"Going away?" said Gordon.
"Yes, my work here is done, and when a man's work is done he stands outside of life. So I am going back."
"Back? You mean back to Khartoum?" asked Helena timidly.
"Perhaps there, too. But back to the desert. I am a son of the desert. Therefore what other place can be so good for me?"
"Are you going alone?"
"Yes! Or rather, no! When a man has lived, has laboured, he has always one thing—memory. And he who has memory can never be quite alone."
"Still you will be very lone——"
Ishmael turned to her with an almost imperceptible smile.
"Perhaps, yes, at first, a little lonely, and all the more so for the sweet glimpse I have had of human company."
"But this is not what you intended to ... what you hoped to——"