y came true."

"By Jove, I wish I could go to school to you!" Stephen said this
laughing; but he meant every word. She had just given him two new ideas.
He wondered if he could do anything with them. Yet no; his life was cut
out on a certain plan. It must now follow that plan.

"If you should have any trouble--not that you _will_--but just 'if,'
you know," he went on, "and if I could help you, I want you to remember
this, wherever you are and whatever the trouble may be; there's nothing
I wouldn't do for you--nothing. There's no distance I wouldn't travel."

"Why, you're the kindest man I ever met!" Victoria exclaimed,
gratefully. "And I think you must be one of the best."

"Good heavens, what a character to live up to!" laughed Stephen.
Nevertheless he suddenly lost his sense of exaltation, and felt sad and
tired, thinking of life with Margot, and how difficult it would be not
to degenerate in her society.

"Yes. It's a good character. And I'll promise to let you know, if I'm in
any trouble and need help. If I can't write, I'll _call_, as I said
yesterday."

"Good. I shall hear you over the wireless telephone." They both laughed;
and Nevill Caird, coming out of the house was pleased that Stephen
should be happy.

It had occurred to him while helping his aunt with the invitations, that
something of interest to Miss Ray might be learned at the Governor's
house. He knew the Governor more or less, in a social way. Now he asked
Victoria if she would like him to make inquiries about Ben Halim's past
as a Spahi?

"I've already been to the Governor," replied Victoria. "I got a letter
to him from the American Consul, and had a little audience with him--is
that what I ought to call it?--this morning. He was kind, but could tell
me nothing I didn't know--any way, he would tell nothing more. He wasn't
in Algiers when Saidee came. It was in the day of his predecessor."

Nevill admired her promptness and energy, and said so. He shared
Stephen's chivalrous wish to do something for the girl, so alone, so
courageous, working against difficulties she had not begun to
understand. He was sorry that he had had no hand in helping Victoria to
see the most important Frenchman in Algiers, a man of generous sympathy
for Arabs; but as he had been forestalled, he hastened to think of
something else which he might do. He knew the house Ben Halim had owned
in Algiers, the place which must have been her sister's home. The people
who lived