miles to gratify his pride
before the house of his parents--and made a zigzag way towards the
river, where old palaces rose from the backwaters, their faces
hidden by high walls or covered with heavy vines and moss.

Deeper and deeper grew the girl's dismay. It was a different world
from that bright, modern Cairo that she knew; this was as remote
from her daily life as the old streets of Al Raschid. Her thoughts
flew forward to that unknown lord, that Hamdi Bey, whose image she
had refused to assemble to her consciousness. Now she comforted her
terror with a sudden assumption of age and dignity and kindness, of
a courtesy that would protect her and a deference that would assuage
the horror of a life together, when unknown, fearful familiarities
would alone vibrate in the empty monotonies.

Before a high wall the carriage had stopped. A huge, repellent
Ethiopian was standing before an opened doorway, through which a
rich carpet was spread.

"Ah, but he looks like an ogre, that new eunuch of yours, Aimee,"
murmured one of the little Turks. The other, more touched with
thought, gave her a disturbed glance, and laughed in nervousness.

Madame, alone serene, ignored the dismaying impression.

"The palace is of a fine, ancient beauty, I am told," she mentioned
cheerfully.

For one wild instant Aimee thought to plead with her, to implore her
to tell Abdullah to drive on, to give her the freedom of flight, if
only flight down those deserted streets. And then a mad vision of
herself in her bridal robes in flight, brought the hysterical
laughter to her throat. The time for flight had gone by ... And as
for madame's pity on her--this was not the first time that Aimee had
thought of invoking her aid, but she had always known, too well,
that thought's supreme futility.

Sympathetic as Madame de Coulevain might be in her inmost heart--and
Aimee divined in her an understanding pity for the necessities of
existence--never would that sympathy betray her to rashness. She
never would believe that in serving Aimee she would not be ruining
her; and even if assured of Aimee's safety, she could never be
brought to betray her own reputation for truthworthiness among the
harems of Cairo.... As well appeal to the rocks of the Mokattam
hills.

The carriage stopped. The negroes extended the damask walls, and one
sprang to open the carriage door and bear the bride's train. In one
moment's parting of the silken walls the girl saw a sun-f