this new indignity. She was ready to visit
him now--he could see that. He made difficulties, however, which would
prevent their going at once, and he arranged with her to go to Kingsley
in the late afternoon.

Her mind was in confusion, but one thing shone clear through the
confusion, and it was the iniquity of the Khedive. It gave her a
foothold. She was deeply grateful for it. She could not have moved
without it. So shameful was the Khedive in her eyes that the prisoner
seemed Criminal made Martyr.

She went back to her hotel flaming with indignation against Ismail. It
was very comforting to her to have this resource. The six slaves whom
she had freed--the first-fruits of her labours: that they should be
murdered! The others who had done no harm, who had been slaves by
Ismail's consent, that they should be now in danger of their lives
through the same tyrant! That Kingsley Bey, who had been a slave-master
with Ismail's own approval and to his advantage, should now--she glowed
with pained anger.... She would not wait till she had seen Kingsley Bey,
or Donovan Pasha again; she herself would go to Ismail at once.

So, she went to Ismail, and she was admitted, after long waiting in an
anteroom. She would not have been admitted at all, if it had not been
for Dicky, who, arriving just before her on the same mission, had
seen her coming, and guessed her intention. He had then gone in to
the Khedive with a new turn to his purposes, a new argument and a new
suggestion, which widened the scope of the comedy now being played. He
had had a struggle with Ismail, and his own place and influence had
been in something like real danger, but he had not minded that. He had
suggested that he might be of service to Egypt in London and Paris. That
was very like a threat, but it was veiled by a look of genial innocence
which Ismail admired greatly. He knew that Donovan Pasha could hasten
the crisis coming on him. He did not believe that Donovan Pasha would,
but that did not alter the astuteness and value of the move; and,
besides, it was well to run no foolish risks and take no chances. Also,
he believed in Donovan Pasha's honesty. He despised him in a worldly
kind of way, because he might have been rich and splendid, and he was
poor and unassuming. He wanted Kingsley Bey's fortune, or a great slice
of it, but he wanted it without a struggle with Dicky Donovan, and with
the British Consulate--for that would come, too, directly. It gave hi