To say that the sudden order to pack up and be ready to start on the homeward journey that very afternoon was startling to the ladies would be to mince matters, for it came upon them like a thunder-clap; but Lady Haigh was an old traveller, whom no vicissitudes could disturb for long, and Georgia was a soldier’s daughter, and they were both resolved that the honour of England should not be dragged in the dust on their account by the delay of a moment after the appointed hour of starting. Accordingly, they set to work immediately to take down and wrap up and stow away all the possessions with which they had made the house homelike during their tenancy of it, and were in the act of packing their dresses (which, as every lady will know, always occupy the topmost place in a box), when Dick made his appearance on the terrace. Georgia, who was standing at the table pulling out the sleeves of a favourite silk blouse, which she had just rescued from the ruthless hands of Rahah, looked at him in surprise, for his face was grave and set. “Please don’t say that you want us to start this moment,” she said, cheerfully. “Lady Haigh and I are willing to make any sacrifice in reason for our country, but we had rather not leave our best dresses behind.” “It won’t be necessary,” returned Dick, trying, but with poor success, to speak in the same tone. “We shall not leave to-day, after all.” “Not leave to-day!” cried Lady Haigh, coming out on the terrace, and folding up a skirt at the same time. “Then when do we start?” “Not just yet, I fear. The fact is, the King is trying on a little joke with us. He has fetched away all our horses and camels, and we can’t get them back.” “But when did he do it? and where are they gone?” asked Lady Haigh, in hot indignation. “He must have done it immediately after I had come away from the stables after picking out the beasts for your start this evening. Where they are gone I don’t know; but we can’t hire any others, and we can’t very well walk, and therefore I suppose we must stay here.” “But it is such a bad precedent to let him get the better of us like this!” cried Lady Haigh. “It is such absolute stealing, too. Are the servants gone as well as the animals?” “Yes, they have all been marched off to fresh quarters somewhere. That thins our forces sadly.” “So it does,” Lady Haigh assented, gravely. “But never mind; if the King won’t let us leave the city, we will make ourselves happy where we are.” “And perhaps,” suggested Georgia, “it is merely that the King is sorry for his treachery about the treaty, and wants to prevent Sir Dugald’s leaving Kubbet-ul-Haj in anger. He may mean to resume the negotiations to-morrow.”