"King, my name is. Sarah King."
"And mine-permit me." He whipped out a card.
Taking it, Sarah's eyes widened in delighted awe. "Dr. Theodore Gerard? Oh! I am excited to meet you. I've read all your works, of course. Your views on schizophrenia are frightfully interesting."
"Of course?" Gerard's eyebrows rose inquisitively.
Sarah explained rather diffidently. "You see-I'm by way of being a doctor myself. Just got my M.B…"
"Ah! I see."
Dr. Gerard ordered coffee and they sat down in a corner of the lounge. The Frenchman was less interested in Sarah's medical achievements than in the black hair that rippled back from her forehead and the beautifully shaped red mouth. He was amused at the obvious awe with which she regarded him.
"You are staying here long?" he asked conversationally.
"A few days. That is all. Then I want to go to Petra."
"Aha? I, too, was thinking of going there if it does not take too long. You see, I have to be back in Paris on the 14th."
"It takes about a week, I believe. Two days to go, two days there and two days back again."
"I must go to the travel bureau in the morning and see what can be arranged."
A party of people entered the lounge and sat down.
Sarah watched them with some interest. She lowered her voice: "Those people who have just come in-did you notice them on the train the other night? They left Cairo the same time as we did."
Dr. Gerard screwed in an eyeglass and directed his glance across the room. "Americans?"
Sarah nodded.
"Yes. An American family. But-rather an unusual one, I think."
"Unusual? How unusual?"
"Well, look at them. Especially at the old woman." Dr. Gerard complied. His keen professional glance flitted swiftly from face to face. He noticed first a tall, rather loose-boned man-age about thirty. The face was pleasant but weak and his manner seemed oddly apathetic.