d down in the
Koran are the only laws a Moslem really observes or reverences. His own
soul teaches him nothing; it has been buried far too long by the laws
imposed upon it; his superman is non-existent. The natural man blindly
obeys the Prophet's teachings in the hope of the material rewards which
will be his when he dies. The future life has always meant a great deal
to the Egyptian peoples; their existence on earth has since time
immemorial only been looked upon as an apprenticeship for the fuller
existence. The very fact that their earthly homes, even the Pharaoh's
palaces, were only built of sun-baked bricks made of mud, shows that they
carried out in practice the saying in the Bible about having no abiding
cities here. Their tombs were their lasting cities and _they_ were built
to endure throughout all eternity."

"Anyhow, they are delightfully picturesque people in their devotions,"
Millicent said. "I feel almost as pious when I watch a Moslem praying
before sunset as I do when a boy's voice is reaching up to heaven in one
of our Gothic cathedrals at home. I think I'm at my best then, Mike,
only no one is ever present to test me."

Michael knew exactly what Millicent meant. The emotional side of
religion excited her senses. She imagined, when she was listening to a
boy's treble soaring up into the lofty heights of an English minster,
that her soul was soaring with it, that she was deriving spiritual
benefit from the service. He could picture her kneeling with folded
hands, the polished nails conspicuously bright, and eyes upraised,
listening to the boy's clear, pure voice, her whole being in a satisfied
sensuous ecstasy.

He knew that this state of ecstasy was about as far as Millicent's
religion ever carried her. She was afraid to give up the flesh-pots of
this world in case she found life without them too dull to be
supportable. She enjoyed her state of being so thoroughly that she had
no wish to change it. Her religion and church-going were, she
considered, sufficient to ensure her a place in heaven. It was her way
of paying her future-life insurance policy, as were her many liberal
gifts to charities.

When the halt for lunch came, Michael and Millicent were to all outward
appearance good friends. Michael had been considering within himself
what attitude he ought to adopt towards her amazing adventure, what face
he should try to put upon their meeting. His knowledge of the East told
him th