And, strange to say, though in the first five years after the Cairo days and deeds, Egypt seemed an infinite space away, and David a distant, almost legendary figure, now Egypt seemed but beyond the door--as though, opening it, she would stand near him who represented the best of all that she might be capable of thinking.

Yet all the time she longed for Eglington to come and say one word, which would be like touching the lever of the sluice-gates of her heart, to let loose the flood.

As the space grew between her and Eglington, her spirit trembled, she shrank back, because she saw that sea towards which she was drifting.
As she did not answer the last words of the Duchess, the latter said presently: "When do you expect Eglington ?" "Not till the week-end; it is a busy week with him," Hylda answered; then added hastily, though she had not thought of it till this moment: "I shall probably go up to town with you to-morrow." She did not know that Eglington was already in the house, and had given orders to the butler that she was not to be informed of his arrival for the present.
"Well, if you get that far, will you come with me to the Riviera, or to Florence, or Sicily--or Cairo ?" the other asked, adjusting her gold-brown wig with her babyish hands.
Cairo! Cairo! A light shot up into Hylda's eyes.

The Duchess had spoken without thought, but, as she spoke, she watched the sudden change in Hylda.

What did it mean?
Cairo--why should Cairo have waked her so?
Suddenly she recalled certain vague references of Lord Windlehurst, and, for the first time, she associated Hylda with Claridge Pasha in a way which might mean much, account for much, in this life she was leading.
"Perhaps! Perhaps!" answered Hylda abstractedly, after a moment.
The Duchess got to her feet.