ugar; exactly, madame," he replied gravely, bowing over her hand.
"I hope you will forgive my intrusion. Your husband kindly insisted on
bringing me over--and in flannels."

His apology was extremely composed, but Nigel was looking a little
excited, a little anxious, was begging forgiveness with his eyes for all
the trouble of the morning. She was not going to seem to give it him
yet; a man on the tenter-hooks was a man in the perfectly right place.
So she was suave, and avoided his glance without seeming to avoid it.
They strolled about a little, talking lightly of nothing particular;
then she said, speaking for the first time directly to her husband,

"Nigel, don't you think you'd better just go and tell Hassan we shall be
three at dinner, and have a little talk to the cook? Your Arabic will
have more effect upon the servants than my English. Mahmoud Baroudi and
I will sit on the terrace till you come back."

"Right you are!" he said.

And he went off at once, leaving them together.

As soon as he was gone, Mrs. Armine sat down on a basket chair. For a
moment she said nothing. In the silence her face changed. The almost
lazy naturalness and simplicity faded gradually out of it, revealing the
alert and seductive woman of the world. Even her body seemed to change,
to become more sensitive, more conscious, under the eyes of Baroudi; and
all the woman in her, who till now, save for a few subtle and fleeting
indications of life, had lain almost quiescent, rose suddenly and
signalled boldly to attract the attention of this man, who sat down a
little way from her, and gazed at her in silence with an Oriental
directness and composure.

Although they had talked upon shipboard, this was the first time they
had been _en tete-a-tete_.

To-night Mrs. Armine's eyes told Baroudi plainly that she admired him,
told him more--that she wished him to know it; and he accepted her
admiration, and now made a bold return. For soon the change in her was
matched by the change in him. The open resolution of his face, which on
the ship had often attracted Nigel, was now mingled with a something
sharp, as of cunning, with a ruthlessness she could understand and
appreciate. As she looked at him in the gathering darkness of the night,
she realized that housed within him, no doubt with many companions,
there was certainly a brigand, without any fear, without much pity. And
she compared this brigand with Nigel.

"How do you find Egypt, madam