u know. You oughtn't to be alone."

Again the impersonal tone minimised the words. Katrine realised that as
a woman she had no personality for the man; she was merely a shape--a
picture; even his gratitude was a lifeless thing; the man's power of
feeling, of resistance, was exhausted. It was indeed, as he had said,
"too late."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

The ship dropped anchor in the harbour of Port Said early in the
morning, and almost immediately afterwards four large coal barges,
lashed together, were towed towards her, with a not unmusical chanting
of "Oola! Oola! Oola!" from their Arab crew.

Veritable imps of Satan did the men appear, dyed to an ebon blackness,
and the passengers made haste to depart shorewards to escape the ordeal
of the day. Katrine, Mrs Mannering, and Vernon Keith formed a little
party by themselves; the elder woman trim and gaunt in grey alpaca,
Katrine immaculately white, with a broad-brimmed hat shading face and
neck. An undercurrent of excitement at the prospect of meeting the
first of her Indian friends brightened her eyes, and infused her whole
aspect with a delightful animation. The first duty on shore was to
purchase topees, which to Katrine's relief proved to be much more
becoming than she had anticipated. Her choice had indeed quite a
fashionable aspect, being of the wide Merry Widow shape, the pith
foundation daintily covered with white cotton, while a green lining and
light hanging scarf added to the general effect, and sent her out of the
shop complacently reassured.

They walked about the sun-baked streets of the squalid town, the gaunt
man, the grey-haired woman, and between them the young blooming girl,
passing quickly by the few decent houses which skirt the quay, to visit
the native quarters, Katrine's first glimpse of the East. There was
none of the glamour which she had expected in the ramshackle buildings,
cabins, and hencoops, with but little to differentiate one from the
other. Dark-skinned men lounged about in every variety of bed-gown,
women sported the heavy yashmak, in addition to a brass band across the
forehead, from which four large brass rings depended over the nose.
Children swarmed around thick as mosquitoes, begging in broken English,
any claims to beauty which they might have possessed obliterated by the
almost universal pitting of smallpox.

The animals were more attractive, but in the absence of even the
smallest blade of grass their presenc