"he came to tell me
that the holy man had smallpox."

"And you forgot your love?" Margaret said.

"It was swallowed up in fear, in anger. I was so furious at Michael's
rash generosity. I had warned him that the man might be suffering from
some contagious malady, but I never dreamed of smallpox."

"It was horrible!" Margaret said. "And Michael has never said a word
about it."

"His charity is divine," Millicent said. "It is Christ-like, if you
like."

"It is true charity, for it is love, love for everything which God has
created."

"He is so happy that he can afford to love almost everything and
everyone."

"He is happy because he loves them."

"I don't believe he has ever heard of hell," Millicent said. "His
religion's all heaven and beauty and love."

"Hell!" exclaimed Margaret. "But surely," she paused, "surely we're
not primitives, we don't need the fear of such impossible cruelties to
keep us from doing wrong? His great saint, or reformer, Akhnaton, had
no hell in his religion, and he lived, as you know, centuries before
David. Even Akhnaton realized that human beings create their own
hells. The other hell, of fire and brimstone, which terrorized the
ignorant people into obedience and order, belongs to the same category
as the crocodile god and the wicked cat-goddess Pasht, of Egypt. It
was necessary in its day."

"You and Michael live on such a high plane!"

"Oh no, we don't. You know Michael is very human--that is why he is so
understanding, so forgiving."

"He will never forgive me--that would be expecting too much. But I had
to come and tell you all that I know about his treasure. I have only
just heard--I saw it in the Egyptian monthly Archaeological
Report--that Michael never had the glory of discovering the Akhnaton
chambers in the hills."

"You didn't know that when I saw you in Cairo?"

"No, I never dreamed of it. If you had only told me that he hadn't, I
should have explained, I should have told you about the man who
absconded."

Margaret looked at her searchingly, but she could learn nothing more
than the voice told her, for Millicent's veil was still covering her
disfigured face.

"I never wished to rob him of the honour of the discovery. If I had
known when I saw you, I should have cleared my name, at least, of that
contemptible deed."

Margaret blushed. "I couldn't tell you," she said. "I was too
unhappy, too angry. I didn't want you to know of our disappointm