XV
"What is the meaning of that Arabic writing, Mahmoud Baroudi?" said Mrs. Armine on the following afternoon, as she stood with him and her husband upon the lower deck of the Loulia, at the foot of the two steps which led down to the big door dividing the lines of living-rooms from the quarters of the Nubian sailors. The door was white, with mouldings of gold, and the inscription above it was in golden characters.
"It looks so significant that I must know what it means," she added.
"It is taken from the Koran, madame."
"And it means?"
He fixed his great eyes upon her.
"'The fate of every man have we bound about his neck.'"
"'The fate of every man have we bound about his neck,'" she repeated, slowly. "So that is the motto for the Loulia!"
She was standing quite still, staring up at the cabalistic signs beneath which she was going to pass.