The two big Nile steamers, of rival lines, lay quietly at rest, emptied of their tourists, and on the embankment the dragomans, the donkey boys, the innumerable venders, were lounging in the shade at dominoes or dice4.
In the big white hotels facing the river many drawn5 blinds spoke6 of napping travelers, and in the shade of the garden of the Grand other travelers were whiling away the listless inertia7 of the hour before tea.
"I suppose it's quite too early?" murmured a girl at one of the tables, in the shade of a big acacia. Her companion, fussing with a pastel sketch8, answered absently, without looking up, "Oh, quite," and then with a note of brisker attention, "I thought we were waiting for Robert?"
"Do you think he'll be back? It's such a trip to the Tombs of the Kings, you know!"
"To be sure he'll be back!" Miss Falconer spoke with asperity9. "And why he wanted to go over it again—it's odd you didn't care to go, too, Claire," she added, most inconsequently. "It was such an excellent opportunity—and you had already spoken of wishing to go again."
"But not so exhaustively. They are doing the entire programme. I only wanted some particular things."
"You could have done them."
"And it was hot."
"It must have been just as hot in the bazaars10 with Mr. Hill."
"Was it?"
This was purposeful vagueness and Miss Falconer's crayon snapped. She made a sound of annoyance11, then began gathering12 her sketching13 things tidily together. Presently, "He's rather an agreeable person, that young American, after all," she cannily14 observed.
"Why, after all?" Lady Claire was implacably aloof15.
"Well, first impressions, you know——"
"My first impressions of Mr. Hill were very delightful16." The English girl laughed softly, her eyes full of reminiscent amusement. "He was a deus ex machina to me—I quite jumped at him, I assure you!"
"You don't have to assure me!" was the elder lady's unspoken comment. She had been in a state of chronic17 irritation18, ever since that Friday noon when Billy B. Hill's tall figure had appeared in the hotel dining room. And hurrying Claire away from the conversation he was promptly19 evoking20, she had encountered Arlee Beecher and the Evershams streaming with the other passengers from their boat to see the temple of Luxor, a wonderfully gay and excited Arlee, so radiant in the happiness of her own safe world again that she was bright gladness incarnate21.... Instantly Robert had reverted22 to his alarming infatuation ... and Lady Claire had most shamelessly welcomed the American. It was all unspeakably annoying....
Aloud Miss Falconer observed, "I wonder what brought Mr. Hill back to the Nile."
"I wonder," said Lady Claire pleasantly. "But it makes it very nice for us, doesn't it?" she continued amiably23. "He knows quite everything about temples."
"And particularly nice for Miss Beecher—though I can't say she is treating him very well. However, that may be their way. 'Romance apart from results,' was, I believe, his phrase."
Lady Claire was silent. But not overlong. "You really think——?" she suggested tranquilly24.
"He came on the same train."
"Coincidence. He mentioned he did not see her in the train till Balliana."
"Umph!" Miss Falconer drew out of her bag the especial knitting which she reserved for the Sabbath, and her fingers flew with expressive25 spirit. "It's scandalous," she said at length. "Girls gadding26 about the face of the earth—picking up chaperons when they remember them."
"It's their way, you know."
"Oh, yes, it's their way. And their men seem to like it. Mr. Hill didn't seem to consider it even unusual.... But as I said, he's hardly a judge," Miss Falconer went on unsparingly. "The man's bewitched. He never takes his eyes off her."
"I'm sure I don't blame him." Lady Claire's tone was most successfully admiring. "She's too wonderful, isn't she, with those great blue eyes and that astonishing hair! I'm sure Robert is bewitched, too!"
"Nonsense!" But Miss Falconer's tone was too vigorous, betraying the effort to rout27 a palpable enemy. "What nonsense!" she repeated. "He's civil—naturally—when you haven't a moment for him. The boy has pride. Too much." The knitting needles clicked warningly.
"Civil!" The girl's low laughter was mocking. "Dear Miss Falconer, you are such an euphuist!"
Miss Falconer looked up, a trifle startled. Her young charge was more than a match for her in irony28, but the elder lady did not lack for solid perseverance29, and she charged on undeterred.
"Of course the girl's pretty—too pretty. And Robert's a man—he has eyes in his head and likes to please them. And she knows who he is and draws him on."
"I don't think Miss Beecher cares a twopence who Robert is," said Lady Claire honestly. "When I told her he was going to stand for Roxham she answered that she had a very poor opinion of M.P.s—from reading Mrs. Ward30. I can't quite see what she meant—but as for her drawing him on, a moment ago, dear, you were accusing her of luring31 Mr. Hill back from Cairo."
"I said he followed. I daresay she lured32, too. The second string——"
"Then it's quite nice of me, isn't it, to carry off her second string to the bazaars and prevent her playing him against Robert!"
Lady Claire laughed mischievously33, in a flight of daring so foreign to her usual reticence34 that Miss Falconer grimly perceived that she was changed indeed. She thought helplessly that it was a great pity that young people couldn't be treated as the children they were—smacked and made to do what was best for them.
