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.

* * * * * *