The messenger departed baffled, but it was not without many misgivings that Georgia heard his retreating footsteps crossing the tiled floor. Had she acted foolishly in refusing so peremptorily the witch’s request? It was possible that the terms in which it was couched had been adopted merely in order to try her, and that she had lost once for all the opportunity of gaining an entrance to Bir-ul-Malikat. The thought troubled her a good deal, in spite of the persistence with which she assured herself that it was only prudent to act as she had done, and she wandered in and out of the various rooms, unable to settle to any occupation, pausing now and then on the terrace to look across the desert in case the messenger should be returning. Engrossed in watching for him, she failed to notice the approach of another traveller, and it was with some surprise that she received the news which Rahah hurried out to bring her. “O my lady, another messenger! He says that he is Yakub, the son of Khadija, but he will not say why he is come.” Once more Georgia assumed her _burka_ and went to interview the visitor. He was a young man, somewhat foppishly dressed, and evidently a dandy in his way, his appearance producing in Georgia’s mind the impression that his mother had spoilt him as a boy, and now lavished upon him all the money she had to spare. He came forward with a slight swagger, and salaamed in rather a perfunctory way. “O doctor lady, thy handmaid Khadija, my mother, sends thee greetings, and entreats thee to visit her at Bir-ul-Malikat.” “Why?” asked Georgia, with a directness which he seemed to find embarrassing, for he fidgeted with his girdle as he replied-- “Nay, O doctor lady, is it strange that my mother, having heard of thy fame, should be anxious to see thee?” “But why does she not come here? Is she ill?” “No; thanks be to God!” was the answer. “Then is there any one ill in her house?” “That is not for me to tell the doctor lady.” “Then neither is it for the doctor lady to go there,” and Georgia was about to retire into the harem again when he sprang forward. “Let not the doctor lady turn away the light of her countenance from her servant. There is one ill in the house.” “But who is ill, and what is the matter with him or her?” “I cannot tell. I have given my message.” “You must tell me if I am to come.” “But it is not in my power, O doctor lady! My mother has told me no more than that, and I know only that it is one of the women.” “In that case, my friend, you had better return to Bir-ul-Malikat at once, and find out the age of the patient and her symptoms. Then I will either give you medicine for her, or I will ask leave from Abd-ur-Rahim to go and see her. It is absurd to come to me in this way. I should have no idea what to take with me.” “But it cannot be, O doctor lady. My mother will tell me no more than I have told thee.”