Narayan Singh and Jeremy, supposedly being servants, offered to stay in the hall, but were told that Feisul wouldn’t approve of that.

“Whatever they shouldn’t hear can be said in another room,” was the explanation.

So we all sat down together on one of the corner seats, and were kept waiting about sixty seconds until Feisul entered by a door in the far corner.  And when he came he took your breath away.

It always prejudices me against a man to be told that he is dignified and stately.  Those adjectives smack of too much self-esteem and of a claim to be made of different clay from most of us.  He was both, yet he wasn’t either.  And he didn’t look like a priest, although if ever integrity and righteousness shone from a man, with their effect heightened by the severely simple Arab robes, I swear that man was he.

Just about Jeremy’s height and build—­rather tall and thin that is—­with a slight stoop forward from the shoulders due to thoughtfulness and camel-riding and a genuine intention not to hold his head too high, he looked like a shepherd in a Bible picture, only with good humour added, that brought him forward out of a world of dreams on to the same plane with you, face to face—­understanding meeting understanding—­man to man.

I wish I could describe his smile as he entered, believing he was coming to meet Lawrence, but it can’t be done.  Maybe you can imagine it if you bear in mind that this man was captain of a cause as good as lost, hedged about by treason and well aware of it; and that Colonel Lawrence was the one man in the world who had proved himself capable of bridging the division between East and West and making possible the Arab dream of independence.

But unhappily it’s easier to record unpleasant things.  He knew at the first glance—­even before she drew back the kuffiyi—­that Mabel wasn’t Lawrence, and I’ve never seen a man more disappointed in all my wanderings.  The smile didn’t vanish; he had too much pluck and self-control for that; but you might say that iron entered into it, as if for a second he was mocking destiny, willing to face all odds alone since he couldn’t have his friend.

And he threw off disappointment like a man—­dismissed it as a rock sheds water, coming forward briskly to shake hands with Grim and bowing as Grim introduced us.

“At least here are two good friends,” he said in Arabic, sitting down between Grim and Hadad.  “Tell me what this means, and why you deceived us about Lawrence.”

“We’ve something to show you,” Grim answered.  “Mrs. Ticknor brought it; otherwise it might have been seen by the wrong people.”

Feisul took the hint and dismissed the Syrian officers, calling them by their first names as he gave them “leave to go.”  Then Mabel produced the letter and Feisul read it, crossing one thin leg over the other and leaning back easily.  But he sat forward again and laughed bitterly when he had read it twice over.