ellairs said.

"Mademoiselle Leroux, you mean--yes. You know her?"

"Not at all. I only heard her from the river bank."

"She is travelling with Lord Braydon. She is a great friend of Lady
Betty Lambe, his daughter."

"That pretty girl?"

"Yes. Shall I introduce you?"

"I should be delighted."

A moment later Bellairs was sitting with the two ladies and talking of
Egypt. It seemed to him that they were the first nurses to dandle his
new baby-nature, this nature which Egypt had given to him, and which
only to-night he had definitely accepted. Perhaps this fact quickly
cemented their acquaintance. At any rate, a distinct friendship began to
walk in their conversation, and Bellairs found himself listening to
Mdlle. Leroux, and looking at Lady Betty, with a great deal of interest
and of admiration. Presently the former said:--

"I knew you would be introduced to us to-night."

Bellairs was surprised.

"When?" he asked.

"When we passed you just now on the bank of the Nile."

"I knew we should too," said Lady Betty.

"You must be very intuitive," said Bellairs.

"Women generally are," remarked Mdlle. Leroux.

"Yes. Do your intuitions tell you whether our acquaintance will be long
and agreeable?"

"Perhaps--but I never prophesy."

"Why?"

"Because I am always right."

"Is that a valid reason for abstention?"

"I think so. For in this world those who look forward generally see
darkness."

"I cannot achieve a proper pessimism in Upper Egypt," Bellairs replied.

* * * * *

A week later, Bellairs felt quite certain that there had never been a
period in his life when he had not known and talked with Mdlle. Leroux
and Lady Betty Lambe. Lord and Lady Braydon asked him to lunch on the
dahabeeyah almost every day, and he often strolled down to tea without
invitation. Then, in the afternoon, there were donkey expeditions to
Karnak, or across the river to the tombs of the kings, to the desert
villa of Monsieur Naville, to ancient Thebes, to the two Colossi. Lord
Braydon was consumptive and was spending the winter and spring in Egypt.
Lady Braydon seldom left his side, and so it happened that Bellairs and
his two acquaintances of the garden were often alone together. Bellairs
became deeply interested in them, and for a rather peculiar reason. He
was fascinated by the extraordinary sympathy that existed between the
two women--if Lady Betty could be called a woman yet. Mdlle. Le