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The Marquis of Harlington has just ended an unsatisfactory love affair and decides that he must go abroad and the Prime Minister then asks him to travel to Egypt and report on the Suez Canal which is currently under construction.
The Marquis visits his neighbour in the country, Lord Durham, and overhears him threatening to beat his daughter Delisia unless she agrees to marry a rich French Comte who he desires as his son-in-law. When he leaves Lord Durham’s house, the Marquis is aware that there is a blue ribbon peeping out of the box at the back of his chaise. Stopping when they are further down the road, he finds the beautiful
Delisia who is running away from her dreadful father. Against his better judgement he agrees to take her with him to Egypt, because to his surprise he finds that she can speak Arabic fluently. As Delisia looks so young he pretends she is his niece aged fifteen and he insists that she changes her name to Delia.
He finds on the voyage that she is extremely intelligent and keeps him fascinated by her views of life as no other woman has ever managed to do. He arrives in Egypt to find that the Suez Canal is well advanced and should be ready by March in the following year, as planned by the Khedive.
How Delia with her brilliant knowledge of Arabic becomes indispensable to the Marquis and how he saves her from the appalling Comte who turns up unexpectedly in Cairo is all told in this exciting novel by BARBARA CARTLAND.


Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life."