k until she had helped herself, then she said in a voice touched
faintly with chagrin, "Well, the English are not very gallant toward
ladies in misfortune, are they? I feel furiously snubbed.... Of
course Mrs. Eversham never was much of a writer, but they might send
over my letters from the hotel. The last mail ought to have brought
a lot from that big brother of mine."

"Ah, yes, that big, grown-up, married brother who is so satisfied
with all you do!"

She felt she had been unfortunate in her rash confidences.

"He won't be so pleased when he learns how I wasted a perfectly good
Nile ticket," she remarked. "And Big Brother is rather fierce when
he isn't pleased."

His eyes smiled, as if he understood and despised her suggestion.
"Cairo and your America are not so near," he observed negligently,
"that an incident here is a matter of immediate knowledge there."

She felt the danger of seeming to threaten him. "Oh, I'd 'fess up,"
she said lightly, playing with her food. "There--shoo--go away!" she
cried suddenly, with a militant gesture about her plate. "That's one
thing I hate about Egypt--the flies!"

"I hope that is the only thing you hate," said the young man
blandly.

"Isn't that enough? There are so many of them!"

He laughed with real amusement at her petulance. "Is there netting
enough in your room?" he inquired. "Would you like more for your
bed?"

"Oh, no, I'm all right, thank you. The flies are chiefly bothersome
at meals. This is certainly their paradise."

"But is there anything you would like--to make you happy here? I
will get it for you. Would you not like some books, some music, some
new clothes----"

"I don't wonder you ask! But really this white gown will last a
little longer--Cairo is so clean. No, thank you, there is nothing I
need bother you about--Oh, yes, there really is one book that I
would like--a Turkish or an Arabic dictionary. I have always meant
to learn a little of the language and this would seem the
opportunity."

In the pause in which he appeared to be consuming pigeon she could
feel him weighing her request, foreseeing its results.

"I shall be most happy to teach you," was what he said, but she knew
she would never have that dictionary. And so one plan of the morning
went flying to the winds. But she snatched at the next opening she
saw and plunged into interested questions about the Turkish
language, asking the words for such things as seemed spontaneously
to occur