
to hate, and above all to love, in obedience to the will which counteth
and heapeth the particles of sand upon this station, yet are we
allowed, to voice our desires, being mouth-pieces of Fate. Nay! wait
one moment until I make clear the way, so that you may not put down
your beautiful feet blindly upon a trackless waste of doubt and
mistrust. If you come with me to-night, you come alone. I have no
woman in my desert home, excepting one old hunchback slave, a withered
bough but faithful. No woman has set foot within the belt of palms
surrounding my house, and without the sand stretches! Mile upon mile
of pathless sand!

"You will come into the desert alone with me, and the sand will close
in upon you and keep you in the desert alone--with me!

"If you come, be at the gate of yonder pink house at nine to-night; if
you are not there I shall know that your heart has failed."

But the soul of the desert glinted for one moment in the English girl's
eyes.

"There may be no woman there, but there will be a man--a man indeed!"
she whispered, as though communing with herself.

And the eyes so soft and blue looked up, and then down, down into the
soul of Hahmed the Arab, so deeply indeed that a shiver ran from her
brain to her finger-ends, causing her to draw herself together sharply
and to turn and walk away.

* * * * * *

So it came about as it was written that she had decided when the brakes
grinded, and that after retrieving her employer for the last time, and
placing her in a dusty corner of the stifling carriage, she slipped
away on the excuse of finding her dressing-case, which she did, taking
it with her into a corner of the deserted waitin