How in the world could there be an Englishwoman in Mecca--above all, an Englishwoman who was in a position to ask me to tea?
Curiosity conquered in the end.

I tucked a loaded revolver into my waist underneath my jellaba and kept the appointment." "Go on," said Shere Ali, who was leaning forward with a great perplexity upon his face.
"The shopkeeper was already there.

'Follow me,' he said, 'but not too closely.' We passed in that way through two or three streets, and then my guide turned into a dead alley closed in at the end by a house.

In the wall of the house there was a door.

My guide looked cautiously round, but there was no one to oversee us.