hed at the mischievous question.

* * * * *

During their third dance she became a little apprehensive and kept
looking over her shoulder toward the house.

"There's a man expected there," she whispered, "Ferez Bey. He's as
soft-footed as a cat and he always prowls in my vicinity. At times it
almost seems to me as though he were slyly watching me--as though he
were employed to keep an eye on me."

"A Turk?"

"Eurasian.... I wonder what they think of my absence? Alexandre--the
Comte d'Eblis--won't like it."

"Had you better go?"

"Yes; I ought to, but I won't.... Wait a moment!" She disengaged
herself from his arms. "Hide your easel and colour-box in the
shrubbery, in case anybody comes to look for me."

She helped him strap up and fasten the telescope-easel; they placed
the paraphernalia behind the blossoming screen of syringa. Then,
coming together, she gave herself to him again, nestling between his
arms with a little laugh; and they fell into step once more with the
distant dance-music. Over the grass their united shadows glided,
swaying, gracefully interlocked--moon-born phantoms which dogged
their light young feet....

* * * * *

A man came out on the stone terrace under the Chinese lanterns. When
they saw him they hastily backed into the obscurity of the shrubbery.

"Nihla!" he called, and his heavy voice was vibrant with irritation
and impatience.

He was a big man. He walked with a bulky, awkward gait--a few paces
only, out across the terrace.

"Nihla!" he bawled hoarsely.

Then two other men and a woman appeared on the terrace where the
lanterns were strung. The woman called aloud in the darkness:

"Nihla! Nihla! Where are you, little devil?" Then she and the two men
with her went indoors, laughing and skylarking, leaving the bulky man
there alone.

The young fellow in the shrubbery felt the girl's hand tighten on his
coat sleeve, felt her slender body quiver with stifled laughter. The
desire to laugh seized him, too; and they clung there together,
choking back their mirth while the big man who had first appeared
waddled out across the lawn toward the shrubbery, shouting:

"Nihla! Where are you then?" He came quite close to where they stood,
then turned, shouted once or twice and presently disappeared across
the lawn toward a walled garden. Later, several other people came out
on the terrace, calling, "Nihla, Nihla," and then w