"Madame permits herself to do just as she pleases. If by some
unforeseen circumstances she were to miss the train, would she be taken
to see the oasis, and the horses, and the stars?"

And let it be understood that, in her utter ignorance of deserts, she
imagined the oasis could be reached after a journey of a few hours.

For one moment there was dead silence between these two, the strings of
whose lives Fate was inextricably mixing in her fingers, palsied by
age, and fretted by the constant tugging and straining of those other
threads which, in moments of senile anger or childishness, she gets
into such hopeless tangles.

Then as the shriek of an engine whistle shrilled faintly in the
distance the man spoke, his voice sinking to that deep note which no
other nation attains, resembling in no way the Russian bass, and which
in the Arab 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,