It was enough for the moment to lie with relaxed

muscles, to have to make no effort of any kind, to feel the soothing

rush of the wind against her face, and the swift, easy gallop of The

Hawk as he carried them on through the night. Them! With a start of

recollection she realised fully whose arm was round her, and whose

breast her head was resting on. Her heart beat with sudden violence.

What was the matter with her? Why did she not shrink from the pressure

of his arm and the contact of his warm, strong body? What had happened

to her? Quite suddenly she knew--knew that she loved him, that she had

loved him for a long time, even when she thought she hated him and when

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she had fled from him. She knew now why his face had haunted her in the

little oasis at midday--that it was love calling to her subconsciously.

All the confusion of mind that had assailed her when they started on

the homeward journey, the conflicting thoughts and contrary emotions,

were explained. But she knew herself at last and knew the love that

filled her, an overwhelming, passionate love that almost frightened her

with its immensity and with the sudden hold it had laid upon her. Love

had come to her at last who had scorned it so fiercely. The men who had

loved her had not had the power to touch her, she had given love to no

one, she had thought that she could not love, that she was devoid of

all natural affection and that she would never know what love meant.

But she knew now--a love of such complete surrender that she had never

conceived. Her heart was given for all time to the fierce desert man

who was so different from all other men whom she had met, a lawless

savage who had taken her to satisfy a passing fancy and who had treated

her with merciless cruelty. He was a brute, but she loved him, loved

him for his very brutality and superb animal strength. And he was an

Arab! A man of different race and colour, a native; Aubrey would

indiscriminately class him as a "damned nigger." She did not care. It

made no difference. A year ago, a few weeks even, she would have

shuddered with repulsion at the bare idea, the thought that a native

could even touch her had been revolting, but all that was swept away

and was nothing in the face of the love that filled her heart so

completely. She did not care if he was an Arab, she did not care what

he was, he was the man she loved. She was deliriously, insanely happy.

She was lying against his heart, and the clasp of his arm was joy

unspeakable. She was utterly content; for the moment all life narrowed

down to the immediate surroundings, and she wished childishly that they

could ride so for ever through eternity. The night was brilliant. The

stars blazed against the inky blackness of the sky, and the light of

the full moon was startlingly clear and white. The discordant yelling

of a pack of hunting jackals came from a little distance, breaking the

perfect stillness.




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