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 westward bound once more. It was the first time that Fen had been on deck, and he lay on a cot under the awning, very straight in a plaster cast. But when the two people that he loved most in the world bent over him, he was able to give them almost as ineffably sweet a smile as of old.

"Dear to my heart," said Siddereticus, as he knelt beside the bed and took one of Fen's hands, while Cynthia possessed herself of the other, "we have something very important to ask you. We want your permission. Do you know, that when a Djinn marries a mortal,—which doesn't often happen,—he loses all his magic power, and has to become a human creature. Now what I want to ask you is this: would you rather that I should stay a Djinn forever, and only see you once in a long, long while,—or,—would you rather that I should ask Auntie to