en, carried away by the flower-like touch of her flesh, he let her
hands go, and caught her to his heart, folding her in his burnous as if
he would hide her even from the eye of the sun in the west. But she
threw herself back, and pushed him away, with her palms pressed against
his breast. She could feel under her hands a great pounding as of a
hammer that would beat down a yielding wall.

"Thou art no true Arab!" she cried at him.

The words struck Maieddine in a vulnerable place; perhaps the only one.

He had expected her to exclaim, to protest, to struggle, and to beg
that he would let her go. But what she said was a sharp, unlooked for
stab. Above all things except his manhood, he prided himself on being a
true Arab. Involuntarily he loosened his clasp of her waist, and she
seized the chance to wrench herself free, panting a little, her eyes
dilated. But as she twisted herself out of his arms, he caught her by
the wrist. He did not grasp it tightly enough to hurt, yet the grip of
his slim brown hand was like a bracelet of iron. She knew that she could
not escape from it by measuring her strength against his, or even by
surprising him with some quick movement; for she had surprised him once,
and he would be on guard not to let it happen again. Now she did not
even try to struggle, but stood still, looking up at him steadily. Yet
her heart also was like a hammer that beat against a wall; and she
thought of the endless dunes in whose turmoil she was swallowed up. If
Stephen Knight were here--but he was far away; and Maieddine, whom she
had trusted, was a man who served another God than hers. His thoughts of
women were not as Stephen's thoughts.

"Think of thy white angel," she said. "He stands between thee and me."

"Nay, he gives thee to me," Maieddine answered. "I mean no harm to thee,
but only good, as long as we both shall live. My white angel wills that
thou shalt be my wife. Thou shalt not say I am no true Arab. I am true
to Allah and my own manhood when I tell thee I can wait no longer."

"But thou art not true to me when thou wouldst force me against my will
to be thy wife. We have drunk from the same cup. Thou art pledged to
loyalty."

"Is it disloyal to love?"

"Thy love is not true love, or thou wouldst think of me before thyself."

"I think of thee before all the world. Thou art my world. I had meant to
wait till thou wert in thy sister's arms; but since the night when I saw
thee dance, my love gre