“I got up; but just then a girl, dressed in midnight purple embroidered with silver, came in from the doorway, and began to dance alone. She was very young—fourteen, I found out afterwards—and, in contrast to the other women, extremely beautiful. There were grace, seduction, mystery, and coquetry in her face and in all her movements. Her long black eyes held fire and dreams. Her fluttering hands seemed beckoning us to the realms of the thousand and one nights. I stood where I had got up, and watched her. “‘I say, aren’t we going?’ said Marnier’s voice in my ear. “I cursed the day when I had agreed to take him with me, leaped down to the earth, and struggled towards the door. As we neared it the girl sidled down the room till she was exactly in front of Marnier. Then she danced before him, smiling with her immense eyes, which she fixed steadily upon him, and bending forward her pretty head, covered with a cloth of silver handkerchief. “‘Give her something,’ I said to him, laughing, as he stared back at her grimly. “He thrust his hand into his pocket, found a franc, stuck it awkwardly against her oval forehead, and followed me out. “When we were in the sandy street he walked a few steps in silence, then stood still, and, to my surprise, stared back at the dancing-house. Then he put his hand to his head. “‘Is the air having its alcoholic effect?’ I asked in joke. “As I spoke a handsome Arab, splendidly dressed in a pale blue robe, red gaiters and boots, and a turban of fine muslin, spangled with gold, passed us slowly, going towards the dancing-house. He cast a glance full of suspicion and malice at Marnier. “‘What’s up with that fellow?’ I said, startled. “The Arab went on, and at that moment the faithful Safti joined us. He never left me long out of his sight in these outlandish places. “‘That is the Batouch Sidi, the brother of the Caïd of Beni-Kouidar,’ he said. ‘Algia, the dancer to whom Monsieur Henri has just given money, is his _chère amie_. But as the government has just made him a sheik, he dares not have her in his house for fear of the scandal. So he has put her with the dancers. That is why she dances, to deceive everyone, not to make money. She is not as the other dancers. But everyone knows, for Batouch is mad with jealousy. He cannot bear that Algia should dance before strangers, but what can he do? A sheik must not have a scandal in his dwelling.’ “We walked on slowly. When we got to the door of the ‘Rendezvous des Amis’ Marnier stood still again, and looked down the deserted, moonlit camel market. “‘I never knew air like this,’ he said in a low voice. “And once more he expelled the air from his lungs, and drew in a long, slow breath, as a man does when he has finished his dumbbell exercise in the morning. “‘Don’t drink too much of it,’ I said. ‘Remember what the aumônier told us!’ “Marnier looked at me. I thought there was something apprehensive in his eyes. But he said nothing, and we turned in.