XI


Immediately after their marriage at a registrar's office, Nigel and his
wife, with a maid, and a great many trunks of varying shapes and sizes,
travelled to Naples and embarked on the _Hohenzollern_ for Egypt, where
Nigel had rented for the winter the Villa Androud, on the bank of the
Nile near Luxor.

Nigel was happy, but he was not wholly free from anxiety, although he
was careful to keep that anxiety from his wife, and desired even
sometimes to deny that it existed to himself. In making this marriage he
had obeyed the cry of two voices within him, the voice of the senses and
the voice of the soul. He did not know which had sounded most clearly;
he did not know which inclination had prevailed over him most strongly,
the longing for a personal joy, or the pitiful desire to shed happiness
and peace on a darkened and soiled existence. The future perhaps would
tell him. Meanwhile he put before him one worthy aim, to be the perfect
husband.

Although the month was November, and the rush for the Nile had not
begun, the _Hohenzollern_ was crowded with passengers, and when the
Armines came into the dining-room for lunch, as the vessel was leaving
Naples, every place was already taken.

"Give us a table upstairs alone," said Nigel to the head-steward,
putting something into his hand. "We shall like that ever so much
better."