A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT
 
 A WIFE OUT OF 
 EGYPT 
 
 BY 
 
 NORMA LORIMER 
 
 Author of "By the Waters of Germany," "By the Waters of 
 Sicily," "The Second Woman," "On Desert Altars," "There 
 was a King in Egypt," "Josiah's Wife," " With other Eyes," etc. 
 
 TWENTIETH EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 BRENTANO'S
 
 firtt Published 
 
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 . July 1913 
 
 July 1913 
 
 September 1913 
 
 A'ot>efn68r 1913 
 
 Aftwch 1914 
 
 . June 1914 
 
 September 1914 
 
 January 1915 
 
 January 1915 
 
 . .Maj/ 1915 
 
 . Jwlt/ 1915 
 
 December 1915 
 
 Decemb' r 1915 
 
 . jtpril 1916 
 
 September 1916 
 
 October 1917 
 
 Auguit 1918 
 
 January 1920 
 
 August 1920 
 
 October 19*J 
 
 Printed in Oreat Britain by 
 Miller, Son <* Compy., Fakenliam and London.
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 EGYPT, like Tunis, is still inhabited by a race, neither 
 numerous nor powerful now, which has seen all the dynas- 
 ties of history come and go. The Copts an Arab way 
 of saying Egyptians : Egypt is the land of Gypts or Copts 
 are the descendants of the men who hewed wood and 
 drew water for the Pharaohs, for conquerors like Darius 
 the Persian, the Macedonian Ptolemies, the Komans, and 
 the Arabs, and are the intellectual hewers and drawers 
 of modern Egypt. Like the Berbers of Tunis, they were 
 mightily oppressed by Roman and Byzantine masters for 
 not coming into the orthodox religion ; like the Berbers, 
 they thought that their lot could not be worse under the 
 Arab conqueror, and stood by sullenly while their masters 
 were conquered, though their help would have made the 
 Arab conquest impossible. 
 
 The Arabs persecuted them in their turn, to make them 
 abandon the feeble and impure stream of Christianity 
 which had trickled down to them direct from St. Mark 
 the Evangelist. But by living like rats in holes, the Copts 
 have defeated their purpose, and remain the professors 
 of the most ancient and debased form of Christianity, 
 but the spiritual descendants, in their own eyes, of the 
 Church of Egypt, immortal as the offspring of St. Mark, 
 and the mother of Athanasius and Cyril and Origen. 
 
 Until the Nationalist movement began in the revolt of 
 Arabi Pasha, the Copts or Egyptians and the Arabs kept 
 distinct, but they now all call themselves Egyptians, to 
 prosecute the claim for Egyptian Independence, which 
 is in reality a Pan-Islamic movement into which the Copts 
 have been betrayed. Girgis Boutros, who is one of the 
 chief characters in the story, a very wealthy leader of 
 the Copts, has been entrapped in this way, owing to his 
 hatred of the English. 
 
 Side by side with the Copts there is another Arab-speak- 
 ing Christian community in Egypt, a much fairer and hand- 
 somer race, who might often be taken for Europeans 
 the Syrians. Unlike the Copts, who rarely rise above the 
 position of clerks and book-keepers, they are important 
 in the mercantile community and many of them are very
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 wealthy ; and, unlike the Copts, they are firm supporters 
 of the British rule, though they are galled by the unwilling- 
 ness of the English to receive them on terms of social 
 equality. 
 
 Hadasaah Lekejian, the heroine, and her father and 
 brother are typical Syrians of Egypt. 
 
 The plot of this book deals with a subject which previous 
 writers of novels about Egypt have left in the background 
 the struggle between love and snobbery in the breast of 
 a British officer, who has fallen in love with the beautiful 
 Syrian when he met her, without realizing what her 
 nationality meant in England, and, as he meets her again 
 in Cairo in the position of her fiance', discovers that she is 
 a member of the ostracized race. 
 
 This ostracism is described by Miss Lorimer most con- 
 vincingly and pitifully. While the reader's feelings are 
 stirred by the beautiful Hadassah's struggle between love 
 of her people and her love for the proud Englishman who 
 insists that she shall give her people up, his interest is 
 riveted on the forces which are working in Egypt the 
 revengeful Copt's hereditary tendency to betray his fellow- 
 Christians to Islam, and the heartburnings of the Arab- 
 speaking loyalists of Eygpt at their social exclusion by 
 the rulers they serve so faithfully. 
 
 Miss Lorimer has long been a student of both Coptic 
 and Mohammedan questions. Her knowledge and in- 
 tuition with regard to the latter was amply shown in her 
 masterly book " By the Waters of Carthage." 
 
 I have no hesitation hi pronouncing this a far finer book, 
 immeasurably more interesting as a love story, and full 
 of the psychology which Miss Lorimer has taught us to 
 expect in her books. 
 
 In " A Wife out of Egypt," Miss Lorimer has introduced 
 to fiction a singularly beautiful and gifted nation, the 
 Syrians, brought up as Europeans, who are white people 
 in everything but race. 
 
 DOUGLAS SLADEN.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A TAXI-CAB drew up sharply at No. 123, Princes Avenue, 
 South Kensington. Out of it jumped a slim girl in rich 
 furs and a young man in faultless afternoon dress. 
 
 They were a good-looking couple, and more than one 
 pair of eyes looked enviously at them as they passed. 
 
 The girl held out her hand to say good-bye. 
 
 " I must really go," she said ; " and please don't wait 
 for me." 
 
 " Why mayn't I ? " 
 
 " Because I should feel I had to hurry." 
 
 His eyes besought her. 
 
 The girl blushed happily. " No, it's Miss MacNaughtan, 
 and I haven't seen her for almost two years." 
 
 " And what about me 1 ... In a week's time I 
 won't see you for almost a year." 
 
 " I've been with you for hours and hours every day for 
 the last month." 
 
 " You've been awfully good, but I'm jealous of every 
 one you want to see very much. ..." He laughed. 
 " I am a duffer, I know." 
 
 " You're the nicest thing in all the world," she said, 
 " and I love you for being jealous." 
 
 Her lover had been holding her hand caressingly in his. 
 He felt for the ring on her third ringer. " I like to feel it," 
 he said, and remember it's there, as a token you are mine. 
 Sometimes I keep saying to myself, ' Stella's mine,' 'Stella's 
 mine,' ' Stella's mine ' ! " 
 
 " Stella's not yours yet," she said tauntingly, but with 
 so much love in her voice that he did not mind. 
 
 " Why can't we get married before you go back to 
 Egypt ? You could return with your parents, and 1 
 would follow later on : no one need know but ourselves." 
 
 " What would be the good of that, dear t " 
 
 " To make sure of you." 
 
 " Don't you trust me ? " 
 
 " Yes, darling ; but I'm always afraid you'll discover 
 how ordinary I am compared with your dear self. You 
 may meet the kind of fellow you imagine I am." 
 
 " And throw you over t "
 
 2 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 She drew her hand ut of his : 
 
 " I didn't say that." 
 
 " I wonder which of us will be the most changed when 
 we meet." Her finger was on the electric bell as she said 
 the challenging word* : 
 
 " I won't change, Stella ; no jolly fear. Remember, 
 I'm coming for you first thing in the morning : you've 
 got to take me with you wherever you go, shopping or no 
 shopping." 
 
 She blew a kiss to him as the door closed. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Miss MACNAUGHTAN was sitting in her long drawing-room 
 awaiting the arrival of her ex-pupil Esther Lekejian, or 
 Stella Adair, as she was more familiarly called. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan was American by birth, Scotch by 
 ancestry, and English by adoption. She kept a boarding- 
 achool for girls. 
 
 Her school was expensive you had only to take into 
 consideration its charming situation (close to Kensington 
 Gardens, and within a quarter of an hour's walk of one 
 of the most fashionable London churches), and the air 
 of luxury which pervaded the establishment, to gauge 
 that the cost of a single pupil seldom came out at less than 
 three hundred a year. 
 
 Yet in spite of the luxury, freedom, and modernity of 
 the school, the girls were not spoilt. If a girl was nice 
 when she came to Miss MacNaughtan, she was much nicer 
 when she left her ; if she was horrid when she arrived she 
 was far less horrid when she went away. 
 
 She had a genius for discovering the good points in 
 her worst pupils, she had also a genius for teaching them 
 how to make the best of their looks. She declared that 
 no woman who used her wits need ever look plain. 
 
 She surrounded her girls with beauty, and she demanded 
 of them their utmost to add to it. 
 
 Her achool was " a very garden of girls." 
 
 When the old butler announced " Miss Lekejian," Miss 
 MacNaughtan rose from her deep-seated chair with the 
 alacrity of a girl in her teens. She held out her arms, and 
 Stella flew into them. For a moment neither spoke, foi 
 the girl was in tears tears of joy at finding herself once 
 more in the old room, surrounded by the dear familial 
 objects, and in the arms of her darling " Naughtie." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan loosened her embrace and held 
 Stella back from her. She looked at her carefully, then
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 3 
 
 pulled her face towards her own again and kissed it. " Just 
 what I expected, dear." 
 
 Stella gave a slight start. Did Naughtie guess that she 
 had dared to love some one whom " Naughtie " had never 
 seen, after the thousands of times she had said that she 
 must find her a lover, because she always discovered 
 the best and nicest sort of people in the world ? " What 
 did you expect t " asked Stella a little nervously. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan laughed at her old pupil's anxious 
 face : " I expected beauty and tenderness and passion." 
 
 She led the girl to a sofa whose cushioned seat was so 
 deep and ample that they sank into it as though it were 
 a feather mattress. 
 
 With a motherly laugh Miss MacNaughtan wiped away 
 Stella's tears. 
 
 " Oh ! Naughtie, I knew I'd cry when I saw you, and 
 now that everything is just the same this heavenly 
 sofa, the bowls of red roses, and the beloved pictures, and 
 the cool walls, and oh ! just everything, I want to go on 
 crying more than ever." 
 
 " But, Stella, you've, had a lovely time, you've been 
 presented to three queens and seen almost all the world, 
 and . . ." 
 
 " But not my own country ; I wouldn't go there. I 
 wouldn't go to it as a globe-trotter or as a tourist." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan dropped her eyes as Stella went on : 
 
 " And, after all, you've been there without me. It was 
 too bad : you promised to keep Egypt until I could receive 
 you there in my own home." 
 
 " The opportunity came, child, and I took it. One of 
 the 'parents paid for everything. I took his two daughters 
 up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel." 
 
 Stella's eyes shone. " Was it glorious ? I've seen Abu 
 Simbel in my dreams a thousand times ; did you love it t 
 Did you enjoy Cairo f I'm burning to go there. Did 
 you meet any of my people my cousin Girgis ? Hi 
 mother has a big house in Cairo ; I can just remember its 
 lovely Arab hall." 
 
 She was looking at her old schoolmistress eagerly, and as 
 she looked a note of anxiety crept into her voice. " Why 
 do you look like that, Naughtie ? Were you not happy 
 in Egypt f Did it overpower you t you always said it 
 would. Were you disappointed ? " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan laughed : " No, dear, I was not dis- 
 appointed. . . ." 
 
 " Then why do you evade my eyes ? " The girl pulled 
 her teacher's face towards her. Their eyes met. 
 
 " Tell me why you didn't like Egypt," persisted Stella.
 
 4 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 " But I did like Egypt." 
 
 " Then tell me what you wish to hide about Egypt t " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan laughed her kind laugh, " How my 
 pupil has learned to dictate ? . . . I have nothing to 
 hide, only I think you are expecting too much . . . too 
 much, I mean, of Cairo. You can't expect too much of 
 the Nile, but remember your home is in Cairo, which is a 
 very different thing." 
 
 The girl's radiant face clouded. " Why am I expecting 
 too much T Isn't it what Lane says the most mediaeval 
 city in the world ? I don't suppose I was ever allowed to 
 go into the native parts, but I have read and read about 
 it. And then the things one doesn't read about the 
 gaiety and the pleasure-loving life the people lead. . ." 
 I love dancing ; I've become awfully frivolous, Naughtie." 
 
 " I'm so glad, Baby " : the old name slipped out from 
 habit, for Stella had been given over to Miss MacNaughtan's 
 care when she was only seven years old. The school- 
 mistress had been urged and persuaded to take the child 
 by a tie of friendship which went very deep. 
 
 Stella's father was a wealthy Syrian living in Cairo. 
 Her mother, who was Irish by birth, determined that her 
 child should be educated in Europe, and so, through the 
 influence of an old friend, Stella was received into Miss 
 MacNaughtan's school. Every summer her father and 
 mother had come to England and had taken their only 
 daughter for her holidays either to Scotland, or to the high 
 hill-towns of Italy, or to France. The rest of her holidays 
 she had spent with Miss MacNaughtan, or with some friend 
 of Miss MacNaughtan's, and, when she was old enough, 
 with chosen school-friends. The girl who was lucky enough 
 to carry off Stella Adair as holiday visitor wore a sort of 
 halo in the school for the next term. 
 
 Stella was all that a school demands of its leader. She 
 was beautiful, or so they thought ; she was high-spirited, 
 she was clever and imaginative. But it was her extra- 
 ordinary gift of languages which placed her on the altar 
 of genius. Her parents talked Italian to her during her 
 holidays in Italy, though they spoke Arabic in their home 
 life, and she had spent long summers with them in Ger- 
 many. At school her nurse was French. er weekly 
 letters from home were always in Arabic. During her 
 tour round the world, which she had just accomplished, 
 with her parents, she had insisted upon speaking Arabic, 
 for she was distressed to find that she had become almost 
 a stranger to the spoken language. The classic language 
 which is used in writing is scarcely understood by the 
 uneducated classes or by any class who have only heard the
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 6 
 
 spoken language. Of Syria she rarely thought. Egypt 
 had been the land of her people for many generations, 
 yet of modern and social Egypt she knew nothing. She 
 could study its ancient mysteries and cults in museums or 
 in books. She had attended classes at the London College, 
 and she had paid generous fees to the best lady guides who 
 conduct strangers round the Egyptian portion of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan in her brief tour up the Nile had felt 
 its spell and reverenced its omnipotence, but her fort- 
 night's residence in Cairo had taught her many things 
 which hurt her big nature when she thought of her charming 
 pupil, and how bitterly her years of waiting for the land of 
 her adoption were to be repaid. 
 
 She had learned that in Cairo, Stella, the pride of her 
 Bchool, the baby of her motherless heart, the child whom 
 she had reared to such splendid womanhood, would be to 
 all intents and purposes a social outcast. She had learned 
 that a cruel deception had been practised on the girl who 
 had been reared in the belief that for her life would be a 
 splendid thing, that the lavish expenditure of money, 
 affection, and social training which had been bestowed 
 upon her was to fit her for a life which would make great 
 demands upon her intellectually as well as socially. All 
 this now struck the woman who had mothered her and 
 guarded her as an act of cruelty. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan said nothing of all that was passing 
 in her own mind. Stella repeated the words, " Half of 
 my nature's very frivolous." 
 
 " I am so glad, dear. When girls can't be frivolous 
 I'm always afraid ; they generally become cranks or marry 
 undesirables." 
 
 " Naughtie, how like you ! What principles you teach ! " 
 They both laughed. 
 
 " All I know is, dear," the older woman said, " that 1 
 always think twice before I allow a serious girl any liberty." 
 " Had you ever any trouble with me t " 
 " Not in that way, dear," Miss MacNaughtan laughed. 
 The girl hugged her lovingly. " It was because you 
 trusted me so completely." j 
 
 Stella rose from the sofa. " I love your black cushions. 
 They're new, aren't they ? And the carpet how clever 
 you are about colour ! This room's like a cool garden with 
 roses and green lawns." She pulled Miss MacNaughtan 
 out of her seat. 
 
 The girl gazed round the room. " It's delightful. . . . 
 What a dear room for girls to live in, Naughtie ; and I 
 took it all for granted . . . but now that I've stayed for
 
 6 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 weeks and weeks in vulgar hotels and poor inns and pen- 
 sions, I can realize all that you gave us. But do come and 
 let me go over every inch of the house .... I must 
 pay a visit to the kitchens. Are they all here still T I 
 spoke to Clarkie " (Stella had labelled the butler Clarkson, 
 because he wore a wig). 
 
 " Yes, they're all here. My servants never seem to 
 want a change." 
 
 The girl laughed. " I shouldn't think they did want a 
 change : you over-feed them, and over-pay them, and 
 over-consider them." 
 
 " But they do their work." 
 
 " They know that even though you spoil people, 
 Naughtie, you mean them to do their duties." 
 " Have I spoilt you T Are my girls spoilt 1 " 
 Stella turned swiftly and impulsively hugged her. " No, 
 they're not ; and I hope I'm not. But oh, Naughtie, 
 how I've wanted to meet some one as vital and alive and 
 keen as you are ! You've spoilt all other women for me." 
 Miss MacNaughtan laughed : " But not other men ! " 
 Over the girl's face a warmer tint dyed the pale, pure 
 skin. " Come and let's look at my old bedroom," she said, 
 " And the blue drawing-room is it still blue 1 " Miss 
 MacNaughtan nodded, " yea." " And the concert-hall ! " 
 " Oh, how lovely ! " she cried, as she followed Miss 
 MacNaughtan into the blue drawing-room. It was still 
 blue, but glorious touches of colour had been added to it 
 since Stella's day, and a frieze of old Japanese prints, 
 whose predominating note was orange, ran round the room. 
 The girl put her arm again through Miss MacNaughtan's. 
 " Naughtie, why did I ever grow up ? I do so want to 
 come back .... I want the wonderful mixture of intel- 
 lectual food and humanity that you put into life." 
 
 " But, dear, you're coming into so much, you can do 
 and see anything you care about." 
 
 " But it's your mind and vitality that suggests and 
 invests these things with interest. Other people let things 
 slip past, other people live in grooves ; I know I'll do the 
 same." 
 
 Miss MacNanghtan looked at her. " I don't think you 
 will, honey ; but if you do, remember grooves are very 
 comfortable things." 
 
 The girl was pulling oft her left glove very slowly. '' You 
 used to make me think that I would never want to marry. 
 I used to say that I would live just like you, enjoying 
 raen'e society freely and liking them just enough and no 
 nore than to make life agreeable. But lately ..." 
 Stella had pulled off her glove, her hand was thrust sud-
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 7 
 
 denly before Miss MacNaughtan's eyes, a sob broke her 
 voice : " Naughtie, I do hope you'll like him ! " 
 
 " My dear," the older woman said, while her arms 
 clasped the girl eagerly to her : " Has my baby found her 
 other half T . . . Is he the other half God made for my 
 baby are you sure 1 " 
 
 " I don't know," the girl said. " I don't really know, 
 but I'm sure I love him ! " 
 
 " But why don't you know, dear T ** 
 
 " I can't tell ; I don't even know if I understand him : 
 but he adores me, and I love to be adored ! " 
 
 " Who is he f . . . do I know him t " 
 
 " He's the brother of Nancy Thorpe. I've been staying 
 with her people ; he was there." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan's eyes looked troubled. 
 
 Nancy Thorpe had been at her school for four years, 
 She belonged to one of the oldest of Norfolk families. As. 
 a race the Thorpes were arrogant and family-proud. The 
 men were good-looking and selfish, the women lovely and 
 reckless. 
 
 " Do you know what he said when I promised to marry 
 him, Naughtie ? That he had never been conceited before, 
 but that now he would never be un-conceited again." He 
 never believes I can be in earnest about my love for him 
 because, he says, he's such an ordinary sort of a duffer." 
 
 " Is he ordinary ? . . . Ordinary from your intel- 
 lectual standpoint ? " 
 
 The girl paused. " He's frightfully good-looking, at 
 least I think so. And about his own job he knows far 
 more than I do." 
 
 " Well, let us hope so. What is his own job ^ " 
 
 " He's a soldier." 
 
 ' And about the things you care for that are not his 
 own job . . . have you much in common t " 
 
 The girl's eyes dropped. " I don't know," she said. 
 " I really don't know, for we were in love with each other 
 too soon to find out, and when we're together, that's just 
 enough ! . . . It was only when I was coming to you 
 to-day that I kept wondering what I should tell you about 
 him : it made me ask myself what I did know about him 
 except the fact that I love him." The girl's voice broke. 
 "And you led me to think that . . ." she paused, " that 
 ... a woman loved a man and wished to give herself to 
 him because he responded to all the intellectual interests 
 in her nature as well as the other feelings, because he 
 awakened new qualities in her, because she admired him 
 oh ! I don't know how to express all you taught me to 
 expect, and no wit isn't like that . . . not a bit like that T"
 
 S A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 " What is it like ! " 
 
 " It's like something you don't understand, something 
 that has no reason in it : you just love because you can't 
 help yourself ... it takes possession of you." 
 
 " I think it's the real thing, dear child. I can teach 
 my bairns lots of things, but no one can teach them what 
 only God knows which halves fit into which." 
 
 The girl's eyes were full of gratitude. " I think he was 
 meant for me, Naughtie, for we loved each other right away, 
 and I feel quite unworthy of him, and he feels himself 
 horribly unworthy of me, so it sounds all right. I ought 
 to be grateful to you for having made me what I am . . . 
 the kind of me that he thinks so wonderful." 
 
 " Dear child, I had splendid ground to cultivate ; . . . 
 I can take very little credit to myself ; . . . but I should 
 like to see your man." 
 
 " So you will. May I bring himhere on Sunday night t " 
 
 " Yes, dear, bring him. When are you to be married f " 
 
 " Oh ! " the girl cried. " I don't know . . . give me 
 breathing time .... I'm going to Cairo next week 
 I want to know something about my home before he comes 
 out ; his regiment's going there next winter ... it will 
 be about nine months until we meet : he wants me to 
 marry him immediately, before we leave London." 
 
 " Has he met your mother ! Does he know your 
 people t " Miss MacNaughtan tried to hide the anxious 
 note in her voice. 
 
 " Oh, yes, he adores mother ; often I feel quite jealous 
 of her . . . she looks so young and pretty, all men admire 
 her ; sh 3 often finds things out about Vernon that I don't 
 know." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan pulled the girl's ear. " You haven't 
 time ! " 
 
 At that moment Clarkson appeared. 
 
 " Well, Clarkson t " 
 
 " Please, m'm, have you forgotten there is a committee 
 meeting at 6.301 " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan gave one of her youthful laughs. 
 " Have they been waiting long 1 " 
 
 " Only five minutes, m'm, but I thought I'd better tell 
 you." 
 
 " Tell them I'll be down in two minutes." 
 
 She crossed the room hurriedly, calling : "Good-bye, dear. 
 Sunday night mind you bring him ... let yourself out, 
 won't you ? . . . my notes are downstairs." 
 
 As Miss MacNaughtan disappeared Stella laughed to 
 herself. " Just the same as ever," she said, " the darling ! " 
 Always doing ten times more than any other woman,
 
 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 9 
 
 und always with spare time to see her tiresome, adoring 
 pupils. 
 
 She flung herself down on the sofa. 
 
 For a moment she tried to think of herself back into 
 the peace of the old school-days, the peace of a life which, 
 tvith all its gaities and interests, had held none of the new 
 passion which had awakened in her. 
 
 In a few moments Clarkson opened the drawing-room 
 door again. When he saw the girl's attitude he withdrew. 
 
 Stella called after him. " Clarkie, come back ! I'm so 
 happy ! I'm going to be married." 
 
 " No, miss ! " 
 
 " Yes, Clarkson ; why not 1 " 
 
 " H'excuse me, miss, I forgot ; you see it was h'only 
 yesterday that you was a baby, miss." 
 
 The girl laughed. ... " How's your wife, Clarkson ! " 
 
 " That's what I came about, please, miss ; you see she 
 can't walk, and she'll not be contented with all that I can 
 tell her she'll want to know h'everything." 
 
 " About what, Clarkson t " 
 
 " About you, miss h'every single thing. . . ." He 
 paused. 
 
 " Do you want me to go and see her t " 
 
 " I wasn't thinking of h'asking h'any such thing, miss." 
 
 " Of course I'll go, Clarkie. . . . Does she live in the 
 same place . . . 1 " 
 
 " Yes, miss, number h'eight, 'arrington Mews, but I 
 couldn't have you go round there alone, miss . I had only 
 come h'up to h'ask you please, if you had such a thing as 
 a picture of yourself you could let me show my missus. 
 I'd take h'every care of it, miss." 
 
 " Why, Clarkie, I'll take her my photograph for herself. 
 Tell her I'll come on Sunday afternoon, and I'll bring the 
 gentleman I'm going to marry." 
 
 " Ho, miss " something very like tears rolled down the 
 old man's face " you are not h' altered, not one h'atom. 
 Thank you, miss ; I'll tell her that ; shall I call a taxi, 
 miss 1 " 
 
 Stella was putting on her gloves. " Look, Clarkson, 
 there's my ring." 
 
 The old man stepped politely forward to look at the 
 odd-looking ring : it was one made after Stella's own 
 fancy. " Very nice, miss, h'lm sure, but you h' always 
 had beautiful rings." 
 
 " But this one is a special ring, and so to me it is specially 
 beautiful. I suppose my young man is just a fine young 
 man like so many other fine young men ... to me he 
 is quite different."
 
 10 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " That's right, miss, that's 'ow I knew it would be some 
 lay, though it does seem strange to a man as 'ow as beauti- 
 ful a young lady as you, miss, and as clever a young lady, 
 should ever come to look upon an h'ordinary young chap 
 fike that." 
 
 The girl laughed delightedly. " That's your veneration 
 for our sex, Clarkson. Vernon's so good-looking that 
 lota of women will wonder how it was that he ever came to 
 look upon an ordinary girl like myself." 
 
 " Ho no, miss ! " Clarkson's voice was reproachful. 
 Miss Stella had been Miss MacNaughtan's most admired 
 pupil, she was now a creature of such refined and unusual 
 beauty, that she had no right to speak of herself as an 
 " h'ordinary " girl. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Two days later Clarkson showed Stella and her lover into 
 Miss MacNaughtan's drawing-room. As he closed the 
 door behind them and walked slowly down the wide stair- 
 way, he said to himself :" Good-looking young chap enough, 
 but Gawd, 'ow h'ordinary ! " 
 
 And that was just what Miss MacNaughtan thought of 
 him. 
 
 " Physically, one of England's finest specimens, but 
 mentally Gawd, 'ow h'ordinary ! " 
 
 Yet when her pupil followed her into her little ante-room 
 on some feeble pretext to ask her what she thought of 
 him, she answered " Delightful, quite a prince charming." 
 With his fair colouring, frank English eyes and faultless 
 figure, she might well say he was charming, for he had the 
 distinction of the Thorpe breeding, and she had no reason 
 for thinking him stupid, for as she touched upon a score of 
 subjects he made keen and apt observations. Yet in her 
 heart she had labelled him, as Clarkson had, " h'ordinary." 
 
 During the interview Egypt and more had become 
 the topic of conversation. Stella had laughingly told her 
 lover that Miss MacNaughtan did not care for Cairo. " She 
 thinks the English in Cairo either bores or snobs." 
 
 " In what way t " Vernon asked. He turned to Miss 
 MacNaughtan ... he hoped she didn't think they ought 
 to hob-nob with the natives . . . (He hadn't the slightest 
 idea of what he really meant by the word natives, whether 
 Mohammedans, Copts, Greeks, or Persians ; he was totally 
 ignorant of the wonderfully heterogeneous mixture of 
 races which make up the human scum of Cairo). By 
 heredity he had the strongest feelings, which had as yet
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 11 
 
 been untouched, as to who were fit for Englishmen to 
 associate with iu foreign countries. 
 
 He had failed to remember, after his first introduction to 
 Btella, that she was Syrian by birth. He admired her 
 mother, who was Irish. He had forgotten her father was 
 a Syrian so completely that Miss MacNaughtan's words 
 did not suggest anything uncomfortable. Stella had 
 certainly nothing in the world to do with his preconceived 
 idea of " natives." Natives were, to his very Saxon mind, 
 beings absolutely beneath him ; while Stella, he had the 
 grace to feel, was far above him ! He thought of her with 
 pride, he thought of her with self-satisfaction. The know- 
 ledge that she loved him gave him a new belief in himself. 
 
 Vernon was one of the unimaginative Englishmen whose 
 good looks are accentuated by Saxon colouring and an 
 almost Hellenic devotion to physical training. What he 
 had really thought out for himself and believed in, and 
 what was merely the result of caste, it is hard to say. 
 Like most Englishmen he expressed himself as seldom aa 
 possible on any subject that mattered. His mind never 
 wandered into abstract paths ; but he had the desired 
 characteristics of an Englishman, grit enough to endure 
 hardships without grousing, and courage enough to know 
 fear and face it. He had not the highly-developed sen- 
 sibilities of the Latin races, but his sense of honour and for 
 all that comes within an Englishman's understanding of 
 that virtue, was very much alive. 
 
 He had been taught, as all English boys are taught, 
 that the telling of a lie is a crime ; he had not been taught 
 its equivalent in the Latin mind the sin of hurting an- 
 other's feelings. 
 
 So he belonged to the countless class of Englishmen 
 who show all human beings who are not of the Western 
 world that he scorns them, who would rather make his 
 friends uncomfortable than tell a lie. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan's answer to Vernon's question was 
 equivocating and unprovocative of further comment. 
 
 She was glad to change the subject, for her wide experi- 
 ence of human character told her that this typical Anglo- 
 Saxon, who had fallen in love with her highly-gifted pupil, 
 was as full of inherited prejudices as an Oriental is full of 
 superstitions. 
 
 To herself she declared : " He ought to marry a fair 
 English woman who would perpetuate his pink complexion 
 und race, and not one who would taint it with the passion 
 jind pain of the pale children of the East, whose forefathers 
 knew and followed ' the Man of Sorrows who was ac- 
 luainted with grief.' "
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 STELLA had been in Egypt for almost a year ; in anothei 
 week her lover would arrive. 
 
 She was sitting in the garden of her beautiful home, 
 thinking over all that had happened since her arrival in 
 Cairo, of all the scales that had fallen from her eyes ! 
 
 She felt a hundred years older and a thousand times 
 less in love with humanity generally. The time had passed 
 very quickly, because everything had been new to her, 
 and her home-life was delightful. If there was nothing 
 else to please her in Egypt, surely this garden with its 
 exquisite pergolas and Eastern kiosks of old grey wood, 
 its mysterious devices for the introducing of water-courses 
 and artificial lakes, its odorous orchards of rare fruits 
 and scented shrubs, was sufficient. It was lovely and 
 mysterious enough to gratify any Eastern princess. But 
 in it Stella still felt herself strangely Western : things had 
 not grown familiar to her with the familiarity of a native 
 land. The very servants in her mother's house appeared 
 to her impossible as servants, they were the adjuncts of 
 an Eastern tableau. 
 
 But it was not the strangeness of things which had pro- 
 duced the feeling of age and bitterness in her heart ; it 
 was not the mystery of Egypt, with its power of the Un- 
 seen and its terrorising sense of Age it was something 
 wholly modern and unexpected. 
 
 It was the finding of herself little better than a social 
 outcast amongst the people who were the Power for Good 
 in Egypt, amongst the people of a nation who had spoiled 
 her and courted her and reared her in their bosom. As 
 yet she had not mentioned a word of her feelings upon the 
 subject to her people. She loved them too much, and her 
 devotion to ngland forbade it. 
 
 " There must be some reason, there must be something 
 more than I know ! " she had often said to herself. 
 
 There was a great deal more than she knew, only she 
 had imagined that the fault lay with her own family, that 
 there was some hidden skeleton about which every one 
 knew but herself. 
 
 Her brother was the only person to whom she could 
 speak on the subject, but there was something about his 
 personality and expression which told her that he had lived 
 his suffering down, that he had made a world for himself 
 above the petty snobbery of race prejudice, that he did 
 not wish to re-open the old wound.
 
 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 13 
 
 She was sitting in the coolest spot in the garden, for the 
 November sun was warmer than any sun she had known 
 in urope : in her white frock she looked a delightful picture 
 of luxurious girlhood. To-day there was a subject she had 
 to think out and settle quite definitely. 
 
 " Salome " was to be performed at the Opera that even- 
 ing. It was the opening night of the season ; she longed 
 to go. So far she had only been t one or two social func- 
 tions in Cairo they did not bear thinking about ! . . . 
 Would the opera be a repetition f 
 
 Then there was Vernon ! He would be in Cairo in a 
 week. Did he know ? Did he understand ^ Would he 
 have courage ? The " something " in her heart which 
 made her fear, instead of rejoice, at the nearness of his 
 coming made her hunger all the more for an instant proof 
 of his devotion, for an instant proof of his disregard for 
 the prejudices of his race. 
 
 She did not allow herself to frame any definite fear in 
 connection with his arrival. His letters were everything 
 that her all or nothing nature could desire ; they surely 
 ought to have drowned the whispering voice of fear. Yet 
 the whisper nig voice told her that as Hadassah Lekejian 
 in Cairo she was a very different person from the Stella 
 he had known. She had been christened Esther, but her 
 father liked to call her Hadassah, the old Persian rendering 
 of the Biblical Esther. In England she had been known 
 as Stella Adair. Would Vernon feel as proud to say, 
 " Hadassah is mine ! Hadassah is mine ! " as he had been 
 to repeat to himself, " Stella is mine ! Stella is mine 1 " 
 Then she remembered how something unknown in her had 
 said, " I am not yours yet ! I wonder which of us will 
 have changed the most when we meet." 
 
 Nicolas, her brother, was coming towards her ; his good 
 looks thrilled her with pride ; he was a delightful person to 
 own for a brother. She had seen so little of him during her 
 years at school that she was quite unprepared, on her 
 arrival in Cairo, for the pleasure his personality afforded 
 her. Since she had left Miss MacNaughtau's school, in 
 her travels round the world, or during her visits to her 
 m ny friends, she had met no one who was her brother's 
 equal in intellectual refinement or good looks. With all 
 the warmth of her ungrudging nature she Iready adored 
 him. He was equally proud of his sister. 
 
 Nicolas sat himself down beside her, and as he did BO 
 he laid a small roll of music in (manuscript) and a spray 
 of tuberose on her lap. She lifted the white flower to hoi- 
 nostrils, and softly and sensuously drew in its lusciouf 
 fragrance.
 
 14 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Is it finished t " she said ; her eyes fell on the MS. 
 
 " Not quite, but I've ot it . . . it's there " he touched 
 the roll with his sensitive fingers " it's there ; I can't 
 lose it now. I've only to elaborate on the theme." 
 
 " How splendid ! " she said. " Shall I play it for you ! " 
 
 Not yet, it's too rough." He sighed heavily. 
 
 " You're tired " she said. 
 
 "A little," he answered, "I'm going for a ride; now 
 that's off my mind I feel free." 
 
 He rose to go. She knew the words he had come to say 
 were still unspoken. With his back turned to her ho said : 
 " What about to-night, Stella 1 " 
 
 " Are we going ! " she said. 
 
 " Do you want to t " 
 
 " I want to hear ' Salome.' " 
 
 He suddenly swung round. " Go," he said, " For the 
 little mother's sake go, and you will soon grow to feel as 
 I do." 
 
 " Oh, Nicolas ! " 
 
 " I lived in Germany and France for seven years ; I 
 understand. I was so well off that I was a little king there. 
 I forgot all about Cairo." 
 
 She caught his hand. " You are a king anywhere." 
 She stood up beside him ... he put his arm tenderly 
 round her waist, and looked at her with almost a lover's 
 devotion. " We're rather a nice-looking couple," she said 
 laughingly . . . her voice faltered . . . "yet we might 
 be lepers ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " he said. " Don't. She's borne it all her 
 life without one word." 
 
 " How she must have loved him ! " 
 
 " He's been worth it . . . ! " the words were spoken 
 with asperity. 
 
 Stella dropped her eyes. She had not learnt yet the true 
 worth of her father's nature his incorruptibleness in a 
 corrupt land ; his sense of justice, which had never been 
 blinded by the injustices perpetrated against him ; and, 
 best of aU, his sincerity as a Christian. Nicolas under- 
 stood all these things, and often wondered in his heart at 
 his father's gentleness of speech, his generosity of purpose. 
 
 " Here comes mother," he said. He looked at the girl 
 with eyes which asked for thoughtfulness for the creature 
 he adored. 
 
 Stella rose to meet her mother : her brother sauntered 
 off with his music in his hand. In the distance there was 
 the tum-tumming of the Nile-man's drum and the clearer 
 note of the bottle-and-key. Overhead, in the unbroken 
 blue of the November sky, birds like falcons were swirling
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 15 
 
 and turning in the sunlight. Mother and daughter met 
 under the ancient wood- work of the long pergola, which 
 had turned to the colour of grey sandstone under the fierce 
 sun of Egypt. 
 
 " I came to ask you, dear, if you would like to go to 
 ' Salome ' to-night . . . your father will 'phone for seats. 
 Girgis is coming to dinner he could go with us." 
 
 There was silence for a moment. , . . Stella had never 
 met Girgis Boutros, her full cousin, a wealthy young 
 Syrian cotton-farmer of the Fayyum. He had been 
 visiting some freshly-acquired property in Upper Egypt. 
 
 " Of course, dearest, I'd like to go." The girl spoke 
 hurriedly and with emphasis. Her mother might have 
 thought that her delay in answering was due to her desire 
 to refuse. " I was just wondering how I shall like Girgis, 
 what I shall think of my rich cousin." 
 
 ' He is remarkably handsome." 
 
 ' Is he at all like Nicolas t " 
 
 ' Oh, no ! " 
 
 The girl looked at her mother. " We are first cousins f " 
 
 ' Girgis takes after his father's people." 
 
 ' Is he like father at all ? " 
 
 Stella's father was not an ordinary Syrian ; he was of 
 average height and build, with almost a patriarchal type 
 of feature. His eyes and the shape of his fine head stamped 
 him as a man of individuality and influence. 
 
 " In looks he is not the least like your father . . . yet 
 ... he has his ability." 
 
 " What is he like 1 " Stella was wondering how he 
 would look at the opera, how he would be dressed, and 
 how he would behave. 
 
 " He's like one of the portraits cut in relief on the lime- 
 stone walls at Abydos." 
 