"And after all this dreadful gossiping how can we face our guests at tea?" the girl continued in mock chiding35.
"If they are much later we shall not be facing them at all," the older woman declared. "I shall certainly have my tea at the proper time."
The sight of an Arab servant with a tray of dishes had stirred her to this declaration, and promptly she gave her order. In the middle of it, "I'm always late!" said a merry voice, and little Miss Beecher and Falconer were standing36 on the grass beside them.
"This time we had no following engagement," said Miss Falconer, unpleasantly reminiscent of another tea time in Cairo, ten days before, but even with her resentment37 of this American girl's intrusion into her long-cherished plans, she could not prevent the softening38 of her regard as she gazed upon her.
"You don't look as if you had been riding very hard at the Tombs of the Kings," she observed, in reluctant admiration39.
"Oh, but we have! We did quite a lot of Tombs—not anything like thoroughly40, of course!—and then we rode back early and made ourselves tidy for your tea party," Arlee blithely41 explained, and Miss Falconer perceived that her brother Robert had returned to the hotel without seeking them out, had arrayed himself in fresh white flannels42 and returned to the boat to escort Miss Beecher across the road into the hotel garden.
Absently she sighed. Her eyes fell away from the peach-blossom prettiness of Arlee's lovely face to the subtle simplicity43 of her white frock of loosely woven silk, and she wondered if that heavy embroidery44 meant money—or merely spending money. And then she looked across at Lady Claire, and sighed again for her dream of an aristocratic alliance.
"Mrs. Eversham—?" she thought to inquire.
"They're having the vicar—or is it the rector?—to tea. They asked him this morning before your message came," Arlee explained. She did not explain that the vicar, or the rector, had imagined, in accepting, that she, too, was to be of that tea party on the boat and was even now inquiring zealously45 of her of the Evershams.
"Here's Mr. Hill," said Lady Claire.
Miss Falconer stirred; there was room for the fifth chair between her and Arlee. Lady Claire also stirred; there was room between her and Robert Falconer. And there Billy B. Hill seated himself after a general exchange of greetings.
"How were the bazaars?" said Arlee gaily46 across the table.
"You mean the department store of Mr. Isaac Cohen," Billy laughed back. "They are all under him, you know."
"Not really!" Falconer exclaimed, in disillusionment. "It rather takes it out, doesn't it, to know it is so commercialized."
"What did you expect—it is the twentieth century," Miss Falconer retorted, putting aside her knitting as the tea things arrived.
"Sometimes it is," said Arlee.
"I think it's more so than ever, here," declared Lady Claire. "Egypt's so frightfully civilized——"
"Not when you're camping in the desert."
Again that funny little smile flitted over Arlee's face; not once did she glance at Billy, but for all her air of unconsciousness he felt that she was subtly sharing her thoughts with him and a quick spark of gladness flashed in him.
Those had been three horrible days for Billy B. Hill.
Friday morning he had been practically a prisoner until his trunks had arrived. He had emerged upon a spectacle of England triumphant—Robert Falconer escorting Arlee to the temple of Luxor. Later that afternoon he had called upon Arlee upon the boat to find Falconer still there, and the Evershams very much so.
Robert Falconer had accompanied him back to the hotel. There was something that he wanted to ask, and he asked it bluntly, but with embarrassment47. Had Billy said anything at all to Arlee of that nonsense at the palace?
Here was a contingency48 for which Billy was not provided. He made no provisions for this with Arlee.
"Have you?" he parried.
"Not a word," said the young Englishman. "We've not mentioned the fellow's filthy49 name. But I wondered——"
"I did tell her we got worried one night, and tried to get into his palace like a pair of brigands," Billy answered slowly.
"She must have thought us great fools," the sandy-haired young man replied disgustedly. Clearly he felt that Billy had flourished this story before Arlee to appear romantic, and he winced50 at its absurdity51.
"Oh, no—she just thought of it as a lark52 on our part," Billy went on. "I didn't let her in for the horrible details—I don't think she's likely to mention it to you. Or you to her," he added.
"Rather not." The young Englishman was emphatic53. "I'm sorry you said anything about it." Then he looked at Billy, a crinkle of amusement in his eyes. "Rather a sell, you know—what?"
"I should say so!" returned Billy, with a hearty54 appearance of chagrin55, and a laugh cemented the understanding.
That was all between them concerning the escapade.
Billy had raced back to the boat, and secured an earnest fifteen minutes with Arlee, who promised unlimited56 care, and then forced upon him the wretched sovereigns that she owed. She was feeling desperately57 spent and tired after her day of excitement, and declared herself unequal to the dance upon the boat that evening. Anxiously Billy had urged her to rest, and he spent a drifting and distracted evening roaming alone in the temple of Luxor listening to the distant music from the boat—thinking of Arlee.... Later he had learned that she remained up for at least two dances with Falconer.
