The look of perplexity had returned to her face, and for some minutes they stood arm-in-arm by the open window, looking down at the Nile in a dazed and dreamy way. "What are you going to do, Gordon?" "I don’t know—yet." "It will be an order now, and as an officer you can do nothing but obey." "I suppose not, dear." "There are so many things calling for your obedience, too—honour, ambition, everything a soldier can want, you know." "I know! I know!" She crept closer and said, "Then there’s something else, dear." "What else, Helena?" "Haven’t I always told you that sooner or later that man would come between us?" "Ishmael?" "Yes. Last night my father said ... but I hate to mention it." "Tell me, dear, tell me." "He said, ’You couldn’t marry a man who had disobeyed and been degraded.’" "Meaning that if I refused to obey orders, you and I perhaps ... by arrangement between your father and mine, maybe——" "That is what I understood him to mean, dear, and therefore I came to see you." He flushed crimson for a moment and then began to laugh. "No, no! I’ll never believe that of them. It would be monstrous—impossible!" But the questioning look in Helena’s eyes remained, and he tried to reassure her. So many things might happen to remove the difficulty altogether. The Ulema might take the order of the Government as a protest against the visit of Ishmael Ameer, and send him instructions not to come to Cairo. "He’s here already, dear," said Helena. As she drove down from the Citadel she had passed through a crowd of natives coming from the direction of the railway station, and some one had said it was a procession in honour of the new prophet who had just arrived from Alexandria. "Then you’ve seen him yourself, Helena?" "I saw a man in a white dress on a white camel, but I didn’t look at him.—I had somebody else to think about." He was carried away by the singleness of her love, and with a score of passionate expressions he kissed her beautiful white hands and did his best to comfort her. "Never mind, dear! Don’t be afraid! The Governors of El Azhar may agree to close their doors—temporarily, at all events. Anyhow, we’ll muddle through somehow." She made him promise not to go near the "new Mahdi," and then began to draw on her long yellow driving gloves. "I suppose the gossips of Cairo would be shocked if they knew I had come to see you," she said. "It’s not the first time you’ve been here, though. You’re here always—see!" he said, and with his arm about her waist he took her round his room to look at her portraits that hung on the walls. It was Helena here, Helena there, Helena everywhere, but since that was the first time the real Helena had visited his quarters she must drink his health there.