 " They are portraits of Egyptians ; he's a Syrian." 
 
 " Only on his mother's side ; you forget, his father was 
 a Copt, one of the purest of all the Egyptian types." 
 
 " Oh ! " Stella said, but her acclamation was expressive 
 of much which her mother understood. 
 
 "Is he very Eastern f " 
 
 " Yes, very ... of the finest type." 
 
 " You see, mum, dear, I know so little about my own 
 people. I've been almost a year in Egypt and I have 
 only met a few." 
 
 " Scarcely any, dear." She took her daughter's slender 
 hand in hers and caressed it. " Sometimes I wonder if I 
 acted unwisely, Stella." 
 
 For a moment the girl thought her mother referred to 
 her own marriage with her father, but it was only for a
 
 18 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 moment ; the next she realized that she was alluding to 
 her own education in Europe, to the wisdom of having 
 cut her off from her father's people. Stella knew that her 
 mother had cut herself off from her own people when she 
 married Nicolas Lekejian, but she had thought, until 
 her own arrival in Cairo, that it was on account of her 
 mother's refusal to marry a cousin who was heir to the 
 entailed property which she as a girl could not inherit. 
 As Helen Adair, she had abhorred him, as she had learnt 
 to abhor her people for wishing to marry her to him, and 
 for ignoring the husband whom she loved. So their name 
 was never mentioned by her, although her daughter had 
 used her mother's maiden name during her upbringing 
 in England, because it was more easily pronounced and 
 saved trouble. 
 
 " I'll soon get to know and love them all," Stella said. 
 
 The eyes of Irish blue, which were still as bright as 
 Stella's dark ones, smiled eloquently. " Girgis is a splendid 
 fellow." We'll go and visit his home in the Fayyum 
 quite soon. I'd like you to see how modern he is in his 
 ideas, and how devoted he is to his work. I've a great 
 admiration for Girgis." 
 
 " I'd love to go ; the Fayyum is one of the most beautiful 
 of the ancient oases, isn't it t And Crocodilopolis lies 
 close to it t " 
 
 " Yes, and Lake Moeris." 
 
 " Oh," Stella said, " what a lot there is to see ! . . . 
 How thankful we ought to be that we're not tourists who 
 have to ' do it ' all in a certain length of time." 
 
 The words built up a silence between them again, for 
 the word " tourist " brought to the girl's mind the memory 
 of all the visitors to Egypt she had seen and met at the 
 two social functions to which she had so eagerly gone the 
 winter before on her arrival the functions at which she 
 had been left standing by her mother's side as though she 
 was not fit to be introduced to the moneyed Americans 
 and brainless English women who fly to Egypt every 
 winter merely to enjoy the balls and gaieties which are 
 given by hotel-keepers. Stella's mother's mind was work- 
 ing in the same direction. She was recalling the look of 
 wonder and indignation in her daughter's eyes when the 
 truth of the situation had slowly dawned upon her that 
 they were not " in society " in Cairo, that the " right 
 people " did not know them that she, Stella Adair, the 
 spoilt darling of Miss MacNaughtan's school, that she, 
 Hadassah Lekejian, as her father loved to call her, was 
 not received by the relatives of the very girls to whom she 
 had been the adored " Head " at school. In Cairo the
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 17 
 
 same families who had thought it an honour to entertain 
 her as their daughter's schoolfellow would shrink from her 
 in her own home. 
 
 The mother recalled their drive together after the recep- 
 tion through the crowded streets of Cairo, ringing with 
 Oriental yells and swarming with Oriental loungers, and 
 across the Nile bridge with its multitudes of Eastern races 
 of widely different types, and on to the quieter banks of 
 the river, where the tall masts of the native boats looked 
 like thickets of slender trees against the burning glory of 
 the setting sun. She recalled the silence of the girl, how 
 her eyes had stared, as though transfixed, into the wild 
 flames which branched through the heavens from the 
 sinking sun. 
 
 Not one word had been spoken by mother or daughter 
 during that drive, not one word had been said since in 
 reference to that afternoon. But it was the last social 
 function Stella had consented to attend. 
 
 And now Mrs. Lekejian was going to take her to the 
 opera, she was going to crucify her again. But it had to 
 be done : the girl must know everything before her lover 
 arrived. 
 
 Stella saw her father coming towards them. She had 
 not got accustomed to his habitual wearing of the scarlet 
 tarbush which every one employed in the Khedivial ser- 
 vice in Egypt is compelled to wear ; Nicolas Lekejian 
 wore his at all times and in all places, as Syrians and 
 Egyptians always do. Nicolas, his son, always wore a 
 European hat. As he approached his wife and daughter 
 he said, " I can't wait, dear, I must know about the opera. 
 Am I to order seats t " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " it was Stella who answered " we want to 
 go so much." 
 
 " That's all I wished to know," he said. " I've no time 
 for talk." He unwound his daughter's fingers from his 
 left wrist. They were speaking Arabic : it was their 
 custom to do so when Nicolas the elder was present 
 Stella said it was the effect of the tarbush. 
 
 " Let go, temptress," he said, " and allow your father 
 to get back to his work." 
 
 His eyes were bright with the pride he felt . . . like 
 the Esther of old she must surely " obtain favour in the 
 sight of all the world." 
 
 " But I want you to stay : do stay and tell me about 
 things ; almost everything I see needs explaining . . , 
 even yet." 
 
 Her father was pleased that she should desire his com- 
 pany, but he remained firm. " I must go, Hadassah ;
 
 18 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 there are a thousand and one things which have to be done 
 before lunch." 
 
 She lifted her retaining fingers from his wrist. " Then 
 may I go and wander about alone f " she said ..." Can 
 I go later on to the Market of the Afternoon ! " 
 
 " Take Yehla." 
 
 The girl frowned. " Can't I go alone, father f Can't I 
 be free t . . . It isn't like the bazaars : the market's 
 quite open, it's right under the Citadel." 
 
 " Yehla won't interfere t " 
 
 " He chatters . . . he's there ... I am guarded . . . 
 Oh, dad ! " she broke into English " you must let me 
 go out alone. I've always done it ... even at school." 
 
 " You can't in this country." 
 
 " Why not t " 
 
 " Mohammedans don't understand any freedom for 
 women." 
 
 " They must be taught." 
 
 " Not by my daughter." 
 
 " Is it only the Mohammedans f " Her eyes searched 
 his for the truth. " Are the Christians clean-mouthed, 
 clean-minded t " 
 
 He remembered that she could understand almost all 
 the languages spoken in Cairo except Greek and Persian. 
 
 " No, unfortunately not." 
 
 " Are all Orientals the same t " 
 
 " Generally speaking, yes." He saw that her face had 
 changed, her soft smiles had vanished. She remained 
 silent. 
 
 " I'm sorry, Hadassah ; I know you miss your freedom, 
 but I couldn't allow it ... you will understand better 
 later on ; take Yehla with you when your mother can't go." 
 
 " Yes," she said, " I will take Yehla : . . . I am learn- 
 ing very quickly." 
 
 At the end of the grey pergola she left her parents 
 abruptly. Her mother returned to the house with her 
 father. When they were out of sight, in a sudden fit of 
 remorse for the coldness in her voice and bearing, Stella 
 flung herself down on a seat of white marble, and put her 
 hands before her eyes. 
 
 She had to shut out the glory of the East from her sight, 
 the profusion of flowers in the garden, the soaring minarets 
 in the distance where the city lay bathed in light, the 
 turquoise -blue of the fellahin's jebbas, the whiteness of 
 their turbaned heads : she put her thumbs on her ears 
 and deadened the sound of the ancient call to prayer 
 floating over the land like a message from heaven. As 
 the praying figures rose from their knees and the Moham-
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 19 
 
 medans resumed their toil of drawing water from the sighing 
 Bakiyas, Stella cried : 
 
 " Is it all sham ? Is this spirit of holiness quite hollow t 
 Is the East really polluted ? Is that why the English 
 reject us 1 " She thought of Italy, of Spain, of the Latin 
 countries generally, where almost the same restrictions 
 for women prevail. Even in these countries she had found 
 it difficult to walk about alone, yet they were different ! 
 There was something in the East which was grosser, some- 
 thing which was wwelevated by romance,- and that the 
 grossness was not restricted to the Moslems ; who have 
 retained the ancient opinion of the chief object of women 
 hurt her unspeakably. 
 
 The bitter knowledge had come to her during these nine 
 strange months, that if her father had been a follower of 
 Mohammed's teachings instead of Christ's, he would have 
 been more respected. She had quickly learnt that the 
 Christian-English in Egypt despise the Eastern-Christians, 
 and whether they had not a right to despise them was a 
 question she was afraid to ask herself. In her own home 
 her father would have none but Christian servants, Copts 
 and Syrians and Italians, although it was acknowledged 
 that her father in his business, and her mother in her 
 domestic rule, suffered severely from the fact. "If we do 
 not employ Christian servants," Nicolas Lekejian had often 
 said to his wife, " who will ? And until they are employed 
 as universally as the Mohammedans, and have been trusted 
 for as many generations as they have been doubted, they 
 will continue to live up to the bad name they have been 
 given. They have been treated like criminals for centuries, 
 they have been despised and rejected of men ; what can 
 you expect ? " Until the era of English rule in Egypt, 
 Christians were compelled to wear a distinguishing mark, 
 which precluded them from enjoying the privileges of 
 ordinary citizens or engaging in the commerce open to the 
 Moslems. They suffered humiliation and degradation, 
 which eventually corrupted their natures and all but killed 
 the true spirit of the religion to which they have so tena- 
 ciously clung for nineteen centuries. Its beauty, the 
 spiritual meaning of its doctrines has hardly survived 
 centuries of bitter wrongs. 
 
 Stella realised that the Copts in Egypt know scarcely 
 anything about Christ or His teachings ; that they had 
 clung with a blind adherence to the dogmas of the Church 
 which had been developed out of Christ's teachings by 
 His disciples in the first centuries after His death. She 
 knew that Coptic customs and Coptic ideas, apart from 
 religious matters, are almost identical with those of the
 
 20 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Mohammedans. She realised that their moral deteriora- 
 tion, their cringing attitude was due to the suffering and 
 oppression they had endured for the sake of a depraved 
 Christianity, which taught them less about Christ than 
 Mohammed had taught his followers of Christ. 
 
 It had been gall and wormwood to Stella's soul to dis- 
 cover that her father's people belonged to a servile race, 
 a mixed race, a Semitic race, a race which had known 
 oppressive rulers ever since the Biblical days of Assyrian 
 and Babylonian invasions. 
 
 She realised that she had no race and no country ; for 
 the history of Syria leaves not so much pure blood in its 
 people as the history of Egypt, where the Copts are the 
 almost undiluted descendants of the ancient Egyptians. 
 Up till now she had looked upon Egypt as her country ; 
 for her people had lived there for many generations, and 
 in ancient history Syria was dependent upon Egypt for 
 a very long period. 
 
 The attitude of the English rulers of the land towards 
 the Syrians came as a shock to her. They were aliens 
 and undesirable invaders ; they were called Levantines ! 
 
 Her thoughts quickly travelled over the ancient history 
 of her own land to the time when the Greeks of Autioch 
 had introduced into it their art and culture. The Syrians 
 imbibed the higher beauty of Greek art, which was rein- 
 forced by Roman influence, until Christian Syria was at 
 one time the seat of advanced culture. 
 
 " In those days," Stella said to herself, " Vernon's people 
 were barbarians. In the days when Damascus and Antioch 
 were famous as the trading centres of the whole world, 
 the Romans were thrusting their yoke upon the half- 
 savage Britons." Yet these very people amongst whom 
 she had been reared, and whom she had learnt to love, were 
 opening her eyes to the fact that the ancient races of the 
 world the races who had given it its first civilisation and 
 culture were unclean. 
 
 She knew that in her own nature there was, mixed up 
 with the Eastern blood of her father, the Celtic blood of her 
 mother. The independence of the Irish race was very 
 strong in her ; its revolutionary spirit had more dominating 
 qualities than the servile nature of her oft-conquered 
 forefathers. 
 
 To-night she would meet her cousin Girgis Boutros for 
 the first time ; to-night she would realise how wholly apart 
 from the British she was in Cairo, how closely linked to 
 the native life of Egypt for Girgis Boutros was unin- 
 fluenced by Western thought. Save for his knowledge 
 of the English language, learnt for commercial purposes
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 21 
 
 at the Coptic school in the Fayyum, and his faultlessly 
 cut clothes, he was free from the affectations of the wealthy 
 Copts, who would gladly be mistaken for English. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 STELLA was waiting in the drawing-room of her mother's 
 house for the arrival of her cousin Girgis Boutros. Her 
 brother was with her. She was playing over the very 
 difficult composition he had shown her in the garden. 
 He was standing behind her, looking over her shoulder. 
 
 " It's awfully difficult ; you must have patience," she said. 
 
 " You make me realise it : for if difficult to you, I'm 
 afraid it's hopeless for ordinary people." 
 
 She had turned round to speak to him, and had seen his 
 look, expressive of admiration. " Play it over to me," she 
 said, " so as to give me the ' feeling ' of it." 
 
 Nicolas sat down on the piano -stool which she had 
 vacated. 
 
 He played over his composition with expression and 
 charm, but with little execution. 
 
 " It's delightful," Stella said " perfectly delightful 
 It's full of the East. How did you get it ? " 
 
 " I can play to you," he said, " and to people I'm in 
 sympathy with ; but I'm no pianist : when I sit down in 
 front of business men or critics I can't play a note." 
 
 " Let me play it again," she said affectionately. 
 
 He took her two hands in his and made her face him. 
 " Let me look at you, Stella . . . that dress is charming ; 
 you are charming to-night." 
 
 " Do you like it ? " she said. " I'm so glad it's very 
 simple." 
 
 He laughed. " I know that kind of simplicity it 
 belongs to the Rue de la Paix. I mean it's certainly not 
 Levantine ! " 
 
 Her soft mouth hardened. " I hope not. Do I look 
 Levantine 1 " 
 
 " Don't. . . ." He put his arm round her. " You 
 mustn't get bitter, Stella it isn't worth it." 
 
 " Whvt isn't ? " 
 
 " The opinion of the British ! " 
 
 " Vernon is British." 
 
 Nicolas did nor answer. 
 
 " You like them ? You admire them in spite of their 
 treatment of us ? " 
 
 " Not wholesale . . . not their prejudices." 
 
 " What, then I "
 
 22 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Their honour . . . their justice, their clean-minded- 
 ness, their dislike of intrigue." 
 
 The door opened. 
 
 Girgis Boutros was shown in. He was in exquisitely 
 cut evening dress. His tarbush of bright scarlet set of! 
 the brilliance of his splendid eyes ; its straight line increased 
 the statuesqueness of his strong and clearly moulded 
 features ; its colour threw up the glitter of his perfect 
 teeth and curly black hair, cut very short. It was dry, 
 stubborn hair, expressive of an active temperament. 
 
 Stella thought she had never seen any living creature 
 so nearly perfect in figure and feature. Beside him 
 Nicolas looked French and delicate. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian followed her nephew into the room. She 
 was anxious to see the effect his appearance would have 
 upon her daughter. 
 
 The introduction took place in Arabic. 
 
 Girgis said, " How do you do ? " in stilted English 
 to Stella. 
 
 The girl laughed. " Why do you speak to me in Eng- 
 lish f " 
 
 " Because," he said, " you are to me so very English, 
 if you please." 
 
 Stella said to herself, " And you are to me so very 
 Eastern, so strangely Eastern, if you please." 
 
 Though dressed in European clothes as " up to date " 
 as could be bought, he was like one of the portraits of 
 Seti I. on the white walls of his temple at Abydos. 
 
 " Well," she said, " if I find I can speak Arabic better 
 than you can speak English, I shall be generous, and let 
 you practise your English when you speak to me." 
 
 "Thank you very much," he said deferentially, "but 
 I would like to speak in my own language, if you please." 
 
 " Why t " Stella said. ' 
 
 " Because it is more beautiful for expressing my 
 feelings." 
 
 " You are right," she said. " Even I feel the want in 
 English of the hundred inflections we have in Arabic for 
 one word. In Arabic you can express any degree of feeling 
 you wish by the different use of the one word ; in English, 
 we have to qualify it with adjectives." 
 
 " That is why," he said, " I think you have no poetry, 
 in English ... no poetry, at least, that I have read : " 
 he added the last words apologetically. 
 
 Nicolas chimed in. " It's the same thing in music, 
 used to think the ancient Arab music was grotesque. I 
 remember the first time I heard a famous Arab tenor. 
 I had just returned from Paris. I couldn't hide my
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 23 
 
 laughter . . . now I know that it was my own ignor- 
 ance ; he's wonderful ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " Stella said impulsively, " I do want to hear 
 some good Arab singer. I want to go to the Arab theatre. 
 May I ! " 
 
 " Certainly you will go " it was Girgis who spoke 
 " if you please." 
 
 " And I want to have an Arab dinner." 
 
 " Certainly you must have it, if you please." 
 
 As they spoke it gave Stella pleasure to watch his flash- 
 ing eyes, like black agate, his dazzling teeth, the fine 
 contour of his pillar-like throat. Yet with all his Eastern 
 glow of colour, she felt the strange immobility of his counte- 
 nance, characteristic of his Oriental blood. 
 
 Watching him, she was saying to herself, " He is my full 
 cousin, my father's sister's child, yet I feel that he should 
 have a label stuck on him, and be standing on a pedestal in 
 the Cairo Museum." Girgis was nevertheless very much a 
 living piece of youthful manhood, a manhood of mysterious 
 passions and powers. Vernon, her lover, belonged to the 
 race of people who despised Orientals like Girgis. 
 
 At dinner Girgis sat next to her, but he spoke very little. 
 
 Towards the end of the meal, however, she was surprised 
 by the unexpected intuition he showed ; for he suddenly 
 came out of his stone-like reserve to say : " I prefer to 
 remain silent than to distress you." 
 
 "But why should you distress me ? " 
 
 " By talking to you of less interesting things than your 
 thoughts afford you." 
 
 " You are too modest : all that you have told me is 
 very interesting. I wish you would tell me more about 
 your work." 
 
 " It is not so interesting as your thoughts. I see that 
 your mind is saying very much, your eyes speak . . . 
 everything yet is strange to you." 
 
 " Yes, everything is very strange." 
 
 " I am one of the many strange things." Only his eyes 
 miled : his skin, which was tanned to an indescribable 
 hue by desert suns, became a little warmer. " But do 
 not forget, if you please, that you are also strange." 
 
 " To you ! " 
 
 " To me. When I look at you I have to say to myself : 
 She is my cousin, Hadassah Lekejian." 
 
 " I am called Stella in England." 
 
 " Stella ! " he said" It is pretty. What is Stella, if 
 you please f " 
 
 " Stella means a star ; Esther means the planet Venus ; 
 I think."
 
 24 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " That is beautiful," he said ; he looked at her as much 
 as to say, " Everything about you is beautiful." " In 
 the East we study the stars . . . they guide us." 
 
 " Have you ever heard of Swift t " Stella asked. 
 
 " Swift t No." He looked puzzled. " Swift means 
 very fast, does it not 1 " 
 
 Swift was the name of a great English writer who 
 loved a girl called Esther Vanhomrigh ; he called her 
 Stella." 
 
 " The man who will marry you will call you Stella 1 " 
 
 " He does." 
 
 The strong face betrayed no sign of surprise, yet the 
 girl's words were wholly unexpected. Girgis Boutros had 
 not heard of his cousin's engagement : he was over head 
 and ears in love with her at first sight, and prepared to 
 ask his uncle's permission to marry her as goon as dinner 
 was over. 
 
 " You are affianced t " 
 
 " Yes engaged, as we call it." 
 
 " And you will be married soon ? " 
 
 " No, not yet ; not for a year, perhaps more." 
 
 " But how can he wait t He has seen you t " (The 
 strict Copts do not see their affianced brides.) 
 
 Stella smiled. " Yes, he has seen me ; in England we 
 do not marry men whom we have never seen engage- 
 ments often last more than a year. Englishmen are taught 
 patience : they can wait." 
 
 " He is English t " He pronounced it Eengleah. There 
 was surprise in his voice, surprise expressive of annoyance. 
 
 " Yes, he is an English soldier." 
 
 " And he loves you t " 
 
 The girl laughed. " I hope so ; why do you ask 1 " 
 
 " The English are strange." 
 
 " I don't find them so," she said. " Couldn't you wait 
 one year for some one whom you loved very much t " 
 
 " Could I wait t " he said quietly. " Yes, I could wait 
 seven years, like Jacob, but I would follow her, I would 
 follow my star." His eyes flashed with quickly kindled 
 passion, but his features remained immobile. 
 
 " Englishmen trust their women, they need not follow 
 them ; we prefer to know each other intimately before we 
 marry." 
 
 " They are not very wise," he said. " I see much un- 
 happiness in the papers. I read the divorces. The 
 English are brave, but not wise ; they learnt much civilisa- 
 tion from the East, but not wisdom ; they have never 
 learnt wisdom or philosophy ! " 
 
 Stella laughed. While they spoke she watched hia
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 25 
 
 manners at table . . . they were perfect, and his hands 
 were so beautiful that it gave her pleasure to let him prepare 
 her fruit for her. " Why do you read the English 
 divorces ? " she asked. 
 
 " I wish to practise my English, and they interest me 
 very much." 
 
 " And the divorces, are they more interesting than 
 novels t " 
 
 " Novels f If you please, what are they 1 " 
 
 " Romances, love stories I mean." 
 
 He laughed outright for the first time ; it was not the 
 frank laugh of an Englishman, but the cynical amusement 
 of a philosopher. " Love stories I " They are only fairy 
 tales written for children or for nuns ; the English do not 
 believe in them themselves ; they are not for men. When 
 I wish to learn something about home life in England I 
 read the divorces." 
 
 " Divorces break up home life, they do not make it," 
 Stella said laughingly. 
 
 " It seems strange to you . . . who have been brought 
 up in England. . . . Out here we know what the English 
 are ; we hear from the divorce courts what they are in 
 their own country." 
 
 Stella's back went up ..." Yes," she said, " you 
 ought to know what they are, considering what they have 
 done for us." 
 
 " What have they done for us, if you please ! " 
 
 " What have they not done for all Egypt, Christian 
 and Moslem t " 
 
 " I do not wish to offend, if you please . . . for you are 
 affianced to an Englishman. I do not discuss the politics 
 with women." 
 
 He was a stone image once more. 
 
 " You have not offended," Stella said, " but I hate 
 ingratitude, and in England women discuss politics . . . 
 they will soon become active politicians." 
 
 " But we will not discuss it, if you please ; you have only 
 been a short time in this country." He spoke with the 
 ir of a man who expected to be obeyed. 
 
 " It would not matter how long I lived here," she said 
 her temper was rising " it could not alter facts. The 
 English have given us everything. Have all the Christians 
 as well as the Moslem fellahin forgotten the abuses they 
 suffered, the injustices they endured, the unspeakable 
 ivrongs that were thrust upon them ? " 
 
 She looked at him for an answer. 
 
 He raised his eyes slowly ; his thick lashes brushed his 
 cheeks in a way Stella had never seen eye-lashes do before ;
 
 26 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 in his glance there was burning scorn and hate. " They 
 gave to us every good thing," he said, " but the best thing 
 of all, that they will never give." 
 
 " What have they not given us t " 
 
 " Love," he said. " Tl.ey have not given us love." 
 
 Stella was silent. 
 
 He was still burning her with his eyes. " I once went to 
 the English church," he said. " The priest spoke all of 
 ' love.' He said, ' God is love . . .' he said, ' Love ye 
 one another. . . .' Out of church I have not seen that 
 love from any English : if they had any for us they would 
 understand us." 
 
 " You think if the English loved us they would under- 
 stand us t " 
 
 " Yes," he said ; " but the English do not try." 
 
 " Hadassah ! " 
 
 It was Stella's father who spoke. " You must not 
 linger if you wish to be in the house when the curtain goes 
 up." 
 
 " I don't want to miss a moment of it," she said, 
 as she rose from her chair. With a smile to her cousin, 
 she left the room with her mother. Girgis Boutros sud- 
 denly felt that the door had closed between light and 
 darkness. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE opera-house was full when Hadassah Lekejian entered 
 it with her mother and cousin. Her father and brother 
 were already in their box. 
 
 As she took her place many heads were turned to look 
 at her, for the overture was almost finished, and from the 
 stalls the English officers and men had inspected, with 
 their glasses, the occupants of the various boxes : they were 
 glad of a fresh arrival. 
 
 The residents they knew by sight, and many of the 
 visitors, for they had attended some, if not all, of the various 
 hotel dances which had just commenced in Cairo. 
 
 A man, himself a visitor, asked his companion, an 
 engineer on the State railways, who the beautiful girl was. 
 
 The engineer looked at her through his glasses. " Don't 
 know," he said ; " yes I do, though wait a minute - 
 that's young Boutros ; he's a Copt, a cotton magnate, and 
 that's his uncle, Nicolas Lekejian, and his wife ; she's an 
 Irish woman. They're among the best Syrians in Cairo ; 
 the old chap's an awfully decent sort . . . and that giil 
 must be his daughter ; I heard she had come home."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 27 
 
 The stranger was silent ; then he asked, after looking 
 at Stella again : " Do you know them ? " 
 ' Yes, slightly ... in business only." 
 1 You don't know the family ? " 
 
 ' No, I once met the son, an awfully cultivated chap." 
 ' Won't that girl know any one in Cairo t " 
 ' If by that you mean the English or best French . . . 
 no." 
 
 The stranger was silent, but his glasses did not leave the 
 girl's face ... he knew that she could not see him. After 
 watching her expression very carefully he turned his glasses 
 upon the occupants of the other boxes and then inspected 
 the stalls. There were certainly one or two very pretty 
 girls in the house, but there was not another woman with 
 Iladassah Lekejian's elegance or distinction. Never had 
 he seen such clear eyes or such a transparent skin. She 
 had taken her place by her mother, her cousin was seated 
 on the other side of her, Nicolas and his father were stand- 
 ing behind them. He noticed that during the performance 
 the occupants of Stella's box had ears and eyes for nothing 
 but the opera itself. Even the cotton magnate, who looked 
 a hundred times more Eastern than his cousin, never took 
 his eyes off the artistes. But in the interval (he was watch- 
 ing the girl very closely) he could see her rapid survey of 
 the house, he could almost feel the sense of aloofness she 
 felt from her fellow women. He leaned forward, and for 
 a moment their eyes met ! . . . All her life Hadassah 
 was to remember that look. 
 
 Girgis Boutros was enjoying himself amazingly. He had 
 never before been in such near contact or talked so freely 
 to a young girl. He was an only son and all his relations 
 on his father's side were old-fashioned Copts, who kept 
 their women-kind as carefully secluded and as veiled as 
 Moslems. He had therefore only spoken to his mother 
 and his aunt. To sit by Hadassah's side, to be the recipient 
 of her smiles and intelligent conversation, was almost more 
 than his easily excited nature could stand. To Hadassah 
 he looked like a statue carved in granite, with the glass 
 eyes which the early sculptors gave to their heads ... to 
 himself he felt like a thing of flaming fire. He longed to 
 burst into poetry, to recite to her verses from Persian 
 songs which expressed his admiration of her looks. 
 
 In a box opposite to their own there was his mother, a 
 beautiful woman, of a very classic type, dressed in an expen- 
 sive Parisian model gown. She was Hadassah's father's 
 sister, but she had not Nicolas Lekejian's intelligent and 
 very noble cast of features. Her face, for all its classic 
 contour, was touched with the indolence and sensuality
 
 28 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 of the East. During the second interval Stella noticed 
 that her aunt's box became full of visitors from all parts 
 of the house, Greeks, Italians, and Syrians. 
 
 " Levantines" the engineer in the stalls styled them all. 
 It was then that he pointed out to his companion the 
 impossibility of knowing people like the Lekejian's in- 
 timately. " You let yourself in for knowing ' Levantines ' 
 like these," he said, " and they're impossible." 
 
 His words expressed Hadassah's feelings. Girgis, 
 amused and interested her with his un-English ways of 
 looking at things, and his very English way of wearing 
 his clothes . . . but her aunt's friends were impossible. 
 Were they the people she ought to know t Were they the 
 only people who would accept her in this cruel land ! 
 Their elaborate dresses of gorgeous brocades, their crude 
 jewellery, their too ample figures, and, worst of all, the 
 expression of their eyes and mouths, disgusted her. 
 Stella thought of her own mouth : she would rather it 
 went hard and sour with the bitterness of the cup that 
 was now almost always between her lips than that it should 
 become loose and coarse like those of the over-dressed, 
 over-fed women in her aunt's box. Her aunt looked a 
 refined lady beside them still, they were her friends. 
 Then Stella asked herself, if her aunt had refused to have 
 these people for her friends whom else would she have had 
 . . . what friends had her mother t 
 
 Not one soul in this crowded house, in this opera-house, 
 where she had rented a box ever since she had come as a 
 bride to Cairo with Nicolas Lekejian, knew her well enough 
 to pay her a friendly visit between the acts. She had not 
 one drop of Eastern blood in her veins, and she looked 
 beautiful and youthful in her white lace gown and brilli- 
 antly hued Persian scarf but she was an outcast ! 
 
 Hadassah could have screamed with shame, and yet 
 she realised the distance by which her father's people were 
 removed from the people of the Western world. 
 
 Girgis Boutros said, " Do you know my mother t " 
 
 " No," Stella said. " When I was a little girl I may have 
 met her, but I don't remember her." 
 
 " Will you allow me to introduce you to her, if you 
 please t " 
 
 Stella hesitated and looked at her own mother. Girgis 
 thought she meant to imply that she could not go alone 
 with him to his mother's box. " I will ask your mother ; 
 she will come too, if you please." 
 
 " No, don't ask her," Stella said : " I will meet your 
 mother another time . . . not to-night, I like talking to 
 you best."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 29 
 
 He noted the anxiety in her voice, but he did not betray 
 his understanding of it. " If you please," he said ; but 
 my mother would be very happy to see her brother's child 
 and introduce you to her friends." 
 
 Stella could not gather from his way of speaking whether 
 he meant to annoy her or to be polite to her, and he did 
 not mean that she should ! He knew exactly what was 
 passing in his beautiful cousin's miud about his mother's 
 friends. He himself had no love for them, indeed he knew 
 very few of them. In his opinion they were stupid and 
 vulgar, but he resented what he termed Hadassah's English 
 attitude towards all things which were not British. 
 
 Stella did her utmost to be cheerful between the acts, 
 and succeeded so well that even Nicolas thought she was 
 enjoying herself. He knew that his cousin was much 
 more Oriental in his opinion of women than he or his father 
 were, and he had been just a little anxious to know how 
 he would conduct himself for the long hours he would 
 spend in Stella's company. 
 
 But his mind had soon been set completely at rest by 
 Girgis's attitude of respectful admiration. 
 
 In the middle of the longest interval the Khedive and 
 his suite entered the house. The house rose to its feet to 
 greet him, and remained standing until he was seated. 
 The orchestra played the Khedivial anthem. Only one 
 figure in the house remained seated ; he was the leader of 
 the advanced Nationalist party. So public an act of 
 disrespect and disloyalty could not be allowed to pass 
 unnoticed, and later on Stella heard that the Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, who was in the house, had sent for him and 
 upbraided him for his behaviour, and that the Nationalist 
 leader had insolently replied that no law obliged him to rise 
 if he wished to remain seated, and had refused to apologise. 
 
 The minister had thereupon ordered him to leave the 
 house, which he did. 
 
 Hadassah's father was furious. Girgis was wholly 
 indifferent. . . . Stella was completely puzzled. 
 
 But why should he insult the Khedive I " Stella 
 said " He's not English ! " 
 
 " The Khedive recognises English rule in Egypt and 
 uses his influence to help that rule. He is contented to 
 be a puppet in their hands." 
 
 " I see," she said. " Egypt for the Egyptians extends 
 uven to the Khedive." She was wondering if the Syrians 
 and all other Christians would be ousted from the land 
 with the English when the time came, or if the Copts would 
 still be wanted to do the brain-work and the art-work 
 and the dirty work of the country, as she had disco ve red
 
 30 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 they had always done ever since the days when the Arabs 
 invaded the land and brought into it the teachings of the 
 Prophet. For the Arabs brought nothing with them 
 but their war-like qualities and their art-destroying 
 religion. 
 
 She turned to her cousin, whose face told her nothing 
 of what he was thinking. " I know more about Home Rule 
 for Ireland," she said, " than Home Rule for Egypt. I 
 feel I'm not qualified to speak, but the Egyptians do seem 
 to me even less capable of managing their own affaira 
 than the Irish. Why can't they be contented with the 
 peace and prosperity the English have given them t " 
 
 Girgis thought for a moment. " You are affianced to 
 an English soldier, if you please." 
 
 " Yes," Stella said, " what has that to do with it ! " 
 
 " Will you ask him this question : If the German 
 nation invaded England and conquered it, and made it 
 many times more prosperous than it is now, if they improved 
 the lives of the working classes, if they taught England all 
 the wonderful things that are done in Germany for educa- 
 tion and for the industrial life of the people, would England 
 be so grateful to them that she would like to keep them 
 there for ever, would she delight to sing their national 
 anthems 1 Would England honour one of her own people 
 if he were contented to be a nominal king under German 
 rule t " 
 
 Stella did not answer. Fortunately for her, the curtain 
 went up for the last act. 
 
 Shortly after this unpleasant incident the British Agent's 
 wife entered her box it was almost opposite the Lekejians. 
 A number of people came with her, officers in full-dress 
 uniforms and civilians wearing ribbons and orders. Evi- 
 dently there had been a dinner-party at the British Agent's 
 house. After they had taken their seats Stella suddenly 
 recognised one of the party as a man she had danced with 
 many times at balls in Norfolk. She bowed to him and 
 received in return a bow and a warm smile. He seemed 
 delighted to see her and showed very plainly that he meant 
 to come and speak to her. Presently she saw him whispei 
 to a lady next to him, one of the most stiff-necked of the 
 English residents ; the lady turned her eyes to Stella's 
 box while she spoke. Stella knew she was discussing her. 
 From that moment the man never looked at her again 
 during the performance. 
 
 But that was not the finish of the evening's entertain- 
 ment, nor the end of Stella's mortification ; for Girgis 
 Boutros, knowing that she wished to eat an Arab meal in 
 an Arab restaurant, begged his aunt to allow him to leave
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 31 
 
 the opera before the performance was finished and go to 
 the high-class Arab restaurant which he often frequented, 
 and order a special supper, one which Stella would enjoy. 
 
 Stella was delighted at the idea, so her mother agreed. 
 Where there were no English to wound her pride Stella 
 felt that she might enjoy a purely native evening in 
 characteristic surroundings. 
 
 So Girgis went on ahead, and if Stella could have heard 
 the orders he gave to the cook and the owner of the place, 
 ehe certainly would have enjoyed herself ; they sounded 
 like some passage out of the Koran, so deferentially were 
 they received, and so solemnly. 
 
 When the party arrived the servants salaamed to the 
 ground. They scarcely dared raise their eyes, yet they 
 wondered how any one so beautiful could be so impure 
 and so bold as to uncover her face in public ; how any one 
 with the eyes of a gazelle could be so familiar with men, 
 other than her father and brother, as to dine with them. 
 
 Girgis had chosen the best and most secluded table in 
 the room. He was very nervous, in case Stella would 
 not think the supper nice enough, but it was all that money 
 could procure on so short a notice. 
 
 As there were no other guests in the room they had the 
 entire attention of the waiters. They sat at long tables 
 spread with white cloths, but they had no knives and forks 
 or plates. Everything had to be eaten with their fingers, 
 a process which Stella soon discovered was not nearly 
 so disagreeable as she imagined, for the meat, of whatsoever 
 kind it might be, was cut up into small pieces, and piled 
 lightly on the top of water-cress or parsley. The large 
 dish containing it was placed in the centre of the table. 
 Each person was given a round scone of bread (like a 
 Scotch harvester's bap), which was hollow when the top 
 if it was torn off. These scones serve as pockets for the 
 poor, who purchase their edibles ready cooked in the street. 
 At table they act as plates and knives and forks. 
 
 It was Girgis who showed Stella how to help herself to 
 a piece of deliciously savoury grilled meat, from the 
 centre dish, with the assistance of a piece of bread. She 
 had to be careful only to use the third finger and the 
 thumb. When she had successfully carried the morsel 
 from the centre of the table to her own scone she had to 
 dip it in one of the four small dishes of appetising sauces, 
 placed in front of her. It was great fun, and the food was 
 BO delicious that Stella ate heartily and forgot her troubles. 
 
 Very soon the room filled up. 
 
 Arabs came in and greeted one another in the stately 
 Arab way and the Copts as well as the Moslems washed
 
 32 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 at the fountain in the court which led off the dining-hall, 
 before sitting down to their meals. It was a pretty sight, 
 the beautiful dresses of the natives lending colour to the 
 scene. There was a great deal of etiquette observed even 
 amongst quite young men who had evidently come to 
 enjoy themselves. Stella had been so engrossed with the 
 arrival of a new course that she had not noticed a party 
 of Europeans enter the building. A tall screen hid the 
 table at which they had quietly seated themselves. It 
 was the next one to their own, and near the door. 
 
 Presently her ear caught English voices ; some one was 
 answering a question. 
 
 " Yes, when you get pure Arabs they're all right ; the 
 unspoilt desert Arabs are hard to beat for honour as well 
 as for bravery." 
 
 " Are there many left ? " 
 
 " Not in Cairo itself . . . the Gyp pie is a very different 
 creature, but even the Gyppie, when he's a Moslem, isn't 
 so bad ; it's the Christian-Copts and Christian other things 
 one can't stand." 
 
 " What is a Copt ! " a girl's voice asked. 
 
 " The Gyppie that thinks himself a Christian." 
 
 " I didn't know there were any," the girl said. " I 
 thought Egyptians were always Mohammedans." 
 
 There was laughter. 
 
