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"As it should be," he agreed in self-disgust

"The more so because you have taken all the responsibility upon yourself, as if you were the only person whoof hi this a precarious revelation

"But I am… your lover," he protested "You yourself say there is a bond between us"

"And so there is," she said, "which is why I do not hold you in the conteht My sensibilities are not so delicate that I ave way to aggravation "For heaven’s sake, Madary withto you before now Tell me what a poltroon you think I as," she said reasonably as she atte him "I think you are what you say you are--a father who is worried about his fa of hope in his steel-colored eyes "There is soated yourself for things I have not held against you The accusations you ainst yourself are of your own creation, not mine I do not hold you to the account you hold yourself And just as well, given the catalogue of offenses you have conjured for yourself" She went and stood next to hinize your desire to protect your family, and would expect you to devote yourself to me"

"As I should have done," he interjected harshly

"You may think so; I do not" She put her hand on his shoulder, noticing again hoet he was, then looked up into his face ’Tecumseh, listen to me: I will not deny that I would like to have you here with me, for I would"

"It would be poor recompense to tarnish your reputation" He put his hand over hers where it rested on his shoulder "I aht--"

"My housekeeper will not be back until late tonight I have told her she need not look in on o directly to her apart with his cousin’s family" She smiled at him

He did not return the smile "You mean they left you alone?" he demanded "What kind of servants do you have, Madame, that they leave you by yourself?"

"I have servants who do as I instruct therew impatient "What nonsense you talk, Tecumseh," she said with asperity "You would think I a for ed onIndians," he said, deter others," she responded, refusing to be dragged into yet another dispute with hioing, no doubt"

"They were," she said "Some of the time The expedition was a small one, and ere four hundred miles up the Nile" She recalled the endless heat and sand; she remembered the Nile at flood, and the profusion of insects and vermin that cae and the Coptic monk Erai Quran, and the death of Professor Baudilet

"What is it?" Sher of her ," she said "It’s all in the past, all behind me" She shook off the hold of the memories and made herself pay closer attention to him "Your hand is like ice," she said "You’re wet to the skin You et warain"

"It’s not important," he claimed

"It is if you are taken ill because of it," she said briskly, and slipped her hand froloom of her house to the curtained alcove off the kitchen where her bathtub was kept "I will start heating water right now," she declared as she went to the stove, opened the tinderbox, and stirred the es of wood from the box near the stove and put the coals "This will be hot shortly, the kitchen will be warm, and your bath will be ready in a half hour" She paused to hold out her hand to hiarded her tenderly "A bath I wish I could stay for it," he said in a rueful voice, his fingers lacing through hers

"Do you tell me you will not?" she asked