She had read enough books about Arab customs and superstitions to know
that there are few saints believed to possess the gift of Baraka, the
power given by Allah for the curing of all fleshly ills. Only the very
greatest of the marabouts are supposed to have this power, receiving it
direct from Allah, or inheriting it from a pious saint--father or more
distant relative--who handed down the maraboutship. Therefore, if she
had time and inclination, she could probably learn from any devout
Mussulman the abiding places of all such famous saints as remained upon
the earth. In that way, by setting her wits to work, she might guess the
secret if Si Maieddine still tried to make a mystery of their
destination. But, somehow, she felt that it would not be fair to seek
information which he did not want her to have. She must go on trusting
him, and by and by he would tell her all she wanted to know.
Lella M'Barka had invited her guest to sit on cushions beside the divan
where she lay, and the interest in her feverish eyes, which seldom left
Victoria's face, was so intense as to embarrass the girl.
"Thou hast wondrous hair," she said, "and when it is unbound it must be
a fountain of living gold. Is it some kind of henna grown in thy
country, which dyes it that beautiful colour?"
Victoria told her that Nature alone was the dyer.
"Thou art not yet affianced; that is well," murmured the invalid. "Our
young girls have their hair tinted with henna when they are betrothed,
that they may be more fair in the eyes of their husbands.
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