 " Did you never hear of the Arab invasion 1 What 
 did you think they were before the year six hundred, before 
 the Arabs came ! " 
 
 " Pagans," the girl said lightly, " weren't they f " 
 
 A third voice said, " They're Pagans still pretty well, 
 aren't they t " 
 
 " The Copts are a mixture of Pagan, Moslem, and de- 
 graded early Christian ; for instance, they stick to the old 
 Pagan idea that Thoth weighs the soul at death, the same 
 thing we saw so often on the temples up the Nile, only 
 they have substituted the archangel Michael for Thoth, 
 and their funerals are far more Pagan than the Moslems'. 
 They are a queer people." 
 
 Stella lost the next few sentences. 
 
 " It's the beastly Levantines one can't bear in this 
 country." 
 
 " What are Levantines f " the girl asked. 
 
 " Speaking broadly, we English class the Greeks, Syrians, 
 Maltese, and Jews all under the heading of Levantines." 
 
 A voice which had not spaken before said, " In fact, 
 anything that is not purely British. . . . Do the French 
 come into that scathing category t " 
 
 There was so much sarcasm in the voice that Stella
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 33 
 
 could not refrain from moving her chair just a little, so 
 as to see the speaker. As she did so, her eyes for the 
 second time that evening mot the eyes of the stranger who 
 had asked who she was in the opera-house. 
 
 Her face paled with indignation and shame. She could 
 not conceal her feelings tears filled her eyes ; but the 
 next moment she was listening to her cousin Girgis'a 
 description of a desert dancer he had seen about a week 
 ago at the marriage of a wealthy Copt in the Fayyum. 
 
 Her composure returned ; gradually her heart began to 
 beat again at its ordinary pace ; she was able to understand 
 what her cousin was talking about, though all the while 
 in her ears there rang the words : " It's these beastly 
 Levantines that one can't bear in this country." She 
 was, then, a Levantine ; Vernon would have to learn that 
 from such people as she had been listening to. 
 
 " You are thinking again," her cousin said : " your name 
 suits you ; I feel that only half of you is here . . . your 
 thoughts are in the stars very much ! " 
 
 " Oh, no ! " Stella said. " I am very interested. Can 
 1 see this lovely dancer ! How wonderful she must be ! " 
 " It is not possible," he said. 
 " But why not ? " 
 
 " Sometimes she might come to dance in a very wealthy 
 man's harem . . . but not for strangers." 
 " We are not strangers ; we live here f " 
 " Jou do not live like the natives. They are proud, 
 these dancers ; they will not dance to Western peoples." 
 " Bvit why f " 
 
 He raised his eyes in the ancient way. " They can get 
 all the money and jewels and adulation they want from 
 people who can understand their art . . . why should 
 they dance to please the ignorant and curious t " 
 ' Do they get much money ? " 
 
 ' I have seen one dancer take away with her 200 in 
 money and many valuable jewels in one evening." 
 "' Could I never see her ? " 
 I think not ... if you please." 
 
 But why not t You say she dances for Christian 
 Copts ? " 
 
 " Your mother does not visit with any Copts who live 
 like Moslems . . . she only knows a very few of the 
 Catholic Christians, the Advanced Copts." 
 
 " It is all very confusing. In England I told people 
 that the Christians in Egypt were like the Christians in 
 England ... I had only known Advanced Catholic 
 Copts, I suppose. Do your Copt cousins veil themselves 
 and live apart from their men-kind like Moslems 1 "
 
 34 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Most of them," he said, " and if I marry one I shall 
 never see her until half the marriage ceremony is gone 
 through ; they are very old-fashioned, these cousins." 
 
 " And you will marry one t " Stella's voice was full of 
 amazement. 
 
 " I do not wish to now, if you please." 
 
 Stella laughed, his meaning was so transparent. 
 
 " You can laugh," he said, " because you are going to 
 marry the man you love." 
 
 The laugh died out of Stella's eyes, for her mind was 
 quickly stormed with all that his words suggested ! She 
 was going to marry the man she loved . . . what would 
 that man have said if he had been here to-night ? ... if 
 he had seen her at the opera scorned by his own nation, 
 if he had heard her classed with Levantines ! 
 
 To Girgis her eyes were in the stars again, so he lapsed 
 into silence. While they were served to many courses, 
 a street musician had been playing on his long Egyptian 
 flute plaintive notes very Oriental and extremely 
 monotonous. 
 
 To do justice to the foreigners who had been discussing 
 the Levantines so unflatteringly, it is only fair to admit 
 that none of Stella's party had been seen by them until 
 they rose to go ; it was only when Stella pushed out her 
 chair, beyond their sheltering screen, that she had been 
 seen. After that nothing more had been said. Fortun- 
 ately, too, no one but Stella and her mother had heard 
 the remarks, for Girgis Boutros could not catch an English 
 conversation, unless it was addressed directly to him, 
 with intentional distinctness of pronunciation. He could 
 not interpret half-tones. So it was only Stella who noticed 
 the look of consternation and shame on the face of the 
 engineer, who had evidently brought his two guests to 
 supper in the Arab restaurant by way of entertaining them. 
 He had been completely hidden behind the screen, and 
 Stella knew that he imagined the restaurant held nothing 
 but natives. His own party and Stella's were the only 
 people in European dress in the room. Stella was generous 
 enough to be sorry for him, yet the words he had said 
 could never be unsaid ; she could never again feel hersell 
 anything but a Levantine in the eyes of an Englishman 
 in Cairo.
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 VERNON was in Egypt ! He had been gazetted to Cairo 
 for December 18th, but had obtained a fortnight's leave 
 because he wished to spend the time with Stella and her 
 people up the Nile before he commenced his duties. The 
 Lekejians' dahabeah was anchored off Luxor. Stella 
 was impatiently waiting for the arrival of the Government 
 mail-boat which was to bring her lover ; her mother, who 
 was sitting on the deck drawing-room beside her, saw her 
 agitation. When Stella was agitated or deeply moved, 
 the slate-grey of her eyes deepened to black and her lips 
 trembled. She had never once mentioned to her mother 
 the wounds her pride had received, or said a word to show 
 her natural nervousness about Vernon's arrival, but she 
 had gladly agreed to her parents' tactful suggestion that 
 they should spend the time with Vernon in their charmingly 
 appointed dehabeah on the Nile. Neither mother nor 
 daughter had ever hinted that it would be pleasanter to 
 receive him out of Cairo ; it was silently understood. 
 
 Dressed in spotless white, Stella looked enchanting. 
 Her horror of Levantine splendour had cut her dressing 
 down to the severest simplicity, which suited her youthful 
 freshness. The only jewel she ever wore now was el shablca, 
 as Girgis called her engagement ring. 
 
 At last she saw Nicolas, who had gone to meet the mail- 
 steamer, with Vernon by his side. Her whole being trem- 
 bled with emotion, for her lover looked a splendid figure 
 of English manhood. When he saw her standing under 
 the deck awning of their house-boat he took off his hat 
 and waved it triumphantly in the air ; his hair shone in 
 the sunlight like bright gold how fair and British he 
 looked ! In a very few moments he was on the deck 
 beside her ; he had scarcely permitted the smart Sudanese 
 boy, in a white jersey and green tarbush, to brush the 
 sand off his feet and trousers with an ostrich -feather 
 broom ... he was so impatient to reach Stella. With 
 the lightness of perfect physical training he vaulted 01 
 sprang over everything in his way. 
 
 His greeting was to her mother first, who extinguished 
 herself the next moment behind a tall palm, while Vernon 
 folded Stella in his arms and kissed her. 
 
 " Oh ! do let me look at you," Stella said, when breath 
 permitted her to speak ; " I can hardly believe it's true 
 that you are here in the flesh beside me." 
 
 " I'll prove it," he said delightedly, " though I can
 
 36 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 hardly believe it myself ! " He put his arms round her 
 again and kissed her smiling mouth. 
 
 " It is harder for me to believe it, dearest," she said 
 tenderly. 
 
 " Why should it be T " he said. " I kept thinking the 
 train would break down or the ship go to the bottom, or 
 something else awful would happen to keep me away from 
 you. The journey seemed unending ; the nearer I got to 
 Luxor the longer the hours became." 
 
 Stella gave a contented sigh . . . but there was some- 
 thing in the sigh which expressed more than content, it 
 expressed a depth of emotion which the girl had never 
 shown in the old days. 
 
 He looked at her anxiously, she felt his desire to under- 
 stand. " So many things have happened to change my 
 life," she said, " and my beliefs. I was afraid you, too, 
 might have changed ! " 
 
 Have you changed about me 1 " he asked quizzically ; 
 " but tell me what has so changed your life. Of course 
 everything out here is awfully different, but what's that 
 got to do with you and me t " 
 
 " Just everything," she said ; " but for this week at 
 least you are still my own." She clung to him as he 
 raised her face to his. 
 
 " I'm yours for ever," he said ; " don't talk rot, Stella, 
 not even in fun it's not kind." 
 
 She laughed. " Then I won't, dearest and here come 
 father and mother ; they've been giving us a few moments 
 to get over our ' shyness.' " 
 
 They laughed and ran hand-in-hand to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lekejian. 
 
 " Father, this is Vernon," Stella cried. " He's awfully 
 shy about meeting you, but I've told him you aren't a very 
 frightening sort of a person, are you, darling ? " She kissed 
 her father from the overflowing happiness in her heart. 
 
 Vernon held out his hand ; he liked the general appear- 
 ance of his prospective father-in-law, although it instantly 
 brought the fact to his memory that Stella, on her father's 
 side, was not English. " I am shy, sir, truly enough as 
 Stella says, for I can't see any earthly reason why you 
 should approve of me as a son-in-law. Stella could have 
 married any one in the world, and I am only a soldier with 
 nothing worth mentioning to offer her but my devotion." 
 
 " That, coupled with an Englishman's sense of honour 
 and the duty he owes his wife, is enough for me," Mr. 
 Lekejian said, " that is, of course, if my girl wants you." 
 He looked laughingly at his daughter. " I have sufficient 
 worldly goods to endow her comfortably for life ; but
 
 37 
 
 remember," he said more gravely, " that in giving her to 
 you I am trusting you with my most priceless possession." 
 He let the young man's hand drop reluctantly. 
 
 Vernon could not answer, for he felt suddenly confronted 
 with the real facts of the case, that he, a total stranger to 
 this man, was going to take from him his most priceless 
 possession, that he was accepting the responsibility of 
 bestowing upon Stella a love arid devotion which was to 
 equal the devotion of her parents ; . . . but as he could 
 not express his deep appreciation of the honour Nicolas 
 Lekejian was paying him, he merely said, " I will try not 
 to forget, sir, indeed I will." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian, who was very fond of Vernon said, with 
 just a trace of her Irish brogue, which still showed itself 
 in moments of deep feeling : " Indeed, I'm sure you will, 
 Vernon : Stella, I'm not afraid to trust you to Vernon's 
 care." 
 
 The smile Stella gave her mother was all love and 
 gratitude. 
 
 " I'm glad you came straight to Luxor without staying, 
 in Cairo, for this is Egypt," Nicolas the younger said. With 
 his walking-stick he indicated the wonderful view of the 
 soft Theban hills bathed in the pink sunlight of Upper 
 Egypt, and the plain where the far-spreading waters of 
 the inundation of the Nile reflected the exquisite blue of 
 the sky. " Thebes lies there," he said, " the world's first 
 great capital, the city of the Pharaohs who oppressed the 
 children of Israel. We can go there to-morrow if you like 
 it's a lovely ride ; to-night I thought we might walk to 
 Karnak. The moon is almost full, and Earnak looks 
 glorious by moonlight. Would you care to 1 " 
 
 " Of course I'd like to go," Vernon said, " but I'm awfully 
 ignorant about Egypt. Please take it for granted that I 
 know absolutely nothing . . . what is Karnak ? " 
 
 " Why should you know f " Stella said, sympathetically. 
 " Karnak was the ' mother-temple,' of all the city temples 
 of Thebes ; of all the temples in Egypt it is the grandest, 
 though it's not the most perfect. You'll love it. Nicolas 
 and I went there last night. You'll reverence mere men 
 more after you have seen Karnak." 
 
 " I suppose I should have read up Egyptian history 
 before I came out," Vernon said, " but, to tell you the 
 truth, I didn't think much about Egypt ; it was you I was 
 coming to see." 
 
 Their eyes answered each other understandingly, and 
 Stella said laughingly : " You're just taking Egypt thrown 
 in with your pound of tea." 
 
 " I suppose I am, but anyhow, I never saw anything
 
 38 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 quite so amazing as that." He pointed to the perfect 
 reflection in the water of the temple of Luxor, which standa 
 BO close to the river's bank that you can see it as clearly 
 in the water as you can on the land. 
 
 Its long row of lotus columns, tinted with the same deli- 
 cate pink as the Theban hills, seemed to rise from tha 
 depths of the river like the buds of lilies striving to reach 
 the sun. 
 
 " Isn't it exquisite ? " Stella said. " That's a part oi 
 the great temple at Karnak ; it was joined to it in ancient 
 times by a paved avenue, lined on either side with crouch- 
 ing rams half a mile in length. When we've had some 
 tea and it's a little cooler, we'll go into Luxor temple if 
 you like ; you ought to just see it before we visit Karnak, 
 whose greater glory overshadows it." 
 
 " I'd love to," Vernon said, " though I'm a very poor 
 sight-seer." 
 
 " You needn't take it very seriously," Nicolas said. 
 " In the days when Thebes was the capital of Egypt, 
 Earnak and Luxor were parts of the city the Nile ran 
 right through it. The modern Arabic name for the eastern 
 portion of the city is El Aksar ; Luxor is merely a cor- 
 ruption of it." 
 
 " I see," Vernon said ; "it is hard to imagine that all 
 this was once a city." He pointed towards the irrigated 
 land, green with the first shoots of the coming crops, and 
 the stretches of beautiful water which lay between the 
 river's bank and the desert beyond, where the monuments 
 which tell you of the past glory of Thebes are still standing. 
 
 Nicolas soon left the lovers to themselves and, for at 
 least one hour and a half, they talked of things which had 
 little to do with the splendour of Thebes or the wonders of 
 ancient Egypt. They were young, and they were in love, 
 so the hour and a half seemed all too short for the pleasure 
 they had to crowd into it. 
 
 It was so comforting to feel he had not changed in one 
 iota, that Stella only laughed when he answered her ques- 
 tions in little more than monosyllables. And if for the 
 first time it dawned upon her that the subjects which in- 
 terested him were limited, and that even in that first 
 hour many things had sprung to her lips to say which she 
 held back in case they would bore him, she was not in 
 the humour to be conscious of it. The joy she felt in 
 realising that in his eyes at least and he was typically 
 English she was perfect, made her blind to everything else. 
 
 At half-past four Stella saw Benhadad, their grave 
 butler, carrying the silver tea-tray laden with the tea- 
 pot, coffee-pot, and cups and saucers. He wore a scarlet
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 39 
 
 tarbush and a beautiful soft grey silk galabeah ; behind 
 him walked another servant similarly dressed, bearing a 
 tray with hot cakes, sandwiches, and biscuits. When the 
 tea was arranged, with great solemnity the tall Copt with 
 the features of an ancient Egyptian came up to Stella and 
 Baid in perfect English, " Tea is served, sitt." 
 
 Stella asked him something in Arabic. 
 
 To which he answered : " Aiwah sitt," and pointed to 
 the delicately cut plate of jam sandwiches, and when Stella 
 said something else to him in Arabic he again said with 
 Exquisite deference : " Aiwah sitt," and clapped his hands. 
 One of the small bare-footed Sudanese boys came running 
 to him. Vernon was charmed with the lad's bright face 
 and with the beauty of his slim, well- polished limbs. 
 When Stella spoke to him he repeated, as his superior 
 had done, " Aiwah sitt, aiwah sitt," and bowed his slim 
 body almost double. 
 
 The next second he had bounded off with the grace of 
 an antelope to the bows of the boat. The sound of flute- 
 music soon began, and the clear tink-tink-tinking of a 
 " bottle-and-key." 
 
 Vernon looked to Stella for an explanation. 
 
 "That's our private orchestra," she said laughingly. 
 " I thought you would like the ' real thing ' for your first 
 afternoon. That's typical Nile music. The flute-player 
 is quite a musician, the other instrument is nothing more 
 than a glass bottle and key ; it's very effective when the 
 earthen drum comes in you'll hear its deeper tum-tum- 
 tumming soon." 
 
 " This is perfect," Vernon whispered ; " Heaven couldn't 
 be better." 
 
 Stella shivered and took a white woollen shawl from 
 Yehla, her boy, who had silently appeared with it." 
 
 Vernon folded it closely round her. " How did he know 
 that you wanted it 1 " he asked. " Did you make a sign 
 to him ? I heard nothing." 
 
 Stella smiled. " No, I never did anything but feel the 
 need of it ... you'll soon find out that you have only 
 to ' think a thing ' in Egypt to have some servant hand it 
 to you just before sun-down it always gets chilly, a 
 wind springs up." 
 
 "How quickly things happen!" he said; "it was 
 awfully warm and bright about five minutes ago it's 
 getting a bit chilly certainly." 
 
 " The air will get warmer after the sun actually drops 
 behind the line. All sorts of strange things happen at 
 this hour in Egypt, especially on the Nile : objects on 
 land look perfectly black during the actual glow of the
 
 40 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 sunset, and then everything for a time becomes 
 drowned in an orange light. Then the sun drops and 
 a new mystery begins ; a fire springs up, as if it came 
 from the underworld, and sends up awful arms of flames 
 into the darkening heavens : you'll never forget your first 
 Egyptian sunset." 
 
 As she spoke the sonorous voice of the mueddin belonging 
 to the mosque whose white minaret rises up so strangely 
 from the splendid courtyard, which Ramesea II. built to 
 his pagan deity in the temple of Luxor, called the faithful 
 to prayer. 
 
 It was the maghrib or sunset prayer which, according to 
 the Prophet's teaching, should be said a few moments 
 after sunset, or a few moments before, for he would not 
 allow his followers to commence their prayers exactly 
 at sunrise or sunset, or sun down, because infidels wor- 
 shipped the sun at such hours. 
 
 Vernon listened to the ancient cry wonderingly ; it was 
 like a voice from another world ; there was a mystery in 
 its beauty which was full of godliness. 
 
 The next moment he saw the white-turbaned heads of 
 the Mohammedans on the banks of the river bowing to 
 the earth, and many of the simple fellahin prostrating 
 themselves on the ground until their foreheads touched the 
 sand not one grain of which would they brush off if it 
 clung to their skin. 
 
 Vernon noticed that Benhadad and the other servants 
 on their house-boat did not take any notice of the call to 
 prayer, but continued doing the work they were engaged 
 in. " Why don't your servants pray t " he asked. He 
 was wondering if Mr. Lekejian had forbidden them to do so. 
 
 " Because they are Christians," she said. 
 
 " Do you only employ Christian servants t " 
 
 " Yes, my father insists except the Sudanese ' crew,' of 
 course." 
 
 " I thought Mohammedans were always considered 
 more honest. Why does he have Christians t " 
 
 " Because we ourselves are Christians," Stella said, 
 ignoring the first part of his remark. 
 
 " Well, naturally," he laughed. " Have the missionaries 
 ton verted these Johnnies 1 " 
 
 Stella laughed this time. " Their forefathers were con- 
 verted in about the first century," she said. " Christian 
 missionaries haven't been very successful since that time." 
 
 Vernon whistled. " You don't mean it t " 
 
 " Almost all the Copts are Christians," she said, " and 
 they pray seven times a day if they're strict, but not in 
 public."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 41 
 
 " The what did you call them t " 
 
 " Copts," Stella repeated laughingly. " Copt is the 
 European term : it is derived from an Arabic word for the 
 Egyptian Christian the Egyptians who did not embrace) 
 Mohammedanism are all Copts. It's the term now applied 
 to all native Christians in Egypt, although originally the 
 word Copt only meant Egyptian but don't look as if I 
 was speaking of the sacred bulls of Apis." 
 
 " I don't know what sort of bulls the Apis bulls are," he 
 said simply. " Look here, I do feel an awful duffer." 
 
 " Copts are as nearly as possible the real descendants of 
 the ancient Egyptians, the Egyptians who remained un- 
 affected by the Arab invasion, and Mohammedan religion. 
 There are a few Moslem-Copts, I think, but not many 
 native Christians converted in later days to Mohammedan- 
 ism, but they are mostly in Upper Egypt in very out-lying 
 villages. When the Egyptians, generally speaking, be- 
 came Mohammedans they intermarried with the Arab 
 invaders and with other Mohammedan races. The Chris- 
 tians only remained pure, except of course for the inter- 
 marrying which went on in the early Christian days before 
 the Arab invasion by Arnr in 640, and so they were called 
 Copts to distinguish them as being the original Egyptians. 
 Above all other people they represent the race of the 
 ancient Egyptians to-day." 
 
 " How awfully interesting ! " he said. " Are they in 
 any way pure in the other senses of the word ? are they a 
 decent set of people, better than the ordinary ' missionary- 
 made ' Christians ! " 
 
 " That depends on how you look upon the matter," 
 she said ..." you will think them dreadful." Her tone 
 had suddenly become bitter. 
 
 " Why do you say that . . . ? " it was the first time he 
 had ever heard anything but sweetness from her lips. 
 
 " Because you are English," she said, " and the English 
 think it is the correct thing to despise their fellow -Christians 
 in Egypt." 
 
 " But are they fellow-Christians ? " he said. " Are you 
 sure they aren't just degraded Mohammedans who have 
 sold their faith for the flesh-pots of the Christians t " 
 
 " They are Christians of a strange sort," she said, " Chris- 
 tians who have suffered centuries of wrongs and humilia- 
 tions and tortures for their beliefs ; they have endured 
 such persecutions and injustices that only the letter of 
 their religion is left, not the spirit. They aren't Christians 
 as you and I accept the meaning of the word, but they are 
 Christians insomuch that they have never lost hold of 
 the teachings of the early Church of Christ. None of them,
 
 42 A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 poor things, know anything about the beauty and humanity 
 of His doctrines, not even as much as the Mohammedans 
 do." 
 
 " How strange," he said, " to have hung on to the 
 ' Church ' for all these centuries and to have lost Christ ! 
 What a tenacious people ! " 
 
 " Of course there are some Copts who love Christ and 
 love humanity through Him they do crop up now and 
 again and there are a few saintly names even in modern 
 Coptic history, but not many. I'm speaking now of the 
 people ; not of the highly educated upper-class Copts." 
 
 " What a lot I have to learn, darling ! I don't know 
 where to begin." 
 
 " Oh, you needn't bother about the Copts," Stella said 
 hastily again bitterness was in her voice " no English- 
 man ever does learn the real truth about them or tries 
 to find out any good in them. To the tourist the Copt 
 isn't such an effective asset in the landscape as the Mussul- 
 man, who prays devoutly in the desert, or in the crowded 
 street, or in the noisy railway station in the most pictures- 
 que fashion ; the Copts have far longer prayers to say five 
 times each day, but strangers don't hear them." 
 
 " I believe you're awfully keen about these Copts," 
 he said. 
 
 " I'm sorry to Bay I'm rather the reverse ; but since I've 
 been in Cairo father has told me lots of things which account 
 for their unpleasant characteristics. I've read their 
 history, and I've come to the conclusion that if they had 
 given up their faith and turned Mohammedans . . ." 
 she sighed, " in fact, if all Christians in the East were 
 Mohammedans, it would be better for them ; the English, 
 in spite of being Christians themselves, would respect 
 them more if they were." 
 
 " That sounds as though Mohammedanism was the 
 better religion of the two, at least for Orientals." 
 
 " But don't you think the English ought to admire the 
 Copts for sticking to their beliefs, even though they have 
 lost the real beauty of Christ's teachings 1 It's hardly 
 their own fault that they've become what they are. A 
 despised people becomes servile ! " 
 
 I suppose the English do admire them t " 
 
 " I don't think so." 
 
 " Why not t " 
 
 " Because they treat them as outcasts "... her 
 indignation was rising. ... " But, dearest," she said, 
 " don't let me talk about it so soon, let me forget that there 
 ever were such things as Jacobite-Copts and Uniat-Copts 
 and Levantines."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 43 
 
 " Whatever is a Uniat-Copt ? " he asked. " I never 
 heard of such a lot of strange peoples ? " 
 
 " A Catholic Copt . . . which means a Roman Catholic 
 belonging to the Egyptian Christian Church. There 
 aren't very many of them, and they have only existed 
 for about a hundred and fifty years. My father is a 
 Uniat-Copt, although he is a Syrian." 
 
 Vernon looked at her in astonishment. " Tour father t " 
 he said slowly : " Is he a Copt ? " 
 
 " Not in the original meaning of the word because he 
 is a Syrian, but for many generations his people have lived 
 in Egypt. Speaking broadly, a Copt means a native 
 Christian, and my father is not a native, although he goes 
 to the Coptic Uniat church." 
 
 " I see," Vernon said slowly ; " I hadn't realised that." 
 
 " I knew you hadn't." Stella spoke nervously. 
 
 He took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips. 
 Ardently he kissed the tip of each of her pretty fingers. 
 " Dearest," he said, " I don't know why we are talking 
 so much about the Church and all the funny sorts of Chris- 
 tians there are in the world in the first hours we are to- 
 gether ; let's talk about nicer things, things that we've 
 wanted to know for all these unending months. Did you 
 miss me awfully, dearest f . . . your letters were sweet, 
 I nearly know them all by heart. But you are clever ! 
 Did you think mine awful rot ? " 
 
 The kiss he took from her smiling lips was Stella's only 
 answer to his question ; in his light flannels he looked so 
 fair and athletic that her heart overflowed with pride. 
 In a land of almond-skinned and black-haired people, he 
 seemed a creature of almost unnatural colouring. In a 
 totally different way his features were as correct as an 
 Egyptian's, they were straight and short ; and his teeth, 
 though they were almost as perfect as Girgis Boutros's, 
 were not the marked features in his face which the beautiful 
 teeth of an Oriental always appear to be. 
 
 " If you've had enough tea, she said, drawing away her 
 hand because laughingly she declared that " his kisses 
 had made it sticky," " let's go ashore and look at the temple, 
 it will be too dark if we don't go at once ; I'll just tell 
 mother." Stella knew very well why they had been dis- 
 cussing the subject of Christians and Copts, but she did 
 not inform her lover. It was because suggestion was forc- 
 ing her to speak about the last topic in the world that she 
 ever wished him to hear. Had she not arranged to meet 
 him at Luxor so as to get away from her fellow -Christians 
 in Cairo f Her conversation had shown her that Vernon 
 had as little idea of the real facts of her social position in
 
 44 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Egypt as she had had before her arrival in Cairo, and she 
 could not tell him. All the wonderful things she had 
 imagined herself saying to him when they first met 
 were forgotten, or could not be said ; she felt that she would 
 have to see him many, many times before she could get 
 back the delicious sense of rest his presence had once 
 afforded her. 
 
 They had no sooner set foot on shore than they were 
 surrounded by long-legged, dark-eyed donkey boys, in 
 short, white shirts and white skull-caps, made of coarse 
 crochet, who pestered their lives out to engage them for the 
 hour, or the week, or the year. When the brilliant -eyed 
 rascals became too persistent Stella let them know that 
 she could speak Arabic. Instantly their seemingly modest 
 prices fell to about the quarter of what they had been 
 asking. 
 
 There was a good deal of whispering amongst them, for 
 they could not understand why a lady who had never been 
 in Luxor before should speak Arabic like a native, while 
 her husband with the red face did not know one word. 
 Countless curio-dealers implored them to buy their wares, 
 laid out on the dusty highway which divides the temple 
 of Luxor from the river. Vivid green sphinxes, freshly 
 " mummied " hawks, and images of the god Osiris in 
 every possible form were amongst the most popular. 
 The natives always addressed Stella as " My beautiful 
 lady," and spoke of Vernon as " Your genleman." 
 
 " Your gen-le-man he buy you this very nice god Osiris ; 
 him very lucky, my lady ; you buy what price you like ! " 
 
 " Yes, my lady, him very ancient, two weeks back him 
 dug up in Thebes . . . my word is true, my lady . . . 
 very cheap god." 
 
 The only thing Vernon did buy was a fly-switch, as 
 Stella had forgotten to bring her own ashore, and he rather 
 fancied one with very long white hair, and a blue-beaded 
 handle, finished with a tassel of small white cowrie shells. 
 
 When they had wandered through the various parts 
 of the vast ruin and glanced at some of the most striking 
 reliefs and statues, Vernon suggested that they should 
 sit down and " take an easy " he wanted to have Stella's 
 thoughts centred on himself again. Stella had soon dis- 
 covered that it was the general grandeur and the magic 
 effect of the colouring which appealed to him ; the history 
 and meaning of the various parts of the temple boied him 
 though he tried not to show it when he saw her joy in 
 looking at certain reliefs and statues she recognised as 
 relating to the little store of Egyptology she had laid up 
 in her memo) y.|
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 45 
 
 They had seated themselves on the drum of a fallen 
 column, and Stella was telling him about the early Christian 
 church that had once been built into a part of the temple, 
 and how the Christians in their mad zeal had smashed the 
 statues, disfigured the reliefs, and desecrated the shrines, 
 not only in the portion they had selected for their church 
 but in the temple generally, when she suddenly stopped 
 and looked round, for she heard a footstep close behind her. 
 As she turned to see who it was her eyes met the eyes of 
 the man who had looked at her with so much interest on 
 the night at the opera. His personality had not faded 
 from her memory ; his strong face had appeared to her 
 over and over again at the most unlikely moments. Now, 
 for a reason she was totally unconscious of, she felt the 
 hot blood fly to her face. 
 
 He lifted his hat. " I hope you will forgive me," he 
 said " I have been listening to what you said about the 
 Christian church because I was so much interested, and I 
 was waiting to give you this . . . you dropped it when you 
 rose from where you were sitting near the chapel of Mut. 
 I happened to hear it fall or I should not have seen it." 
 
 Stella took the object he handed to her eagerly. " Oh, 
 thank you so much ! " she said, " I wouldn't have lost it 
 for worlds." She looked at her gold chain from which 
 the charm had become detached ; there were two other 
 charms still left on it. One was a silver hand of Fatma 
 (the daughter of the Prophet), in ancient filigree work ; 
 the other was an Italian charm in silver representing St. 
 Joseph and the infant Christ. The one which had just 
 been restored was a triangle of dull green stone, with a 
 hole drilled through it large enough to hold a thick string. 
 It almost resembled a heart. 
 
 The stranger smiled when he saw the Christian, Pagan, 
 and Mohammedan charms hanging on the same chain. 
 " You are well protected ! " 
 
 Stella's eyes smiled ... " The one you found," she 
 held out the greenish stone, " is pre-Sikelian ; it would 
 have been dreadful to have lost it found in the ruins 
 liere what confusion it might have caused ! " 
 
 " May I look at it t " he said. He caressed the smooth 
 surface of the time-worn stone with appreciative fingers. 
 " I don't know the stone ; where did it come from 1 " 
 
 " I got it at Ferento, near Viterbo in Italy ; I thought 
 it was Roman, for there is an old Roman theatre there, 
 and lots of Roman remains, but an authority told me it 
 was perhaps pre-Sikelian." She turned to Vernon : 
 " You've not seen it. I like to think it has been worn 
 by an unknown people."
 
 46 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " I wonder what unknown evil it was supposed to avert,'* 
 the stranger said, " or what unknown good it was to bring ; 
 but if it was worn by a woman it no doubt possessed the 
 Bamo old virtues as all the other charms worn by primitive 
 women possessed ; their amulets have never changed." 
 
 " What virtue was that ? " Vernon asked. " What did 
 they wear it for ! " 
 
 The girl's eyes half met the eyes of the stranger ; they 
 both knew ! Already she had discovered that there was 
 much this stranger understood. 
 
 " To ensure the birth of sons and keep the love of their 
 husbands." It was the stranger who spoke. 
 
 Vernon laughed. " They had only two ideas, two desires, 
 poor things f " 
 
 " They are the first desires of every woman still," the 
 stranger said. " Modern or ancient, the real woman 
 changes very little. One notices that in the carvings on 
 the temples ; the Egyptians seem to have allowed their 
 women as much freedom as the Greeks ; the kings and 
 queens are often represented together. There are some 
 fine women in Egyptian history." 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; if Egypt never produced a ' Sappho,' it 
 undoubtly has its Queen Elizabeth, and a very remark- 
 able one too. The women of ancient Egypt appear to 
 have been far less restricted than the modern Mohammedan 
 women. I wonder when the custom of veiling and all 
 the other restrictions began far before the Prophet's 
 time, of course." 
 
 " It's a curious thing," the stranger said, " the way 
 women have asserted themselves in history, even in the 
 countries where they apparently play unimportant parts. 
 Japan had a woman for one of its finest poet-philosophers ; 
 China has had an Empress whose name will never die out 
 in the history of her country ; Egypt had Queen Hatshep- 
 set, and Assyria Semiramis ; the Jews had many famoua 
 women, the fair Esther amongst their number." 
 
 Vernon remained almost silent while Stella and the 
 stranger let their conversation drift from one topic to 
 another. 
 
 When the stranger left them Vernon said, " How do you 
 know all these things t That chap could have talked on 
 for ever." 
 
 " Did he bore you t I thought he was very interesting : 
 he can read most of the cartouches, and he seems to be aa 
 taken as I am with the character of Amen-hetep IV. . . . 
 he appears to have read everything there is to be read 
 about him." 
 
 Amen . . . what did you say who was the chap t "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 47 
 
 " The heretic king I spoke to you about who tried to 
 overthrow the power of the political priests of Amon-Ra, 
 and teach his people the religion of Truth and Beauty, 
 and the belief that God is in all things that in worship- 
 ping the beauties of nature you are worshipping God." 
 
 Vernon laughed. " Good Lord ! Who was Amon-Ra t " 
 
 " The god who was the supreme god over all the gods in 
 Egypt for a very long period : the priests of Amon-Ra 
 were as strong a political body as the Popes of Rome, and 
 for a far longer period of history." 
 
 Vernon looked at Stella with a growing wonder in hia 
 eyes. " You talk of all these Johnnies as if they were 
 quite real ; they seem as familiar to you as historical 
 characters like Becket and Wolsey are to English school- 
 boys." 
 
 " Indeed, I'm not familiar with them I wish I were ; 
 but they are awfully real to me. All this is awfully real." 
 She pointed to the reliefs carved on the walls. " It's awfully 
 real because Egypt was the beginning of everything. I 
 feel that it was the nursery from which we all sprang. 
 Maspero says that Egypt is the mother of most of the 
 ideas that have ruled the world, and the children of that 
 mother are the Copts.' " 
 
 " And I feel that you're awfully clever." He put his 
 arm tenderly round her. " I'm getting rather alarmed." 
 
 Stella turned to him quickly, and looked at him with 
 fear in her eyes. " Don't say that, dearest, it makes me 
 feel I'm a bore." She sighed. " I've wanted to see 
 Upper Egypt, and especially Luxor, for as long as I can 
 remember, and now that I'm actually here, well, it seema 
 too wonderful." She linked her arm in his, and like lovers 
 they again wandered slowly round the great building, 
 looking at things casually and quickly because the girl felt 
 that the man at her side was only interested in the magni- 
 ficence of the masonry and the gigantic size of the stones 
 and columns ; that he only listened to what she told him 
 about the various courts and sanctuaries to please her ; 
 that without her by his side he would not have looked at 
 them at all. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHEN they returned to the dahabeah Nicolas met them 
 at the gangway with the announcement that Girgis Boutros 
 had arrived, and was discussing some important business 
 with their father. Nicolas watched Stella very closely 
 as he spoke ; he saw her face turn a shade paler and her
 
 48 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 upper lip tremble. She turned instantly to Vernon. 
 " Girgis is my cousin," she said ; " he is a cotton farmer in 
 the Fayyum ; he will interest you, I think." There was 
 no time for more talk at the moment, for one of the silent- 
 moving servants, in his jebba of yellow and black striped 
 silk, suddenly began clashing a dinner gong. 
 
 Before the second gong had sounded Stella and her lover 
 were both on deck : it was an ideal lovers' hour, full of the 
 sensuous beauty of the East. 
 
 Vernon noticed the exquisite simplicity of Stella's 
 dinner gown ; her slim straightness appealed to his athletic 
 eye as she stood outlined against the violet-dark of the 
 night sky ; the moon had not yet climbed the Theban hills, 
 but the first evening star was glowing like a ship's light 
 above them on a high mast. While Stella had been dressing 
 curious thoughts had been drifting across her mind, half- 
 formed thoughts which made her angry with herself, for 
 they had arisen from the fact that the things which the 
 stranger had said to her in the temple had opened up a 
 sort of chasm in her mind as regards Vernon. Quite 
 unconsciously she had asked herself the question, " When 
 Vernon is not making love to me what shall we talk about t 
 What have we in common ? What did we talk about 
 before we were engaged ? Now we only seem to talk 
 about ourselves. Shall I bore him in the future ? Do I 
 even bore him now ? " Then the idea that she might be 
 robbed of his love reduced her to a state of almost nervous 
 exhaustion. Now, standing bsside him in the terrible 
 stillness of Africa, under a limitless sky, a sky whose dark- 
 ness gave shelter to the unseen things of ancient Thebes, 
 things which find cover in the day-time in the tombs of 
 Pharaohs and in the secret places of the sanctuaries, but 
 which draw ever nearer and ever nearer to human spula 
 by night, she was conscious only of the security and delight 
 she felt in his near presence. What did it matter if they 
 never talked at all, when their silence was full of such 
 eloquent understanding t 
 
 The feelings Vernon roused in her she did not understand, 
 and as they stirred her into a state of exaltation she inter- 
 preted them as the highest love a woman can feel, her love 
 for the man whom Fate has destined to be her other half. 
 
 " Stella," Vernon suddenly said, " you look so sweet, 
 I shan't eat one bit of dinner ; you really haven't any right 
 to look so delicious. I must hold you in my arms for one 
 tninute." They were standing in the bows of the boat, 
 Which were curtained off on all sides but the front, BO aa 
 to form a small smoking-room for, the evening when it was 
 Ihilly.
 
