as for going into his cabin--My _dear_! There is no need to
provoke scandal; you will learn as you grow older to do things more
discreetly."

"Discreet! I hate the word! And Careful! I couldn't be careful!" she
cried hotly, but Mrs. Hetherington tapped her playfully on the arm and
turned away, murmuring, "Naughty, naughty!"

It was very quiet on deck that night, with Louis and Ole Fred both below
in their bunks; a few Arabs had come aboard and sat in a corner of the
deck eating their evening meal, which they could not take under the same
roof as unbelievers; afterwards, as the sun sank into the purple
distance of the desert leaving a sky like a palette splashed by a
child's indiscriminating hand, they began an eerie, monotonous chant
that went on for hours. Later the stewards rigged up a canvas screen
behind which the women and children could sleep, for the heat of the
desert was making the lower cabins unbearable; mattresses were dragged
here and there, children put to sleep upon them; people walked about,
stepping carefully over sleeping forms as the _Oriana_ crept along at
five miles an hour with a great searchlight forrard sending a huge fan
of light on to the lapping waters of the Canal, and out into the brown
sand of the desert. The schoolmaster became instructive about the rapid
silting up of the Canal with erosion and sand storms: he discussed the
genius and patience of de Lesseps, and argued lengthily on the
respective merits of patience and genius. Finally, Marcella told him
she had a headache. He suggested that he could cure it.

"I have some tabloids--very sedative, very. I make a point of never
being without them. You, I take it, have the same type of brain and
nerve force as I--always active, always alert. What we both need is a
depressant--pot. brom. Or, as I prefer to call it, K.B.R."

"Oh no--it's very kind of you. But I'd like best to go to bed."

"May I carry your mattress up for you?"

"I'm not sleeping on deck. I couldn't sleep among so many people," she
said, and, after a hurried good night went below.

As she paused at her cabin door she heard a little noise and guessed
that Jimmy was within. Opening it quickly, without switching on the
light, she cried, "Here comes a big bear to eat you all up," as Jimmy
often did to her. She grasped someone, and cried out in fear. It was
someone grown up, kneeling on the floor.

She switched on the light and saw Louis looking up at her, blinking in
the