"But it pleases Madame to jest with me. She awaits the train to take
her to the boat, how therefore could she come into the desert to-night?"

But Jill was absolutely unafraid! Having known no master, she cared
not one _sou_ for any son of man, or any untoward position she might
find herself in, so opening wide her very beautiful eyes she simply
smiled back into the angry ones which looked down upon her from some
considerable height, and, with a little shrug of her shoulders, a habit
acquired from one of a succession of foreign governesses, she made
reply in her turn, and in words which though absolutely common-place
served as the golden key with which to unlock the bejewelled, golden
casket of this man's love.

In any Western country the situation would have been _absurd_! An
English girl, minus scenery and every accessory due to a book heroine,
capable in five brief minutes of smiting the heart of one of Egypt's
most renowned men!

Ridiculous!

Perhaps in the lands of fogs and fires, grey skies and east winds, but
not in Egypt, where the sun, sky, winds, and memories serve rather to
force the growth of the love-plant and hasten the budding of the
passion-flower.

Studiously buttoning up the last button which she always left undone on
her last pair of suede gloves, smooth as a newly born whippet puppy,
and as yet unruffled from the cleaner's manipulations, she spoke with a
ripple of laughter which made it impossible to decide if she was
speaking seriously or not.