 49 
 
 Stella leant gently towards him. She was pliant as a 
 river reed, and so slender that he swore he could scarcely 
 feel her in his arms. As he pressed kisses on her white 
 throat and closed eyes, she was passive, and unconsciously 
 responsive to his demands. Suddenly they started apart, 
 for Girgis Boutros had silently entered the curtained 
 enclosure. 
 
 Vernon looked as though he had seen a ghost, for never 
 before had Girgis looked so curiously Egyptian. His dark 
 eyes shone with anger, his white teeth gleamed under the 
 cruel smile which curled his clearly cut lips Eastern lips 
 as blood-red as the scarlet of his high tarbush, which gave 
 an added height to his splendid physique. For a moment 
 there was silence, and in that moment Stella knew that 
 the two men would one day hate each other. 
 
 Quickly regaining her composure she said, " Vernon, 
 this is my cousin Girgis Boutros. Girgis, this is the 
 Englishman I am going to marry, Vernon Thorpe." 
 
 Girgis inclined his head but the quarter of an inch, he 
 did not hold out his hand. Vernon, who had not yet got 
 over the shock of seeing what he called a full-blooded 
 ancient Egyptian, in evening dress, suddenly drop down 
 from the stars (for he had quite forgotten the fact that 
 Stella had mentioned the coming of her cousin), said to 
 the stone image with flashing eyes, " How do you do ? " 
 in stiff English fashion : he was only wishing that the 
 image with moving eyes of black glass would jolly well 
 take itself back to wheresoever it had come from, if it 
 was from some Pharaoh's tomb or from the mural decora- 
 tion of the temple they had just quitted, and leave him 
 alone with Stella. 
 
 But Girgis did not go ; he stood rooted to the deck, 
 nor could he speak, for his brain was on fire and his pas- 
 sions were maddened by the thought of what he had seen. 
 
 He had seen his cousin Hadassah (his pure, virgin cousin 
 as he had thought), his uncle's cherished daughter, in the 
 arms of this red-faced Englishman, this Englishman who 
 was looking at him now with all the contempt that an 
 Englishman shows in his eyes for a man whose skin is 
 darker than his own. It was impossible for him to believe 
 that Stella had not lost her virginity. She had certainly 
 told him that English girls knew the men whom they meant 
 to marry quite intimately ; but such an outrageous thing 
 as a lover holding a girl in his arms and kissing her before 
 she was his wife was only possible when the girl had been 
 his mistress. 
 
 " What has suddenly brought you to Luxor, Girgis t " 
 Stella asked. " IB anything wrong t "
 
 60 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " I have told your father," he said ; " we cannot dis- 
 cuss it, if you please." 
 
 Stella smiled and turned to Vernon. " That is how he 
 speaks to me when anything of political importance 
 occurs." She turned to her cousin : " I read about the 
 disturbances in Asiut, and all about the coming election 
 of a new Mudir. If the Copt is elected there will be no 
 end of trouble, won't there 1 " 
 
 " He will not be elected," Girgis said, " and yet there 
 will be trouble." 
 
 " What news have you brought t " " Please tell me : 
 I must hear it all eventually." 
 
 " You are a woman. I cannot tell you, if you please. 
 But the English will never allow the election of a Copt as 
 Mudir, even in Asiut." 
 
 " How could they ! " Stella said ; " you know quite well, 
 the position of a Copt Mudir would be an impossible one." 
 
 " Why t " Vernon asked. " What is a Mudir t " 
 
 " A Mudir holds a high executive post for which a Copt, 
 with his inability to rule, is totally unsuited. His own 
 life would be in danger, as well as those of the authorities 
 who supported him." 
 
 " Why ? " Vernon asked. 
 
 " Because Copts may be prosperous, but they are not 
 popular, and my cousin knows it." 
 
 " Boutros Pasha ! do not forget him, if you please." 
 
 " Oh ! he was an exception." 
 
 " There may be many exceptions if the English would 
 give them the opportunity or look for them." 
 
 Vernon listened to him keenly. So Stella's cousin was 
 anti-English as well as a full-blooded native ! 
 
 Stella laughed. " Oh, Girgis, you know quite well the 
 English have tried them in lots of posts ; but where a man 
 of action is needed ... a man who can command ready 
 obedience from his subordinates and the population gener- 
 ally, they were failures you can't deny it." 
 
 " What chance have they to learn to command when 
 they are always treated as subordinate? subordinates to 
 Moslems in a country ruled by Christians 1 But it will 
 not always be so : the Copts have the brains of the country, 
 and brains will win in the end." 
 
 " If they have no executive qualities they will always 
 have to use their brains for men who can rule ; in history 
 that has always been the case, you foolish boy." 
 
 " To you I may seem very foolish, but wait and see : 
 the English will not always . . ." he stopped, for at that 
 moment the dinner-gong sounded for the second time. 
 
 As they walked towards the dining-room, Stella said to
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 61 
 
 Vernon, " Please don't think I have no sympathy for the 
 Copts ; I have, but I think their grievances are exaggerated ; 
 and Girgis knows better than most of us how totally unfit 
 a Copt is to hold the position of Mudir even at Asiut, where 
 nearly all the inhabitants are Christians. We must avoid 
 politics with Girgis ; he's awfully wrong-headed." 
 
 " How complicated politics are out here ! I thought 
 there was only the Pan-Islamic trouble with the English, I 
 had no idea we were so hated all round." 
 
 " You aren't hated, and you are hated," Stella said : 
 " the how and why of it you will soon understand, and 
 if you're just, you'll see how stiff-necked the British are ; 
 I sympathise with the Copts a great deal except when 
 I'm with Girgis ... he goes too far ; I feel very English 
 with him, which angers him most awfully." 
 
 " In what way are the British stiff-necked f " 
 
 Stella flushed. " Oh, in lots of ways ! " 
 
 " Why is your cousin so bitter ? " he said. " Does he 
 want a job ? " 
 
 Stella laughed. " Want a job f Oh ! no, it's partly, I 
 think, because his father's people are Copts, and he re- 
 sents the position the Copts hold in the eyes of the Govern- 
 ment : they fill all sorts of posts as clerks in the admin- 
 istrative section of the service there are far more Copts than 
 Moslems but they hold none of the higher posts . . . 
 none of the well-paid positions of authority. Girgis is very 
 wealthy he has no personal grudge." Stella could not 
 help smiling to herself at the idea of Girgis, with all his 
 wealth, wanting a job. 
 
 While they had been talking, Girgis had become lost 
 to sight. 
 
 Vernon took her hand in his. " It's awfully hard to 
 realise that you're his first cousin, dear." 
 
 " Girgis is rather a dear, and you'll soon discover that 
 Stella Adair died when she left England nine months 
 ago . . ." she looked at him with passionate eyes . . . 
 " You must try to love Hadassah Lekejian a little, 
 Vernon." 
 
 " You darling ! " he said, " I only wish we were married 
 and alone, just you and I, on this Nile boat, with no Copt 
 cousin or gassing strangers to take you away for one 
 minute from me. 
 
 Stella laughed happily. " Were you jealous of the 
 stranger in the temple, dear I I believe you were ! " 
 
 " Of course I was," he said ; " he made me feel how stupid 
 I was, how little I could talk to you about all the things 
 that interest you." He paused and then said quickly, 
 " You didn't use to care about all these things."
 
 52 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 She pressed his hand and whispered. " Always be 
 jealous like that, dear one." 
 
 They had entered the dining-room, and Vernon was 
 amazed at the sight the dinner-table presented. The 
 low lights.which were hidden by the mass of white blossoms, 
 gave an air of mystery to the room, whose walls were 
 covered with the strange figures of animal -gods and with 
 long texts from the Koran in Arabic-writing applique's 
 of gorgeous hues on grey canvas. Egyptians use these 
 decorative texts for the glorifying of their ceremonial 
 tents on festive occasions. 
 
 His place was next to Mrs. Lekejian, who talked to him 
 in English, while Girgis spoke in Arabic to her husband. 
 A Frenchman attached to the French excavation camp 
 at Assouan, was speaking French to Nicolas ; they were old 
 college friends. The major-domo of the dahabeah, who 
 was an Italian, always spoke in his own language to the 
 Lekejians, for precautionary reasons. 
 
 Vernon was amazed. He had never heard so many 
 languages spoken by a small party with such complete 
 familiarity before ; it brought home to him his own limi- 
 tations, for each time that any one of the party addressed 
 him, it had to be in English ; but he and Mrs. Lekejian 
 found plenty to laugh at and talk about. He asked her 
 if she was as keen about the old Egyptian things as her 
 daughter ; she confessed that she was not. " My garden 
 has been my hobby," she said ; " you can do anything here 
 with a garden, you know, if you have plenty of water . . . 
 these flowers came from it this morning. Stella takes all 
 her intellectual tastes and talents from her father Syrians 
 are so clever. I used to feel very stupid amongst them at 
 first : they can learn anything they want to." 
 
 " You can't think what a duffer I feel," Vernon said ; 
 " I can only speak one language, and I don't understand a 
 single thing about anything I soe out here except the size of 
 the buildings." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian laughed her girlish, Irish laugh. " Stella 
 knows enough for both of you, I think, so don't feel worried." 
 
 " Your nephew can speak French and Italian, and far 
 better English than ever I could speak French." Vernon 
 did not add that in England he had thought a good linguist 
 must be either a diplomat or a waiter both had to learn 
 languages for his profession or business. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian saw him look at Girgis long and seriously. 
 Both her nephew and her husband were wearing their 
 scarlet tarbushes . . . Girgis' gleaming eyes and black 
 head, and her husband's dignified and patriarchal appear- 
 ance, gave a very Oriental touch to the scene.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 53 
 
 " A penny for your thoughts ! " Stella suddenly said 
 as she, too, caught Vernon's absorbed expression. 
 
 He started. A guilty flush deepened the delightful 
 pink of his fair skin. " I was thinking," he said in an 
 undertone, " how remarkably good-looking your cousin 
 is, and how serious he is for a chap of his age." 
 
 " He is splendid-looking," Stella said ; " Did you ever 
 see such wonderful colouring ! ' Sun-burning ' isn't the 
 word for the mixture of brown and brick-red in his cheeks. 
 . . . Ho leads such a healthy life, you know ... in the 
 saddle all day long under a desert sun. On his farm they 
 have the oldest and the newest of everything . . . electric 
 ploughs, if there are such things, and camel-ploughs made 
 of old acacia-wood, working side by side my cousin is 
 very different from the ordinary wealthy Egyptian." 
 
 She was anxious to let Vernon see that Girgis was not 
 a benighted Copt of early-Christian prejudices, but her 
 lover's eyes gave her no returning smile, he was looking 
 at her cousin as though he were nothing more human 
 or nearly connected to himself and Stella than the images 
 of the animal-gods in scarlet and blue and orange on the 
 walls behind them. Stella had noticed that Girgis during 
 dinner had given her none of his customary polite bows ; 
 in his eyes there was a curious expression which she had 
 never seen before. But it pleased her to notice how 
 admirably her brother and Vernon got on together : they 
 seemed to have plenty to talk about, for Nicolas could 
 tell him all about the various clubs, though Veruon was 
 surprised to find that he did not offer to put him up for 
 any one of them. With great tact Mr. Lekejian had kept 
 Girgis talking to himself. He had at once felt the atmos- 
 phere of antagonism with which his nephew regarded 
 his future son-in-law, and had taken care that Girgiis 
 should not express during the meal any anti-English senti- 
 ments. More than once Stella heard her father telling 
 him to be less prejudiced, to talk as he really felt, not as 
 he thought he would like to feel ; she could not hear 
 all that passed between them, but she could catch enough 
 to know that Girgis, who had been staying with a cousin 
 in Asiut, had brought the latest news of the coming elec- 
 tion. Mr. Lekejian had a certain amount of sympathy for 
 the Copts, who considered themselves slighted by the 
 Government ; he understood their grievances just as he 
 understood the feelings of an Irish Nationalist, but wide 
 experience had taught him that the English did not treat 
 them unjustly, that their inability to hold high posts of 
 authority was as much regretted by the English as by them- 
 selves. Neither the Copts uor the Mohammedans were,
 
 64 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 i?i his opinion, the least capable of ruling their country for 
 their country's good. Self-interest was too deeply en- 
 grained in their natures to permit of anything like proper 
 justice to the fellahin. 
 
 When they left the dining-room the moon was high 
 enough for Karnak to be illuminated by its light, so Stella 
 begged her lover and Nicolas to hurry over their Arab 
 coffee, and start off. Stella did not ask if Girgis would 
 go with them ; she took it for granted that he was returning 
 by the last train to Cairo. In a very few minutes they 
 were on their way to see the ruins of the mightiest temple 
 on earth. In an excited and happy humour they engaged 
 three splendid white donkeys, gaily bedizened with tur- 
 quoise necklaces of blue beads and magnificent silver 
 chains, and three tall Egyptians in clinging white shirts 
 with turbaned heads. As they trotted along the road 
 to Karnak, which looked as white as snow in the moon- 
 light, Vernon felt that he had suddenly been transplanted 
 into the book of Genesis. The stately figures they passed 
 were so completely biblical, the things they did so illus- 
 trative of the parables in the Old Testament. 
 
 Their donkeys, after the custom of the East, preferred 
 to go in Indian file, so conversation was not easy, but ht 
 beard Stella and Nicolas now and then speaking to tha 
 natives who passed them. This again bewildered Vernon'a 
 conservative mind. In London Stella had been, in his 
 idea, a beautiful English girl who had little or no connection 
 with the East, beyond the fact that her parents lived in 
 Cairo. He knew that lots of English people lived in Cairo, 
 so the fact had conveyed very little to him ; he had seen 
 her mother, who was a charming Irishwoman. In Luxor, 
 Stella seemed a different being. To hear her chatting in 
 Arabic with turbaned Orientals riding on hideous brown 
 buffaloes, or with veiled women carrying ridiculous bur- 
 dens on their hidden heads, gave him an uneasy feeling 
 that she was moving farther and farther away from him. 
 
 As they approached the avenue of stone rams lying like 
 crouching beasts at the foot of dark palms which soared 
 into the white moonlight, they met a stately Arab in long 
 black robes ; his head and shoulders were swathed in white, 
 liis hands folded serenely across his breast. He salaamed 
 profoundly without uncrossing his arms. He was not a 
 high priest of Amon, but the night-guardian of the temple : 
 i t was his duty to show strangers round it. Nicolas assured 
 him that they did not want a guide . . . that they would 
 not attempt to penetrate into the heart of the ruins any- 
 where alone. " Monsieur Le Grain him very cross ! To 
 all places you wish to go I will go too, my gen-le-man. I
 
 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 65 
 
 will conduct you, but I will not disturb you ; I understand 
 very well." 
 
 " Tayib " (good), Nicolas paid ; " show us the way : take 
 us first to the grand colonnade and afterwards to some very 
 high point from which we can see the moon shining on the 
 buildings ; but remember we wish silence, not information." 
 
 " Tayib," the sheikh repeated politely ; " I know my 
 gen-le-man, him no tourist-man. I take you very nice 
 place ; moon him very fine to-night. My lady, you trust 
 me." He bowed profoundly to Stella. 
 
 With perfect ease he glided from block to block of the 
 fallen stone amongst the thousands that made an earth- 
 quake of ancient marbles, while they followed him with 
 difficulty, picking their way across the ruins, and passing 
 under pylons as perfect as the gateways of mediaeval 
 castles, and down avenues of leering beasts, while above 
 their heads there soared obelisks and giant columns. 
 Vernon had never imagined such a nightmare of fallen ruins 
 or such grotesque imagery as he saw painted on the walls 
 and columns ; he felt like a beetle or a rat skulking among 
 the ruins of a mightier and grander world. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHEN they found themselves in the " Hall of the Col- 
 umns," the mightiest of the mighty buildings which the 
 great Barneses completed and set his seal upon even 
 Vernon gasped, but not a word was spoken. The sheikh 
 took himself off, as silently as a shadow, to a comfortable 
 resting-place on the top of a fallen column. He curled 
 himself up like a cat and began to smoke ; soon he was fast 
 asleep. Stella sat down between Nicolas and Vernon and 
 slipped a hand into an arm of each ; she wanted humanity 
 close to her. 
 
 For a little time they were afraid to speak. The silence 
 which surrounded them was Egyptian in its depths. It 
 was a silence suggestive of the distant Sahara, a silence 
 expressive of untrodden sands and the stillness of un- 
 counted centuries. 
 
 Nicolas spoke first. "It's curious," he said, " how the 
 Egyptian statues, which look so prim and so unreal by 
 day, become so terribly human by moonlight. I thought 
 that row of Osirises with folded arms looked amazingly 
 human as we passed them. They were like a guard of 
 living giants protecting the temple." 
 
 Stella shivered. " I feel as if a thousand things had 
 come to life again, things with unfriendly eyes that follow
 
 56 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 us from point to point, things we can't see, with eyes we 
 only feel." She gave a sigh. " It's quite comforting to 
 look up at the sky and see the friendly stars shining down 
 upon us between the columns there's nothing sinister 
 about them." 
 
 In a few minutes Nicolas rose and left them ; he made 
 it his excuse that he wanted to measure the circumference 
 of the largest of the fallen drums. He had not been gone 
 more than two minutes before Vernon's arm was slipped 
 round Stella's waist, and he had taken one of her hands in 
 his own. 
 
 Stella sat in exquisite content : the magnetic contact of 
 her lover, mingled with the mysteriousness of her surround- 
 ings, rendered her incapable of clear and practical thought. 
 
 At intervals in the wonderful silence Vernon pressed 
 her hand a little closer, and she, knowing what he 
 meant, leant towards him and raised her lipa silently to his. 
 Her thoughts were not wholly of the man at her side, but 
 his human presence was comforting, and the very practical 
 turn of his imagination helped her. 
 
 " What are these dogs making that infernal barking 
 for t " he asked. 
 
 " To protect the farms which lie far out on the Libyan 
 desert they are quite close to the hills. Wolves come at 
 night and attack the sheep." 
 
 "Is it still as wild at that, with Luxor lying so near 1 
 By Jove ! it's wonderful." 
 
 " It is very wild over there. Nicolas and I rode out to 
 see a Coptic monastery such a weird old place, like a 
 collection of bee-hives ! But the dogs terrified me : they 
 were quite as savage as wolves. I thought they would 
 tear the donkey-boys to pieces." She started, and stopped 
 speaking, for Girgis Boutros had suddenly appeared in 
 front of them. His eyes were fixed on Vernon, whose 
 lips were stealing a kiss from Stella's throat. " Oh, 
 Girgis," Stella said, " how you startled me ! I had no 
 idea you were coming to Karnak. How on earth did you 
 know where to find us ? " 
 
 " Your donkey-boy is standing at the outer pylon he 
 told me where you were." 
 
 " But how did he know t The pylon is half a mile 
 away ! " 
 
 Girgis shrugged his shoulders. " I do not know : how is 
 everything known in Egypt t " 
 
 Stella shivered. " How indeed ! I always feel that 
 everything knows even the buffaloes : they've known 
 everything since prehistoric times." 
 
 Stella felt ill at ease ; she saw that Vernon mented the
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 67 
 
 intrusion of her cousin, and did not mean to make himself 
 agreeable. As nothing was said between them, and 
 Girgis evidently did not intend to go and leave them to 
 enjoy each other's company alone, she rose to her feet. 
 Though she made no noise, the sleeping guardian instantly 
 uncurled himself from the flat top of the fallen drum of 
 sandstone, and, gliding over the mass of ruins as easily as 
 though he was walking on a polished floor, was at her side. 
 
 " My lady, she like to sit up very high and see all the 
 temples of the world, under the full moon ? " 
 
 " Yes," Stella said, " call my brother and tell him we 
 are going." 
 
 " Yes, my lady ... I go find your brother very soon ; 
 him looking at lotus obelisk. 
 
 Stella thought Girgis might have offered to go with the 
 guardian and leave her to enjoy the society of her lover in 
 solitude, but he did not . . . there was something about 
 him to-night which unconsciously angered her. His 
 silence was laden with antagonism, his eyes expressed the 
 same horror at her lover's intimacy as they had done earlier 
 in the evening ; she felt nervous and oppressed. It was 
 quite a relief when Nicolas and the guardian re-appeared ; 
 even then, without wishing it, she found herself walking 
 with Girgis some little way behind the others, she was con- 
 scious of having obeyed his will. 
 
 Suddenly he spoke to her in words which ought to have 
 startled her, but they did not he had in some curious way 
 forced his thoughts upon her. " You will not marry this 
 Englishman," he said ; " why do you let him kiss you I 
 Why is he like a husband or a master ? " 
 
 Stella stopped. " Why do you speak to me like that, 
 Girgis 1 You have no right to ! I will marry him ; he 
 loves me . . ." her voice trembled. " I am engaged to 
 him, that is why he may kiss me." 
 
 " I love you too," he said, " but I would not insult you 
 in that manner. I would give you everything you ask for 
 in the world : you are my star, I will follow you. If you 
 marry this man you will be untrue to your owr people, 
 you will be always unhappy." 
 
 "Don't I am going to marry Vernon how cruel of 
 you to say such things ! " Her words were almost a cry. 
 
 " I am your cousin, and I would not despise your people 
 ... for they are my people. I would give you all my 
 moneys to help to raise the ignorant you can be their 
 saviour ! . . ." 
 
 " Vernon does not despise them how dare you say so ? 
 Oh, Girgis, it's so cruel of you to speak of such things when 
 I was so happy ! "
 
 58 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " He already despises me, and I know it, if you please, 
 and you also know it ! You are destined, like the Esther 
 of old, to save your people ; this man will not let you. If he 
 marries you he will separate you from them for ever, and 
 do his best to make every one think you are English." 
 
 " You don't know, you don't understand ; if you despise 
 him, why shouldn't he despise you t . . ." 
 
 " No," he said, interrupting her, " I hate him " ; and as 
 he said the words all the sinister meaning of the unseen 
 forms filled the temple, and all the graven images 
 which looked down at them from the high places seemed 
 to echo his words ... "I hate him, he despises your 
 people." 
 
 " You hate him," she said, " because I love him, 
 because he has made me happy T It is unkind of you." 
 Her fear of his anger made her almost conciliatory in her 
 manner of speaking to him ; her fear was for Vernon. 
 
 " I hate him because he will make you unhappy, because 
 already he treats you ... as his ' darling ' ... he does 
 not respect you or he would not do it." (He used the 
 word which Orientals in Cairo use for an Englishman's 
 mistress. ) 
 
 "It is your Oriental mind that makes you think such 
 things." Her anger was rising. " What is the matter with 
 you to-night ? You imagine all sorts of evil things : I 
 will not even be your friend if you cannot behave with 
 proper respect to me. What has angered you 1 " 
 
 " I cannot tell you, if you please . . . but it is not I who 
 do not treat you with proper respect, for I saw you in his 
 arms I In England does a man marry the young woman 
 who allows him to hold her in his arms, the woman whom 
 he kisses like a dancing-girl 1 Does your brother know 
 and permit him to live t " 
 
 Stella laughed. Poor Girgis, with his Eastern notions of 
 veiled and unseen brides, how it must have shocked him ! 
 He had evidently never imagined that engaged couples 
 kissed one another her anger cooled. " Of course he 
 does, you foolish boy ; I am going to marry him ; he is an 
 Englishman ... in England lovers are allowed to kiss 
 each other there is no harm in that." 
 
 " I am not a boy, if you please, I am a man ; but, as you 
 say, I do not understand ! The English are very improper, 
 yet they are proud of the position their women hold. I see 
 no modesty in Englishwomen if that is what they allow ; 
 you should not have been educated there." 
 
 " It is because their minds are so modest that they can 
 do these things. I don't believe any Oriental could ever 
 understand how innocent and pure an English girl's mind
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 69 
 
 is, or how respectfully her lover thinks of her and kisses 
 her." 
 
 " Will you explain it to me, if you please I " 
 
 " I cannot," Stella said, " it is too difficult ; but it is true 
 you must live amongst English people to understand it." 
 
 " It is, you say, because an Englishman's mind is so pure 
 that he may kiss and hold in his arms a virgin ... if it 
 is so pure why does he wish to kiss her, why does he wish 
 to hold her in his arms, why is he not content to behave 
 to her as a brother or father behaves ? " 
 
 " You contort things so oddly, you see things from such 
 an Eastern point of view. It is more like this." She 
 thought for a moment. " A man who wishes only to drink 
 a little wine may safely do it, but the man who wishes to 
 drink wine to get drunk must not drink wine at all. Now 
 do you understand ? " 
 
 " You think an Oriental only wishes to kiss a woman 
 because his thoughts are sensual and carry him further f " 
 
 " Yes," Stella said, interrupting him, '" he does not kiss 
 her because he loves her as an Englishman loves her." 
 
 " I have never been in England, but I have seen the 
 behaviour of many Englishmen in Cairo. I think they 
 have not the same customs as Orientals, but when they 
 are in Egypt they have the same minds . . . perhaps in 
 their own country they are different ... I do not know." 
 
 By climbing up a mound of debris which had accumu- 
 lated against its side walls, they had reached the top of 
 a high pylon or temple gateway. Stella gave a little cry 
 of relief and delight. The wonderful scene which had 
 suddenly unfolded itself to them was bathed in the white 
 light of the full moon. The pylons of the many temples 
 which surrounded the great mother-building stood up 
 bold and free ; the avenues of crouching rams and lions 
 looked mysterious and sinister ; the mud villages of the 
 desert, under the gentle moon, lay desolate and Pharaonic. 
 In the far distance the food-giving Nile lay like a ribbon of 
 silver stretching across the irrigated land. 
 
 The whole world was serene and silent. But for the 
 deep shadow thrown by the high courts at their feet, 
 and the blackness of the palm trees against the clear sky, 
 the hour might have been midday in an English winter, 
 for there was light with a total absence of sun. 
 
 They found seats, and their talk drifted to the view 
 before them an>i of the suitability of the houses and customs 
 of the nath es to the ancient buildings which surrounded 
 them. These houses added rather than detracted from 
 the general picturesqueness. It is the Koran again we
 
 80 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 have to thank for that," Nicolas said, " for it forbids all 
 changes : everything ought to remain as it was in the 
 Prophet's time with the true believers, which means that 
 Eastern customs and Eastern dress are to-day as they were 
 six hundred years after Christ." 
 
 " What a jolly good thing they became Mohammedans ! ' 
 Vernon said. " They look ripping ; it's like living in the 
 Bible . . . that big temple might be the temple of Solomon 
 and that old Arab guide one of the high priests." 
 
 " That is the selfish view the English take of this country," 
 Girgis said ; " they do no care for the progress of the 
 people, they only wish the country to remain picturesque 
 for them to visit." 
 
 " Perhaps it is rather a selfish view," Vernon said good- 
 naturedly, " but the people seem quite happy, and per- 
 fectly content I don't see why they need change, do you, 
 Stella 1 Progress, as you call it, doesn't seem to do them 
 much good, judging from the specimens we get in trade." 
 
 Girgis did not let Stella speak. "They are to stand 
 still, and bo treated like picturesque children for the 
 English to govern and photograph . . . but I have read 
 of nothing that can stand still, if you please. Everything 
 must go back or go forward : if it were not for the Koran 
 Egypt would go forward ... it will go forward without 
 the Koran. . . ." He spoke meaningly. " That is why 
 you English like the Koran, why the English sympathise 
 with the Mohammedans and ignore the Christians : the 
 advancement of the Christians would mean the advance- 
 ment of Egypt, but the English do not advance them, 
 they suppress them and give their assistance to the Moham- 
 medan who can never rude his own country, for he cannot 
 progress ; but now all countries must progress ... it is 
 the age of progress." 
 
 " Oh, Girgis," Stella said, " I will not allow politics to 
 be talked to-night." She spoke laughingly, but she was in 
 earnest, and her cousin knew it." 
 
 " Yet only at dinner-time you said, ' Talk politics to 
 me in England women are interested in the affairs of their 
 country.' You will excuse me, if you please ; I did not 
 know you were not speaking the truth ; I have much of 
 your customs yet to learn." 
 
 He looked so politely apologetic that Nicolas said, " It's 
 all right, old chap, only you must remember that Mr. 
 Thorpe looks at things from an English point of view ; 
 he has not got hold of all the fine points of our complicated 
 scheme of politics." 
 
 He turned to Vernon and tried to make excuses for hia 
 cousin's outburst. " You know Girgis is not an idle,
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 61 
 
 theorist, he is doing all he can for the progress of his 
 country-people. His farm is quite a model, and he's 
 making it pay, too what's more. Besides improving the 
 land and the agricultural methods of the fellahin, he pays 
 himself for Christian teachers to instruct the Coptic children 
 in the village schools on his estates in Upper Egypt." 
 
 " Does not the Government pay for them ? " 
 
 " Only when there are a sufficient number of Christian 
 scholars at the school ; but the Christian population of the 
 district is allowed to supply a teacher for the school if it 
 wishes to. Girgis is one of the few wealthy Copts who 
 sees that it is done in his district by putting his hand in 
 his pockets." 
 
 " The Christians pay the same taxes as the Mohamme- 
 dans, but they don't have the teachers," Girgis said. " 1 
 only do a little. . . . I am not married, I am rich, if you 
 please ; it is very simple for me." 
 
 " Do be fair, Girgis," Stella said : " these schools were 
 originally endowed as Koran schools . . . schools where 
 nothing but the Koran was taught. Many of them were 
 endowed by Mohammedans for that purpose. Now that 
 the Government insists on other subjects being taught . . . 
 it would be unfair to have a Copt master for the very small 
 percentage of Christian scholars who attend them. The 
 Christian children get taught all the other subjects, but the 
 Government does not supply the religious teaching isn't 
 that nearly it, Nicolas ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes," Nicolas said, " pretty nearly." 
 
 " It is not the Christian religion itself that I so much 
 think about," Girgis said, "it is that for the progress of the 
 country a progressive form of religion amongst the govern- 
 ing peoples is necessary . . . the Koran is retrogressive ; 
 our boys must not grow to be men without any religion, 
 they are too savage for that, and so if they go to their 
 schools they will have the Koran or nothing that is all, 
 if you please." 
 
 " Up till now I never knew that there were any native 
 Christians in Egypt," Vernon said ; ... it seema to 
 me that they have some cause for complaint . . . what 
 do you think ? " He turned to Nicolas. . . . 
 
 " The English have a difficult time of it," Nicolas said ; 
 " and I think the Copts should have more patience : they 
 certainly possess the brains of the country, but it will take 
 them many generations before they can rise above the 
 position of servitude and degradation they have held. 
 You can't imbibe the qualities necessary for command, 
 and the power to enforce obedience and respect, as quickly 
 as you can amass facts. . . . The Copts are quick to learu
 
 62 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 new methods, new customs, but for centuries they have 
 been shut off from all positions of dignity and authority, 
 BO they have lost the governing instinct." 
 
 " Are all Copts anti-English f " Vernon asked. 
 
 " The very opposite : the Christian papers are all for 
 the English. Girgis is not anti-English really, he knows 
 what England has done for the country. . . ." 
 
 " Would the Copts rather have Moslem rule again ! " 
 
 " Oh no ! " said Girgis quickly. " We only want justice 
 from the English." 
 
 " Even the Nationalist movement was anh'-Turkish 
 once," Nicolas said. " The Pan-Islam feeling was evolved 
 out of it ; the uneducated people can only understand the 
 Pan-Islam feeling now. It was a party cry ; they were 
 caught by it, for they could understand the old teaching 
 that it is degrading for a Moslem to be ruled by a Chris- 
 tian : the educated Nationalists knew how to appeal to 
 them." 
 
 Vernon lit a cigarette. " It seems to me that people 
 take their religion out here much more seriously than we 
 do at home." 
 
 " The Christians only want fair treatment," Girgis 
 repeated ; " they wish to share equally with the Moslems 
 the positions which the Government gives to the natives, 
 and to see their country allowed to progress." 
 
 " But, Girgis, father says that there are even more 
 Government posts held by Copts than by Moslems." 
 
 " That is true. They are the poorly paid, humbler 
 posts, posts which carry no pensions, the posts which the 
 Moslems have not the intelligence to fill." 
 
 " Then it is a case of . d. after all, rather than religion," 
 Vernon said laughingly, "it generally H human nature 
 is the same all the world over." 
 
 " Of course that is the chief point," Girgis said " is 
 it not natural t but they also wish that under Christian 
 rule the Christians in Egypt generally should be treated 
 better socially ; it would raise them in the eyes of the 
 Mohammedans, it would restore to them their self- 
 reapeot." 
 
 Stella felt her cheeks grow warm with the blood which 
 mounted to her very hair, her pulses quickened. What 
 would Girgis say next t 
 
 " How are they treated f " Vernon asked. 
 
 " As outcasts," Girgis said ... he turned his onyx 
 eyes on Stella, he saw her lips tremble and the blood leave 
 her face as quickly as it had come into it. 
 
 "All Christians, do you mean the rich as well as the 
 poor t "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 63 
 
 Girgis did not speak. Vernon looked towards Nicolas 
 for an answer. 
 
 It was Stella who spoke. " Nearly all," she said very 
 quietly. " The English will not receive any one, you 
 know, who mixes with the natives socially." 
 
 " Ah ! there you have it," Vernon said ; " it is because 
 they are natives, not because they are Christians." He 
 stopped, for, like a flash of lighning, the fact faced him 
 that Stella was what the English would call a native ! . . . 
 For a moment his blood ran cold and he felt as though he 
 were paralysed : why had he never thought of it before f 
 What a fool he was for Girgis, her full cousin, looked as 
 Egyptian as any of the reliefs cut on the monster columns 
 of the temple which lay bathed in the moonlight before 
 them ! Vernon gazed at him as he stood on the top of the 
 high pylon, his fine profile and perfect figure silhouetted 
 against the clear night sky. He had to admit that Girgis 
 was beautiful. His thoughts ran quickly over his short 
 acquaintance with Stella, and his first meeting with her. 
 She had been his sister's devoted school-friend was it 
 possible that she had known at that time of the gulf that 
 lay between her people and his ? He was sure she had not ; 
 he was convinced that she thought of herself always as an 
 Englishwoman, that her mother's Irish blood was so much 
 stronger in her veins than her father's Syrian, that all that 
 was Eastern in her nature had been wiped out by her up- 
 bringing in England. Then he remembered what she had 
 said to him only a few hours ago, that so much had changed 
 in her life, that she had almost expected him to be changed 
 too. Poor Stella ! his heart was filled with pity for her ; 
 his strong hand sought hers, for Nicolas and Girgis had 
 turned their backs to the lovers. 
 
 Stella let her hand rest in his ; she wanted his arms 
 round her and his whispered assurance that, she was Stella 
 Adair to him, and that his love for her was unchanged ; 
 but she had to remain contented with his sympathetic 
 pressure of her hand. She did not know that he had 
 suddenly realised all that she dreaded his knowing ; she 
 was unaware how much of the true meaning of her words 
 he had grasped words which some power stronger than 
 herself had spoken. Then a tumult of revolt attacked 
 her. Why was she ashamed of her father's ancient race I 
 Why was she ashamed of her own father t Why was she 
 ashamed of being Hadassah Lekejian 1 Was it just be- 
 cause her lover belonged to the race of prejudiced rulers 
 who despised the East, this lover, whose mind rarely 
 travelled on the same plane as her own, but whose fine 
 manhood had stirred and aroused new senses in her being t
 
 64 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 She despised herself for feeling as she did that now she 
 was in Egypt, she was her lover's social inferior. But waa 
 she his inferior except in the eyes of prejudice ? 
 
 She could not say that her present inequality in the 
 eyes of the English was all prejudice, for before her there 
 rose up a picture of Girgis's mother's friends and relations 
 . . . these dreadful overfed, over-dressed Levantines. 
 . . . How could Vernon mix with them ? . . . Her 
 mind revolted at the idea of his fairness coming in contact 
 with women whose skins were oily, and whose hair was 
 heavy with Egyptian darkness. If only they were not so 
 fat, if only they were not so highly scented and richly 
 dressed ! She thought of her own slenderness : would 
 she, too, one day look Levantine t Then suddenly she 
 was comforted by the memory of her mother, whose Irish 
 elegance of figure was still girlishly perfect ; then she saw 
 her father rise up before her mind's eye. He was not 
 elegant like her brother Nicolas, but there was not one 
 ounce of spare flesh on his bones, and his dignity of bearing 
 gave distinction to his whole being. And her aunt, 
 Girgis's mother, although she was quite Eastern in her soft 
 beauty, was no fatter than the majority of elegantly dressed 
 Frenchwomen who wintered in Cairo. 
 
 All those figures passed like a mirage before Stella's 
 mental vision ; and all the time Vernon held her hand 
 lovingly in his. But a cloud had fallen upon their night of 
 clear shining, and Nicolas felt that it was time to suggest 
 getting back to Luxor. He captured Girgis, and left 
 Stella to come as slowly as she liked with Vernon. When 
 they were alone Vernon was dearer and gentler than Stella 
 had ever known him ; his boyish simplicity touched her, 
 and his genuine delight, when she suggested a long donkey- 
 ride the next morning to Thebes or to the " Tombs of the 
 Kings," made her laugh, for he did not conceal from her 
 that what thrilled him in the idea had nothing to do with 
 the wonders of ancient Egypt, but with the canter by her side 
 on swift -footed donkeys across that plain of Arcady which 
 lies between Thebes and the Nile. Vernon had so success- 
 fully hidden the horrible shock he had received at his 
 sudden realisation of her true position in Cairo that Stella 
 imagined that he had not grasped the importance of her 
 words. 
 
 " You won't let Girgis come, dear, will you t " Vernon 
 asked. " Do let us be quite alone for our first whole day 
 together ! " 
 
 He shan't come I'll tell Nicolas not to let him." 
 She laughed nervously. " Isn't he funny the way he 
 comes f "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 65 
 
 " He doesn't come, he just drops down in front of us. 
 I never saw such a chap he's uncanny." 
 
