el-Umbar on a verdant patch watered by the springs, from the limestone
hills which stretch on the desert side of the Oasis of Khargegh.

"He's not in Cairo, then?"

"No; he left to-day," replied the gossip. "You see, his mother is
expected any time at his home, if she isn't already there. My maid
will chatter so, there's absolutely no stopping her. Funnily enough, I
arrived at the station as he was leaving in a special train. Such a
handsome man, educated in England, millionaire too. Of course it's a
case of a touch of the tarbrush--such a pity, too!"

The duchess suddenly shivered.

"Little Jill!" she said gently. "Little Jill! I must go and see her
if she will let me. Ah! General, what about a hand at écarté before
dinner?"--and she rose with a stormy rustling of her softly-scented
silks, leaving the gossip wondering in what way she had put her foot in
it.

That night, as she lay like a little brown mouse under the
mosquito-net, watching the stars through the open window, the old lady
suddenly decided to bestir herself.

"It's too risky! She's too beautiful, too young and unsophisticated,"
she murmured as she lit a cigarette under the curtains, which is
strictly against the rules. "I'd bet my last _piastre_ that Jill
Carden's son's all right, but, all the same, one has to reckon with the
glamour of the East. Love's all very well in a cool climate, but it's
the dickens out here. Must get her anchored in safe waters. What