So much for Friday. Saturday had been worse. Arlee had said on Friday night that she would join the passengers in the all-day excursion to the Tombs of the Kings, and Billy had somehow found himself in an arrangement with Lady Claire and Falconer to go with them. Then Arlee had not gone. Mrs. Eversham reported that she had a headache, and Falconer had very promptly dropped out of the party, leaving Billy with Lady Claire upon his hands, and so he went, and he and Lady Claire and the Evershams and about sixty other passengers had a brisk and busy day of it. When he returned just before dinner he saw Arlee, apparently58 headacheless, upon the deck of the steamer, chatting to Falconer.
That night she had attended the dance at the hotel under Miss Falconer's wing. Billy had danced with her twice, and between times his pride had kept him aloof—she might just have made one sign! But though her bright friendliness59 was ever responsive; though she was instantly, submissively, ready to accept his invitations or fulfill60 his requests, he felt that there was something strangely lacking.
The gay spark of her coquetry was gone; she did not tease or play with him; animated61 as she was in company, when they were alone together a constraint62 fell upon her.
Miserably63 he felt that he reminded her of unhappy scenes and that she would be secretly relieved when he was gone.
So now he was absurdly glad to hear her declare, in answer to Lady Claire's questionings, "Oh, but the desert is wonderful! I loved it in spite of——"
"In spite of—?" Lady Claire echoed.
"The sand," said Arlee promptly. But under her lashes64, her eyes came, at last, half-scared, to Billy's face.
"But the sand is the desert," Lady Claire was murmuring.
"It's only part of it," Billy took it upon himself to answer. "Space is the biggest part—and then color. And sometimes—heat."
"You spent quite a time on the desert edge with some excavators, didn't you?" said the English girl, and Billy fell into talk with her about his friend's work, and Falconer and his sister engrossed65 Arlee.
And to-night was the very last night of her stay at Luxor. To-morrow the boat would take her on out of his life—unless he pursued her along the Nile, a foolish, unwanted intruder.... The three days here had all slipped from his clumsy grasp—they seemed to have put a widening distance between them.... He heard Falconer calculating that the boat would touch again at Luxor for the next Friday night. There seemed to be talk of a masked ball....
Billy leaned suddenly across the table.
"You have forgotten it's the best of the moon to-night?" he asked. "You must let me take you to see it on Karnak."
Falconer gave him a very blank look.
"We've already planned for that," said he.
"We'll all go," cried Arlee, with instant pleasantness. "We mustn't miss it for anything."
"You haven't seen the moon on the temple yet?" Billy inquired of Lady Claire in the pause that ensued.
"Only once—four nights ago. But it wasn't full then."
Billy remembered that moon acutely. It had lighted two fugitives66 across a waste of sand. He saw a little figure swaying rhythmically67 high upon a camel, a quaint68, old-world figure in misty69 white, with a shimmering70 silver veil—like Rebecca coming across the desert, he thought oddly. Then he looked up and saw a most modern figure in white across the table, nibbling71 a cress sandwich, and laughing at some jest of the Englishman's....
With a start he realized that Lady Claire was waiting for an answer.
"I beg your pardon. You asked——?"
"If you had seen the temple in moonlight, Mr. Hill."
"Not Karnak—only Luxor—night before last."
"Only Luxor!" The girl beside him laughed. "How spoiled you are, Mr. Hill! Only Luxor!"
It came to Billy, with the force of revelation, that it was going to be only a great many things for him after this.... Those wild days in the desert had seen to that, with devastating72 completeness.... Girls were only other girls—and delight in them a lost word. This charming one beside him, with the friendly eyes where a faint shadow of wistfulness underlay73 the surface brightness, was only Lady Claire....
He wondered if he was going on like this forever. He wondered if he was everlastingly74 to carry this memory about with him, like a bullet.... Suddenly he felt enraged75 at himself, at his dumb pain and useless longings76, and with a stanch77 semblance78 of animation79 he flung himself into the flow of talk which this pretty English girl was so ready to offer him.
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1
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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fronds
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| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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inertia
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| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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bazaars
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| （东方国家的）市场( bazaar的名词复数 )； 义卖； 义卖市场； （出售花哨商品等的）小商品市场 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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cannily
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| 精明地 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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evoking
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| 产生，引起，唤起( evoke的现在分词 ) | |
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incarnate
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| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
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reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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gadding
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| n.叮搔症adj.蔓生的v.闲逛( gad的现在分词 )；游荡；找乐子；用铁棒刺 | |
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rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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luring
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式） | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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chiding
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| v.责骂，责备( chide的现在分词 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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40
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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42
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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45
zealously
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| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
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46
gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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49
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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50
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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52
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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53
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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54
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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55
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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56
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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57
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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58
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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59
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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60
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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61
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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62
constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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64
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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65
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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66
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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69
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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70
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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71
nibbling
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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72
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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73
underlay
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| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
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74
everlastingly
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| 永久地，持久地 | |
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75
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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76
longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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77
stanch
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| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
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78
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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79
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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