 "He is odd," Stella said, " but try not to dislike him, 
 dear, he is so much nicer than most of the young men of 
 his race." 
 
 '' He hates me ; I can feel it." 
 
 " He's jealous of you." 
 
 " Of me ? " Vernon looked astonished. " What's he 
 got to be jealous of me for ? I've only just met the chap ! " 
 
 " He's jealous of you because I love you " Stella spoke 
 very softly. " and he imagines he loves me." 
 
 ' ' Great Scott ! he doesn't imagine you could love him 
 does he that damned granite monument with glass eyes t 
 Confound his native cheek ! ' 
 
 Stella shivered ..." Oh ! Vernon, he's my cousin." 
 
 Vernon noticed that she shivered. " So he is ; I forgot 
 . . . Great Scot ! " The last words were spoken slowly ; 
 then he lapsed into silence. He could not say he was 
 sorry ; something hardened in him ! . . . the man had no 
 right to be Stella's cousin ! Stella had no right to see 
 anything of him if she was sensitive to his attitude. 
 
 Stella stopped and withdrew her hands from his grasp. 
 " He is my cousin, and he is in every way my equal. I am 
 very proud of him, although he behaved foolishly to-night." 
 
 Her eyes were fixed on Vernon's as she spoke. " Can 
 you bear it, Vernon ? " she said sadly; "will your love 
 for me prove stronger than your inherited prejudices of 
 racial differences ? " 
 
 Vernon's eyes did not flinch under her earnest gaze, but 
 he answered her question by evasion. " What do you 
 mean, darling strong enough for what ? I love you, that 
 is all I know." 
 
 " I mean that Girgis Boutros belongs to my father's 
 people and that I, who felt like an English girl until nine 
 months ago, now know that I belong to my father's people 
 too ... I know by all that has happened in these nine 
 months, by the cruelty of neglect and scorn, that I can 
 never betray my people, that I must always belong to 
 them." 
 
 " I wouldn't ask you to forsake them completely." 
 
 " You might, Vernon, for I wanted to when I learnt 
 something about my position, I said to myself, ' It is only 
 for a little time ; Vernon will take me to England ; I need 
 never see or hear of Copts or Levantines or Moslems again ' ; 
 but now I know that that could never be ... the man 
 who marries me must accept my people : can you, 
 dearest ? " 
 
 She looked so beautiful with her pleading, upturned fare
 
 66 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 lit by the moonlight, that Vernon, still only understanding 
 the half of what her words really meant, said : " Darling, 
 your people will be my people, and my people your people 
 why let's bother about the subject f . . . I admit that 
 I don't understand Girgis or take much to him, but I dare 
 say I shall get to like him. I'm sure he's a good sort, if 
 you say so ; besides, I like a fellow who loves his job : 
 he's awfully keen about farming, isn't he ? I'd rather like 
 to see his estate." Vernon expressed the last wish merely 
 to please Stella. 
 
 ll We'll go," Stella said. " It would please father if you 
 did he thinks an awful lot of Girgis. So many rich young 
 men of his class care only for horse-racing, and gambling, 
 and theatres . . . Girgis loves the land, and all that he can 
 make come out of it." 
 
 " He's awfully handsome," Vernon said ; " he looks 
 aa if he was cut out of granite." 
 
 " In many ways he is cut out of granite," Stella said : 
 " you'd be surprised how callous he is about individuals : 
 the sufferings of the poor mean nothing to him, although 
 he is doing all this to try and educate them, and develop 
 their ideas in agriculture. I think Egyptians have always 
 been without pity . . . it's been wanting in them ever since 
 the days of the Pharaohs, who looked upon the people aa 
 BO many units in the land for labour." 
 
 " Then what is all this talk about raising the standard 
 of the poor t " 
 
 " That's for Egypt, that's for the progress of the country ; 
 Girgis is mad on national progress." 
 
 " I see," Vernon said. 
 
 " Girgis is seized with the desire to restore the glory 
 that was Egypt's ... to develop her riches, to raise her 
 poor," said Stella. 
 
 " Curious chap ! " Vernon said thoughtfully. " Is he 
 all theories ! Does he care about his own relations t " 
 
 " I don't know," Stella said ; " the ordinary Egyptian 
 who inherits many of the old characteristics of his race, 
 as Girgis does, for he is far more Egyptian than Syrian, 
 has great affection for his sons but very little for any one 
 else, and not much of the Christian quality of pity, for 
 pity only came into the world, it seems to me, with the 
 teachings of Christ ; but most of Christ's teachings are 
 forgotten by the Copts, poor things ! They have sacrificed 
 Christ for His Church." 
 
 " I suppose pity never did exist in the old days, did it T " 
 
 " Christ's pity came like a beautiful and tender song 
 from heaven. When you think of what the East was 
 when Christ began Hia mission, how extraordinary He
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 67 
 
 must have seemed ! but I'm sure I should have loved 
 Him, for I believe I'm rather socialistic ; at least, I have 
 been lately." 
 
 Vernon looked at her to see if she was in earnest. " You 
 are funny," he said ; " I never met such a rum girl, you 
 think about such odd things." 
 
 " Why ? " she said. " Because I love Christ's person- 
 ality ! " 
 
 " No," he said, " its the way you look at things." 
 
 " Then don't let me," she said eagerly, " for I want to 
 be just ordinary, not extraordinary." 
 
 * Why 1 " 
 
 " Because I want to be quite like an English girl for your 
 sake. I could never forsake my people, but all the same, 
 I want to be like the English girl I feel myself to be, that 
 I thought I was before I came out here." 
 
 Vernon laughed heartily. " You are cutting," he said ; 
 " to be quite English you think you must be very ordinary 
 and entirely wanting in originality is that it ? " 
 
 Stella pinched his arm lightly by way of an answer. 
 " Here we are : there's poor Nicolas holding his soul in 
 patience, and Girgis contemplating Egypt." She sighed. 
 " I think [every one should have a lover to-night, don't 
 you ? That moon's quite wasted on those two." 
 
 He stooped and took hia last kiss from her youthful 
 lips before her donkey-boy brought " Lord Roberts " for 
 her to mount. 
 
 When they stepped on board the Isis, Mrs Lekejian 
 handed Vernon a telegram : it was his recall to Cairo. His 
 senior officer was ill, and he was wanted to fill his place, so 
 the morning ride to Thebes on the swift-footed " Horace," 
 with Stella at his side on " Lord Roberts," was postponed 
 until his return. 
 
 When Stella said good-bye to him in the morning, Vernon 
 saw that her sadness meant more than the mere parting 
 with him for perhaps only a few days. At last he said, 
 " Dearest, if you are going to be a soldier's wife, you must 
 learn to bear partings better than this I might never be 
 going to see you again." 
 
 " You may never want to see me again : you will be mix- 
 ing in Cairo society, you will see for yourself the way we arc 
 'ooked down upon ; you'll find every one's the same, you'll 
 never stand out against it." Tears filled her eyes and her 
 voice betrayed the depth of her emotion. " I did so want
 
 68 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 to have just one week of you all to myself before you heard 
 us discussed in Cairo." 
 
 " Dearest," he said, " you're exaggerating things. Don't 
 be so foolish ; I think you should trust me." 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 DTJRINO Vernon's absence in Cairo, which eventually ex- 
 tended itself to twelve days, Stella made up her mind to 
 see as much as she possibly could of Thebes, before her 
 lover's return, so as not to bore him with hard sight- 
 seeing : also her mind would be too fully occupied to allow 
 her thoughts to dwell upon the mysteries of " Cairene 
 society "her lover would be having unfolded to him. That 
 particular twelve days were the happiest in her life, for 
 in her sight-seeing, she had the companionship of the tall 
 stranger whom she had met in the temple of Luxor, the 
 man whose sympathy she had read when their eyes met 
 at the supper party in the Arab restaurant. 
 
 Michael Ireton with no little ingenuity for a man of his 
 direct and straightforward nature, had contrived to get 
 into conversation with Nicolas Lekejian in the smoking- 
 room of the Winter Palace Hotel. During the course of 
 their conversation Nicolas had discovered, as Michael 
 Ireton had intended that he should do, that by introductions 
 he had presented on his arrival in Cairo he knew many of 
 the best families in the English society there. He also 
 discovered he was no mean Egyptologist, which made 
 him a desirable companion in a place like Luxor. The 
 very morning after their meeting, Michael Ireton had 
 learnt, with the help of his donkey-boy, that Stella was 
 going over to visit the great Valley of the Tombs of the 
 Kings. A sudden determination to go with her devastated 
 him ; he could not remember when he had wanted to do 
 anything so much. To ride through that hidden valley 
 which lay across the river under the pink sunlight, that 
 valley lined with the secret mortuaries of the eternal 
 Pharaohs, with that girl by his side, was worth striving to 
 do. He was convinced that his meeting with her in the 
 temple of Luxor was the result, of his fixed determination 
 not to let her pass out of his life ; his will had triumphed 
 he had found her and spoken to her, he was now in a posi- 
 tion to see more of her.' Vernon's presence with her in 
 the temple had worried him once or twice. What was the 
 explanation of it t for had not hia friend in the opera- 
 house told him that neither she nor her people mixed in 
 English society in Egypt t
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 69 
 
 He never dreamt for one moment that Stella was 
 engaged to the man : Vernon's evident lack of interest 
 in the things which she had seemed so keen about gave 
 him the impression that they had not much in common, 
 although they seemed to be on intimate terms of friendship. 
 
 A good donkey-boy must be a good scout ! Intrigue 
 being the breath of life to him, it pleased the handsome 
 Yussef to bring his master all the information he could 
 about the beautiful young lady on board the Isis. He 
 scouted so well that his master was on the ferry-boat 
 which conveyed Stella and Nicolas and their favourite 
 donkeys across the Nile on their journey to Thebes, and he 
 managed to look so perfectly innocent of the fact that he 
 had waited for a good half -hour for their arrival that Nicolas 
 proved quite willing to let him, at his diffident request, 
 join in their day's excursion. In this wise he managed to 
 spend almost the whole day by Stella's side. And if she 
 found him such an interesting companion that she almost 
 forgot to miss Vernon, was it to be wondered at ? She 
 soon found out that he had taken up Egyptology as his 
 hobby. 
 
 Michael Ireton : very broad shoulders and strikingly 
 powerful physique, added to six feet two inches of height, 
 made him seem splendidly big even in a land of tall men. 
 His profession as mining engineer had placed him since his 
 earliest years of independence in positions of great authority ; 
 in some of his expeditions through Mexico and Brazil he had 
 had as many as a thousand natives under his command, and 
 had controlled vast sums of money. Now, at thirty -three 
 there was nothing little about Michael Ireton : his methods 
 of dealing with difficulties, or of arriving at desired ends, 
 were almost primitive in their directness. 
 
 His rough sketches were perhaps as illustrative of his 
 real nature as anything else, for some of them were full 
 of the tenderest effects of light and shade : the indescrib- 
 able light of Egypt seemed to have floated on to his paper : 
 they did not seem the work of human hand with paint and 
 water ; while hi3 character sketches of the natives, which 
 he dashed off with lightning speed, sent Nicolas and Stella 
 into screams of laughter. They were life-like in their 
 types and gestures, and showed an instinctive conception 
 of their natures. 
 
 Their talk had been of many things, while they were 
 still on the green plain which is every year watered by the 
 inundations of the Nile ; but when they passed into The 
 Great Valley, and had left all traces of human habitation 
 behind them, they lapsed into silence. As they rode on 
 and on, into a deeper and deeper sense of its unearthly
 
 70 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 desolation, they felt lost to all other consciousness. Their 
 knowledge that the great dead of Egypt's Great Day lay in 
 vast tombs, as grand as temples, under the pink rock* 
 which rolled on and ever silently on, at either side of theii 
 winding road, was forgotten ; it seemed rather as if they 
 had discovered for themselves a valley of glorious light, a 
 valley forgotten by the world since the day when the fingei 
 of God had first produced Cosmos out of chaos. 
 
 Stella became to herself a mere particle of that opal light, 
 her material body had no consciousness, and Michael 
 Ireton's presence by her side did not disturb the illusion, 
 for, he seemed to be in complete sympathy with her feelings, 
 his silence was full of spiritual understanding. 
 
 Later on in the day, when they were eating their lunch, 
 on a picnic spot Yussef had cleverly discovered for them, 
 where the shadow of a mighty rockin a dry land was gracious, 
 their conversation flowed again more freely. Nicolas had 
 suggested that they should visit one of the most famous 
 tombs in the valley, but Stella begged him not to. 
 
 " I only want the valley and the light to-day," she said, 
 and turned to Michael Ireton. " You of course must do 
 just as you like. Would you prefer to leave us after lunch 
 and go your own way ? " 
 
 " I would much rather not," he said simply, " that is 
 to say, if I may stay t I don't feel inclined to leave this light 
 for all the wonders of the underworld." 
 
 " I'm glad you feel like that," Stella said contentedly ; 
 " it's so nice doing things with kindred spirits." 
 
 Michael Iretpn felt happiness run through him at her 
 words like a quickening fire. " Kindred spirits are few and 
 far between," he said. " How an ordinary tourist would 
 jar ! " 
 
 " But we are ordinary tourists, we're ' doing ' the Valley 
 of the Tombs of the Kings for the first time." 
 
 " Tourists we may be, but not ' >rdinary ' ; I bar that." 
 
 Stella laughed. 
 
 "The ordinary English tourist hasn't the slightest idea 
 what this valley meant to the Egyptians," Nicolas said. 
 'The ordinary English tourist doesn't even want to 
 know ; ho looks upon the whole thing as an excursion." 
 
 " I do think that if the ordinary American tourist is the 
 most vulgar in the world, the ordinary English tourist is 
 the most igqprant. I'm awfully ashamed of my race some- 
 times, aren't you 1 " Michael Ireton addressed Stella. 
 
 " Ignorance is one of the sins even the English cannot 
 accuse my race of," she said. " I often think it's our 
 want of ignorance that so annoys them," her words dropped 
 acidly from her lips.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 71 
 
 Michael Ireton looked at her with a well-disguised ignor- 
 ance of her nationality in his expression, yet Stella felt 
 that he knew she was not English, and that for some reason 
 of his own he was making her speak of her nationality. 
 "Do you mean that you are not English t " he said. 
 
 " No, I am Syrian ; my name is Lekejian." She said the 
 words a little aggressively, as much as to say, " There 
 now ! " 
 
 "Do you live in Syria ? I want to go there so much, 
 to Baalbek and Palmyra : they must be wonderful." 
 
 " I have never visited my own country. I'm almost 
 as much of a ' tourist,' " she smiled at the word, " as you 
 are in Luxor, although my father's family have lived in 
 Cairo for many generations. I know shockingly little 
 about Syria." 
 
 " You ought to be very proud of the influence your race 
 had upon the civilisation of Egypt," said Michael Ireton. 
 He turned to Stella : " Wasn't the mother of your fav- 
 ourite King Akhnation, or ' The Living Truth ' as he called 
 himself, a Syrian f " 
 
 " Yes, I'm always proud of that, for history attributes a 
 great deal to her influence over her son. It was she who 
 first inoculated him with his very modern views on religion 
 . . . How beautiful his belief? were ! " 
 
 " I was glad to discover that the only one of all the ancient 
 deities Akhnation ever had carved on any of his monuments 
 after his conversion, was the image of Truth ; even then 
 ' Maat ' is only represented as a tiny figure held in his 
 hand, which showed that it betokened merely the abstract 
 idea of truth." 
 
 From this allusion to her favourite king Stella led him 
 on to tell her more about the imaginative and emotional 
 influence of Syria over Egyptian art. 
 
 " I'm beginning to feel quite proud, of my habitually 
 despised country," Stella cried delightedly. 
 
 From the effect of Syrian influence on Egyptian art their 
 talk turned to Egyptian architecture. Michael Ireton 
 confessed that it did not give him the pleasure Greek 
 architecture did. " Its total lack of grace leaves yon 
 cold," he said, " its only emotion comes from its size. Havo 
 you ever seen the Greek temples in Sicily 1 " he asked, 
 his eye kindling with artistic pleasure at the thought of 
 them. 
 
 " No," Stella said, " I have never been to Sicily ; I am 
 
 keeping that " She stopped suddenly, for what wa* 
 
 the use of keeping them for Vernon t 
 
 " I should like to see you there," he said. " I should 
 like to take you to Segesta when the wild flowers are at
 
 72 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 their best. I often used to wonder if the Greeks ever saw 
 their temples rising out of an ocean of purple flowers. . . . 
 
 " I should love to go," she said, " for flowers give that 
 endearing charm to scenery which is entirely missing in 
 Egypt ; here the magic ' light ' has to make up for the 
 flowers ..." she paused, " and it does cast its spell over 
 you 1 " 
 
 " Rather ! " he said enthusiastically. " Before I came 
 to Egypt I never realised that in Upper Egypt, at any rate, 
 there is nothing green except what grows with artificial 
 irrigation ; there are, now that I think of it, a very few 
 ' wicked ' looking plants that seem to find suction in dry 
 sand, but they're Nature in her most unnatural mood." 
 
 During their conversation Michael Ireton had been con- 
 juring his brains how he was going to manage to see Stella 
 again the next day. A happy chance soon presented itself, 
 for she had lent him her gold pencil-case to write down the 
 names of some books he had advised her to read. A little 
 to her surprise he closed the pencil up after he had written 
 down the names, and put it in his pocket. Stella was 
 mounting her donkey at the moment, so she could not hold 
 out her hand to claim it. As he put it in his pocket he 
 said to himself, " I'll be careful not to give her a chance of 
 getting it back to-day, which will necessitate my returning 
 it to her early to-morrow morning." 
 
 As they cantered home across the green plain of Arcady 
 they talked lightly of ma:iy things, and Stella helped him 
 to add to his by no means small store of Arabic words, 
 and gave him hints about their pronunciation. 
 
 When they were saying good-bye he handed his card to 
 Nicolas, who expressed a wish that he should accompany 
 them on some future expeditions if he cared to. 
 
 " Care to ! " he said ; " this has been one of the most 
 enjoyable days in my life it's been most awfully kind of 
 you to let me come with you." He looked at Stella as he 
 spoke. " Finding that little green heart certainly brought 
 me good luck. I attribute it all to that." 
 
 " My precious hegab (amulet)," she said, putting her 
 hand in his as she used the Arabic word for his benefit, as 
 she also did when she said good-bye " A ma as-sallamah ! 
 
 " It's not good-bye, I hope," he said, " only auj wieder-
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THERE was to be no excursion next morning, for Nicolas 
 was suffering from a little touch of the sun. Stella ex- 
 pressed herself perfectly contented to prowl about Luxor 
 by herself ; her father and mother allowed her to do so 
 because in Luxor the inhabitants are accustomed to seeing 
 tourists strolling about their village, and in Upper 
 Egypt the natives are much more respectful to women 
 than in Cairo. So, armed with a fly-switch and her 
 sketching materials, Stella had just stepped ashore when she 
 met Michael Ireton coming towards their landing-stage. 
 
 " I foolishly carried off your gold pencil-case last night," 
 he said ; " I was just coming to return it to you." 
 Stella blushed behind her thick veil. 
 " Thank you," she said as she held out her hand for it, 
 for while she had been dressing in the morning she had 
 said to herself, " We must see him again, for he is certain 
 to return my pencil," and the thought had made her 
 sing more light-heartedly ah ! how full of enjoyment 
 life was ! Her conversation with Michael had set a 
 thousand interesting ideas working in her head ; his sketches 
 had given her new aspirations ; the few hints she had stolen 
 from his style she was going to try and put into execution 
 that very morning. 
 
 " Are you going any expedition to-day ? " He asked 
 the question with a request in his voice. 
 
 " Not to-day ; Nicolas doesn't feel very well, and I 
 thought I would enjoy a quiet prowl about Luxor." 
 " But can you prowl about alone 1 Is it safe ? " 
 " Oh, I think so ; I will take my donkey-boy to carry my 
 things," she pointed to her sketching materials, " and he'll 
 keep the beggars off : set a thief to catch a thief in the 
 East." 
 
 " May I be your donkey-boy f I think I could keep off 
 most beggars." 
 
 Stella smiled. " I think you could," she said, " but 
 aren't you going for an excursion f " 
 
 " Not if I may stay with you, and I promise you I won't 
 be a nuisance. He drew his sketch-book from his pocket : 
 " I want to sketch too. It will be great fun." 
 
 " Oh, do," she said, " and let me watch you ; I only do 
 fittle daubs to remind me of the things I like best." 
 
 " So do I," he said ; " that's why I want to sketch this 
 morning." 
 
 " Had you fixed on your subject T "
 
 74 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " I have ; let's go to the garden of the Savoy Hotel 
 I'm staying there. I want to make a little sketch of the 
 white -columned arbour that hangs over the river ; it's a 
 mass of bougainvillaeas, and it looks exquisite against the 
 blue sky, with the yellow sand behind." 
 
 " Oh, but I could never do that ; besides, I should be too 
 shy even to try before you but let's go." 
 
 " Why should you be shy with me T " he said. " I 
 wish you wouldn't." His grey-green eyes expressed the 
 genuineness of his wish o simply that Stella smiled and 
 said : 
 
 " But if I can't help it ! " 
 
 " I had hoped you weren't shy with me," he said, " we 
 have so many interests in common ; but it's always the 
 same thing, my wandering life has left its mark. I make 
 all women feel ill at ease." 
 
 " Oh, I didn't mean that I felt altogether shy with yon 
 but your work is so strong, so unusual that I couldn't 
 do even my poor best if you were watching." 
 
 " Then I won't watch," he said, " but if you like I'll 
 take it for granted that you are only a beginner, and after 
 you've finished I'll tell you what I think is wrong. Will 
 you allow me to constitute myself your teacher 1 " 
 
 " Of course I will how awfully kind of you ! and I'll 
 try my best not to be nervous." ^ 
 
 " If you only knew how little you need be nervous . . . 
 you would laugh at your folly." He had at least gained 
 one step, that if he pleased her as a master she might 
 develop a desire for future lessons. 
 
 " Do you mind if I step in here a moment ? " she said. 
 " I left a necklace of mummy-beads to be re-strung ; I 
 bought it here, and the thread broke, they're ..." as 
 she spoke they stepped inside a curios shop laid out like a 
 bazaar with almost every conceivable Egyptian form of 
 curio. 
 
 The native produced the necklace : it was made of the 
 finest and smallest blue mummy-beads Michael had ever 
 een. 
 
 Stella took it from the man and slipped it round her 
 neck. Against her white muslin dress it looked fresh and 
 delightful, and Michael Ireton showed his approval of the 
 effect produced. 
 
 Then they looked round the various things for a little 
 time, and Stella could not help admiring the delicate way 
 in which Michael handled the tiniest objects. His big 
 hands were pleasing both in their form and in the texture 
 of their skin, and were expressive of a far more artistic 
 temperament than his dominating personality suggested.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 75 
 
 It gratified the girl to find that nice things about him 
 kept on developing with their quickly growing intimacy. 
 He was at the moment handling a terra-cotta head of a 
 figurine ... an exquisite thing and singularly pure in 
 type for its period. It might have been unearthed in 
 Sicily, or even Greece, for any trace there was in it of 
 Egyptian art. 
 
 " How adorable ! " Stella cried. Michael Ireton was 
 holding it between the first finger and thumb of his left 
 hand while he shaded it from the glaring light with his 
 right so as to see its outline more perfectly. 
 
 " Just look at it ! Isn't her profile beautiful ! " 
 
 "And the soft, feminine expression ! The Greeks knew 
 all there was to know about beauty, didn't they ? " 
 
 " Almost," Michael Ireton said ; " very little would be 
 new to them." 
 
 Stella turned to the curio-dealer. " How much is this 
 little head 1 " The man had watched their expressions 
 of admiration and the look of desire to possess the terra- 
 cotta in the girl's eloquent eyes ; BO he put an absurd 
 value on it. 
 
 Stella laid it down carefully in its box on its bed of 
 cotton wool. " I will give you " she mentioned about 
 the twentieth part of what he had asked " and not one 
 piastre more." 
 
 " You insult me, madam," he said. " It is an antique, 
 
 it is Greek, pure Greek." 
 " I know it is 
 
 an antique, but I also know what broken 
 terra-cotta figures of that size are worth. ... If it 
 were whole it would be worth what you ask." 
 
 " Not a head like that, madam ; . . . the gentleman he 
 knows very well that it is Greek.not Egyptian ; it is beauti- 
 ful ; you must pay for beauty, madam." He looked at 
 her companion. 
 
 Stella repeated her price as she lifted up the head once 
 more. ..." Will you take it ? " 
 
 The man quietly took the head from her, " No, madam, 
 for I would not insult the artist who made it two thousand 
 years ago." He laid it back on the cotton wool. 
 
 " Very well," Stella said, speaking very rapidly in Arabic, 
 " keep it, but you probably paid the Arab who found it 
 about the twentieth part of what I'm offering you for it, 
 and I have been a good customer." 
 
 She walked out of the shop with Michael Ireton at her 
 side. " The wretch saw we wanted it," she said, " so up 
 went his price." 
 
 " Did you want it t " he said. 
 
 " Yes, frightfully." she said laughingly.
 
 76 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Let me go back and get it, please do." 
 
 " No, you mustn't ... I couldn't let you ! It wasn't 
 the price, that really didn't matter ... he thought we 
 were ignorant tourists did you see his change of expres- 
 sion when I spoke to him in a torrent of Arabic t " 
 
 " But I do wish you'd let me get it, some horrid vulgarian 
 will buy it, and just think how the poor thing will hate 
 being touched by ignorant hands." 
 
 Before she could answer him, a hand was laid on her 
 arm from behind. She turned quickly ; it was the curio- 
 dealer : 
 
 " Madam," he said, " I could not take your price for it, 
 I have only one price ; but will you allow me to give it to 
 you f . . . Please accept it." 
 
 He held out the box in which the terra-cotta head was 
 carefully packed in white cotton wool ; there was no lid 
 on the box, and the little face, so classically proud and yet 
 so seductively feminine, looked up at her. 
 
 Stella held out her hand she could not refuse it. " Thank 
 you very much," she said ; " I will indeed accept it : you 
 are very kind." 
 
 " The pleasure is mine, madam," he made a profound 
 salaam, " for you will return to my shop." 
 
 When the man was out of sight Stella and her com- 
 panion behaved like two happy children over their treasure ; 
 they looked at it from every point of view. 
 
 " You really found it," she said, " it ought to be yours 
 . . ." her eyes met his ; " but I can't give it up. Let's 
 hurry on to the garden or invent stories about her . . . did 
 you ever see anything quite so lovely f " She held out the 
 box impulsively for Mm to take another look. 
 
 " Yes, I have," he said, and as he spoke he thought 
 how far more beautiful the living woman was, and he longed 
 to tell her so, but wisdom forbade it, so he added : 
 
 " But I'm most awfully glad you've got it." 
 
 " The man has given it to us," she said, " because he 
 does not wish to offend good customers : mother bought 
 one or two valuable Arab things from him when I got these 
 beads." 
 
 They had entered the grounds of the Savoy Hotel, and 
 he was guiding her to the arbour he wanted her to sit in 
 ... he wished to see her surrounded by the brilliant 
 masses of hanging flowers, he longed, to see her without 
 her hat on ! He wondered how he was going to manage it. 
 
 When they reached the spot Stella was in an ecstasy of 
 delight ; the greenness and coolness, the mass of brilliant 
 flowers, made it, " too good to be true." 
 
 "The atmosphere of this particular spot strikes me M
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 77 
 
 very Roman this white -pillared pergola-arbour hanging 
 over the water, and the luxury of the vegetation covering 
 the steep banks we might be sitting in one of the famous 
 villas on the Bay of Naples in classic times." 
 
 " Yes, it's simply glorious. Listen ! that's dancing ! 
 do you hear that dull drum , . . drumming and that 
 thud . . . thud t " They listened. 
 
 " Some Sudanese is dancing on the deck of a Nile 
 boat." 
 
 "It's curiously seductive music," he said, " it grows and 
 grows on one." 
 
 " I know," Stella said ; " I often wonder how they con- 
 trive to get so much ..." she paused, " so much passion 
 into it ; you only hear a dull thud, thudding, and an oc- 
 casional tink, tink, tinking, and yet it's full of Eastern 
 passion." 
 
 "To an extraordinary degree," he added ; "it's very 
 
 They had seated themselves in the arbour and were 
 preparing to begin their painting. Michael had taken care 
 to place himself where he could get a perfect view of Stella, 
 whose background he had quickly selected. Suddenly 
 she said, " I think I will take off my hat ; the breeze here 
 will keep away the flies, and it's such a treat to be in the 
 fresh air without one's hat." She laid her white topee 
 on the seat beside her and passed her fingers through her 
 hair to raise it. 
 
 Then for a time they worked diligently. Stella had 
 selected the point of the arbour most distant from them 
 it made a beautiful piece of composition ; she had asked 
 his advice before commencing upon it, and he had approved 
 her choice. Their talk was principally about their work 
 and upon the subject of art, but occasionally it drifted into 
 more personal topics. Yet, there was never the right 
 opportunity for Stella to mention Vernon's name, nor was 
 there any reason why she should tell him of her engagement. 
 They had so many subjects in common of abstract interest 
 to engross their sympathies that the more practical facts 
 of life did not enter into their conversation. Michael Ireton 
 felt that, almost a stranger to her as he was, reckoning 
 their intimacy by the number of times they had met, there 
 was nothing any one could tell him about her which would 
 add one iota to his real knowledge of her. Her mind was 
 like a river of clear crystal to him, a river in which he had 
 found all the beautiful things he had been longing to find 
 in human companionship since he was a boy. 
 
 When an hour and a half had passed and tell a at last 
 put down her brush with a sigh, Michael closed his sketch-
 
 78 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 book quickly and rose to his feet. " May I look t " he 
 said, coming to her side. 
 
 She handed him her block, and waited for his verdict 
 nervously. 
 
 " I'm not going to flatter you," he said, looking down 
 into her quickly-answering gaze, " because we're going to 
 be friends, and your work's too good to spoil by flattery. 
 You don't want that, do you f " 
 
 " Flattery f Oh, no ! " she said. " Thank you for know- 
 ing that I don't." 
 
 There's nothing to thank me for," he said. " It's 
 the truth . . . it's far from being ' school-girlish,' as you 
 called it, and you know it t " 
 
 " I don't," Stella said humbly. " To me it's awful . . . 
 it's . . ." 
 
 " It isn't awful," he said quickly ; " but it's full of faults, 
 and you've got some tricks that must be corrected. 
 
 He sat down beside her. " Now look here." He spoke 
 in the most matter-of-fact way, while he spared her no 
 criticisms. With hungry ears Stella took in every word 
 he had to say, and asked him many questions, which 
 proved to him that she was no longer afraid of him, or in 
 the least shy. 
 
 When he had finished the lesson she said, " Now may I see 
 yours t " 
 
 " I didn't do the pergola after all," he said a little ner- 
 vously. " I only did a bit of the river with these fishing- 
 boats." He opened his sketch-book and held it out for 
 her. There was so little work in the hurried sketch, that 
 she looked up at him in surprise. 
 
 " I was idle, wasn't It" he exclaimed. As he spoke 
 a leaf of the book, the one before the leaf he had used 
 for the sketch of the boats, fell down, for Stella had 
 pulled the book a little nearer to her, and it had escaped his 
 thumb. As a perfect likeness of herself met her eyes she 
 uttered a'cry of surprise, and a vivid blush dyed her face, for 
 it was an exquisite likeness, just as she had been sitting 
 in the arbour surrounded by the magenta flowers of the 
 bougainvillaea. It was the charm he had put into the 
 expression of her eyes and mouth which made her feel 
 embarrassed. 
 
 As she looked at it in silence, suddenly she knew that 
 she must tell him of her engagement to Vernon. 
 
 " Will you forgive me ! " he begged. " I have wanted 
 to paint you ever since the first time I saw you at the opera 
 in Cairo. An artist is a persistent animal when he has 
 an end to achieve." 
 
 Stella blushed again, for she knew that he had known
 
 A WIFE OUT OlT EGYPT 79 
 
 that night that she had heard the cruel words of his com- 
 panions in the Arab restaurant ; she recalled the look of 
 sympathy in his eyes. 
 
 He spoke so impersonally, and had so well conveyed to 
 the girl that his sketch of her had only been made from 
 an artist's standpoint, that she felt greatly relieved, yet 
 slightly annoyed. Perhaps to tell him of Vernon was no 
 longer necessary. 
 
 " You were perfectly welcome to do it," she said a little 
 coldly, " but why didn't you ask me ? It is extremely 
 good." 
 
 " Because you would have been self-conscious . . . and 
 that would have destroyed everything. It was your 
 expression I wanted to catch, the expression I noticed 
 when you were listening to the music that night : you had 
 the same expression while you worked." 
 
 Stella looked at it again : a feeling of joy leapt in her 
 to know that she was so lovely, for she realised that the 
 portrait was exactly like her. " Mother would like so 
 much to see it," she said. " Will you show it to her t " 
 
 " I'd be delighted to. Am I forgiven ! " He asked the 
 words persuasively. 
 
 " Yes, quite," she said ; " and thank you so much for 
 my lesson." She had risen to her feet. " I must get home 
 now ; how the morning has flown ! " 
 
 " When will the next lesson be ? " he asked boldly. 
 " You should try some sunset or early morning effects." 
 
 " Perhaps we could manage to-morrow vcning. If 
 Nicolas is better we were thinking of going to Thebes in 
 the morning." 
 
 He did not ask if he might come too, for something 
 warned him that if he did the girl would be troubled to 
 know how to answer him. The sketch he had made of 
 her had suddenly raised up a barrier between them, which 
 by diplomacy must be broken down, so he determined to 
 gain his permission from Nicolas to go with them to Thebes. 
 
 When they arrived at the gangway of the Isis he handed 
 his ketch-book to her. " If you care to show it to your 
 mother," he said, " please take it ; I will call for it this 
 evening some time ; I won't want it until the morning." 
 
 The next moment he had left her standing alone with 
 his sketch-book in one hand and the little box containing 
 the head of the Greek Venus in the other. When she 
 crossed the gangway, one of the Sudanese boys com- 
 menced brushing the dust off her clothes with the usual 
 long-handled ostrich-feather broom. In doing so he very 
 nearly knocked the box out of Stella's hands. 
 
 She turned upon him impatiently. " If you had broken
 
 80 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 that curio I think I'd have killed you," she said with 
 such vehemence that the next moment she was ashamed 
 of her outburst of temper, and also angered at the sudden 
 realisation of the value she placed upon the little Greek 
 head of a nameless woman ! 
 
 The Sudanese did not understand ; he was accustomed to 
 far stronger expressions of wrath at his stupidity, but it 
 was the first time the gentle daughter of the house had 
 shown the slightest trace of bad temper. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 MICHAEL IRETON did not see Stella when he called the same 
 evening for his sketch-book, but Nicolas, who had almost 
 recovered from his slight attack of " the sun," greeted 
 him with charming hospitality, and introduced him to his 
 mother. Mr. Lekejian had left Luxor the day before 
 with Girgis Boutros : his presence was needed in Cairo. 
 Mrs. Lekejian had heard her son and daughter speaking 
 of Michael Ireton ; they had told her how much his com- 
 pany had added to their enjoyment of the day spent in the 
 Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and Stella had been 
 perfectly frank about the painting-lesson he had given her 
 in the morning, and, so when he presented himself on 
 board the Isis, Mrs. Lekejian gave him one of her genial 
 Irish smiles, as she said : " I have seen your picture of my 
 daughter ; we all think it is extremely good, if a little 
 too flattering." 
 
 " I'm glad you like it," he said ; " I will do a larger 
 sketch from it for you, if you would care to have it f " 
 
 " Will you really ! " Her bright eyes smiled their grati- 
 tude. " How very kind of you ! Her father wiU be 
 delighted you've caught her expression wonderfully." 
 Mrs. Lekejian noticed that the man's eyes were looking 
 round the deck drawing-room, as though they were trying 
 to find the original of the portrait. " My daughter is 
 writing her weekly letter to her old school -mistress in 
 London," she said ; " she was a second mother to her for 
 many years, and Stella is devoted to her." 
 
 Stella had intentionally absented herself from the deck 
 drawing-room, as she could not help feeling a little uncer- 
 tain about their growing intimacy. The little voice which 
 can never be silenced had told her all the afternoon that 
 it would be self-deception on her part to assume an ignor- 
 ance of the man's very evident admiration for herself and 
 would Vernon like her to see much more of him ? Her 
 letter to Miss MacNaughtan was scrappy and distrait, for
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 81 
 
 over and over again her ear caught the sound of Michael 
 Ireton's voice, and Mrs. Lekejian was evidently finding him 
 good company, for many times Stella heard her infectious 
 laughter ringing out like a girl's. In spite of her deter- 
 mination, she could not help seeing his well-shaped, power- 
 ful hands holding the little terra-cotta head of the Tanagra 
 figure between two fingers, or feeling his masterful presence 
 standing over her, as he had stood in the morning while 
 he criticised her sketch. At last, angry with herself and 
 annoyed with the Fates for having taken Vernon away 
 from her so soon after their re-union, she put away her 
 writing things and went to bed. From her bed in the 
 state-room, she could hear the strange night noises of the 
 East, and see from her window the wonderful stars in the 
 heavens, and she could not hear the voices on the deck 
 drawing-room. But she did not sleep until long after 
 Michael Ireton's hearty voice had called out " Good-night, 
 then I'll call round in the morning and see what you're going 
 to do. If you don't want to go out until the cool of the 
 day I will give Miss Lekejian another lesson if she likes 
 she's going to look upon me in the light of her master." 
 
 " Thank you," Nicolas said. " We don't care for her 
 wandering about this place alone, and mother's not much 
 of a hand at sight-seeing ; it's very good of you." 
 
 " Not at all ; it's most awfully kind of you to take pity 
 on my loneliness." 
 
