ee at break of day
The solitary child.'"

Dimsdale gasped. "Lucy Gray!" he said falteringly.

Fielding nodded. "You didn't know, of course. She's been here for six
months--has more influence than the whole diplomatic corps. Twists
old Imshi Pasha round her little finger. She has played your game
handsomely--I've been in her confidence. Wordsworth was wrong when he
wrote:

"'No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor:
The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door--'

"For my wife's been her comrade. And her mate--would you like to know
her mate? She's married, you know."

Dimsdale's face was pale. He was about to reply, when a lady came into
view, leaning on the arm of an Agency Secretary. At first she did not
see Dimsdale, then within a foot or two of him she suddenly stopped. The
Secretary felt her hand twitch on his arm; then she clenched the fingers
firmly on her fan.

"My dear Dimsdale," Fielding said, "you must let me introduce you to
Mrs. St. John."

Dimsdale behaved very well, the lady perfectly. She held out both her
hands to him.

"We are old, old friends, Mr. Dimsdale and I. I have kept the next dance
for him," she added, turning to Fielding, who smiled placidly and left
with the Secretary.

For a moment there was silence, then she said quietly: "Let me
congratulate you on all you have done. Everybody is talking about you.
They say it is wonderful how you have made things come your way.... I am
very, very glad."

Dimsdale was stubborn and indignant and anything a man can be whose
amour propre has had a shock.

"I know all," he said bluntly. "I know what you've done for me."

"Well, are you as sorry I did it as I am to know you know it?" she asked
just a little faintly, for she had her own sort of heart, and it worked
in its own sort of way.

"Why this sudden interest in my affairs? You laughed at me when I made
up my mind to come to Egypt."

"That was to your face. I sent you to Egypt."

"You sent me?"

"I made old General Duncan talk to you. The inspiration was mine. I also
wrote to Fielding Pasha--and at last he wrote to me to come."

"You--why--"

"I know more about irrigation than any one in England," she continued
illogically. "I've studied it.

"I have all your reports. That's why I could help you here. They saw I
knew."

Dimsdale shook a little. "I didn't understand," he said.

"You don't know my hus