"Oh! that!" said Jill, as she sat with her hands about her knee and her
face upturned to the moon, which, throwing a deep shadow from the hat
brim across the upper part of her face, made of the deep eyes a
mystery, and a delirious invitation of the red mouth. "Amongst other
till now useless accomplishments, I have learned to guide myself by the
stars, though I'm positive they move over here. I had noticed that big
one there, which we haven't got in England, that very big sparkling
one, hung over the quarter in which the waiting-maid told me lay your
house."

"Yes!" replied the man who, though he knew the West so well, was
secretly wondering at the trait in a character which allowed a _woman_,
on the edge of something unknown, fraught, perhaps, with every kind of
danger, to talk unconcernedly of hotels, face creams, blue doors, and
stars. "That is the Star of Happiness, it hangs also right in the
middle of my oasis, right over my desert dwelling," and the string of
beads hanging from the waist slipped through the long fingers as words
of prayer fell softly on the perfumed air.

The girl got up and walked over to the camels.

"So I followed my star and suddenly found myself at the gates! Is this
my ship of the desert--and what a beautiful coat, the dear thing,"
starting back as the dear thing turned its bead suddenly, bared its
teeth and snarled.

"Don't be afraid, she is always nervous with strangers, also is she a
little spoilt, being the fastest and most perfect Bactrian camel in the
whole of Egypt and Arabia. Her pedigree, on parchment embossed with