aying the night, into oriental liberty, and glamour,
and unknown possibilities. So she sat next the marchese at dinner,
whose love-making was on exactly the same line as his clothes, and
having found out from the maid in the ladies' room just how to get to
the end of the town in which was situated the Camel King's house, she
waited for a desirable opportunity, and slipped out of the hotel on the
pretence of looking at the stars, knowing that her unwitting hosts
would think she had simply gone to bed.

CHAPTER IX

Jill's memory being of the kind which retains only the pleasant word
and act, the disagreeable episode of the afternoon had completely
evacuated that cell which in one second can raise us through the bluest
ether to the heaven as understood by the prayer-book, or send us diving
to the mud flats of the ocean bed to co-habit for a time with wingless
and non-temperamental oddities.

Having stopped several times to discover by ear and eye if she was
being followed from the hotel, and being satisfied that the sight of
her dressing-case had in no wise aroused the hall porter's curiosity,
she propped her luggage against the base of a palm tree growing
casually in the middle of a small street and proceeded to take her
bearings.

"Somehow it seemed quite easy to find when the maid was explaining,"
she communed to herself as she dug a hatpin afresh into her hat as is
the way of woman when at a loss. "How stupid of me to try a short cut,
because she distinctly said I was to stick to the main street until I
came to two mosques side by side, and then to turn off sharply to the
right. Oh! well, I turned off too soon and am lost--and I don't like
these little streets--no! not one little bit, but that big red star
hangs right over the house so I can but follow it--here goes!"

She picked up her case, and then drew back quickly behind the tree as a
white-robed figure slowly crossed the street, turned up another and
disappeared.

"Oh! Moll and Jack, what on earth would you think if you knew I was
alone in Egypt. Alone! but free! free! at last, quite, _quite_ free!"

And stretching out her arms on each side and giving herself a little
shake, Jill laughed ever so softly in pure exuberance of that feeling
of freedom, which seems to make an air pocket all about you and in the
middle of which you float contentedly, oblivious of the winds raging on
the outside.

So glancing up at the red star, and once more picking