"My lady!"
"Directly I go on board the Loulia, you are to go. Take the boat straight back to Luxor."
"I leavin' you?"
He looked relieved.
"Yes. I'll—I'll come back in Baroudi's felucca."
"I quite well stayin', waitin' till you ready."
"No, no. I don't wish that. Promise me you will take the boat away at once."
"All what you want you must have," he murmured.
"How loudly the sailors are singing!" she said.
Now they were drawing near to the Loulia. Mrs. Armine, with fierce eyes, gazed at the lighted cabin windows, at the upper deck, at the balcony in the stern where so often she had sat with Nigel. She was on fire with eagerness; she was the prey of an excitement that made her forget all her bodily fatigue, forget everything except that at last she was close to Baroudi. Already her husband had ceased to exist for her. He was gone for ever with the past. Not only the river but a great gulf, never to be bridged, divided them.