was
travelling with an intention of reaching her, that it was carried by
someone who was thinking of her. But how could that be? She thought of
the light as a thing with a mind and a purpose, borne by someone who
backed up its purpose, helping it to do what it wanted. And it wanted to
come to her.

In Mogar! Androvsky had dreaded something in Mogar. De Trevignac had
come. He dreaded something in Amara. This light came. For an instant she
fancied that the light was a lamp carried by De Trevignac. Then she saw
that it gleamed upon a long black robe, the soutane of a priest.

As she and Androvsky rode into Amara she had asked herself whether
his second dread would be followed, as his first dread had been, by an
unusual incident. When she saw the soutane of a priest, black in the
lamplight, moving towards her over the whiteness of the sand, she said
to herself that it was to be so followed. This priest stood in the place
of De Trevignac.

Why did he come to her?

CHAPTER XXIII

When the priest drew close to the tent Domini saw that it was not he
who carried the lantern, but a native soldier, one of the Tirailleurs,
formerly called Turcos, who walked beside him. The soldier saluted her,
and the priest took off his broad, fluffy black hat.

"Good-evening, Madame," he said, speaking French with the accent of
Marseilles. "I am the Aumonier of Amara, and have just heard of your
arrival here, and as I was visiting my friends on the sand-hills yonder,
I thought I would venture to call and ask whether I could be of any
service to you. The hour is informal, I know, but to tell the truth,
Madame, after five years in Amara one does not know how to be formal any
longer."

His eyes, which had a slightly impudent look, rare in a priest but not
unpleasing, twinkled cheerfully in the lamplight as he spoke, and his
whole expression betokened a highly social disposition and the most
genuine pleasure at meeting with a stranger. While she looked at him,
and heard him speak, Domini laughed at herself for the imaginations she
had just been cherishing. He had a broad figure, long arms, large feet
encased in stout, comfortable boots. His face was burnt brown by the sun
and partially concealed by a heavy black beard, whiskers and moustache.
His features were blunt and looked boyish, though his age must have been
about forty. The nose was snub, and accorded with the expression in his
eyes, which were black like his hair and full of twin