She looked at him, and said nothing.
"We have to do what we want in the world without losing anything by it. Thus it has always been with me in my life."
She thought of all she had lost long ago by doing the thing she desired, and again she felt herself inferior to him.
"And this, too, we shall do without losing anything by it," he said.
"This? What?"
"Go back to Kurûn. Tell me. Will you not presently need to have a dahabeeyah?"
"And if we do?"
"You shall have the Loulia."
"You mean to come with us?"
"Are you a child? I shall let it to your husband at a price that will suit his purse, so that you may be housed as you ought to be. I shall let it with my crew, my servants, my cook. Then you must take your husband away with you quietly up the Nile."
Again Mrs. Armine was conscious of a shock of cold.
"Quietly up the Nile?" she repeated.
"Yes."
"What is the use of that?"
"Perhaps he will like the Nile so much that he will not come back."
He looked into her eyes. She heard the snarl of a camel.
"Your camel is ready," he said.
They walked towards the fire where Ibrahim was awaiting them. Before Mrs. Armine had settled herself in the palanquin Baroudi moved away without another word, and as the camel rose, complaining in the night, she saw him lift the canvas of the Ghawázee's tent and disappear within it.
When she reached the camp by the lake, Nigel had not returned. She undressed quickly, got into bed, and lay there shivering, though heavy blankets covered her.
Just at dawn Nigel came back.
Then she shut her eyes and pretended to sleep.
Always she was shivering.