And Maieddine had been
saving up many surprises for that time, things he meant to do for the
girl, which must turn her heart towards him.
Beyond Djelfa, on the low mountains that alone broke the monotony
of the dismal plain, little watch-towers rose dark along the
sky-line--watch-towers old as Roman days. Sometimes the travellers met a
mounted man wearing a long, hooded cloak over his white burnous; a
cavalier of the Bureau Arabe, or native policeman on his beat, under the
authority of a civil organization more powerful in the Sahara than the
army. These men, riding alone, saluted Si Maieddine almost with
reverence, and Lella M'Barka told Victoria, with pride, that her cousin
was immensely respected by the French Government. He had done much for
France in the far south, where his family influence was great, and he
had adjusted difficulties between the desert men and their rulers. "He
is more tolerant than I, to those through whom Allah has punished us for
our sins," said the woman of the Sahara. "I was brought up in an older
school; and though I may love one of the Roumis, as I have learned to
love thee, oh White Rose, I cannot love whole Christian nations.
Maieddine is wiser than I, yet I would not change my opinions for his;
unless, as I often think, he really----" she stopped suddenly, frowning
at herself. "This dreariness is not _our_ desert," she explained eagerly
to the girl, as the horses dragged the carriage over the sandy earth,
through whose hard brown surface the harsh, colourless blades of _drinn_
pricked like a few sparse hairs on the head of a shrivelled old man.
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