 When Michael Ireton was out of hearing, Mrs. Lekejian 
 slipped her hand through her son's arm : " Let's take a 
 little walk, dear. What a nice fellow, and how inter- 
 esting ! " 
 
 " Chance acquaintances are often the pleasantest. I 
 got into conversation with him in the hotel the other day." 
 He paused, and then added, " He must be all right, for 
 we exchanged cards yesterday, and he belongs to two good 
 clubs, and Professor Eritep's going to have him in his camp 
 for a few weeks. He's awfully keen about Egyptology." 
 
 " He's a mining engineer, isn't he f " 
 
 " Yes, but I fancy he's made a good deal of money in 
 rubber. He's taking a long rest for such a young man. 
 He says he had a bad attack of fever, the first he's ever had, 
 and was advised to take a year's holiday." 
 
 " He's a splendid type what a physique ! " 
 
 " A fine physique, with fine brains at the back of it ; 
 there's something very simple and primitive about him, 
 isn't there ! " 
 
 " Yes, that's his charm ; he strikes one as a man who 
 has not much in common with modern society ... is he 
 married ? "
 
 82 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 '' I shouldn't think so ; he's not mentioned his wife if he 
 is." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian was silent while they took their last turn 
 forward on the deck. She was thinking that, although ha 
 seemed to be a good many years her daughter's senior, 
 he was much more the type of man she had imagined Stella 
 would have chosen to marry than Veruon Thorpe ; but she 
 had to admit to herself that one does not meet a Michael 
 Ireton every day, that he was individual ; so of course 
 Stella could have had no such personality as his for her 
 girlish ideal : she felt that Michael Ireton might have been 
 a dangerous rival . . . she gave a sigh. 
 
 " What's that for, mother dear ? " Nicolas said. 
 
 " Oh ! I don't quite know, my son," she caressed his 
 hand affectionately. " I was only thinking." 
 
 " Thinking about what 1 " 
 
 " About Stella." 
 
 It was Nicolas' turn to remain silent. 
 
 " I think Mr. Ireton's the sort of man who would have 
 understood ' things ' better ! He has a wider conception 
 of life." 
 
 Nicolas stooped and kissed his mother ; it was their 
 parting for the night. "Your children are very perverse, 
 little mother perverse and foolish ? " 
 
 She knew what her son alluded to. She pressed his cheek 
 close to her own. " You've fought the fight splendidly, 
 dear." 
 
 " I am absolutely fire-proof now, so I've something to 
 be thankful for." There waa a forced gaiety in his voice. 
 " No more burnt fingers for me ! I'm going to stick to 
 work there's nothing like it." 
 
 A little sadness showed through his mother's smile as 
 she said, " For some years anyhow, dear ; and you've 
 always got me." 
 
 " For ever," Nicolas said ; " unless I can find a duplicate 
 of you ... if I could, you'd have a daughter-in-law at 
 once." 
 
 " I don't think you could find another 'me,' dear, for I 
 am now what your father has made me. I was a silly 
 scatterbrained thing when he married me, you can't 
 imagine how scatterbrained." 
 
 " You darling," he said ; " you must have been lovely. 
 Good-night."
 
 (83 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MICHAEL IIETON rose next moruing with an appetite for 
 life which kept him singing snatches of odd native songs 
 while he dressed, and thinking thoughts that made his 
 big being tingle with an almost boyish delight. 
 
 He had never been in love before, and he was now as 
 wholeheartedly under the influence of the malady or Elixir 
 as any youth in his twenties. He had found the woman he 
 had been looking for all his life, and he was going to have 
 her. Something told him that if he was given a sporting 
 chance he could make her love im the very manner in 
 which she drew her eyes away from his sometimes, and the 
 way she avoided his at others, helped him in his belief ; 
 at the same time he recognised that, although there were 
 passion and tragedy in her wonderful eyes, she was sensi- 
 tive and highly strung to an unusual degree, that, in spite 
 of her Eastern ancestry on her father's side, her nature was 
 exquisitely pure and virginal. 
 
 Her lasting affection would only be won through the 
 intellect, not by the senses. But how hard it would be to 
 see her and be with her in the exuberant life of the East, 
 surrounded by that light and atmosphere which sets a man's 
 blood tingling and makes his imagination sail out to shore- 
 less seas, without betraying his feelings for her ! As he 
 walked down to the little landing-stage where the Isis was 
 moored, he made all sorts of determinations to treat her 
 with platonic naturalness and so win her friendship. 
 
 Stella waved her hand to him as she saw him across the 
 gangway ; her action expressed so much girlish pleasure 
 at the anticipation of another of Luxor's glorious days that 
 he felt it easy to answer her in the same light-hearted 
 way. " Are you coming to sketch," he said, " or going to 
 Thebes ? " 
 
 She held up her block. " Sketch. Nicolas mustn't 
 go out until it's cooler." 
 
 When Michael Ireton was beside her he said, " How do 
 you do ? " He was not going to lose the opportunity 
 of holding her hand in his if it was only for one moment. 
 
 " Where would you like to go ? " he questioned, while 
 a glorious feeling of thankfulness to the gods surged 
 through his being. It was strange the way this slim, 
 almost fragile girl had the power to affect him . To maintain 
 his self-control he had to fight as fiercely with his owi; 
 nature as he had ever fought against rebellious natives in 
 primitive lands ; but he did it BO magnificently that Stellu
 
 84 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 comforted herself with the assurance that her fears of the 
 day before had been groundless. 
 
 Do you know what I think would be delightful t " 
 she said. 
 
 " Tell me, and if it can be done we'll do it. Isn't life 
 glorious in a land like this ? " 
 
 " How does it appeal to you," she said in mock serious- 
 ness of tone, " to take a boat and idle on the water for an 
 hour or two ; we could get some nice effects on the river. 
 If Nicolas had been well enough to go, we might have taken 
 our lunch and ridden through Thebes and right on to a 
 wonderful road which winds up to those rocks on the top 
 of the hills until you reach the heights of the Sahara." 
 She pointed to the Theban hills which lie behind the plain 
 where the great city stood. 
 
 " That sounds fascinating," he said. He knew that her 
 words implied that she could not go for so long a time with 
 him unaccompanied by her brother. 
 
 " I have a childish longing," Stella said, " to sit quite 
 alone on the Sahara . . ." She paused. " I want to hear 
 its centuries of ' silence ' rolling up like a mighty ocean 
 it must be awe inspiring ! Isn't it strange to think that 
 the great African desert lies on the top of these hills ? 
 
 " Do you like being alone 1 " he said. " I've lived so 
 much alone that I can't do without solitude : I never know 
 what loneliness is except in cities." 
 
 " That's just what I feel : being lonely does not consist 
 in being alone, it's being with people who bore you, who 
 don't understand your interests, isn't it f " 
 
 " Yes," he said, " but that's because you're intellectually 
 minded : ordinary folk would rather talk to anybody than 
 nobody." 
 
 " Is it 1 I only know that the loneliest feelings I have 
 ever endured have been in crowds and at parties." She 
 sighed. 
 
 "I am always 'bored to tears' at parties," he said 
 lightly ; " I avoid them like the plague, while being alone 
 I often find too exciting do you know what I mean ? " 
 
 " That's exactly what I feel, only I never actually realised 
 it before. . . ." She smiled ; her whole being was expres- 
 sive of complete mental sympathy. 
 
 They were walking together to where they were to take 
 one of the gay little pleasure-boats which flit across the 
 Nile like butterflies of tropical colouring . . . only the 
 present enjoyment of the day was in their minds, and the 
 consciousness that nothing they enjoyed or noticed would 
 be overlooked or unappreciated by either of them. The 
 man was keenly conscious of all that their enjoyment
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 85 
 
 signified, the girl was not. Nor was her conscience dis- 
 turbed by any thought of disloyalty to Vernon. 
 
 When they were comfortably seated in the boat and 
 were settling themselves to paint, Stella drew off her gloves 
 and took out her paint-box from its leather bag. 
 
 " What a curious ring that is ! " he said as he watched her 
 movements : " I noticed it yesterday. Has it a history ? " 
 Having no precious stones in it, the importance attached to 
 the ring, although it was on the third finger of her left hand, 
 had not dawned on him. 
 
 Stella's heart stood still ; she paused for courage ; then 
 she said slowly : " It is my engagement ring ! " 
 
 In the acute silence that followed Stella knew, though 
 her eyes were fixed on her paint-box, that the man in front 
 of her was struggling for recovery from the blow her words 
 had dealt him. She had not meant to tell him so abruptly, 
 even though she had assured herself that his feelings for her 
 were only platonic. 
 
 She heard a long-drawn sigh, it had escaped from the 
 depths of his soul : it expressed all she had feared. 
 She could not be deceived. 
 
 " Your engagement ring ! " he said. " So you are 
 going to be married ? you love some one else ? " 
 
 " Yes," Stella said, " you met my fiance" that evening 
 in Luxor Temple." She let her eyes meet Michael's she 
 was compelled to. The look of surprise she saw in them 
 angered her, for they had told her that in his mind now she 
 was either very different from what he had thought her, 
 or that intellectually she could have nothing in common 
 with Vernon that, from the highest standpoint, she did 
 not love him. 
 
 " He had to return to Cairo on duty," she said, a little 
 hotly ; " he is a soldier, and his week's leave, which we 
 had waited for so long and had planned to spend at Luxor, 
 was spoilt by the illness of his commanding officer : he 
 had to return after he had only been in Luxor one evening." 
 Stella had spoken quickly and with an uncontrollable 
 nervousness in her voice. 
 
 " How very disappointing ! What were you thinking 
 of sketching ? Yes, that's a good piece of composition. 
 Let's do that." 
 
 Stella had indicated the little scene she had hurriedly 
 decided to paint. How thankful she was that while 
 they worked there could be silence, for the man's 
 casual voice hurt her more than any blame could have done, 
 and yet, if she chose to deny her own conscience, she could 
 justify herself by saying that she had only met him three
 
 86 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 times ; that they were practically strangers ; that she had 
 up till now had no opportunity of telling him of her engage- 
 ment to Vernon. But her womanhood told her that it was 
 a lie. Her real self, the self that the man in front of her 
 understood so well, knew perfectly well that, on that even- 
 ing in the Arab restaurant when their eyes had met for 
 the second time, she had had her warning. 
 
 After twenty minutes had passed, the longest twenty 
 minutes Stella ever recollected, Michael Ireton broke the 
 silence by saying, in a voice over which he had at last a 
 perfect mastery he had half a sheet of note-paper in his 
 hand, which he had taken out of his pocket " I came 
 across this when I was reading last night ; I thought it 
 would amuse you, BO I copied it out." He held it out to 
 her. " It is a Ptolemaic school-boy's letter, written about 
 two thousand years ago." 
 
 Stella read it aloud : " It was good of you to send me 
 presents on the 12th, the day you sailed. Send me a lyre, 
 I implore you. If you don't, I won't eat, I won't drink. 
 There now. I pray for your good health." 
 
 " How deliciously human ! " 
 
 She looked up with laughter-lit eyes : it happened to be 
 one of her most adorable moments, it was her expression 
 the one he loved best. Such a fierce desire came to Michael 
 Ireton to take her face in his two hands and kiss it, that 
 he said abruptly, " Let us go home ; that's to say, if you 
 don't mind." 
 
 His tone, almost cross in its abruptness, made her hand 
 him back the paper a little nervously. " Certainly, let's 
 go back," she said shyly ; " boys haven't changed much, 
 have they ! " 
 
 " Human nature never changes,"he said," only customs." 
 The true meaning of his words was conveyed by his tone. 
 
 In a very few moments the boatman had pulled them 
 to the point from which they had embarked and they 
 were walking silently back to the Isis. When they reached 
 the landing-stage Michael Ireton left her with an abrupt 
 " good-bye." A hard anger had suddenly possessed him 
 which would not allow him to behave with a studied in- 
 difference to the fact that he now knew that she was en- 
 gaged ; a fierce anger at his own folly, that he should have 
 allowed himself to walk blind -foldedly into a trap for 
 centainly it was a trap kept him silent. 
 
 Love had set its trap with a callous cruelty which by 
 Michael Ireton was wholly undeserved, for he had never 
 flouted Love nor had he scorned it ; neither had he 
 dishonoured it : he had instead reverenced it by refusing 
 to put a false god in its place, calling it by the name ol
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 87 
 
 Love. And now, when all his reserve forces had been let 
 loose, now when his finest passions were ready to worship 
 and enjoy his realised ideal of womanhood, Love had 
 struck him a deadly blow ; Love had trapped him only to 
 laugh him to scorn. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE next morning when Stella was dressing her boy 
 Yehla brought a note to her state-room door. She thought 
 it was probably from Nicolas, as he was in the habit of 
 sending her notes in the morning if there had been any 
 development in the arrangements for the day which she had 
 not heard the night before, so she told him to hold it while 
 she finished tying her neck-tie. When she took it the 
 handwriting made her start : she had only seen it once, 
 in the Ptolemaic school-boy's letter it was Michael 
 Ireton's. She opened it with a beating heart. \Vhat 
 could it be about f Something with reference to her 
 engagement, she felt sure. But it was not : 
 
 " DEAR Miss LEKEJIAN, 
 
 ''Will you forgive my apparent rudeness yesterday morning 
 sufficiently to allow me to join your party this morning ? As an 
 excuse for any future lapses from conventional politeness ploase 
 remember my long absences from civilisation and be charitable to 
 your apologetic savage. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " MICHAEL IRETON." 
 
 When Stella had finished reading the note and was 
 absently wondering what she was to do, her boy said : 
 " Khadim (servant) waits an answer, nitt." 
 
 " Oh ! does he 1 " Sella said. It would be delightful 
 to have his companionship all day at Thebes, and how 
 could she say " No," without arousing Nicolas's suspicions. 
 And what reasons had she for assuming that the man cared 
 for her t it was sheer vanity on her part ; and when her 
 thoughts turned to Vernon she said : " He's enjoying him- 
 self in Cairo, his letters are all about dances and fun." 
 She took up her letter-block and scribbled a few words 
 which sent Michael Ireton's weather-glass of happiness 
 flying up when he read them. 
 
 "DEAR MR. IRETON, 
 
 " Yes, do come, I should be so disappointed if you didn't. I'm 
 afraid I prefer savages to civilisod humbugs. At least you know 
 what they want, and don't want. 
 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 " HADASSAH LEKEJIAN."
 
 88 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 If Michael Ireton had fallen in love with Stella Lekejian 
 when he was twenty instead of thirty-six he would in 
 all probability have kissed the paper her note was written 
 upon ; instead of which he gave a packet of expensive 
 cigarettes to his weary -looking bedroom-boy and made up 
 his mind to enjoy the pleasures the day would bring forth 
 without grousing about things that could not be helped. 
 
 The day proved delightful. More than once Stella 
 congratulated herself upon her wisdom in having allowed 
 him to come with them, for he made himself so amusing, 
 and contrived to set her mind comfortably at rest upon 
 the point that now, since he knew that she was engaged 
 to vernpn Thorpe, he was capable of carrying on their 
 friendship on a purely pi atonic and intellectual footing. 
 Nicolas rarely left them alone for many minutes together, 
 and the archaeological interest of Thebes was so absorbing 
 that it allowed very little time for talking about personal 
 or abstract matters. But the day was by no means a 
 negative one, for it only bound the man's feet more securely 
 in the trap which merciless Love had set for him. He saw 
 more and more convincingly how correct he had been in 
 his estimation of the girl's character. There was the 
 assurance of complete affinity in their intellectual interests 
 and pleasures. To Stella it proved that very human-and- 
 intellectual elements can be found so perfectly blended in 
 mankind as to make up an almost ideal companion. His 
 humour, always expressed in the most serious and apparently 
 spontaneous manner, appealed keenly to her sense of the 
 ridiculous ; and, as he loved to make her laugh, because 
 laughter brought into play the most winning touches in 
 her mobile face, he exerted himself to amuse her in a 
 way she never for one moment suspected. 
 
 For the rest of that golden week in Luxor, Michael Ireton 
 contrived to spend many hours of each day, and of each 
 star-lit night, at Stella's side. 
 
 With really superb control he had never allowed the girl 
 to feel that in seeing him she was being disloyal to her 
 lover, even to the extent of permitting a man for whom 
 she herself had no feelings other than those of friendship, 
 but who loved her, to be constantly by her side. Each 
 night when he tore himself away from the seat in the 
 bows of the Isia where they had talked and thought, and 
 studied the mythology of ancient Egypt, Michael 
 Ireton knew that he was laying up for himself a mountain 
 of suffering, the climbing of which he dared not contem- 
 plate. Yet so sufficient for the day was the joy thereof, 
 that he was willing to accept the debt he had to pay for 
 his brief cup of happiness, or rather pleasure, for there was
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 89 
 
 infinite sadness in it. Even when they parted, he managed 
 to hide from Stella his real feelings ; for he spoke light- 
 heartedly of their probable meeting later on in Cairo ; he 
 was going in the interval to Professor Eritep's camp at 
 Abydos, where a site of prehistoric interest was being 
 excavated. 
 
 On their last evening together they lighted upon a topic 
 of conversation which was to bear fruit in a curious way in 
 Stella's future life. They were referring to a conversation 
 Stella had had with a Coptic girl of about fifteen years of 
 age who had placed herself near them when they were 
 eating their lunch in the ruins of the only building of a 
 domestic nature left standing in Thebes to-day. Stella 
 had asked the girl if she could read and she had answered 
 proudly that she could. Stella then asked her what the 
 little blue cross meant that was tattooed on her wrist ; she 
 knew its significance, but she wished to find out if the girl 
 did. She explained that it was put there when she was a 
 little child to show that she was a Christian. Stella asked 
 her if she knew why a cross was a token of Christianity. 
 
 The girl shook her heard : " No, sitt." 
 
 " Do you not know anything about the story of the Crosi 
 and Who died upon it 1 " 
 
 " No, sitt" and the girl shook her head gravely. 
 
 Michael Ireton had made a quick sketch of the girl, who 
 was a typical Copt, with tragic eyes and an aquiline nose. 
 When they were looking over his sketch-book the subject 
 of the child's general ignorance and total indifference to 
 the meaning of the cross which she so glibly said attested 
 her right to be termed a Christian, that Stella said, " Please 
 don't laugh if I tell you that I have been nursing a great 
 ambition, ever since I returned to Egypt, about this very 
 subject." 
 
 " May I hear it ? " 
 
 " You'll think it foolish, perhaps, and unpractical, but 
 the desire to carry it out always comes up again and again. 
 
 She was silent for a moment. 
 
 " I never give up a thing I want to do, without a big 
 fight. Have you tried . . .1" 
 
 " It's very difficult : I want to work in a practical 
 way . . ." It sounds so grand to say that I want to work 
 for the elevation of the Coptic women in Egypt, but that's 
 what I do mean. I don't mean by giving big sums of 
 money father does that but by teaching them myself 
 the simplest things about . . . well . . . about . . . about 
 the self-respect of womanhood, and the virtue of cleanli- 
 ness and . . ." she looked at him for response, and in his 
 eyea she found all that she needed.
 
 &0 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Then why don't you do it t " he said, " who could do 
 it better with your . . . with your intimate knowledge of 
 their language, and also with what I should think is ex- 
 tremely necessary an intimacy with their most sacred 
 superstitions you would be able to do magnificent work." 
 He looked pleased with the idea. " Make a fight for it," 
 he said ; " don't let really surmountable difficulties be 
 magnified into insurmountable ones." 
 
 For a few moments both the man's mind and the girl's 
 were lost in thought, but they were travelling on the same 
 road. 
 
 " Would yovx j other allow you to do it 1 " 
 
 Stella knew by the expression of his eyes and voice that 
 he really meant, " Would your lover f " 
 
 " Yes, in time I think he would," she said, " when I am 
 a little older ; but it is all out of the question now I feel 
 that it is quite hopeless." 
 
 " Your marriage ? " He forced the words out of him- 
 self in a way which made the colour mount to Stella's 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Yes," she said, " Vernon hates my having the slightest 
 connection with anything he calls ' native '." 
 
 In the deep silence Michael Ireton heard the girl's quicker 
 breathing. 
 
 " Of course as a soldier's wife you would not have much 
 opportunity." He rose from -his seat beside her and leaned 
 over the bows of the boat : something stronger than his 
 own self-control would be required, if he sat by her side any 
 longer, to prevent him from taking her in his arms ; the 
 only things to do was to leave her. Stella sat on her com- 
 fortable seat surrounded by soft cushions, but they seemed 
 made of thorns she felt that the air was quickened with 
 a new force, a force which was almost unbearable. The 
 feeling was purely psychic, for not one word had been 
 said to produce it, and in Michael Ireton's voice anything 
 but tenderness was expressed. At the moment he was 
 clinging to every civilised quality that primitive man has 
 adopted to help him to hide his strongest passions. He 
 knew that the girl would scorn him for ever if be behaved 
 dishonourably to her trust in him as a chosen friend, and 
 that he would consider himself a cad if he did ; so, in a 
 voice which had recovered its habitual friendly tone, 
 he said : " I hate good-byes, so I'm only going to say 
 good-night. I'm off." He held out his hand ; Stella put 
 hers limply in his. An awful sense of numbness had come 
 over her with his words. 
 
 " Good-bye," she said, " and thank you a thousand time* 
 for all my lessons ; I shall miss them."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 91 
 
 " It's I who have to thank you," he said with measured 
 politeness, " it's been a delightful week." His voice waa 
 so coldly conventional that Stella felt her numbness in- 
 creasing. Then suddenly he raised her hand to his lips and 
 with a tender fierceness pressed a farewell kiss on the 
 beautiful fingers. " Good-bye, dear little girl ; good-bye, 
 and God bless you." 
 
 The next moment he walked swiftly away to say good- 
 bye to her mother and Nicolas : and Stella, after pressing 
 her hands to her face for one wild moment of turbulent 
 emotion, dropped them determinedly and set herself down 
 before a copy of " The Sketch." She made a brave attempt 
 to read it and not imagine foolish things about the man 
 who, in spite of his kindness to her, only thought of her as 
 a " little girl." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, as Michael Ireton stepped 
 across the gangway of the I sis, she saw him turn and look 
 up at the spot where she was sitting ; she rose impulsively 
 from her seat, and leaning over the edge of the boat, she 
 called out to him, " Md-as-saldmah " (good-bye). 
 
 " No, not ' good-bye,' " he said, " for I shall see you 
 in Cairo ; only ' leltak sd-idah ' " (good-night). 
 
 From MB camp about a week later he sent her one of 
 the many letters he had written to her, letters written 
 to satisfy his ever -increasing desire to speak to her, or 
 hold some sort of communication with her. Each one he 
 wrote, even while he was penning it, he knew he would not 
 send, yet in a measure it helped to relieve his pent-up feelings. 
 The one he eventually sent ran thus : 
 
 " MY DEAR LITTLE FRIEND, 
 
 "I am trying my hardest to think of your happiness and 
 enjoyment from a purely unselfish standpoint, for which, if you onlj 
 knew it, I deserve some praise. What could be more delightful than 
 your life at present ? Doing things you love with the person you 
 love best in this world, in this wonderful climate and in this wonder, 
 f ul land you are to be envied : As for myself, you have given mo 
 so much pleasure that it would be ungrateful of me to complain ft 
 you have also quite innocently given me much pain. 
 
 "La Vie est vaine. 
 Un peu d'ampur, 
 Un peu de haine. 
 Et puis: Bon jour 1 
 
 'La Vie est breve. 
 Un peu d'espoir, 
 Un peu de r6ve. 
 Etpuis: Bon soirl.!
 
 92 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " The work here is ' thrilling.' I know, with your love for pre- 
 historic and early dynastic things, how you would enjoy it. 
 " Always your most sincere friend, 
 
 " MICHAEL IRITON. 
 
 "PKOFESSOB EBITKP'S CAMP, ABTDOS." 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AFTER a two weeks' absence Vernon was able to rejoin th 
 Lekejians, who had moved their dahabeah to Assouan. 
 Stella selected Assouan, for there they would be able to 
 
 :> for long rides in the desert and get better sailing than at 
 uxor. She was conscious that she would be happier 
 with her lover at Assouan, playing tennis in the splendid 
 gardens of the Cataract Hotel, and amusing themselves 
 with a sailing-boat on the wide reaches of the river which 
 lie between Assouan and Komombo, than doing the ancient 
 buildings with him in Thebes and Luxor that she had done 
 with Michael Ireton : she was glad to leave Luxor. 
 
 The monuments of Egypt affected Stella strangely : she 
 gloried in them intellectually, but they made her profoundly 
 miserable. She had never been so unhappy as at the temple 
 of Abu Simbel, which they had visited in the interval be- 
 tween Luxor and Assouan. It was a new sort of unhappi- 
 ness, the result of the sudden realisation that she herself, 
 as a personality, did not exist ; that nothing mattered, or 
 ever had mattered in so fleeting a thing as the life-time of 
 a human being ; this brought with it the sensation that she 
 no longer had any passion for Vernon, that she could never 
 again love him as she had once loved him ; yet even this 
 did not seem to matter enough to cause her any pain. It 
 was as though the age and cynicism of Egypt had withered 
 her emotions. 
 
 But it was, above all, the feeling of self -extinction which 
 unnerved and exhausted her physically. In the temples 
 and tombs she was under the dominion of Age, she was 
 possessed by the Power of the Unseen ; for the time being 
 humanity mattered to her no more than the bats and 
 scorpions and spiders which housed themselves in the 
 subterranean halls of the Pharaohs. 
 
 At Abu Simbel she had risen at dawn, with Nicolas, to 
 see the sun enter the vast hall of the temple and move 
 slowly up the Osiris -guarded aisle to the high altar. She 
 saw it enter as the God Harmachi* (the rising sun) has 
 entered that indestructible sanctuary, hewn out of the 
 rock-battlements of the Nile, for more than three thousand 
 years. When Nicolas saw the effect the ancient buildings
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 93 
 
 were having upon his sister's nerves he was only too glad 
 to fall in with her plan for returning to Assouan. 
 
 After a few days at Assouan Stella found that her own 
 existence was once more, to herself at least, a thing of very 
 conscious and vital importance, that Vernon's letters were 
 still capable of stirring her pulses and making her long for 
 his presence. At Abu Simbel she had not wanted Vernon ; 
 he would have wanted her to respond to his presence as a 
 lover, even while the great Harmachis was crossing the 
 threshold of his house. She was relieved he was not there 
 to feel bored instead of elated by the Majesty and Dominion 
 and Power of this most strangely romantic of all temples 
 on the Nile. 
 
 At Assouan, with its modern tennis-courts and gay 
 flower-gardens, riding by Vernon's side along the same 
 desert track which led the ancients to the Land of Gold 
 that camel-path to Ethiopia from whence came ivory 
 and frankincense and myrrh for the greater glorification 
 of the gods of Thebes, she could think pleasurable thoughts 
 of Abu Simbel ; of its flowering acacia trees, which dipped 
 their lower branches into the waters of the Nile, while their 
 upper foliage screened the facade of the building from the 
 curious eyes of the toilers on the river. At Assouan, her 
 state of mind was so normal that she could tell Vernon all 
 about the great temples and the tombs of the kings with- 
 out dwelling on the thought that they had caused her fear 
 and depression. 
 
 It was chiefly to please herself that she lingered over the 
 mystery and romance of the buildings, for she wished to 
 give him the chance of entering into her feelings and 
 aesthetic enjoyments. If she banished these things from 
 her life when she was with him, their sympathies would 
 eventually become one-sided ; besides, there was the subtler 
 feeling of guilt she wished to atone for. 
 
 Vernon admired the various buildings, because their 
 size and age were amazing enough to make him amazed 
 without mental effort. Their grandeur was obvious, their 
 indestructibility awesome, but their history, or the mean- 
 ing of their decorations, did not interest him one scrap. 
 When Stella talked about them, he would have yawned 
 himself to sleep if he had not been in love with her. 
 
 But their ride to the ancient granite quarries at Assouan 
 really delighted him. He liked to see the marks of the 
 chisel fresh upon unfinished statues and gods which had 
 been commissioned by living kings some four thousand 
 years ago ; and he asked for nothing more intellectual than 
 to ride in the desert or sail on the wide stretches of the 
 Nile in white-winged boats, as gaily painted as the arches
 
 04 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 of a rainbow. He was as happy as a child. And for one 
 week Stella, too, was completely happy. To a true 
 woman it is so delightful to be adored and considered beauti- 
 ful that Stella basked in the warm sunshine of love and 
 devotion. 
 
 At Assouan they had dined once and lunched once in 
 the huge hotel. On both occasions Stella had met people 
 whom she had known in England, and they had been delight- 
 ful to her : they had not yet been affected by the prejudices 
 of Cairo. They begged her to come and see them in Cairo 
 when they both returned from their trips up the Nile, and 
 they were enthusiastic over the excursions they made with 
 her father and mother on their house-boat. 
 
 The Lekejians had taken them to Shellal, to see the 
 great barrage. Mr. Lekejian knew one of the chief engin- 
 eers, who showed them over the immense concern, and ex- 
 plained its history and workings. The day at the barrage 
 was a day which might well have filled any Englishman's 
 heart with pride. The temples and the tombs of Egypt 
 were built for the glorification of the Pharaohs, out of the 
 life-blood of the people ; the barrage at Assouan has been 
 built to give food to the poor in Egypt water means food. 
 It is a comforting fact for an Englishman to remember, as 
 he stands on that amazing structure, that once again in 
 Egypt the hand of the builder has raised a monument of 
 almost superhuman conception, a monument which can 
 take its place with the buildings of the Pharaohs ; and 
 he can reflect that it is under English rule that the first 
 Monument to Humanity has been raised in a land where 
 the English rule is vilified. It has been left for the English 
 to bestow the unspeakable blessing of water alike upon the 
 poor and the rich. The barrage is a very Temple of 
 Justice. 
 
 Vernon was immensely impressed ; he would have liked 
 to spend some days in inspecting it, but his " leave " 
 passed all too quickly, and he had to rejoin his regiment. 
 
 As the Lekejians wished to visit the temples of Denderah 
 and Komombo and Abydos on their way back to Cairo, 
 Vernon got there a fortnight before Stella, and on the very 
 eve of their arrival he was ordered to go with his regiment 
 to Helouan, for a fortnight's manosuvres. At Helouan he 
 saw a good deal of society, for there are health-baths at 
 Helouan which attract invalids. During these weeks he 
 was initiated still further into some of the mysteries and 
 peculiarities of Cairene society, and he shrank from the 
 knowledge, forced upon him, that Hadassah Lekejian and 
 Stella Adair were two very different people. He grew to 
 wish that the girl who had ridden by his side at Assouan over
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 95 
 
 the desert sands and under the clear skies was the Stella 
 Adair he had known in London ... he would have given 
 ten years of his life to be able to say truthfully to himself 
 that " for the opinion of the English he did not care a damn ! " 
 It was no use his trying to affect any tiling like a fellow-feel- 
 ing for even the most Europeanised of Orientals, for he 
 could not, and he sincerely hoped that they, in their turn, 
 felt no such fellow-feeling for him. 
 
 He was happily confident, however, that Stella would 
 be only too glad to shake the dust of Cairo for ever off her 
 feet when she was married to him. In London are not the 
 doors in the most exclusive society open to Turks and Jews 
 and Syrians, to the peoples of all races, if they are wealthy 
 enough to entertain lavishly ? Yet in his wholly British 
 BOU! he wished his beloved Stella had not suddenly been 
 changed into the beautiful Syrian Hadassah whom the 
 nice Englishmen in Cairo talked about with so much pity. 
 He would have given worlds to have changed her back again 
 into Stella Adair. The idea that she was conferring an 
 honour upon him by marrying him had unconsciously faded 
 away ; it had even occurred to him once or twice to wonder 
 if Mrs. Lekejian had not very naturally encouraged Stella 
 in her love for himself, for Mrs. Lekejian, being an Irish- 
 woman, would naturally like to see her only daughter 
 married to a European, and she was to be forgiven if she 
 had kept Vernon in ignorance of Stella's true position in 
 Cairo. 
 
 There was only one solution, he would take Stella away 
 from Cairo as soon as he could. In England she could have 
 her parents to visit her as often as she pleased, but never 
 again would he permit her to live with them in the East. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 STELLA did not see Vernon after her return to Cairo for 
 almost a week : he was still at Helouan. To-night there 
 was to be a reception at the British Agency, to which the 
 Lekejian family had determined to go, and Stella knew 
 that she would see him there. Stella liad been induced to 
 sing at a cafe chantant got up for charity, and the British 
 Agent's wife had then shewn her much sympathetic 
 kindness. 
 
 Lady Minton had been charmed with the girl's voice 
 and personality, and had insisted upon being introduced 
 to her. Realising Stella's isolated position when she dis- 
 covered that she was a Syrian, in the kindest way she begged 
 Stella and her rnother to come and see her, and expressed
 
 96 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 the hope that they might enjoy many musical afternoons 
 together. As Stella's nature was intensely responsive to 
 true sympathy, she determined to break through her rule 
 of refusing all social functions of a public kind (she was never 
 invited to private ones) and go to Lady Minton's official 
 reception. Lady Minton's kindness to the girl had not 
 altered the residents' attitude towards the Lekejians ; 
 they merely said, "It is a great pity if Lady Minton is 
 going to start doing this sort of thing ; it has been tried 
 many times and has been found impossible. Leaving it 
 off will hurt the girl's feeling much more than if she had 
 never been noticed at all." So Stella went to the reception, 
 not only to show Lady Minton that she appreciated her 
 kindness, but to get over the inevitable ordeal of meeting 
 Vernon amongst English people who liked to pretend that 
 she did not exist. 
 
 Stella was exquisitely dressed, and, as she passed one long 
 mirror after another in the crowded rooms at the Agency, 
 she could not help knowing that the vision of herself she 
 saw in them was pleasing. It sustained her self-esteem, 
 and she comforted herself with the thought that she was 
 well turned-out and looking her very best. Excitement 
 had brought a delicate colour to her usually pale cheeks, 
 and her soft eyes seemed larger and more brilliant than 
 ever. 
 
 After shaking hands with her hostess, who was naturally 
 too occupied to say more than a few words to her, she found 
 herself by her mother's side again, watching the entrance 
 of fresh arrivals. She knew that she would probably stay 
 there all through the evening, and that she would scarcely 
 speak half-a-do/en words to any one outside of her own 
 party. She could see nothing of Vernon. Soon her heart 
 gave a little bound, and she felt the blood leave her cheeks, 
 for he had entered the room with the very people who had 
 told the man who had bowed to her from the British 
 Agent's box at the opera something which had prevented 
 him making any further attempt to renew their friendship. 
 Stella saw Vernon talking quite intimately to a pretty 
 girl of the fair, conventional English type, the type of 
 woman of whom conventional men approve because they 
 know exactly what to expect of them. The unaccustomed 
 in women may be amusing in a mistress ; it is annoying in 
 a wife. 
 
 It would be impossible for Vernon to avoid seeing Stella 
 after he had shaken hands with Lady Minton, and as his 
 companion's mother was one of the leaders of Cairene 
 society who refused to receive " natives " of any kind 
 in her house Stella was a little excited to know what he
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 97 
 
 would do. As they drew near her eyes met the blue eyes 
 of the girl he was talking to. She was looking at Stella with 
 very obvious admiration, so she may have said something 
 about Stella, for her mother's diamond-crested lorgnettes 
 went up, and Stella felt the cold scrutiny of two worldly 
 eyes passing over her. It was her scrutiny of Stella which 
 made Vernon suddenly notice her. A deep flush dyed his 
 face, and for a moment he stopped hesitatingly, but it 
 was only for a moment ; the next he had passed on with a 
 bow and an embarrassed smile. His hostess was speaking 
 to him, and telling him in a clear voice that " some Lev- 
 antines are quite beautiful when they are young, but that, 
 like all natives, they quickly degenerate." 
 
 At that moment Stella did not feel like the Biblical 
 Esther of old, who hid her nationality from her lord in 
 order to save her people. Eage seized her, and she could 
 have torn in pieces every Englishwoman in the room. 
 The hideous cruelty of it, the hideous vulgarity of it, the 
 hideous prejudice of it ! How could she blame Vernon ? 
 She felt that she had been through the scene many many 
 times before, she felt it was inevitable that things should 
 have happened just as they had happened. The band 
 was playing a popular waltz, and the big room was becom- 
 ing crowded ; faces she knew by sight were passing before 
 her ; and all the while she was talking to her brother Nicolas 
 as though in a dream. She had no idea how long she had 
 been standing by her mother's bide, mechanically talking 
 about things that did not matter, about things she could 
 not remember the moment after they were said it might 
 have been for hours when Vernon came up to her. He 
 seemed a little nervous, and explained that he had come 
 just as soon as he could get away from his party. 
 
 As he spoke to her a flood of devotion suddenly leapt 
 in him : to see her standing by her parents' side, her young 
 face frozen to a dreadful coldness, filled him with anger 
 against his own race ; his eyes were so full of passion that 
 hers melted a little as they looked into them, but the 
 hand she held out to him was the hand of a stranger. 
 She could not decide what she had expected him to do 
 that he should leave his hostess and dash impetuously 
 towards her and claim her as his own or what ? She 
 did not know ; she only felt that he had not done as she 
 would have done if their position had been reversed. 
 Should he have said, when the cruel lorgnettes went up, 
 " That is the girl I am engaged to. May I introduce her 
 to you ? " She did not know ; she only knew that that 
 little moment of hesitation, that conventional bow, and 
 that embarrassed smile, had placed worlds and worlds
 
 98 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 between them. She hoped that she would not allow him 
 to kiss her when they were alone, she hoped that she would 
 never again feel that delicious sense of she knew not what 
 when his arms were round her, she hoped that she would 
 never tolerate an Englishman's love again. He asked her 
 to come for a walk through the rooms and go out on the 
 terrace. Her mother smiled to her to go : anything was 
 better than to see her child neglected and overlooked, 
 while every one else in the room was gay and sociable. 
 At such a gathering there was, of course, no introducing, 
 and in Cairo, where the residents knew each other intimately, 
 there was little need of it. Stella's father was the centre 
 of a group of men who were eagerly discussing the Asiut 
 election and politics generally. There was a Turkish Pasha 
 amongst them, and the most influential lawyer in Cairo. 
 
