removing her face from the carpet:

"May Allah bless thee, bird of paradise, with the joys of Omayya, oh,
star without a blemish!"

However implacable Stas in his soul was towards the Mahdists, he was
moved by Fatma's entreaties and grief. Besides, Nell interceded for her
and he in the end always wanted that which Nell wished. So after a
while he spoke out, as if to himself but so that all could hear him:

"If I were the Government, I would allow Fatma to go."

"But as you are not the Government," Pan Tarkowski said to him, "you
would do better not to interfere in that which does not concern you."

Mr. Rawlinson also had a compassionate soul and was sensible of Fatma's
situation, but certain statements which she made struck him as being
downright falsehoods. Having almost daily relations with the
custom-house at Ismailia, he well knew that no new cargoes of gums or
ivory were being transported lately through the Canal. The trade in
those wares had ceased almost entirely. Arabian traders, moreover,
could not return from the city of El-Fasher which lay in the Sudan, as
the Mahdists, as a rule, barred all traders from their territories, and
those whom they captured were despoiled and kept in captivity. And it
was almost a certainty that the statement about Smain's sickness was a
falsehood.

But as Nell's little eyes were still looking at her papa appealingly,
he, not desiring to sadden the little girl, after a while said to Fatma:

"Fatma, I already have written at your request to the Government, but
without result. And now listen. To-morrow, with this mehendis
(engineer) whom you see here, I leave for Medinet el-Fayum; on the way
we shall stop one day in Cairo, for the Khedive desires to confer with
us about the canals leading from Bahr Yusuf and give us a commission as
to the same. During the conference I shall take care to present your
case and try to secure for you his favor. But I can do nothing more,
nor shall I promise more."

Fatma rose and, extending both hands in sign of gratitude, exclaimed:

"And so I am safe."

"No, Fatma," answered Mr. Rawlinson, "do not speak of safety for I
already told you that death threatens neither you nor your children.
But that the Khedive will consent to your departure I do not guarantee,
for Smain is not sick but is a traitor, who, having taken money from
the Government, does not at all think of ransoming the captives from
Mohammed Ahmed."

"Smain is innocent, sir, an