“I am very well,” he answered. He looked tired. “I am going to Cairo to-night to do some writing for the Signal.”

“You are going . . . and I?”

“You will stay here,” he answered, with cheerful unconcern. “You have all you want.”

“All—Jack! don’t go. They say—I will even live in a house with stairs.”

“You have heard! What have you heard?”

She got up and came near him.

“I shall miss you terribly.”

“You want me to stay?”

“Yes, I do want you to stay with me, or I will go with you.”

“This is only a mood—to show your own power. When I come back, in six months, then we shall see.”