"Gracious me, what's come over you, girl? Here you are to be mistress of the whole place within a month, I suppose, and yet——"
"Hush, Princess!"
There were footsteps in the hall, and at the next moment, Gordon, in his frock-coat uniform, looking flushed and excited, and accompanied by Hafiz, whose chubby face was wreathed in smiles, had entered the room.
After he had shaken hands with the Princess the servants rushed upon him—Mosie, who had come behind kissing his sword, Ibrahim his hand, and Fatimah struggling with an impulse to throw her arms about his neck.
"So you've come at last, have you?" said the Princess. "Time enough, too, for here's Helena of no use to anybody. Your father has gone back to England, hasn't he? He might have come up to see me, I think. He wrote a little letter to say good-bye, though. It was just like him. I could hear him speaking. 'My goodness,' I said, 'that's Nuneham!' Well, we shall never see his equal again. No, never! He might have left Egypt with twenty millions in his pocket, and he has gone with nothing but his wages. I suppose they're slandering him all the same. Ingrates! But no matter! The dogs bark, but the camel goes along. And now that I've time, let me take a look at you. What a colour! But what are you trembling about? Goodness me, has everybody got the jumps?"
Helena was the only one in the room who had not come forward to greet Gordon, and seeing his sidelong look in her direction, the Princess began to lay plans for leaving them together.
"Ibrahim," she cried, "hang up these naked babies in the bathroom—the only place for them, it seems to me. Fatimah, go back and look if the cooking-tins are not in the kitchen cupboard."
"They're not—I've looked already," said Fatimah.
"Then go and look again. Mosie, you want to inspect my horses—I can see you do."
"No, lady, I have i'spected them."