"It is my wish." "If I were a woman of your own race----" she began bitterly, but he interrupted her. "If you were a woman of my own race there would be no question of it," he said coldly. "You would be for the eyes of no other man than me. But since you are not----" He broke off with an enigmatical jerk of the head. "Since I am not you are less merciful than if I was," she cried miserably. "I could wish that I was an Arab woman." "I doubt it," he said grimly. "The life of an Arab woman would hardly be to your taste. We teach our women obedience with a whip." "Why have you changed so since this morning," she whispered, "when you told me that you trusted no one to climb to my balcony in the hotel but yourself? Are you not an Arab now as then? Have I become of so little value to you that you are not even jealous any more?" "I can trust my friend, and--I do not propose to share you with him," he said brutally. She winced as if he had struck her, and hid her face in her hands with a low cry. His fingers gripped her shoulder cruelly. "You will do as I wish?" The words were a question, but the intonation was a command. "I have no choice," she murmured faintly. His hands dropped to his sides and he turned to leave the room, but she caught his arm. "Monseigneur! Have you no pity? Will you not spare me this ordeal?" He made a gesture of refusal. "You exaggerate," he said impatiently, brushing her hand from his arm. "If you will be merciful this once----." she pleaded breathlessly, but he cut her short with a fierce oath. "If?" he echoed. "Do you make bargains with me? Have you so much yet to learn?" She looked at him with a little weary sigh. The changing mood that she had set herself to watch for had come upon him suddenly and found her unprepared. The gentleness of the morning had vanished and he had reverted to the tyrannical, arbitrary despot of two months ago. She knew that it was her own fault. She knew him well enough to know that he was intolerant of any interference with his wishes. She had learned the futility of setting her determination against his. There was one master in his camp, whose orders, however difficult, must be obeyed.