If he had done so, he would have seen that David's face had taken on a strange look, just such a look as it wore that night in the monastery when he saw Hylda in a vision and heard her say: "Speak, speak to me!" There had shot into David's mind the conviction that the woman riding towards them was Hylda.

Hylda, the first to welcome him back, Hylda--Lady Eglington! Suddenly his face appeared to tighten and grow thin.

It was all joy and torture at once.

He had fought this fight out with himself--had he not done so?
Had he not closed his heart to all but duty and Egypt?
Yet there she was riding out of the old life, out of Hamley, and England, and all that had happened in Cairo, to meet him.
Nearer and nearer she came.

He could not see the face, but yet he knew.