endered by the unaccustomed mode of travelling,
the intense heat through which she essayed to sleep during the day, the
biting cold at night, when the temperature fell many degrees, as is its
agonising wont in that part of the world, the strain of the mind as it
valiantly essayed to accustom itself to the new way of everything; but
above all, the inability to change her under raiment, which, strive
against it as she would, managed to conceal particles of sand and
insects, which, though they did not bite, crawled most successfully and
irritatingly.

So that as in a dream she passed down the Haj road to the water, with a
vague recollection of a few wayfarers and beggars squatting on the
roadside, many men who salaamed with fervour at the water's edge; a
boat, a quick passage, and more of those who salaamed, and a three
days' rest, when the tents were pitched on the near side of the
mountains. Three days in which she slept, and slept, and slept, rising
to bathe and eat, grateful to the man who spoke only when she asked a
question, and who, though sign of servant there was none, forestalled
her every unuttered wish. Then followed they the Haj road through the
mountains and left it to take a line in the Eastern direction, which
they also followed until the hour when the Arab called his camels to a
halt, and pointing straight ahead, exclaimed:

"Behold, woman, your land!"

Upon which Jill strained her eyes in vain, for her untrained sight
revealed nothing but sand, and yet more sand.

"Yonder lies the oasis, O! woman of the West, and beneath the star of
happiness the dwelling which will serve to throw a shadow upon your
path in the heat of the day, and from the roof of which you may watch
the changing of the moon; and learn the way of the Eastern stars,
whilst listening to the million voices of the desert night."

The girl made no reply, neither did she turn to look at the man.

There was no sound, save for an occasional grunt of satisfaction from
one or other of the beasts, who sensed their home and the termination
of their labour.

There was nothing to break the silence, and nothing to break the
never-ending stretches of sand, as the two, caught in the inevitable
fingers of Fate, sat motionless, looking ahead beyond the oasis, beyond
the stars, to the moment when the first wind blew a particle of sand to
find its mate, with which to multiply and form the desert, the
birthplace and burial ground of so many; whilst