could be no sharing of soul and mind and body and the exquisite devotion
of a life too dear for thought. Nothing that she was to Eglington could
be divided with another, not for an hour, not by one act of impulse; or
else she must be less, she that might have been, if there had been no
Eglington--

An exclamation broke from him, and, as one crying out in one's sleep
wakes himself, so the sharp cry of his misery woke him from the trance of
memory that had been upon him, and he slowly became conscious of Ebn Ezra
standing before him. Their eyes met, and Ebn Ezra spoke:

"The will of Allah be thy will, Saadat. If it be to go to the Soudan,
I am thine; if it be to stay, I am thy servant and thy brother. But
whether it be life or death, thou must sleep, for the young are like
water without sleep. Thou canst not live in strength nor die with
fortitude without it. For the old, malaish, old age is between a
sleeping and a waking! Come, Saadat! Forget not, thou must ride again
to Cairo at dawn."

David got slowly to his feet and turned towards the monastery. The
figure of a monk stood in the doorway with a torch to light him to his
room.

He turned to Ebn Ezra again. "Does thee think that I have aught of his
courage--my Uncle Benn? Thou knowest me--shall I face it out as did he?"

"Saadat," the old man answered, pointing, "yonder acacia, that was he,
quick to grow and short to live; but thou art as this date-palm, which
giveth food to the hungry, and liveth through generations. Peace be upon
thee," he added at the doorway, as the torch flickered towards the room