OCR Text |
Show "I was thinking of your departure to-morrow, and of mine-far into the Zibans, to the house of my father." "Absurd!" she said, with a little shrug of her shoulders. "I had an excellent appetite." He was silent. To-night he wore over his shoulders a great red cloak, which swung gently to and fro as he walked on with the magnificent dignity and pride which is the birthright of the Arab race. She glanced him sideways, with a birdlike turn of her little head. "Besides," she added, "I'm not going away to-morrow." His eyes flashed on her like fire. "Madame?'' "No, we stay some days more. Barbary sheep, you know!" And she laughed, but rather mirthlessly. "Will you have to ride from BeniMora ?" she added. "The railway "Yes, madame. From there I shall ride." "How many days?" "Three days." "And always in the desert?" "Always in the desert." " And then you will reach your home. How strange!" She was thinking of Chester Street, Belgrave Square, in which she had first seen the light. What a gulf was fixed between her and this man with whom she was now adventurously walking through this savage solitude! And yet his cloak, as it swung, touched the skirt of her gown, and she could see the fire sparkling in his eyes as he bent his head down when she spoke to him. And she-she had ·a capricious desire to find some bridge across this gulf, to venture upon it, to bring Chester Street to the Zibans. She was not stupid, and, being a ' woman, she was intuitive, and so it 35 |