Had her action been very unwise? Several times that day, while with Baroudi, she had felt something that was almost like panic invade her at the thought of what she had done. Now, quite alone and safe, she asked herself whether she had been a fool to obey Nigel's injunction and to trust her own beauty.
She gazed; she took off her hat and she gazed again, hard, critically, almost cruelly.
There came a sharp knock against the door.
"Who is it?"
"C'est moi, madame!"
Mrs. Armine went to the door and opened it.
"Come here, Marie!" she said, almost roughly, "and tell me the truth. I don't want any flattering or any palavering from you. Do you think I look younger, better looking, with something on my face, or like this?"
She put her face close to the light of the candles and stood quite still. Marie examined her with sharp attention.
"Madame has got to look much younger here," she said, at length. "Madame has changed very much since we have been in Egypt. I do not know, but I think, perhaps, here madame can go without anything, unless, of course, she is going to be with Frenchmen. But if madame is much in the sun, at night she should be careful to put—"
And the maid ran on, happy in a subject that appealed to her whole nature.