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"Ever since I knew that I could not hope to reach Mecca, and kiss the sacred black stone, or pray in the Mosque of the holy Lella Fatima, I have wished to visit a certain great marabout in the south.
Hsina would help her in the morning, she was told, but it would be better that she should know how to do things properly for herself, since only Fafann would be with them on the journey, and she might sometimes be busy with Lella M'Barka when Victoria was dressing. The excitement of adorning the beautiful doll had tired the invalid.
She was too old and lonely to be jealous of Victoria's beauty; and as Si Maïeddine, her favourite cousin, deigned to admire this young foreigner, Lella M'Barka took an unselfish pride in each of the American girl's charms.
There was some dreadful European furniture of sprawling, "nouveau art" design in the guest-room which she and Lella M'Barka shared; and as Victoria lay awake on the hard bed, of which the girls were proud, she said to herself that she had not been half grateful enough to Si Maïeddine.
"My cousin told me last night that Lella Saïda was in good health some months ago when news came of her from a friend." "They call her Saïda!" murmured the girl, half sadly; for that Saidee should tolerate such a change of name, seemed to signify some subtle alteration in her spirit. But she knew that "Lella" meant "Madame" in Arab society. "It is my cousin who spoke of the lady by that name.
But the letter had arrived, and had been sent after him, immediately, by a man on horseback. This evening he would certainly return to welcome his honoured guest. The word was "guest," not "guests," and Victoria understood that she and Lella M'Barka would not see the master of the house.
I tell thee fate has spoken. The sand has spoken sand gathered from among these dunes. It is for that reason in part that I brought thee here." "The sand-divining!" Victoria exclaimed. "Lella M'Barka told thee " "She told me not to wait. And her counsel was the counsel of my own heart. Look, oh Rose, where the moon glitters on the sand the sand that twined thy life with mine.
As she spoke the door opened and Lella Mabrouka came swiftly into the room, fierce-eyed as a tigress whose cub is threatened. She was tight-lipped and silent, but her eyes spoke, and all three knew that she had listened. Such words as she had missed her quick wit had caught and patched together. Ourïeda's wish to propitiate Zakia by not seeming to talk secrets before her had undone them both.
"If I had told thee then, that it must be longer, wouldst thou have come with me? I think not. For thou sayest I did not wholly trust thee. How much less didst thou trust me?" "Completely. Or I would not have put myself in thy charge." "Perhaps thou art convinced of that now, when thou knowest me and Lella M'Barka, and thou hast slept in the tent of my father, and in the houses of my friends.
The perfume of ambre, loved in the East, came up to her nostrils, and the invalid's breath was aflame. "Art thou strong enough for a journey, Lella M'Barka?" the girl asked. "Not in my own strength, but in that which Allah will give me, I shall be strong," the sick woman answered with controlled passion.
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