Desert Love

t air of studied calm, that seldom smiling, never restless attitude, which expresses the height of dignity and gravity. There were many of them in thi

ompare with Hahmed the Camel King, who, standing alone and motionless wit

being looked at, from

ok of admiration, both

o-be-forgotten look of

ave her naked

vely, rising from chin to brow, and longed to cover her face or to run away a

ow sand, nor the airing of camels stalking away into the distance, nor the mud houses and patient bullocks. No! nothing of all these, but instead, just one man's face, oval, lean-featured, eyes brilliantly blac

s sweeping to his feet, a cloak of finest black cloth falling over all in swinging folds, failing, however, to hide that

nches above the rail, and after a few seconds beckoned her employer's special dragom

mediately,

the coster in Whitechapel to the Kaffir at the Cape. An

show a varied degree of blackness in their skin, and have less brains than some of us, but they are human,

h the exception of a certain difference in the pigment which embellishes the skin, the lowest type of Hottentot has the same ideals, desires, an

e ebony hued product of Africa and, labouring under the delusion that the dusky swain is the direct descendant of Cetewayo, also totally lacking all knowledge of African history, will fondly imagine herself a queen

pearls, gathering her fastidious skirts about her at the sign of any feeling more human than that which she would allow from a respectable bank manager, recoiling disdainfully from a man who

West, etc." But in her heart, or rather in her somewhat searching brain, she had often wondered if there could

rward, saluting her with hands

perceptible movement of the head the Arab who had not moved a muscle

e,'" pointing to the Camelry Corps, where perspiring Tommies and a seething mass of brown beasts were literally raising the dust on the other side of the railroad. "'Im," he continued, "is ze great man, from far away over ze Canal from ze greates' and best part o

literally from

tle disappointedly, having expected something a little less ordinary in

iasm on the part of his audience, took in a huge quan

lady-zere is tales of one wife long ago over zere," pointing vaguely in the direction he imagined South Arabia might be, "but feared, we say and ask nozing-no! ze great Hahmed live alone-not zere---" Once more pointing contemptuously to the pink abode. "Zat but a business 'ouse-ze most beautiful place in one oasis

m to turn and run hurriedly towards a figure vehemently sig

esides, suddenly sat up in Jill's eyes and laughed, and as she laughed the words "Go always alone in ze nigh

ing of her whole soul for freedom; combated the next by the inherited deference to conve

Still it would only be for a few hours-a swift ride into the desert-a glimpse of a desert home-a break anyhow in the deadly, soul-stifling monotony of her d

h that prospect would become more and more remote as youth vanished and the waters of her wealth remained at low tide.

her hands involuntarily. "Where

heard a faint tinkle of coins in the we

murmured to herself, as

lacing the silver coin on her thumb nail, flipping it into t

crossed the few yards covered by the sand which for centuries blown hither and hither had been waiting to make a carpet