It was just that mysterious moment between day and night when the earth seems to sing a silent song which only the human heart can hear, and, stirred by an emotion she could scarcely understand, Helena, who had been so brave until now, began to tremble and break down, and the woman in her to appear. "Don’t think me foolish," she said, "but I feel—I feel as if—as if this were the last time you and I were to be together." "Don’t unman me, Helena," said Gordon. "The work I have to do in Alexandria may be dangerous, but don’t tell me you are afraid——" "It isn’t that. I shouldn’t be fit to be a soldier’s daughter or to become—to become a soldier’s wife if I were afraid of that. No, I’m not afraid of that, Gordon. I shall never allow myself to be afraid of that. But——" "But what, Helena?" "I feel as if something has broken between you and me, and we shall never be the same to each other after to-night. It frightens me. You are so near, yet you seem so far away. Coming out of the house a moment ago, I felt as if I had to take farewell of you, here and now." Without more ado Gordon took her firmly in his arms, and with one hand on her forehead that he might look full in her face, he said— "You are not angry with me, Helena—for what I said to your father just now?" "No, oh no! you were speaking out of your heart, and perhaps it was partly that——" "You didn’t agree with me, I know that quite well, but you love me still, Helena?" "Don’t ask me that, dear." "I must. I am going away, so speak out, I entreat you. You love me still, Helena?" "I am here. Isn’t that enough?" she said, putting her arms about his neck and laying her head on his breast. He kissed her, and there was silence for some moments more. Then in a sharp, agitated whisper she said— "Gordon, that man is coming between us." "Ishmael Ameer?" "Yes." "What utter absurdity, Helena!" "No, I’m telling you the truth. That man is coming between us. I know it—I feel it—something is speaking to me—warning me. Listen! Last night I saw it in a dream. I cannot remember what happened but he was there, and you and I, and your father and mine, and then——" "My dear Nell, how foolish! But I see what has happened. When did you receive the Princess Nazimah’s letter?" "Last night—just before going to bed." "Exactly! And you were brooding over what she said of the needle carrying only one thread?" "I was thinking of it—yes." "You were also thinking of what you had said yourself in your letter to me—that if I resisted my father’s will the results might be serious for all of us?" "That too, perhaps."