y."

"I don't suppose he is--I think we'd have heard."

"I think that's why we haven't heard," Margaret said quickly.

Freddy remained silent. He thought otherwise. He had a man's
knowledge of men. If Millicent Mervill was with him, he did not for
one moment believe that even Mike would be proof against such
temptation.

"If he is ill," Meg said, "the Iretons will find out. They are in such
close touch with native life. Anyhow, they understood Mike and I want
to see them."

Meg's last words were a little cry. Freddy could only feel pity for
her, although her words stung him. She must actually go from him to
strangers for the sympathy she needed.

"Well, I won't stop you, but I think it's a pity. Whatever made you
think of such a thing?"

"The thing that you call inspiration, chum--I know another name for it
now."

Freddy looked amazed; Meg had absorbed so many of Mike's strange ideas.
"I don't know Ireton," he said. His voice had grown colder.

"He married a Syrian--you wouldn't. The Lamptons don't do that sort of
thing."

Freddy kept his temper, and the moment after Meg had said the words she
felt ashamed, disgraced.

"I'm sorry, chum." She spoke gently. "It's my tongue that says these
hateful things, not my heart. Forgive me, like a dear."

"All right, old girl." Freddy had never told his sister that he had
refused the hospitality and cut himself off from the friendship of more
than two English families, residents in Cairo, because they had taken a
prominent part in the outcasting of Michael Ireton from English society
when he had married Hadassah Lekejian. He knew that Margaret had
spoken the words hastily and unthinkingly. When Meg's nerves were on
edge was the only time she was ever cross and out of temper. "The
Iretons are delightful people. If I'd known Ireton when he was a
bachelor, I should have visited them after his marriage, but I didn't,
and I haven't much time for paying society calls. Besides, it might
have looked like patronizing them. The way they were treated by some
of the English out here was so abominable that one had to be jolly
careful. Ireton never minded a scrap--he's too big to care for the
social rot that goes on out here, but all the same, I didn't like to
make a point of calling. I'm a digger, Meg, not a resident with a
house to invite people to."

"From what Mike told me, they must be the most delightful people. I
can't imagine Hadassah snubbing me i