Gervase smiled.

"It ought to disenchant you," he said in a lower tone.

"But it is a libel on her beauty,--it is not in the least like
her," returned Murray coldly.

"Not in the very least? Are you sure? My dear Denzil, you know as
well as I do that there IS a likeness, combined with a dreadful
unlikeness; and it is that which troubles both of us. I assure
you, my good boy, I am as sorry for you as I am for myself,--for I
feel that this woman will be the death of one or both of us!"

Denzil made no reply, and presently they all strolled out in the
garden and lit their cigars and cigarettes, with the exception of
Dr. Dean who never smoked and never drank anything stronger than
water.

"I am going to get up a party for the Nile," he said as he turned
his sharp, ferret-like eyes upwards to the clear heavens; "and I
shall take the Princess into my confidence. In fact, I have
written to her about it to-day. I hear she has a magnificent
electric dahabeah, and if she will let us charter it. ..."

"She won't," said Denzil hastily, "unless she goes with it
herself."

"You seem to know a great deal about her," observed Dr. Dean
indulgently, "and why should she not go herself? She is evidently
well instructed in the ancient history of Egypt, and, as she reads