 Stella left her brother to look after her mother, and 
 went off with her lover, but not one word came to her lips ; 
 she walked the whole length of the room in complete 
 silence. Her heart was too full of bitterness to speak 
 naturally of trivial things. She longed to cry out, to tell 
 him she was miserable, that she was miserable because 
 she still loved him even though ho had failed her, that she 
 was sick of the whole world. Vernon did not attempt to 
 peak until they were seated under a flowering sunt tree, 
 whose luscious scent sweetened the soft night air. Bright 
 lanterns like sumptuous tropical flowers, were gently 
 swaying from the trees in the breeze, and in the distance 
 an Arab lover was pouring out his heart to the moon. 
 
 Vernon's arm stole round Stella's waist and his lips 
 were pressed to her white throat. Stella was trembling, 
 and, although she was not responsive, she did not resist ; 
 already her senses were being drugged by the magic of 
 his caresses. 
 
 " Dearest," he said, " do let's get married and leave 
 this beastly place. I'll take you back to England, where 
 you will be courted and adored once more. English people 
 are hateful in the East." 
 
 She let him kiss her lips, for he had turned her face to 
 his, but she said, " Don't, Vernon, please don't." 
 
 " But why t " he said. " No one can see us here. The 
 tree completely hides us." 
 
 " Yes, I am your lover when there is no one who can 
 see us . . . t " 
 
 " Oh ! Stella . . ." he stammered confusedly, " you 
 don't want me to kiss you in public, do you T " 
 
 She was silent. 
 
 " You're miserable, darling, out here, where everything 
 is wrong. Why don't you go back to Miss MacNaughtan 1
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 99 
 
 and I'll change into another regiment and corne home 
 and marry you." 
 
 " This is my home," she said slowly. She had drawn 
 her face farther from his. 
 
 " I never feel that it is." 
 
 " But you must." 
 
 " Why should I ! I like to think of you as Stella Adair, 
 the most beautiful and popular girl in a set of decent 
 English people at home . . . All this sort of thing is upside 
 down. . . . It's like a bad dream ; it's hateful ! " 
 
 " This is how things are," she said ; " the other was a 
 dream." 
 
 " But it needn't be : your mother would let you go 
 home to-morrow ; I know she would . . . she's a dear ; 
 she understands." 
 
 " And you would have me go ' home,' as you call it ! " 
 
 " Why not t It would only be returning to the people 
 who brought you up, to the people who understand you, 
 the people for whom you were educated." 
 
 He kissed her again, and pressed her soft cheek closely 
 to his own, but Stella roused herself to resist the seduction 
 of his passion, to throw off the physical lassitude which his 
 near presence always produced in her. In a voice stifled 
 with emotion she said : " You are wrong ; they are not 
 my people ; that is just the mistake we have both made. 
 . . . My people are here ! Girgis Boutros is one of them. 
 I am what you English call a Levantine, I came here to- 
 night so that you should know it." 
 
 Vernon withdrew his caressing hand. " But you don't 
 care for him. He doesn't count, or any of his people." 
 
 " I admire him," she said, " and I should despise myself 
 if I married you and left my people surely you would 
 despise me if I did it V 
 
 " Dearest, you don't love me ! What has changed 
 you 1 " 
 
 Her answer was to lift his hand to her lips and kiss it 
 very tenderly. She had hoped that her words would 
 bring forth the protest that he would really love her less 
 if she despised her people, or that he would marry her in 
 Cairo to-morrow if she liked, and show the still-necked 
 English that her people were his people, and that his people 
 were hers. 
 
 But he had no such thought ... he was obsessed with 
 the one idea that if she loved him she would leave her 
 fletestable relations for his sake, and live in a country where 
 being a Syrian meant no more to the general public, if 
 the woman was rich and charming, than being a Turk or 
 a Jew or a Greek. So he said, with a self -aggrieved air :
 
 100 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 "Go back to England and wait for me, dearest ; leave this 
 beastly place you would if you really cared for me." 
 
 " Never ! " she said passionately. Her heart was 
 beating wildly : she believed that she was rejecting the one 
 thing that made life sweet to her. 
 
 " Darling, why won't you ? " 
 
 " Perhaps if I tell you you won't understand ; but please 
 try to : it is because I should hate you if I went, if I was 
 not strong enough to resist ..." she pushed away his 
 hands . . . meaning hia physical attraction . . . her voice 
 broke, " I should despise you if you did not hate me for 
 going." As she spoke she knew that she was losing a 
 portion of the ideal of him that she had created . . . she 
 was conscious that one day she might lose all. 
 
 " No, I don't understand," he said ; " you would despise 
 me if you loved me well enough to do as I ask you to ! 
 You look at things from such a strange point of view." 
 
 " Not very strange, dearest. Can't you see how I should 
 grow to hate you if my love for you made me a traitor to 
 my own people, because you were ashamed to own that 
 you loved a Syrian, if you were afraid to face the music t " 
 
 Vernon was amazed at her intensity. " Who said I 
 was afraid t What have I done 1 This sort of thing has 
 got on your nerves." 
 
 " Do you wonder if it has ? " she asked passionately : 
 " Do you wonder if I hate myself for loving a man who 
 belongs to the race of people who despise my father 
 my father who is worth a hundred prejudiced Englishmen 
 a man who scorns me in Cairo because his fellow-country- 
 men do not think any one not British is fit to speak to 1 
 ... It is cruel," she said, " cruel and abominable. I 
 hate myself for loving you, but I can't help it." 
 
 " Don't darling ! " he said in a soothing voice. 
 
 " Oh ! don't touch me," she cried. ... " When you 
 caress me I have no will-power, no individuality, no self- 
 respect, and ... I must resist, for to-night I know that 
 you share the feelings of the English in Cairo. Something 
 tells me that if we had never met in England you would 
 never have loved me here . . . you would never have 
 asked me to marry you t " 
 
 " Why do you say that t ... I came to you as soon as 
 I could. I had dined with these people : I had to be civil." 
 
 Stella gave a pitiful laugh. " You did not tell the lady 
 you were with that you were engaged to me ! " 
 
 " There was no occasion to." 
 
 " There was the opportunity ! She made a remark about 
 me ; I heard it. Wouldn't it have been the natural thing 
 to have told her then if you had not been ashamed ? "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 101 
 
 " Stella, this is awful . . . nothing has been right since 
 I've been in Egypt . . . you blame me for all the wrongs 
 the English have done to your people. Forget about it, 
 do, dear." 
 
 " How can I forget ? " she said. " Certainly not until I 
 know my true position with you. . . . Are we to be openly 
 engaged f Are you going to acknowledge me to your 
 friends ? . . . Are you going to accept my relations t 
 ... Or am I to be kissed behind the sunt trees and ignored 
 in the drawing-rooms ? " 
 
 " You're awfully cruel : you've changed completely. 
 Are you so anxious for our engagement to be made 
 public ! " 
 
 " Yes, if you wish me to remain engaged to you in 
 private ! " 
 
 " What do you mean ! " 
 
 "I mean," she said, "that if I did what I ought to do 
 I should break off my engagement with you unless you 
 agree to all I wish." 
 
 " Why ! . . . For what reason t . . . I can scarcely 
 believe it is you talking. . . . Stella, dearest, why on 
 earth should you break with me t What do you wish me 
 to do ? " 
 
 "It would be fairer to you, and I suppose I ought to 
 marrv my cousin, Girgis Boutros." 
 
 " Good Lord, SteUa ! . . . What for t " 
 
 " Because I could help him in his work for the people. 
 Because he would ask me to stay with my people and not 
 forsake them ... he would spend his great wealth on 
 educating and raising the position of the Christians in 
 Egypt." 
 
 " But why should you be made the sacrifice f " 
 
 " Because he loves me, and surely I have been born 
 and educated for some reason ... for some purpose other 
 than to be an object of pity to the English. It must have 
 been that I was to help him to carry on his work. . . . 
 Heavens!" she said, with a hopeless sigh. . . "if only I 
 could . . ." she stopped. 
 
 " If only you could what 1 '* 
 
 " ForgeJ; myself. ... If only I could forget that you 
 exist, if only I had never known your love." 
 
 " You'll forget me all right," he said bitterly. " Girgis 
 is very wealthy ! " 
 
 " ;iow cruel ! " 
 
 " Well, I think it's you who are being cruel ; you're 
 chucking me for a richer man." 
 
 " ^or one who does not despise me ; for one who does not 
 ask me to forsake my people ; for one who would be proud
 
 102 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 to tell every one in Cairo to-morrow that I am his promised 
 wife." 
 
 ' And who said I wouldn't 1 " 
 
 ' Would you t Will you introduce me to-night as youi 
 fiancee ? " 
 
 ' Of course, darling, if you wish it ; but to whom t " 
 
 ' To any one." 
 
 ' I don't know people intimately here. . . . They are all 
 the merest acquaintances ; they don't even know I'm 
 engaged : it would seem rather odd." 
 
 iiis arm stole round her because her face had softened, 
 and she had not resisted the caressing shoulder as he 
 leaned against her. s a woman she was so attractive 
 that he could not resist her. It seemed impossible that any 
 community of cultivated people could treat her as a social 
 outcast, yet he had only to take her back to the drawing- 
 room to realise that such was the case, and Stella insisted 
 upon their going back. She wished to return, becausa 
 she found herself becoming weaker and weaker undei 
 the magic of hands and the passion of lips, and she knew 
 that neither her heart nor her pride were satisfied, and 
 she was determined that her self-respect and pride should 
 master her physical weakness. As she rose to her feet, she 
 held out her hands imploringly. ernon took them 
 eagerly in his. 
 
 Dearest," she said, " we need never speak of all this 
 again : we need never mind what people think if only you 
 will accept my people as your people. . . ." She paused. 
 " As a soldier's wife, of course, I should naturally go with 
 you to the uttermost ends of the earth. . . . But I will 
 never go anywhere for the sake of getting away from the 
 people I belong to." 
 
 ' And you will not marry Girgis Boutros t " 
 
 ' I will never marry him . . . unless . . ." 
 
 1 Unless what 1 " 
 
 1 Unless you fail me." 
 
 ' In what way ? " 
 
 ' By scorning my people, by doing nothing to help 
 me to make their position less undignified, by keeping 
 your eyes shut to the injustice of the English." 
 
 Steps close at hand prevented Vernon from answering 
 her, and the next moment Nicolas and Michael Ireton were 
 standing beside them. Nicolas hesitated and was turning 
 away when he saw who it was they had interrupted, but 
 Stella begged him to come back. " Nicolas, don't go ! 
 . . . Vernon has to return to the friends he came 
 with." 
 
 The look of pleasure and something deeper which had
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 103 
 
 lit up Michael Ireton's face when he saw Stella was not 
 lost upon Vernon, whose mind was instantly filled with 
 jealousy. He did not want to leave her with this man who, 
 he knew, appealed to the intellectual side of her nature so 
 strongly . . . nor did he particularly wish to take her 
 back to the reception room, where he might have to face the 
 difficulty of meeting his hostess and introducing Stella. 
 He knew that Mrs. Bostock would not be nice to the girl, 
 the more so because Stella was much better dressed than 
 her own daughter, whom Vernon imagined, though he was 
 not vain, to have been designedly thrown in his way lately. 
 Vernon had only been three weeks in Cairo, and had already 
 seen the same set of people a good many times at different 
 social functions. He liked the girl with her pink skin and 
 blue eyes ; her love of out-door games and sport appealed 
 to him ; but he had no desire to be drawn into a flirtation 
 with her. As Stella had as much as given him his dismissal 
 he was upon the point of leaving them, when she said to 
 him in a persuasive voice : " Vernon, will you come to- 
 morrow morning and see some of the old Coptic churches f 
 Mr. Ireton would like to join us." 
 
 Vernon detested sight -seeing, but he was too jealous 
 of the man to let Stella go about alone with him, so he 
 accepted the invitation. " I hope you don't mind vermin," 
 he said to Michael Ireton. " Some people I met out at 
 dinner last night told me that these old churches are alive 
 with all sorts of insects : one girl had hysterics when she 
 got home and found the worst of all things on her blouse, 
 within an inch of her hair." 
 
 " I do mind them very much," Michael said ; " but 
 clothes will burn and I will wash, and these old churches 
 are unique, both in point of architecture and real beauty. 
 I mj,8t see them ; it is worse for ladies. What will you do, 
 Miss Lekejian ? " 
 
 " I'll put on things that will wash when I get home . . . 
 my maid will examine them first, for washing doesn't kill 
 the worst kind indeed, they often come home with the 
 washing." 
 
 " Ye gods," Vernon said, " how horrible ! Where is 
 one safe ? " 
 
 " Never, if you go in public conveyances or rub shoulders 
 with the people in the bazaars." 
 
 " But I thought Mohammedans were clean ; they wash 
 before praying ? " 
 
 " Not the women." 
 
 " And the Copts ? " 
 
 " They are no better. . . ." 
 
 "Thank God for England," Vernon said; "I'd rather
 
 104 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 have it's rain and grey skies than the filth and sunshine 
 of the East." 
 
 He turned to go. 
 
 " Then you'll call for me at nine o'clock to-morrow 
 morning t " Stella asked . " It will be on your way . . . 
 it gets too hot later on." 
 
 As he left them Michael Ireton said, " Oriental things 
 don't appeal to him very much, do they ? He's of too 
 British a turn of mind.'* 
 
 Nicolas knew that Vernon had brains of the kind which 
 could absorb certain subjects if they interested him, but he 
 doubted very much if he had a mind which " thought " 
 for itself upon any subject whatsoever. 
 
 For a while they walked about the grounds, and Michael 
 Ireton told them what he had been doing since they had 
 parted in Luxor. He was enchanted with Abydos, and 
 told Stella a groat deal about the expectations of the 
 excavating party there. Apart from the romance of 
 Osiris's tomb, the great temple of Abydos is unlike any 
 other building in Egypt. Its very name is suggestive of 
 its peculiar charm and delicate beauty. 
 
 Stella said that she envied the professor's wife, who lived 
 with her husband in his camp and helped him in his work 
 there. Michael Ireton looked at Nicolas, who under- 
 stood the remark his eyes conveyed, that if she longed to 
 be the wife of a man whose whole existence was given over 
 to archaeological research, how could she be satisfied with 
 Vernon, whose real interests in life were polo and golf t 
 
 " Would you be contented to live her life ? " he said. 
 " You would have to do without all luxuries : camp life 
 at Abydos is very severe." 
 
 " I believe that Stella could do without them," Nicolas 
 said, " better than she could do without intellectual in- 
 terests and intelligent companionship. She loves pretty 
 clothes and pretty surroundings, but I think half her 
 pretty frocks are worn to please me." 
 
 Stella thanked him with her eyes. " These pretty things 
 help to make my rather stupid life more exciting," she said 
 ..." but they really mean nothing : if I could go off to- 
 morrow into the desert with Nicolas ... or v/ith any one 
 who loved it as Nicolas does, I would leave them all behind 
 me gladly.'' 
 
 "I believe you would," Michael Ireton said. " Our 
 evenings used to be delightful . . . such talks . . . such 
 arguments . . . such theories, all relating to things which 
 had their place in the world thousands of years ago." 
 As he spoke he caught Stella's glowing eyes, her ardent 
 smile.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 105 
 
 " I've a proposal to make to you." Michael Ireton 
 had stopped suddenly, and strained his ear to listen : 
 " Aren't you tired of all this ? " he pointed to the brightly 
 lighted house and to the mass of moving figures. "I 
 know a wealthy Arab who is giving a party on board his 
 dahabeah to-night it's lying just off Roda Island. If 
 your sister had her wraps, we could get into a small boat 
 and drift down the river and hear the music. The illumina- 
 tions will be worth seeing." 
 
 Nicolas hesitated. 
 
 " I wo ildn't ask you," he said, " if I didn't know it was 
 going to be something very special. He's got a famous 
 tenor on board, and there is to be a whole flotilla of boats, 
 illuminated : he's entertaining a great swell from Persia 
 giving a series of entertainments, intellectual and otherwise, 
 and I had the honour of being his guest last night. I had 
 never experienced anything so delightful. The boat was 
 a perfect fairyland of flowers and priceless embroideries, 
 and there were story-tellers, and poets, who recited their 
 parts in splendid costumes. The whole thing was classical." 
 
 Stella's eyes glowed. "I'd love to go," she said . . . 
 " How did you get to know him ? " 
 
 " I got to know him through a Frenchman who ignores 
 the prejudices of Cairo and makes friends with all the most 
 cultivated Arabs ... he says he'd die of ennui out here 
 if he depended on the society of Europeans ; their parties 
 are deadly affairs." 
 
 " Probably the Europeans think he's half a native 
 because he isn't English," Stella said laughingly. 
 
 " Probably," Michael Ireton said, " but who cares ! 
 He took me there last night. I wish you could have been 
 with me" he addressed Nicolas "it really was perfect." 
 
 " I wish I could," he said, " but with my mother and 
 Stella to consider I can't ... I tried it ... when Stella 
 was at school, but I found it difficult when I wanted to 
 return their hospitality : I couldn't ask them to my home." 
 
 " I see," Michael Ireton said : yet he didn't see, for he 
 could not understand why the Lekejians, who did not 
 really know the English people in Cairo, thought it worth 
 while to mind what they thought or said. 
 
 But he was reckoning without Stella's father, who 
 would not allow Mussulmans to come to his house as 
 intimates. He knew many of them, but he would not 
 countenance the idea of permitting them to know his 
 wife and daughter in their home life. He knew their 
 opinion of women who lived in the free manner of Western 
 women, as Stella did. He knew many Copts who lived 
 almost like Mussulmans (apart from the fact that, being
 
 106 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 nominally Christian, they were by their Church allowed 
 only one wife), yet he considered them many degrees 
 better in their " mental attitude " towards women than 
 Mussulmans. 
 
 Stella and her mother visited very formally a few 
 Mohammedan women of high rank, whose husbands 
 were westernised enough to keep only one wife. Mr. 
 Lekejian would not permit them to go to any harem where 
 the husband had more. Stella thought it was rather 
 foolish, as she knew quite well that their real reason for 
 having only one wife was that they were not wealthy 
 enough to give the wives the dowry they could claim by 
 law if they were divorced because their husbands were 
 tired of them, and their husbands would not care to support 
 them in their harems for no purpose. It was easier, they 
 said, to do as European men did have only one wife in 
 their homes, but as many mistresses outside as they chose, 
 for they would expect no dowry when their little day was 
 over. Like many excellent Christians, Mr. Lekejian tried 
 to believe that the Egyptian Mussulman when he has only 
 one wife is helping to raise the standard of Eastern morality, 
 that he is doing it in the cause of morality, not of necessity, 
 because only a few Egyptians can to-day afford to keep up 
 the old customs of the harem. 
 
 So to Stella and her mother the inner life of the Moham- 
 medan women was almost as much a sealed book as it 
 was to the ordinary English resident. 
 
 When Nicolas returned with Stella's cloak he looked a 
 little disturbed. " I think we ought not to go, dear," he 
 said. " Father has gone home he may have to leave for 
 Asiut to-night and mother is quite alone waiting for us." 
 
 " Why has father gone ? " 
 
 " There has been a disturbance at Asiut. Amin Ham- 
 dulla (the Mohammedan) has been elected Mudir ; some of 
 the English have been badly knocked about by the Copts, 
 who think they ought to have had their support at the 
 election. Father has gone to his office to write a leader on 
 the subject." 
 
 Stella looked grave. She was thinking of Girgis how 
 angry he would be. The Copt was really a first-class man ; 
 she was sorry for his defeat ; at the same time, she did not 
 believe that he could have filled the post of Mudir as well 
 as a good Mohammedan. 
 
 She turned to Michael Ireton. " Please take me back to 
 mother. We will go home. Nicolas, will you tell Vernon t " 
 
 They had almost reached the lighted rooms, and could 
 hear the babble of voices, before either Michael Ireton or 
 Stella spoke.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 107 
 
 " I wonder if you realise how very interesting all this is," 
 he said. 
 
 " All what 1 " she asked. ... " That ... do you 
 mean ! " She pointed her hand in scorn to the lighted 
 rooms. 
 
 " Good heavens ! no ; I mean your life outside of all this 
 . . . you are not going to care about this . . . " he took 
 her hand. " You are so much above it, so much too good 
 for it, dear child ; promise me you will realise how little 
 it matters and ignore it." 
 
 " How can I ? " Her hand remained in his, the friend- 
 ship of it helped her. 
 
 " Why can't you ? " he asked. ... " You don't really 
 care about it ; when you analyse it you know it's worthless." 
 
 " Vernon belongs to this life," she said ; " I loved him 
 before I knew anything about it." 
 
 " I wonder if you know what love means ? " He looked 
 into her eyes very earnestly. 
 
 " Why do you say that 1 I am not a child." 
 
 He smiled. " What has that to do with it t " he said. 
 11 Lots of people have lived to be seventy, and have been 
 married twice, and never known what love meant." 
 
 She looked at him almost sadly. " How is one to 
 know ? " she said. 
 
 He did not answer he was not listening ; he was thinking 
 of what he wished to tell her. " May I confess something 
 about myself," he asked abruptly, "something I would 
 like you to know ! " 
 
 She nodded her head. 
 
 " Well, it is just this : when I first saw you, I knew that I 
 could love you madly if I might let myself, and I would 
 have let myself if you had not told me that you were 
 engaged to Mr. Thorpe. I would have tried to make you 
 love me madly too ; but I am teaching myself to look upon 
 you in a different way I am taking up our friendship 
 from a purely intellectual standpoint." 
 
 Stella's heart was beating so quickly she could scarcely 
 speak, she managed to whisper : I want your friendship." 
 
 " As I have accepted the fact that you can never be my 
 wife, let me try to be your dearest friend, a friend who will 
 never fail you." 
 
 "What can I say? I never thought . . ." she paused. 
 " Oh ! but you could never have married me ; you think 
 you would, but you wouldn't." 
 
 " I would have married you," he said roughly. " God 
 knows I would marry you to-morrow if I might, and 
 worship every inch of you, body and soul." He held her 
 hand more closely in both of his.
 
 108 ^ A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Hush ! " she said. " Perhaps I ought not to let you 
 say all this, but ..." her voice broke. " I want your 
 friendship, I want your ..." she raised her eyes to his, 
 " your understanding ; but is it right t " She was think- 
 ing of Vernon's jealousy. 
 
 " Why not ! " he said. " I know you are engaged, I 
 know I am too late even to try to make you feel for me as 
 I feel for you." He smiled. " How I should have loved 
 to have tried, little girl ! I have often dreamt that I have 
 tried and succeeded : you have loved me in my dreams, 
 Stella " he spoke softly " loved me as I know you are 
 capable of loving ; but I am man enough to act honourably 
 if you will allow me to be your trusted friend." 
 
 She looked troubled. Vernon's love for her seemed like 
 a boy's compared to this man's ; she was glad they had 
 almost crossed the threshold of the open window, so that 
 she was spared the difficulty of answering him. 
 
 " Before we go in let me assure you that I will never 
 allude to my feelings for you again. The subject of love 
 is dead between us, it is going to be friendship in the future 
 and you can trust me ? You never suspected ! " 
 
 She evaded a direct denial. " The thought that you care 
 for me is very dear to me ; perhaps it shouldn't be, but 
 I can't help it ... I felt so despised ... so rejected . . . 
 such an alien." 
 
 " Good God ! " he said, but checked himself : " I am 
 glad you can feel for me like that ; and remember that I 
 am offering my friendship for always ... if the day 
 should ever come when you should need it you have only 
 to send for me. . . . Remember that a man loves to 
 serve the woman he adores, if it is only as a friend." 
 
 " Now say good-bye," ahe said, with smiling tearfulness, 
 for she saw Nicolas coming with her mother towards her. 
 
 " Good-bye, Hadassah," he said. He had used her 
 father's name for her, to show her that her people would 
 have been his people. " Remember that this is to make 
 no difference." With her hand in his he waited for her 
 answer. ... "No difference !" he repeated. " Promise 
 me that." 
 
 " No difference," she said, and she thought that she 
 spoke the truth, but it was not the truth, for her eyes 
 could no longer look into his that was the difference. 
 
 " I only wanted you to know," he said. 
 
 " And I understand why you wanted me to know," 
 she said ; " good-bye, and thank you. Ma as-saldmak 
 Ikattar Allah Kherak," she repeated the words in Arabic. 
 
 He answered her in Arabic, " Leta'c a'l'iaA es-saldm 
 alekum (Good-night peace be on you !)."
 
 ( 109 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ON reaching home two things troubled Stella's peace of 
 mind and served to throw into the background all that 
 Michael Ireton had said to her, although his words re- 
 mained with her as a new solace for all her troubles. 
 
 The news that her father had suddenly left Cairo for 
 Asiut caused her an anxiety which she dared not show her 
 mother, for Girgis Boutros had often warned her that her 
 father had many bitter enemies amongst the most dis- 
 contented faction of the Copts, on account of the very 
 English views he had expressed in his leading articles in the 
 " El Watan " the important Christian paper, written in 
 Arabic, which supported the British policy in Egypt. 
 
 Amongst the few Copts who had thrown in their lot with 
 the Moslem party who were the ringleaders of the most 
 advanced anti-English sect, Mr. Lekejian was looked upon 
 as a traitor to the cause of Egypt's liberation and self- 
 government. He was detested by the Egyptian Christian 
 and the Moslem fanatic. He had used his power in the 
 press to suppress the seditious literature which filled the 
 native papers, and had warned the rebellious Copts that 
 in joining forces with the Moslem leaders of the revolu- 
 tionary party they were putting halters round their own 
 necks. He urged them to consider what the inevitable 
 result would be if they assisted in making the English 
 evacuate Egypt, a Moslem Government would not hesitate 
 to rend in pieces the less powerful Christians who had 
 assisted them in driving out their fellow-unbelievers from 
 the land. 
 
 Girgis hau often spoken to Stella of her father's fearless 
 attitude towards the pan-Islamic body and how he had 
 more than once felt anxious for his safety on the occasion 
 of religious festivals in Cairo, when Islamic fanaticism is 
 fanned to hysteria! irresponsibility. Upon learning of the 
 disturbances at Asiut her father had hurried off to the 
 scene of action, for, besides owning a great deal of property 
 in the town, which brought him in a heavy rent-roll, he 
 was one of the governing body of the city hospital, and 
 held various honorary posts in charitable institutions in the 
 neighbourhood.*' Like many other wealthy Syrians, he had 
 invested his money in landed property when it was of 
 little value, before English rule had brought commercial 
 safety and prosperity to Egypt. The land he had pur- 
 chased in Cairo for almost a song was now of immense 
 value. But it was not for mere personal reasons he
 
 110 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 went to Asiut, but to do what he could to bring reason to 
 the minds of the incensed Christians. The disturbances in 
 Asiut were entirely Christian in character ; the Moham- 
 medans were only too well pleased to have successfully 
 fanned the spirit of discontent among the Copts against 
 the English Government. 
 
 Stella was more than anxious for her father's safety: 
 added to her fears for her father, another difficulty had 
 suddenly thrust itself upon her overstrained nerves the 
 evening post had brought a letter from Nancy Thorpe, 
 offering herself for a few weeks' visit to tin Lekejians. 
 She had never been in Egypt, and as her brother Vernon 
 was there, her aunt, with whom she lived, had consented 
 to let her visit Stella if it was convenient for Mrs. Lekejian 
 to have her. What was Stella to do ? She was well 
 aware that Vernon would very much prefer that his sister 
 should never know the true position Stella and her rela- 
 tives held in Cairo, and she had to confess to herself that 
 she also would be glad if little Nancy never knew. She 
 could not allow her to come to Cairo unless she understood 
 exactly what she was coming to. Although she would have 
 preferred that Nancy should not come, she also knew that 
 she would be furious if Vernon expressed any objection 
 to her coming. If he did object to Nancy's visit her own 
 engagement to him must ^come to an end. At the 
 very possibility of his objecting her spirit rose in revolt 
 ... he must not ... he dare not ! There flashed into 
 her mind the picture of English Nancy, with her rose- 
 leaf face and Saxon fairness, a glaring contrast to Girgis 
 Boutros, with his granite features and his crisp hair black 
 as the wigs of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Would Vernon 
 allow his sister to be seen with a native f Would Girgis 
 complicate her difficulties by ceasing to love herself and 
 transferring his devotion to Nancy t 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian had seen Stella open Nancy's letter : 
 the girl's expression puzzled her as she read it ... she 
 wondered what it contained. As a rule Stella handed 
 over Nancy's letters for her to read ; to-night her daughter 
 folded the letter up and slowly replaced it in its envelope, 
 saying as she did so, , " Good-night, mother doarest ; I 
 think I shall go to bed . . . I'm so very tired." 
 
 " Good-night, my darling." Mrs. Lekejian kissed her 
 daughter tenderly on both cheeks. She almost opened the 
 subject of the evening's entertainment at 1he British 
 Agency, but she refrained ; Stella's expression forbade any 
 confession of the sympathy she felt for her. Mrs. Lekejian 
 knew that the party had tried her daughter's nerves 
 almost to breaking point, though she had no idea Michael
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 111 
 
 Ireton had spoken of his love to her. Mrs. Lekejian be- 
 longed to the type of women, who understand men like 
 Vernon Thorpe better than men like Michael Ireton. If 
 she had lived in England all her life and had never been 
 exposed to the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of men 
 of Vernon's kind, she would have admired him ungrudgingly 
 she would have found his nature perfectly in sympathy 
 with her own . . . with Michael she would never have had 
 the same amount of sympathy. The seriousness of his 
 stronger character made her a little shy with him, whereas 
 it was the very seriousness in his nature which gave Stella 
 the feeling of rest in his presence, the feeling of security 
 she so much needed. In many respects she was years older 
 than her mother, whose simplicity of character made her 
 extremely lovable, and gave her an air of youthfulness. 
 When Mrs. Lekejian left the room, and Stella at last 
 found herself alone, she opened Nancy's letter and re-read 
 it slowly : 
 
 "MY DEAREST STELLA, 
 
 " The Lattlejohns have invited me to go to Egypt with them 
 at the end of January. May I spend a week with you before we 
 start on our trip up the Nile, that is to say if you can conveniently 
 have mo ? If you can't, please say so, and I will stay with you, if 
 I may, when we return from Assouan. By the way, when will it 
 got too hot for Assouan ? And do tell me what sort of clothes I 
 shall want for the Nile voyage. Oh, I forgot ! I shan't have time 
 to get your answer by post, so will you send me a telegram just to 
 say ' yes or no.' I shall quite understand if you can't have me 
 just now. Isn't it ripping for me, and won't it bo lovely seeing you 
 so soon 1 I am bursting with excitement. We have heard very 
 little from Vernon lately I suppose he thinks he's busy ; he will 
 be surprised 1 How useful he'll be at dances : I've got some ducky 
 party frocks. I'm beginning to read up books about Egypt, but I 
 oan't make head or tail of the awful gods, and as for tho cartouches. 
 ... I shall like the desert far better than the temples and 
 museums, I'm sure. 
 
 ' ' Now, good-bye, dear girl ; some one is waiting to post this. 
 I do hope you can have me : 
 
 " Yours in great glee, 
 
 " NANCY. 
 
 " P.S. It's all been so sudden that I can't believe it's true." 
 
 Tears came into Stella's eyes as she folded up the letter. 
 Gay and light-hearted Nancy who adored her, of what 
 use would her dance-frocks be 1 She belonged to the very 
 sort of people who, if they had come out to Egypt as 
 strangers, would have classed Stella, as " Native," as 
 an " Impossible Levantine ! " She almost hated the 
 girl for it, yet she felt sure that if she allowed Nancy to yii<
 
 112 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 her she would be loyal and true to her, and would 
 refuse to know any of the English residents who had 
 ignored herself and her people. In the morning she 
 would have to tell Vernon what Nancy's letter contained. 
 She wondered what he would say ! . . . how he would 
 look t Stella was determined that she would not put 
 Nancy off with excuses, that she would not fall in with 
 the idea she was so sure Vernon would express, of making 
 some excuse to stop her coming, and getting married before 
 the next Cairo season and going home ; in this way Nancy 
 and his people need never know the position Stella held in 
 Cairo. * Stella laughed bitterly to herself. '' It's a merciful 
 thing that Syrians are not coloured people, though they 
 might well be, for the social stigma that is flung at them, 
 or I might have a black baby, and that would give the 
 secret away. . . ." There must be no secret : her people 
 were as good as the Thorpes any day : intellectually she 
 knew that they were their superiors. 
 
 It was not until long after the late night-noises had died 
 down, the mysterious noises of an Oriental land, and still- 
 ness reigned over the city of a hundred minarets and over 
 the desert tombs of the Caliphs, that Stella went to bed ; 
 he had sat by her window lost in a mirage of thought. 
 
 There also was the knowledge of Michael Ireton's con- 
 fession that he loved her ; it gave her an indescribable and 
 delicious pleasure, for there is no tender-hearted woman 
 living who does not derive comfort and satisfaction from 
 the reflection that she has made a strong man love her 
 strong intellectually as well as physically. She wondered 
 how she would have felt towards him if he had tried to 
 make her love him madly, as he had said . . . how she 
 would have felt towards him if she had never met Vernon 1 
 If only the two men could be made into one, what an ideal 
 combination they would make ! 
 
 The first mueddin had sounded before she fell asleep. 
 She woke with a start, for in her dreams Nancy was in 
 Cairo, and had come into the drawing-room when Michael 
 Ireton's arms were round her and Michael Ireton's lips 
 were pressed against her own. A flame of shame burned 
 in Stella's being : she was revolting to herself, and yet 
 at the back of her mind lay a little unconscious regret that 
 things were only as they had been the night before ! 
 
 When her Coptic maid brought her early cup of tea there 
 was a note on the tray in Michael Ireton's handwriting 
 She opened it hurriedly. What could he have to say 1 
 
 " DEAR HADASSAH, 
 
 " I saw your brother late last night, after he had taken yon
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 113 
 
 home. I hoar that you are anxious for your father's safety in Asiut, 
 so I am going there this morning. I know I can't do much, but I 
 will keep you informed of your father's safety, which may be of 
 some comfort to you. 
 
 " We can do the Coptic churches together another time, and I 
 believe Mr. Thorpe will bo just as well pleased as I should be, under 
 the same circumstances, if I am not there. God bless you, 
 Hadassah, and don't forgot that I am your friend for always, 
 
 " MICHAEL IRETON." 
 
 Michael had gone to Asiut because her father was there 
 . . . here was kindness indeed ! But if there was any 
 trouble in Asiut, would her father be allowed to stay in the 
 city ? And if he was, would Michael not also be in danger ? 
 The feeling would be very strong against all foreigners, for 
 as Asiut in almost completely a Coptic city, the Moham- 
 medan element would be largely outbalanced. Besides, 
 it would suit the Nationalist party very well to allow the 
 Copts to treat the foreign Christians as insultingly as they 
 pleased. 
 
 Stella did not know whether Michael's going relieved her 
 mind, or had added one more anxiety to the many. 
 
 She slipped on her bedroom -gown and went to her 
 mother's room. When her mother answered the gentle 
 knock, she was little prepared to see her daughter's large 
 eyes looking at her from a very pale face. " Come in, 
 dearest," she said. " What news has the post brought 
 TOM ? " She saw Michael Ireton's letter in her daughter's 
 
 " May I get into bed with you, mum dear, and I'll tell 
 you ? " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian opened up the bed -clothes and made a 
 
 Elace for her daughter by her side. Since the days when 
 tella had spent her long holidays with her mother, and 
 had been allowed to get into bed with her in the mornings, 
 she had never lain there. Stella felt once more like a little 
 rhild ; once more her mother was her comforter and 
 protector. 
 
 " Mother," she said, after a moment's silence, " Mr. 
 Ireton has gone to Asiut this morning." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian looked at her daughter with inquiring 
 eyes. 
 
 " He thought we might be worrying about father. He 
 went on his account." 
 
 " How kind of him ! " Something in Stella's eyes em- 
 barrassed her mother. 
 
 " He is the kindest thing I have ever known ; 
 there never was any one so kind ..." she handed her 
 mother Michael's note. Mrs. Lekejian read it.
 
 114 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Stella ! " 
 
 Their eyes met for one moment, then Stella's dropped. 
 She could not speak to her mother of this man's love for 
 her, for had he not said that she was to forget it, that he 
 had conquered it, that he was from henceforth to be only 
 her friend 1 He was going to Asiut in a spirit of friendship, 
 not of love. . . . 
 
 " I have something else to say to you, mother. Nancy 
 wants to pay us a visit she is coming out to Egypt directly. 
 She asks me to wire to her if you can take her. ..." 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 " Of course we can take her, dearest." Mrs. Lekejian's 
 voice trembled a little. 
 
 " Mother," Stella said, forcing herself to speak " if 
 Vernon shouldn't want her to come 1 " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian did not reply, and in the silence mother and 
 daughter heard the quicker beating of each of their hearts. 
 
 "I must tell Vernon she wants to come. If he should 
 object . . ." Stella's voice died away, she pulled the 
 bed-clothes over her face. ..." Oh, mother ! " 
 
 The nert moment Mrs. Lekejian's arms were round her, 
 she was holding her child very closely to her. " My 
 dearest," she said. " Oh, my dearest ! I sometimes 
 wish I had never been born. What have I done t what 
 have I done t " 
 
 " Hush, mother, don't ! It's no one's fault, it's some- 
 thing far beyond human blame." For a little time they 
 held each other very closely. Arms of love were what 
 Stella needed at the moment. 
 
 " We may be mistaken, darling. Perhaps Vernon will 
 be glad that Nancy is coming ; we mustn't blame him 
 before we know." 
 
 " He may not, mum . . . but if he objects, he must 
 remember that between him and my people there is no 
 choice." 
 
 " Oh, Stella ! " Mrs. Lekejian's eyes filled with tears. 
 She did not blame her daughter, for she knew what her 
 feelings must be towards a race of people with whom she 
 had little in common, and she remembered how she herself 
 had renounced her own people for her husband ; but she did 
 not know her daughter, she had not reckoned with the 
 Irish pride that had descended to her through her own 
 blood ; she did not realise her unswerving allegiance to her 
 own flesh and blood. 
 
