poet,"
Victoria told him.

"All true Arabs are poets. Our language--the literary, not the common
Arabic--is the language of poets, as thou must have read in thy books.
But I have now such inspiration as perhaps no man ever had; and thou
wilt learn other things about me, while we journey together in the
desert."

As he said this he looked at her with a look which even her simplicity
could not have mistaken if she had thought of it; but instantly the
vision of Saidee came between her eyes and his. The current of her ideas
was abruptly changed. "How many days now," she asked suddenly, "will the
journey last?"

His face fell. "Art thou tired already of this new way of travelling,
that thou askest me a question thou hast not once asked since we
started?"

"Oh no, no," she reassured him. "I love it. I am not tired at all.
But--I did not question thee at first because thou didst not desire me
to know thy plans, while I was still within touch of Europeans. Thou
didst not put this reason in such words, for thou wouldst not have let
me feel I had not thy full trust. But it was natural thou shouldst not
give it, when thou hadst so little acquaintance with me, and I did not
complain. Now it is different. Even if I wished, I could neither speak
nor write to any one I ever knew. Therefore I question thee."

"Art thou impatient for the end?" he wanted to know, jealously.

"Not impatient. I am happy. Yet I should like to count the days, and say
each night, 'So many more times must the sun rise and set before I see
my sister.'"

"Many suns must rise and set," Maieddine confessed doggedly.

"But--when first thou planned the journey, thou saidst; 'In a fortnight
thou canst send thy friends news, I hope.'"

"If I had told thee then, that it must be longer, wouldst thou have come
with me? I think not. For thou sayest I did not wholly trust thee. How
much less didst thou trust me?"

"Completely. Or I would not have put myself in thy charge."

"Perhaps thou art convinced of that now, when thou knowest me and Lella
M'Barka, and thou hast slept in the tent of my father, and in the houses
of my friends. But I saw in thine eyes at that time a doubt thou didst
not wish to let thyself feel, because through me alone was there a way
to reach thy sister. I wished to bring thee to her, for thy sake, and
for her sake, though I have never looked upon her face and never
shall----"

"Why dost thou say 'never shall'?" the girl broke in upon