"For myself, I have resolved to go up, at any rate, as far as Asouan
and the first cataract. I had thought of acceding to the wishes of a
party who are going across the Great Desert by Mount Sinai to
Jerusalem; but the kindness of yourself and Mrs. Damer is so great, and
the prospect of joining in your boat is so pleasurable, that I have
made up my mind to accept your very kind offer."

This, it will be acknowledged, was bold on the part of Miss Dawkins;
but what will not audacity effect? To use the slang of modern
language, cheek carries everything nowadays. And whatever may have
been Miss Dawkins's deficiencies, in this virtue she was not deficient.

"I have made up my mind to accept your very kind offer," she said,
shining on Mr. Damer with her blandest smile.

What was a stout, breathless, perspiring, middle-aged gentleman to do
under such circumstances? Mr. Damer was a man who, in most matters,
had his own way. That his wife should have given such an invitation
without consulting him, was, he knew, quite impossible. She would as
soon have thought of asking all those Arab guides to accompany them.
Nor was it to be thought of that he should allow himself to be
kidnapped into such an arrangement by the impudence of any Miss
Dawkins. But there was, he felt, a difficulty in answering such a
proposition from a young lady with a direct negative, especially while
he was so scant of breath. So he wiped his brow again, and looked at
her.

"But I can only agree to this on one understanding," continued Miss
Dawkins, "and that is, that I am allowed to defray my own full share of
the expense of the journey."