"Vite--allez--mort--vite--allez--mort!"

And understanding that there was nothing more to be done she bent and
kissed the child upon the cheek and turned away, looking back as she
opened the window which gave on to a balcony about ten feet above the
level of the deserted street, and even as she looked, saw the door of
the room she had just left being pushed back inch by inch as the dying
girl, strengthened by love and agony, dragged herself slowly into the
room in which lay the man she worshipped asleep.




CHAPTER XI

Ten o'clock!--half-past!--eleven!

The usual noises of a night in an Egyptian town were at their height.

The distant and never-ceasing shuffling of slippered or naked feet on
stone, or sand, made a dull accompaniment to the sharper notes of men's
voices crying their wares of sticky sweetmeat or fruit, and the barking
and growling of innumerable dogs.

Muffled ejaculations could be heard, little gurgles of laughter, which
in Egypt, thanks be to Allah, do not degenerate into giggles, the swish
of a whip in the shadow, followed by a woman's cry, and through all,
above all, unfinished catches of music.

All kinds of humans, including tourists, writers, European officials