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Anstice stood on the deck of the P and O boat Moldavia, looking out over the blue seas to where Port Said lay white and shining in the rays of the March sun

He had seen the port before, on his way to and from India, but he had never landed there, and looked forith so foot in the place which enjoys, rightly or wrongly, one of the most unsavoury reputations in the world

Not that his stay would be long--a night aton to Cairo without loss of time, and as the boat drew nearer and nearer to the quay, whereon a crowd of gesticulating natives raised the unholy din which every traveller associates with this particular landing, Anstice turned about and swung down the companion to take a last look round his disht weeks since he had quitted Littlefield Having disposed of his practice in the nick of tie friend ished to settle in the country, and having also received an unexpected windfall in the shape of a sacy from a distant relation, he had decided, after a short stay in London, to take a holiday before starting to work once more

His choice of a destination had not been unaffected by the fact of Iris Cheniston's residence in the land of Egypt Although he had no expectation ofher--for she and her husband were still somewhere in the desert, a couple of days' journey from Cairo--there was an odd fascination in the bare idea of inhabiting, even for a feeeks, the land which held the girl he still loved For although he had long since determined that he must avoid Bruce Cheniston's wife if he wished to keep his secret inviolate, and incidentally atte his passion of its natural food, to keep his love unsullied by any hint of envy, any emotion of desire--well, all men are sophists at heart, and in spite of all his self-assurances that he could visit Egypt without seeking to gain even a glihts lay a delicious, barely forht vouchsafe to hiht feed in the ees in Littlefield since that Nove the anonyht After Tochatti's death it had naturally proved iedy and its ih Anstice had done his best to ate the position for Major Carstairs and his wife, the inquest had proved a trying affair for all of them