The police could
be applied to, if Nevill and his friends should be unable to discover
Ben Halim and his American wife. Almost unconsciously, Stephen saw
himself earning Victoria Ray's gratitude. It was a pleasant fancy, and
he followed it as one wanders down a flowery path found in a dark
forest.
Victoria's thoughts of him were as many, though different.
She had never filled her mind with nonsense about men, as many girls do.
As she would have said to herself, she had been too busy. When girls at
school had talked of being in love, and of marrying, she had been
interested, as if in a story-book, but it had not seemed to her that she
would ever fall in love or be married. It seemed so less than ever, now
that she was at last actually on her way to look for Saidee. She was
intensely excited, and there was room only for the one absorbing thought
in mind and heart; yet she was not as anxious as most others would have
been in her place. Now that Heaven had helped her so far, she was sure
she would be helped to the end. It would be too bad to be true that
anything dreadful should have happened to Saidee--anything from which
she, Victoria, could not save her; and so now, very soon perhaps,
everything would come right. It seemed to the girl that somehow Stephen
was part of a great scheme, that he had been sent into her life for a
purpose. Otherwise, why should he have been so kind since the first, and
have appeared this second time, when she had almost forgotten him in the
press of other thoughts? Why should he be going where she was going, and
why should he have a friend who had known Algiers and Algeria since the
time when Saidee's letters had ceased?
All these arguments were childlike; but Victoria Ray had not passed far
beyond childhood; and though her ideas of religion were her
own--unlearned and unconventional--such as they were they meant
everything to her.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94