direction he imagined South Arabia might be, "but feared, we say and
ask nozing--no! ze great Hahmed live alone--not zere------" Once more
pointing contemptuously to the pink abode. "Zat but a business
'ouse--ze most beautiful place in one oasis! Ze Flat Oasis! Ah
Madame! _comme c'est 'belle_--I who 'ave been on camel business can
tell, ze 'ouse, ze shade, ze water--but no lady, no children, no son,
no one--'e go and sleep and live all by self alone--_triste_, Madame,
because 'e is ze great, ze just, but go always alone in ze night to 'is
oasis _bien aimée_ and------"

And here the uplifting of an angry guttural voice caused him to turn
and run hurriedly towards a figure vehemently signalling with a huge
fawn-coloured sun-shade lined with green.

And as he ran the soul of the desert, born of the sun, palms, ennui,
flies, the sand, and Allah knows what besides, suddenly sat up in
Jill's eyes and laughed, and as she laughed the words "Go always alone
in ze night to 'is oasis _bien aimée_" rang in the girl's ears, as a
strange and startling idea flashed across her mind.

For and against the idea ranged her thoughts; upheld one moment by the
insistent clamouring of her whole soul for freedom; combated the next
by the inherited deference to convention planted by long dead
generations in the mind soil of almost every British subject.

Why should she not break away and strike out on her own, if only for a
few hours? But would she not be running into positive physical danger
if she did so? Still it would only be for a few hours--a swift ride
into the desert--a glimpse of a desert home--a break anyhow in the
deadly, soul-stifling monotony of her daily round. Yes! but what did