"We seem to be going to the end of the world," she said.
She was swaying gently to and fro with the movement of her camel, which had just turned to the right, after following for an immense time a straight track that was cut through the crops, and that never deviated to right or left. Now sand appeared. On their left, and parallel to them, crept a sluggish stream of water between uneven banks of sand. And the track was up and down, and here and there showed humps, and deep ruts, and sometimes holes. The crops began to be sparser; no more houses or huts were visible; but far away in the white and wintry distance, looking almost like discolourations upon a sheet, were scattered low brown and black tents, which seemed to be crouching on the desolate ground.
"Does any one live out here beyond us?" she added. "Are those things really tents?"
"Yes, Ruby."
"It seems incredible that any human beings should deliberately choose to live here."
"You haven't ever felt the call of the wild?" he asked.
She looked at him, and said, quickly: "Oh, yes. But it's different for us. We come here to get a new experience, to have a thorough change, and we can get away whenever we like. But just imagine choosing to live here permanently!"
"I'd rather live here than in almost any town."
He was silent for a moment, and his face lost its joyous expression and became almost eagerly anxious. Then he said: "Ruby, do you hate all this?"
"Hate it! No, it's a novelty; it's strange; it excites me, interests me."
"You are sure?"
He had suddenly thought of her sitting-room in the Savoy. Into what a violently different life he had conveyed her!--into a life that he loved, and that was well fitted for a man to live. He loved such a life, but perhaps he had been, was being selfish. He tried to read her face, and was suddenly full of doubts and fears.
"I like roughing it, of course," he added. "But, I say, you mustn't give in to what I like if it doesn't suit you. We men are infernally selfish."
She saw her opportunity.
"Don't you know yet that women find most of their happiness in pleasing the men they love?" she said.
"But I want to please you."
"So you shall presently."
"How?"
"By taking me up the Nile."
She had sown in his mind the belief that she was living for him unselfishly. He resolved to pay her with a sterling coin of unselfishness. Never mind the work! In this first year he must think always first of her, must dedicate himself to her. And in making her life to flower was he not reclaiming the desert?