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Show XI AMONG the palm- trees near the J-\ red village that day there had been a violent scene between Benchai'tlal and Achmed. The guide was in the Spahi's pay, and had been promised a sum o( money if he would persuade Sir Claude to spend a night at the salt mountain. This sum of money Benchaalal had refused to give him. The abrupt return of Sir Claude and the guide had infuriated the Spahi, despite his seeming composure during the interview by the river at dawn. He knew delicately balanced are the emo-of such women as Lady Wyvcreatures o.,f. caprice, highly strung, changeable, slaves of their' nerves. Carefully, cleverly, he had been creating about her a certain atmosphere, in which he moved against a mysterious background of desert, strangely, almost magically, ~touched with the romance of a barbarous and bnlhant world. He had - "' scarcely seen her in the day. He had .. scarcely wished to see her. By night their acquaintance had been made, by night cemented. The towering · rocks had cast upon their fugitive intercourse black shadows, the moon-l beams a maze of silver. The river . had sung to them a nocturne. The fJ I wind from the sands had touched i"'!li-Jf them with its thrilling fingers. And the Roumi-woman had been enticed. At first she had been like a wilful child breaking bounds. But he had carried her on till the child in her, and its naughtiness, was merged in '" |