"
"If Saidee puts my hand in thine."
"It is the same thing."
"Thou dost not know my sister."
"But I know----" Again he broke off abruptly. There were things it were
better not to say, even in the presence of one who would never be able
to tell of an indiscretion. "It is a truce between us?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Forget, then, that I frightened thee."
"Thou didst not frighten me. I did not know what to do, and I thought I
might have to die without seeing Saidee. Yet I was not afraid, I
think--I hope--I was not afraid."
"Thou wilt not have to die without seeing thy sister. Now, more than
before, I shall be in haste to put thee in her charge. But thou wilt die
without seeing again the face of that man whose name, which thou wouldst
not speak, shall be as smoke blown before the wind. Never shalt thou see
him on earth, and if he and I meet I will kill him."
Victoria shut her eyes, and pressed her hands over them. She felt very
desolate, alone with Maieddine among the dunes. She would not dare to
call Stephen now, lest he should hear and come. Nevertheless she could
not be wholly unhappy, for it was wonderful to have learned what love
was. She loved Stephen Knight.
"Thou wilt let me go back to M'Barka?" she said to Maieddine.
"I will take thee back," he amended. "Because I have thy promise."
XXXIII
On a flat white roof, which bubbled up here and there in rounded domes,
a woman stood looking out over interminable waves of yellow sand, a vast
golden silence which had no end on her side of the horizon, east, west,
north, or south.
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