, this being before him--he drew himself up with a start!... He
was going to Egypt again in a few days; they might probably never meet
again--would not, no doubt--should not. He had pressed her husband to go
to Egypt, but now he would not encourage it; he must "finish his journey
alone."

He looked again in her eyes, and their light and beauty held him. His
own eyes swam. The exaltation of a great idea was upon them, was a bond
of fate between them. It was a moment of peril not fully realised by
either. David did realise, however, that she was beautiful beyond all
women he had ever seen--or was he now for the first time really aware
of the beauty of woman? She had an expression, a light of eye and face,
finely alluring beyond mere outline of feature. Yet the features were
there, too, regular and fine; and her brown hair waving away from her
broad, white forehead over eyes a greyish violet in colour gave her a
classic distinction. In the quietness of the face there was that
strain of the Quaker, descending to her through three generations, yet
enlivened by a mind of impulse and genius.

They stood looking at each other for a moment, in which both had taken
a long step forward in life's experience. But presently his eyes looked
beyond her, as though at something that fascinated them.

"Of what are you thinking? What do you see?" she asked.

"You, leaving the garden of my house in Cairo, I standing by the fire,"
he answered, closing his eyes for an instant.

"It is what I saw also," she said breathlessly. "It is what I saw and
was thinking of that instant." When, as though she must break away from
the cords of feeling drawing her nearer and nearer to him, she said,
with a little laugh, "Tell me again of my Chicago cousin? I have not had
a letter for a year."

"Lacey, he is with me always. I should have done little had it not been
for him. He has remarkable resource; he is never cast down. He has but
one fault."

"What is that?"

"He is no respecter of persons. His humour cuts deep. He has a wide
heart for your sex. When leaving the court of the King of Abyssinia he
said to his Majesty: 'Well, good-bye, King. Give my love to the girls.'"

She laughed again. "How absurd and childish he is! But he is true and
able. And how glad you should be that you are able to make true friends,
without an effort. Yesterday I met neighbour Fairley, and another little
old Elder who keeps his chin in his collar and his eyes on the s