h a nervously violent movement.

"What's the good of all that to you?" she said. "You're not going with
us to the Fayyum, I suppose."

He said nothing.

"Are you?" she exclaimed.

"Suttinly."

"You are coming. How do you know? Has Mr. Armine told you?"

"My lord, he tell me nothin', but I comin' with you, and Hamza him
comin' too."

"Hamza is coming?"

"Suttinly."

She was conscious of a sensation of relief that was yet mingled with a
faint feeling of dread.

"Why--why should Hamza come with us?" she asked.

"To be your donkey-boy. Hamza he very good donkey-boy."

"I don't know--I am not sure whether I shall want Hamza in the Fayyum."

Ibrahim looked at her with a smiling face.

"In the Fayyum you will never find good donkey-boy, my lady, but you
will do always what you like. If you not like to take Hamza, Hamza very
sad, very cryin' indeed, but Hamza he stay here. You do always what you
think."

When he had finished speaking, she knew that Hamza would accompany
them; she knew that Baroudi had ordered that Hamza was to come.

"We will see later on," she said, as if she had a will in this matter.

She looked at her watch.

"It's time to start."

"The felucca him ready," remarked Ibrahim. "This night the _Loulia_
sailin'; this night the _Loulia_ he go to Armant."

Mrs. Armine frowned. Armant--Esneh--Kom Ombos--and then Aswan! The
arbitrariness of her nature was going to be scourged with scorpions by
fate, it seemed. How was she to endure that scourging? But--there was
to-day. When was she going to learn really to live for the day? What a
fool she was! Still frowning, and without saying another word, she went
upstairs quickly to dress.

It was past midnight when she returned to the villa. There was no moon;
wind was blowing fiercely, lashing the Nile into waves that were edged
with foam, and whirling grains of sand stripped away from the desert
over the prairies and gardens of Luxor. The stars were blotted out, and
the night was cold and intensely dark. She held on tightly to Ibrahim's
arm as she struggled up the bank from the river, and almost felt her way
to the house, from which only two lights gleamed faintly. The French
windows of the drawing-room were locked, and they went round the house
to the front door. As Ibrahim put up his hand to ring the bell, a sudden
fear came to Mrs. Armine. Suppose Nigel had started earlier from Cairo
than he had intended? Suppose he had returned and was then i