“Your fellow-traveller?”
“Yes. It was horrible.”
She gave him back the glasses.
“They reveal that which should be hidden,” she said.
Count Anteoni took the glasses slowly from her hands. As he bent to do it he looked steadily at her, and she could not read the expression in his eyes.
“The desert is full of truth. Is that what you mean?” he asked.
She made no reply. Count Anteoni stretched out his hand to the shining expanse before them.
“The man who is afraid of prayer is unwise to set foot beyond the palm trees,” he said.
“Why unwise?”
He answered her very gravely.