the treatment she was receiving, Zuilika appealed to me and to my son to help her in her distress—­to devise some plan to break the spell of Ulchester’s madness and to get that woman out of the house.  It was then that I first beheld her face.  In her excitement she managed, somehow, to snap or loosen the fastening which held her yashmak, and it fell—­fell, and let my son realise, as I realised, how wondrously beautiful it is possible for the human face to be!”

“Steady, Major, steady!  I can quite understand your feelings—­can realise better than most men!” said Cleek with a sort of sigh.  “You looked into heaven, and—­well, what then?  Let’s have the rest of the story.”

“I think my son must have put it into her head to give Ulchester a taste of his own medicine—­to attempt to excite his jealousy by pretending to find interests elsewhere.  At any rate, she began to show him a great deal of attention—­or, at least, so he says, although I never saw it.  All I know is that she—­she—­well, sir, she deliberately led me on until I was half insane over her, and—­that’s all!”

“What do you mean by ‘that’s all’?  The matter couldn’t possibly have ended there, or else why this appeal to me?”

“It ended for me, so far as her affectionate treatment of me was concerned; for in the midst of it the unexpected happened.  Her father died, forgiving her, as Ulchester had hoped, but doing more than his wildest dreams could have given him cause to imagine possible.  In a word, sir, the caliph not only bestowed his entire earthly possessions upon her, but had them conveyed to England by trusted allies and placed in her hands.  There were coffers of gold pieces, jewels of fabulous value—­sufficient, when converted into English money, as they were within the week, and deposited to her credit in the Bank of England, to make her the sole possessor of nearly three million pounds.”

“Phew!” whistled Cleek.  “When these Orientals do it they certainly do it properly.  That’s what you might call ‘giving with both hands,’ Major, eh?”

“The gift did not end with that, sir,” the Major replied with a gesture of repulsion.  “There was a gruesome, ghastly, appalling addition in the shape of two mummy cases—­one empty, the other filled.  A parchment accompanying these stated that the caliph could not sleep elsewhere but in the land of his fathers, nor sleep there until his beloved child rested beside him.  They had been parted in life, but they should not be parted in death.  An Egyptian had, therefore, been summoned to his bedside, had been given orders to embalm him after death, to send the mummy to Zuilika, and with it a case in which, when her own death should occur, her body should be deposited; and followers of the prophet had taken oath to see that both were carried to their native land and entombed side by side.  Until death came to relieve her of this ghastly duty, Zuilika was charged to be the guardian of the mummy and daily to make the orisons of the faithful before it, keeping it always with its face towards the East.”