 " I mean, mother, that if my people are not to be Ver- 
 non's ... if he objects to Nancy entering Cairene society 
 under your chaperonage from father's roof, I will never 
 become his wife."
 
 115 
 
 A cry of pity burst from her mother's lips. " But you 
 love him, Stella ! . . . Oh, my child ! my child," Be- 
 wilderment and dismay filled her. 
 
 " I love him and hate him, mother ! " 
 
 " Has he ever said anything, anything about . . . t " 
 
 " He wishes me to go to England and wait there until he 
 comes home . . . then he will marry me ! " 
 
 " But could you not, dearest ! . . . I can't bear to see 
 you suffer. . . . He may be wise, he may be considering 
 your happiness, not his own feelings." 
 
 A cry was torn from Stella's heart. She had risen to 
 go to her own room, but she flung herself across her mother's 
 bed in a passion of weeping. ... " Don't, mother, don't 
 tempt me, don't be like Vernon I can't bear it ; the half 
 of me that he owns can't stand the temptation, but it's 
 the lower half of me ! " . . . The other half, which he 
 doesn't know, and won't even try to understand, won't 
 allow me to be a traitor to my people, to my father, to 
 you, to Nicolas. It won't allow me to humble my head in 
 the dust for the sake of his love. . . ." She stopped ; 
 her eyes sought her mother's. ... " Oh 1 pray God, 
 mother, that the other half won't win." 
 
 Her mother could not speak, for the thoughts that filled 
 her mind must not be spoken, even to her own child. She 
 had not lived in Cairo and mixed in the strange society of 
 European- Orientals for twenty years without having learnt 
 something of their true natures, but her love for her hus- 
 band had never allowed her to utter one word of her real 
 feeling towards them. 
 
 After her outburst of weeping Stella became perfectly 
 self-possessed. " I am making a mountain out of nothing," 
 she said ; " please forget how stupid I've been. Vernon's 
 coming for me at nine o'clock, so I must hurry." 
 
 " What are you going to do t " 
 
 " We were going to see some Coptic churches together." 
 
 " Why do you say you were f Are you not t " 
 
 " Because Mr. Ireton was coming too ... in fact he and 
 I had planned to do them together, and then I asked 
 Vernon to come with us." 
 
 " He won't enjoy them, will he t " 
 
 " But I shall," Stella smiled. " It's no use allowing 
 him to think that I'm always going to do only the things 
 he likes, mother, is it t " 
 
 " Not a bit, dear, if you will enjoy it." 
 
 " I should not enjoy not doing them, because that would 
 be doing just what I try so hard not to do." 
 
 " What is that, dear." 
 
 " Giving in to him on every point when he is there to
 
 116 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 urge it ... and persuading myself that I am going to be 
 BO strong-minded when I'm by myself." 
 
 "The old-fashioned woman always did give in, dear 
 . . . Do you think they were any the unhappier for it t " 
 
 " So did the harem woman, mother, because she was 
 neglected if she didn't." 
 
 ' My dearest ! " Tears sprang, like summer rain, into 
 Mrs. Lekejian's eyes. 
 
 Stella's arms went round her. " Mum, dear, I didn't 
 mean anything . . . really, I didn't, only I want to stamp 
 right out of my nature all the elements of the Eastern 
 woman's attitude towards men, and I sometimes think 
 that my love for Vernon is primitive and Eastern. . . . 
 It has nothing to do with my intellectual nature . . . 
 there are moments when I should like Vernon to take me 
 away and shut me up in a castle and keep me all to himself, 
 keep me from hearing or knowing anything about all the 
 great and important subjects of the day. ... I'd enjoy 
 it, mother. . . . Are you ashamed of me t " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian smiled as she thought to herself how 
 every woman has longed to be a slave to some man's pas- 
 sion. But she only said : " It's a natural instinct, it will 
 pass ; it's nothing unusual." 
 
 Stella shook her head. ... " It's more than that, 
 mother. . . . It's stronger than that . . . it's the East 
 and the West horribly muddled up in me." 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 STELLA and Vernon were just starting off to see the Coptic 
 churches in Babylon, which is the name of the portion of 
 the native city of Cairo where the Coptic churches lie 
 hidden away like the secret meeting-houses of the early 
 Christians in Rome, when their exit was stopped by the 
 appearance of their d:'gnifled servant, Joseph, who told 
 Stella that a young dragoman had called and had asked 
 to see her father ; on hearing that he was not at home, he 
 had asked if he could see her brother. When he was told 
 that Nicolas also was not in the house he had entreated to 
 be allowed to speak to the daughter of the house . . . his 
 business being most urgent. 
 
 Stella turned to Vernon. " I had better see him for a 
 moment. ' What is his name t " ghe asked Joseph. 
 
 " Mahmud Hamdi." 
 
 "That's the name of the young Arab who showed us 
 over the pyramids about a year ago. I wonder what he 
 wants t Do you mind coming into the library with me
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 117 
 
 while I see him ? " Vernon followed her into the library 
 which was also Mr. Lekejian's private office. " I will see 
 him in here," Stella said to Joseph. " Tell him I have 
 only five minutes to spare." 
 
 At Joseph's bidding a superb young Arab stepped quietly 
 into the room and salaamed profoundly. Vernon was 
 amazed at the dignity of his bearing, and at the elegance 
 with which he wore his rich dress. His was not the 
 usual bizarre uniform of a dragoman nothing could 
 have been in better taste or more pleasing to the eye than 
 his native outfit. 
 
 " You remember me, my lady ? " he said in English. 
 
 " Yes, I remember you . . . you are Mahmud Hamdi. 
 . . . What do you wish to tell me I " 
 
 Stella spoke coldly, and there was impatience in her 
 voice : these fine young dragomen were vain creatures ; it 
 did not do to treat them graciously, although their manners 
 suggested the most perfect breeding. 
 
 Mahmud smiled softly. His delicate teeth shone like 
 jewels against his clearly-chiselled lips, which were child- 
 ishly pink and smooth. " My lady, there is much trouble 
 in my famine ; I come to ask your father's advice." 
 
 " Why do you consult my father f " Stella said. " He 
 is a Christian." 
 
 " No matter, my lady, him very just man, him write 
 to the papers and tell Lord Minton ? " 
 
 " What has happened ? " Stella said. " Please tell me 
 quickly ; I am going out ; I have very little time." 
 
 " Yes, my lady, I will tell you very soon. . . . Your 
 gen-le-man him wait a little, him very kind. . . . My 
 father rich man, him own much land ; him not want for 
 anything." 
 
 " Yea, yes," Stella said. " I know all about your 
 family." 
 
 " Very well, my lady, my big brother him in prison for 
 stealing antiquities. It one big lie, my lady ; my brother 
 no need of any money, my father give him plenty, plenty, 
 plenty ! " Mahmud waved his hand to suggest the rolling 
 ocean of wealth which his father distributed amongst his 
 sons. 
 
 " Then why is he in prison ? " 
 
 " I will tell you, my lady . . . Mohammed Hassan very 
 jealous of him, Mohammed him pay the courts 700 to 
 put my brother in prison." 
 
 " And what do you want my father to do ? " 
 
 " My lady, if your father tell Lord Minton, him very just 
 man ; him give order to have case tried again in English 
 courts."
 
 118 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Oh," Stella said. " That's it : your brother was tried in 
 a native court and was sentenced by a native judge : now 
 you wish the case tried in the English courts : you believe 
 in English justice t " 
 
 " Yes, my lady, because my brother him innocent ; 
 every one knows Mohammed Hassan bribed the jury ; 
 him very bad man." 
 
 Stella looked at Vernon. ... " You have heard all 
 this f " she said. 
 
 " Yes," Vernon said. . . . He didn't believe a word oi 
 what the man had said, because it was not in his nature 
 to believe anything that an Oriental said, unquestioned. 
 . . . Stella knew that the Arab was probably speaking the 
 truth, because his father was a reputedly wealthy man, and 
 his sons bore the character of being honest and trust- 
 worthy ; but what interested her was the confession from 
 the lips of this same young man who had talked to her so 
 finely upon the subject of " Egypt for the Egyptians," 
 the day he had acted as her guide to the pyramids, that 
 the native courts were corrupt, and that he was now anxious 
 to have his brother's case tried again in the British courts. 
 It was typical of the ethics of the Nationalist party in 
 Cairo. 
 
 " And you think the native courts are corrupt 1 " 
 
 " I know it, my lady : if your father tell Lord Minton, 
 him try my brother's case in English courts." 
 
 Stella was silent for a moment. 
 
 Mohammed turned his attention to Vernon. " Mister 
 . . . you not seen pyramids t I not seen you there. . . . 
 To-night very fine moon : you bring young lady to see 
 pyramids, I find most splendid camels ; you enjoy very 
 good excursion. I very fine dragoman : ii yon not want 
 camels I take you very nice walk, no tourist peoples, all 
 very quiet and nice for young lady and gen-le-man." 
 
 " No, thank you," Vernon said, " you stick to your 
 business about your brother." 
 
 Stella smiled, for Vernon was speaking to the magnifi- 
 cently dressed Arab as though he was a street merchant 
 selling fly-switches whereas he was really the son of a 
 wealthy landed proprietor. 
 
 "Well, Mahmud," Stella said thoughtfully, " if I ask 
 my father to use his influence on your brother's behalf, 
 will you promise me that when you are talking about 
 Egypt for the Egyptians, you will remember, that you na 
 longer want Egyptian judges in your courts. Will you 
 tell all the tourists, when you speak about the injustice ot 
 the English people filling the posts in your Government 
 w'ii"h might be held by natives, that you have changed
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 119 
 
 your mind that you by personal experience know that 
 Egypt is not yet ready for self-government tell them 
 that you came to my father, who is a Christian, to ask him 
 to help you to have your brother's case tried in the un- 
 corrupt English courts ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, my lady, certainly ! I will promise every- 
 thing you wish." 
 
 Mahmud was eager to promise anything, for his talk of 
 Egypt for the Egyptians had only been froth, as most of 
 the fine talk of the young Egyptians in Cairo is. " My 
 lady, I tell everybody English peoples the most just in the 
 world ... I tell everybody if English courts send a man 
 to prison that man him guilty." 
 
 " Very well," Stella said, " I'll see what my father can 
 do." 
 
 Mahmud salaamed respectfully. " My lady, I thank 
 you." He turned to Vernon : My gen-le-man, if you 
 come to see pyramids you not forget Mahmud Hamdi. 
 Good morning, my lady ; good morning, my gen-le-man." 
 
 " Good morning," Stella said, " and don t you forget 
 that the native courts are corrupt." 
 
 When the Arab had left Vernon said, " Dp you believe 
 a word that beggar said ? Do you think this brother did 
 steal the curios ! " 
 
 " No," Stella said thoughtfully. " I shouldn't think 
 he did : they're very well off, though Mahmud will take 
 a few piastres for a morning's work if you can't afford to 
 give him any more or won't give it him. I should think 
 that his story's true the native courts are dreadfuDy 
 corrupt. ..." She turned to her lover smilingly : 
 " That's one thing I think no one will deny that the 
 English courts are the best and straightest in the world." 
 
 I'm glad we've one virtue in your eyes." Vernon had 
 Hot forgotten their quarrel of the evening before. 
 
 " I think you're all virtues and prejudices ; the English 
 are singularly free from big vices and the petty sins of 
 corruption perhaps your prejudice is only the self- 
 righteousness of a naturally wncorrupt nation." 
 
 When they arrived at the point at which they were to 
 meet Michael Ireton, Stella said, " Mr. Ireton isn't coming 
 with us ; I had a note from him this morning he's gone 
 to Asiut." 
 
 " Whatever for 1 Isn't there some disturbance going 
 on there T I read rather a nasty account of it in the paper 
 this morning ; I should think English people had better 
 give Asiut a wide berth at present." 
 
 " My father had to go there last night. Mr. Ireton 
 thought that mother and I would be anxious about him,
 
 120 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 so he went off this morning. Besides, he wanted to see 
 for himself what was going on : he's awfully interested in 
 this Copt question, and indeed in almost everything con- 
 nected with Egypt." 
 
 Vernon did not speak. 
 
 Stella understood why, although he had a very excellent 
 excuse for not doing so, for they were passing through 
 one of the narrowest and most crowded streets in the 
 native town. . . . Scantily clothed men, carrying goat- 
 skins full of water for sale, were barging into them with fear- 
 ful yells, and at unexpected corners camels' heads appeared 
 high above their own, their soft tread giving no warning of 
 their near approach. White donkeys, bearing fat women 
 enveloped in black, trotted along regardless of whether 
 there was room for the market produce they carried in 
 their wallets to crush its way through the crowd of loafing 
 and hurrying people. 
 
 Vernon hated the whole thing ; the smells and the flies 
 and the noise. They far outweighed in his mind the ex- 
 quisite beauty of the mosque domes, which looked as though 
 they were made of delicate lace against the blue of the 
 African sky ; and if there were minarets overhead, from 
 which the call to prayer had sounded five times a day for 
 over five hundred years, he did not see them ; if there was a 
 feast of colour and a banquet of beauty hi the old meshre- 
 biya window-screens of the mediaeval houses, it was all to 
 him a filthy place, not fit for ladies to pass through. He 
 wished to God that Stella didn't care for old things ; it 
 would have been so jolly out at the Ghezira Sports Club, or 
 motoring by the banks of the Nile, where there was some- 
 thing green and clean to look at. The difficulty of walking 
 and seeing that Stella was not molested occupied all his 
 attention, while at the back of his mind there was the 
 irritating thought that Michael Ireton had gone to Asiut 
 to please Stella. When at last they reached the particular 
 church Stella had chosen to see, they found that a service 
 was going on. A dozen choir-boys were squatting on 
 the floor at the feet of the priests. Their behaviour was 
 BO shocking that before Stella and Vernon had been in 
 the church a minute one of the priests, who wore a white 
 garment with a Coptic cross on bis back, of bright scarlet, 
 stooped down, and picking up a wooden clog which one 
 of the boys had discarded, threw it angrily at the most 
 unruly member. 
 
 A number of women, who were all very closely veiled and 
 enveloped in black shawls, were sitting on the floor in a sort 
 of pen which was hidden by the finest meshrebiya screens ; 
 they were nuns, and had evidently come in from the con-
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT l2l 
 
 vent which formed a part of the extraordinary building. 
 Certainly Vernon had never been in any church the least 
 like it before it was far more pagan and mysterious than 
 the open and spacious Mohammedan mosques, most of 
 which he admired ungrudgingly. Everything about this 
 Coptic Church jarred on him, the close atmosphere, the 
 certainty of vermin, the irreverent attitude of the officiating 
 priest. Stella was intensely interested, but she made a 
 sign to Vernon that they would go ; she saw that he was 
 bored, and she did not wish to force her point. She had 
 had her way and so, after they had walked hurriedly 
 through the convent, where the black-swathed nuns were 
 squatting on their bare kitchen floor, drinking coffee out 
 of very small cups, she determined to let him off sight- 
 seeing. 
 
 The Coptic retreat for women who had determined never 
 to marry was altogether sordid and unemotional. As they 
 descended the staircase a Coptic youth met them at the 
 bottom of it and implored Stella to enter the lower church ; 
 it was much more open, and larger, and had been freely 
 restored. . . . Vernon exclaimed : " Surely you've had 
 enough for one morning ! I can't stand that awful atmos- 
 phere any more : do come along." 
 
 The Coptic youth in European clothes implored her 
 again ; he saw a chance of improving his imperfect English 
 and of relieving the monotony of the long and wearying 
 service by gloating upon Stella's beauty. 
 
 When she refused and turned away, Vernon gave a deep 
 sigh of relief. 
 
 Stella smiled. " You're glad that's over." 
 
 " Yes, rather. I hate these beastly smelly places. The 
 mosques are lovely ; if only there was anywhere to sit 
 down in them, we could go into one and talk . . . but 
 these dark churches hold all the smells and dirt that have 
 ever got into them since the time of St. Mark. I say," 
 he cried eagerly, " do let's go out to the pyramids, and 
 get some of the clear air of the desert into our lungs." 
 
 Stella agreed willingly ; it was on her mind that Nancy's 
 visit had to be spoken about, and she thought that the 
 desert would be a very good place to introduce the subject. 
 
 As soon as they could find an arabeah which looked clean 
 enough to drive in, they dashed off at a break-neck pace to 
 the point where the tram starts for the pyramids and the 
 Mena House Hotel. It was not much after eleven o'clock 
 when they found themselves seated in the desert just under 
 the pyramids. 
 
 The sweet air after the close atmosphere of the city 
 was so invigorating, that Vernon was soon in one 
 i
 
 122 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 of his sunniest moods. He had no wish to talk, nor had 
 Stella ; they were absoluetly alone, for tourists never 
 wander into this lower portion of the desert ; but now and 
 then little native Arcadian scenes would unfold themselves 
 before their eyes with a simplicity and naturalness which 
 was in keeping with the soul of the desert. 
 
 " I don't mind these desert people a bit," Vernon said ; 
 " they're all right. ... I suppose they are Arabs T " 
 
 " Yes, Bedouin Arabs. The people in the villages round 
 the pyramids pride themselves on the pureness of their 
 Arab blood." 
 
 There was silence again. Vernon was thinking that he 
 wouldn't mind in the least if all Stella's aunts and cousins 
 were of pure Arab blood, if they were as simple and dignified 
 as these quiet villagers. 
 
 Stella was saying to herself, " Now I must tell him about 
 Nancy." 
 
 " Vernon," she said abruptly, " I had a letter from Nancy 
 this morning." 
 
 " Hullo ! " he said, " how is she ? . . . Nancy would 
 love this ..." ho indicated the desert ..." wouldn't 
 she t But Lord ! how she'd hate those beastly churches. 
 By the way, why did every man who came in carry a 
 crutch t they couldn't all be lame ! " 
 
 Stella smiled. " They must not sit during service, and 
 the services often last for hours ; they carry crutches to rest 
 upon while praying." 
 
 " How odd ! They are so strict about some things and 
 so slack about others ! " He lapsed into silence again. 
 
 " Nancy says she is coming to Egypt ; she will be in Cairo 
 next Thursday." 
 
 Vernon sprang to a sitting position he had been lying 
 at full length on the sand. " Good Lord ! Stella, do you 
 mean it ? " 
 
 " Yes, here's her letter." She handed it to him ; her 
 heart was beating very quickly. Vernon read it through 
 without comment ; for a few moments they remained silent. 
 
 " Well t " she said. 
 
 " Well f " Vernon said slowly. " I wish it needn't have 
 been, but I suppose it can't be helped." 
 
 " You wish what needn't have been t " 
 
 " Nancy's coming to Cairo." 
 
 " Why f " 
 
 " You know why, dear ; and what's more, you ish it 
 too, you can't deny it." 
 
 " I don't wish it," Stella said emphatically, but she 
 knew she was lying as she spoke. " You mean you're 
 ashamed of me and my people f "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 123 
 
 1 Dearest, how can you say so ? " 
 
 ' Because it's true. . . . I've not wired to Nancy yet, 
 but 1 must do so when I go back." 
 
 ' What are you going to say ? " 
 
 ' That depends." 
 
 ' Upon what 1 " 
 
 4 Your wishes." 
 
 ' Dearest," he said eagerly, " how nice of you ! Of 
 course I'd much rather she didn't come," he turned to the 
 letter again ..." but she's actually on her way out now, 
 BO whether she stays in Cairo or not she'll be" in Egypt. 
 . . ." He paused. ... " What's to be done I Great 
 Scot ! " 
 
 " Oh ! it's quite simple," Stella said. er words fell 
 very slowly from her lips ; they were like drops of ice. 
 
 " How is it quite simple T " 
 
 " I'll wire to her that we can't have her when she arrives ; 
 then I'll write to her and explain everything : if she chooses 
 to come to us after her trip up the Nile it won't matter to 
 you." 
 
 The tone of her words made her lover glance anxiously 
 at her face. " Why won't it matter to me ? " he said. " I 
 don't wish Nancy to stay in Cairo either before or after her 
 trip up the Nile." 
 
 " If she stays with me after she has heard all about our 
 position in society in Cairo, she will not be coming as my 
 future sister-in-law ... it need not trouble you." 
 
 " Stella," . . . ernon clasped her hands in his, " Stella, 
 what do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean just what I told you last night that if my 
 people can't be yours, yours can't be mine." 
 
 He held her hands more tightly. " But you will be 
 mine . . . you promised you would ... I hold you to it. 
 . . . Let's be quits : I don't care if you accept my people 
 or reject them we love each other, that's enough." 
 
 She tried to withdraw her hands ; her face was white 
 and tense. 
 
 " You don't love me any more, you are tired of me . . . 
 you make this an excuse." 
 
 Stella dropped her eyes. A curious revelation had come 
 to her at the very moment that he was telling her that he 
 would hold her to hia promise that his touch had ceased 
 to thrill her, that not once during the whole morning while 
 he had been with her had the old intoxicating flame of 
 passion rushed through her veins and drugged her will- 
 power. A terrible numbness came over her, she could not 
 speak. Vernon instinctively felt some lessening of his 
 power . . . the magnetic current had broken ! And as
 
 124 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 he felt it he hungered to kisa her back to subjection ; his 
 vanity was bruised ; he looked round to see if any one waa 
 in sight before pressing his lips to hers. There was no one 
 in sight ; he bent forward to draw her to him he must 
 make the flame ignite. 
 
 " You are mine," he said, " do you hear ? mine only, 
 and for ever. Stella, say you love me, say that only our 
 love matters ! . . ." 
 
 With a composure she hated herself for feeling she 
 allowed him to kiss her lips, to use his lover's privileges ; 
 she was eager to feel responsive, for as yet she was scarcely 
 conscious that she was not. 
 
 " Say you love me," he said ; " say it, darling ! I must 
 hear it from your lips." There was a new note of anxiety 
 in his voice the lack of response in her lips had awakened 
 it ; something made him feel less sure of her : it made 
 him angry, and doubly keen to subjugate her once more. . . . 
 It is a dangerous moment when a woman finds out for the 
 first time that the man she has blindly adored has no longer 
 the power to intoxicate her senses, that his kisses no longer 
 act as narcotics . . . 
 
 She pushed him gently away. " How ever much I love 
 you, it doesn't matter if you feel as you do about my people ; 
 I shouldn't consider my promise binding." 
 
 " I'm awfully fond of your mother and father, and I'll 
 pretend I love even Girgis and all your cousins, rather 
 than give you up. Will that please you ! " 
 
 He had caught her hands again, and imprisoned them 
 fiercely. 
 
 ' What about Nancy coming ! " 
 
 ' Let her come," he said hotly. 
 
 ' Thank you, dear ; I will ask her ; I'm so sorry." 
 
 ' Sorry. What for t " 
 
 ' That Nancy should have placed you in this awkward 
 position." 
 
 He smiled. "There, darling, I knew you didn't want 
 her to come it was only your pride." 
 
 " I only mean that I'm sorry for you because you mind ; 
 I don't, I'd rather she knew . . ." she paused. ... "I 
 think you're doing a very unwise thing." 
 
 " In what way ? " 
 
 " In persisting in continuing our engagement. You'd 
 much better take your liberty : I'm young enough to re- 
 cover from the shock." She smiled sweetly, to soften the 
 bitterness of her words. 
 
 "Then I don't," he said ; " and what's more, you've got 
 to promise that you'll never again mention the word liberty
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 125 
 
 or breaking off with me, if I do my utmost to please you 
 in regard to your people. Promise," he said he held 
 her face in his two hands " promise . . . say after me, 
 ' I, Stella Adair, promise to marry you, Vernon Thorpe, 
 at the soonest date possible, if you are as nice as you can 
 be to my people.' " 
 
 Stella looked laughingly into his eyes they were very 
 boyish and blue but as she looked the plain face, with 
 its strongly marked lines, of Michael Ireton rose up before 
 her, a curious coldness numbed her heart, a touch of pity 
 entered into her feeling for Vernon . . . his old master- 
 ship was dead. . . . She paused and then said slowly, 
 " I, Hadassah Lekejian for that is how it must be am 
 willing to marry you : the old engagement with Stella 
 Adair is a thing of the past ; the new compact must be 
 made with Hadassah Lekejian, the Syrian Hadassah 
 Lekejian, the cousin of Girgis Boutros." 
 
 " All right," he said, " so be it, insert Hadassah Lekejian 
 in the agreement and give me a kiss to seal it." Some- 
 thing of love's passion stirred Stella's senses as he renewed 
 the compact. They were young, and the peace of the 
 African desert enveloped them. For the time being 
 her soul was lulled to rest : the animal content of the 
 Bedouin women, in their trailing black garments, who kept 
 ever coming and going across the yellow sand, seemed very 
 enviable, while the stern outline of the pyramids, sil- 
 houetted against the turquoise sky, forced their " terror 
 of age " upon her, and showed her the folly of her own 
 unrest. 
 
 How could she be a slave to doubts and fears of human 
 passions 1 She had imagined that Vernon would be the 
 master of her desires for ever, that her great battle would 
 always be to free herself from the obsession of his love, to 
 act up to her own ideals, and not blindly obey him in all 
 things. In the old days the selfish enjoyment of admin- 
 istering to his selfishness had lowered her in her own eyes. 
 Now the bonds of love were loosening, another voice had 
 dropped a diviner poison in her ears. A new and awful 
 desire had come to her, to test her power over the stronger 
 man's heart, to make the man who was " the master of his 
 soul and the captain of his fate " love her madly ! Was 
 the senusal Levantine blood in her veins asserting its 
 true power ? The idea revolted her. She was angry with 
 herself for having discovered a flaw in the ideal she had 
 created, and enshrined in the outwardly perfect form of 
 Vernon Thorpe. At that moment he looked an ideal 
 lover, yet, the personality of Michael Ireton rose before 
 her mental vision. She closed her mind upon it in anger ;
 
 126 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 she had not wished to see it, she had used no effort of 
 memory to visualise it. 
 
 For the rest of their morning in the desert Stella was a 
 perfect lover. Her sweetness of disposition at all times 
 made her a delightful companion, and tliis morning the 
 voice which could not be hushed urged her to do her utmost 
 to please Vernon, and he asked for nothing more than 
 to idle in the golden sunshine by her side while he smoked 
 Egyptian cigarettes and watched the simple doings of the 
 peasant peoples. They talked lazily of many things ! 
 of Nancy's coming, of their proposed visit to the Fayyum 
 to see Girgis's farm, and of the possibility of their marriage 
 in the following winter. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 A WEEK, of horrible anxiety for Stella brought forth n 
 dreaded results. Mr. Lekejian had returned to the bosom 
 of his family unhurt, Michael Ireton had left Asiut for 
 Abydos, and Nancy had arrived and taken her place in 
 the Lekejian household as simply and happily as though 
 they had been English people living in Mayfair. 
 
 All Stella's dreaded explanations were unnecessary. 
 Nancy simply washed her hands of the English inhabitants 
 of Cairo she had introductions to many important people : 
 she refused to present any of them. Stella had not the 
 courage to tell her that Vernon had asked her to prevent 
 his sister paying them a visit during the season, and Vernon 
 himself seemed anxious not to mention the fact he had 
 been led into one private talk with Nancy upon the subject 
 of Stella's relations, in which Nancy had done some very 
 plain speaking. Of course she knew nothing at all about 
 the extremely difficult subject of mixed races in the East, 
 and in her loyalty to Stella she under-estimated the enor- 
 mous advantage it is to the young Egyptians in Cairo to 
 have the example of healthy-minded, sport -loving English- 
 men like Vernon Thorpe in their midst for, with all 
 their faults, the presence of the young Englishmen in 
 Egypt is a healthy influence for the nation's moral regenera- 
 tion. No other nation could give them a better example 
 of the manly characteristics in which they are most lacking 
 themselves. 
 
 Since Nancy's advent in Cairo, Nicolas had become a boy 
 again. Her high spirits and inexhaustible vitality had 
 shaken him out of himself : never had Stella seen him BO 
 light-hearted or happy. He had thrown off the gravity 
 and silence which had become habitual to him since hia
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 127 
 
 life had been spent in Cairo ; he was more like the en- 
 thusiastic and gay " old Nick " of his irresponsible student 
 days in Paris. When Nancy saw him lapse into gravity 
 and melancholy, she chaffed him out of it ; and as she had 
 always been an object of adoration she never doubted her 
 
 Eowers to beget affection, and she was not mistaken. Mr. 
 ekejian adored her : when she was in his presence he 
 beamed on her with tender, approving eyes, and when she 
 laughed he sighed. Alas, how seldom Stella's voice rang 
 through the old house like Nancy's ! 
 
 When the girls sauntered about the wonderful garden 
 arm in arm, something very warm and gracious flowed 
 through the old man's veins ; they were both so lovely, 
 both so dear to him, for Nancy was inexpressibly dear 
 to him because of her loyalty to Stella and her whole- 
 hearted adoption of his despised race. Also he had found, 
 in this little girl who had carried all the way from Eng- 
 land the freshness of hedge-roses in her cheeks and an 
 English child's lightness of laughter in her voice, a woman 
 of quick and resourceful intuition in a moment of need, and 
 splendidly intelligent about the graver matters of life. 
 On his return from Asiut he had discovered her installed 
 in his house as a member of his family, playing with his son 
 in a way which showed him that Nicolas was still very 
 impressionable and delightfully young in spite of his grave 
 manner ; and showering affection on both his wife and 
 daughter. 
 
 Towards himself Nancy evinced the warmest tokens of 
 friendship. The details of the Asiut disturbance he related 
 to her word for word, and he realised that she seized upon 
 the salient facts with a rapidity and sense that surprised 
 even the quick intelligence of the Syrian. And Nancy 
 was surprised to find what a staunch upholder of the English 
 policy in the East Stella's father was. Nothing that his 
 family had suffered through the narrow-mindedness of 
 social circles in Cairo had budged him one inch from his 
 loyalty to what he considered the right cause, or blinded 
 him to the fact that only since the English had been in 
 Egypt had there been anything resembling prosperity or 
 peace in the country. 
 
 " Things are bad enough as they are," he told Nancy, 
 as he had often told his wife and daughter. " The cess- 
 pools of Cairo are still here, but they are like lakes of pure 
 water compared to what they once were. I am old enough 
 to remember ' the other days,' and therefore I can judge. 
 In my young days you could not walk through the native 
 town without stepping into mire and filth which often 
 came up over the ankles."
 
 128 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 It waa a strange experience for Nancy, to find herself a 
 member of a household whose outlook upon many familiar 
 subjects was entirely new to her. She had been thrust into 
 the centre of a life palpitating with political unrest, she 
 waa seeing Egypt behind the veil . . . she was learning 
 to look upon her own race as not altogether unimpeach- 
 able or without blemish. 
 
 During the week that Nancy was in Cairo she had many 
 novel and exciting experiences. The second evening after 
 her arrival she went with the Lekejians and her brother to 
 see a Coptic wedding, and the night after to see a Moham- 
 medan one. They were so similar in character that she would 
 never have guessed that they were not both Mohammedan 
 if Stella had not told her. Vernon was with them on both 
 occasions, and Nancy was amazed to see how little real 
 interest he took in the extraordinary ceremonies and 
 festivities. He did not even think them picturesque, 
 though the Mohammedan marriage waa exceptionally 
 splendid, for the household was celebrating a double event, 
 the safe return of their elder son from Mecca and the 
 marriage of their younger son to a wealthy carpet-merchant's 
 daughter. The Lekejians were mere onlookers, like any 
 other strangers, but through their intimate knowledge of 
 Arabic Nancy waa initiated into all that passed. At the 
 Coptic wedding ahe and Stella were invited to go upstairs 
 to the women's part of the house and be introduced to 
 the bride, a shy, dark-eyed creature, sitting by herself in 
 a little room apart from the crowd with her husband's 
 best man. Her bridegroom was downstairs helping to 
 entertain his guests, according to customary etiquette. 
 
 Nancy had also seen the return of a Hadji from Mecca . . . 
 a sight she waa never likely to forget, for its amazing 
 pictures queness and mediaeval magnificence. To-night 
 they were to go to an Arab theatre ; the famous Arab 
 tenor Stella had ao often heard discussed by her brother 
 and his musical friends was to sing two solos. Vernon was 
 to make one of the party. When all the family were 
 together on such occasions Nancy could not help noticing 
 that her brother invariably found a place next to Mrs. 
 Lekejian, if he was not with Stella, for Mrs. Lekejian waa 
 extremely fond of him and often fought his battles when 
 Nancy attacked her brother with her hot tongue and ready 
 wit. Nancy had divined that Mrs. Lekejian waa the only 
 one of the party who understood Vernon or whom Vernon 
 understood ; the qualities which Stella had not inherited 
 from her mother kept a veil between herself and her lover 
 which could never be lifted. During the performance at 
 the Arab theatre Stella waa more than usually silent.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 129 
 
 Nancy was not to discover the reason until long afterwards : 
 Stella had been invited that same afternoon to take an 
 active part on the working committee which was being 
 organised in connection with the new Government schools 
 for the practical education of native girls in domestic 
 subjects. Her mind was running on the main features ol 
 the project, and they were keeping her preoccupied. 
 
 The Arab play, which was very biblical to Nancy, be- 
 cause of the biblical dress of the actors, who were all men, 
 and their solemn mien, as they sat on chairs arranged in a 
 half -moon far back on the stage and declaimed in dignified 
 tones, was not interesting enough to hold Stella's attention ; 
 and, as Nancy did not understand a word of what was being 
 said, the proceedings, with their unvaried monotony of 
 tone and gesture, " bored her to tears," she declared to 
 Nicolas. 
 
 Suddenly, the drama seemed to be gaining in interest, 
 for there were moans, and groans, and curious wi-human 
 exclamations of emotion coming from the large audience of 
 men which filled the body of the theatre. All the women 
 were out of sight in a gallery, behind a grille like a nuns' 
 gallery in a Catholic church. The wave of excitement 
 was followed by two veiled women being dragged across 
 the stage by fresh actors. At this juncture even Stella 
 evinced a little interest, and tried to interpret what was 
 happening to Nancy ; but the particular event of the 
 evening was the tenor, who came forward at last and was 
 welcomed with %sild and strange tokens of enthusiasm. 
 Nancy and Vernon were the only two Europeans in thi 
 house, Mrs. Lekejian excepted. 
 
 Just before the tenor commenced singing Nancy noticed 
 a wave of colour flood Stella's pale skin, and a look of 
 surprised pleasure light up her tragic eyes. Nancy did 
 not betray that she had noticed Stella's emotion, but 
 followed her gaze across the house to the level of the stalls, 
 and in so doing met the commanding eyes of Michael Ireton 
 fixed on their box. She wondered who he was, with his air 
 of distinction a distinction of individuality and strength. 
 When the tenor began, Michael Ireton was forgotten, for 
 never before had Nancy heard anything so monstrously 
 funny or so unlike her idea of beautiful singing. To her 
 ignorant ears it was frightfully ridiculous ; if the man was 
 singing a love-song, she thought it would have made a cat 
 laugh. Her eyes sought Stella's and when they met the 
 two girls could scarcely conceal their amusement. Vernon 
 had retired to the back of the box, where he remained 
 literally doubled up with quiet laughter. 
 
 But the Arab men in the body of the house were moved
 
 130 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 and enchanted. When he quavered and trilled, in the 
 strangest of falsetto voices, on one beat of a note for a longer 
 time than usual, they called out, " God approve thee, 
 God prosper thy voice ! " Nancy thought she could not 
 endure it a moment longer without laugliing outright, yet 
 the natives groaned or rocked to and fro with delight. In 
 their enjoyment there was something sensual and indelicate, 
 and the grunts of satisfaction they gave hurt the girl's 
 innate sense of decency. She was glad the Lekejians' box 
 removed them from the level of the crowd, for she felt that 
 Bhe would not like to meet the eyes of any one of the Arabs 
 who were giving such curious vent to their appreciation. 
 Stella was thankful that only her father and Nicolas could 
 understand the words of the song, for they were just bad 
 enough for Orientals to make their meaning much worse in 
 their imaginings. When the song was ended, and the 
 Arabs had grunted and sighed out their tokens of approval 
 and had showered roses and jasmine flowers at the singer, 
 Michael Ireton appeared in their box. From the first 
 moment when he shook hands with Stella and said his 
 formal " How do you do 1 " to Vernon, Nancy knew that 
 the big, dominating man loved her brother's fiancee, and 
 as a brother is never a very romantic personality to a 
 sister she wondered why Stella preferred Vernon to this 
 rather mysterious being who reminded her of all that she 
 had heard about Cecil Rhodes. 
 
 To-night Vernon looked delightfully well bred and 
 physically fit, and almost as fair as Nancy herself. In this 
 land of dark-eyed, almond -skinned peoples, he seemed 
 strikingly clean and blue-eyed. Michael Ireton's eyes were 
 unremarkable in size or colour, it was their sincerity and 
 melancholy that made them the pleasant feature of his 
 rather massive face. There was nothing little about 
 Ireton, and curiously enough, one of Nancy's first thoughts 
 about him was what Stella's had often been : " What a 
 rock of defence round any woman his arms would be, 
 what rest for any woman to find herself lost in their 
 strength ! " Nancy scarcely spoke to him, and when the 
 party left their box to walk up and down the ugly little 
 corridor outside, during the second and last act, she noticed 
 how anxious he was to speak to Stella alone. For some 
 feminine reason she helped him to achieve his object. 
 
 " You are not looking well," he said to Stella, after her 
 slight embarrassment at meeting him had subsided ; 
 " have things been troubling you over much since I saw 
 you last t " He looked at her earnestly and spoke very 
 guardedly : in his bearing towards her there was more 
 emotion than in his words, and Stella felt it.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 131 
 
 " No, oh no ! " she said quickly, " things have been 
 better. . . . Nancy is such a dear, I love having her." 
 
 " I'm BO glad, little girl," he said tenderly, " for I'm 
 going away, and it will make things easier for me to know 
 that you have got her with you . . . that . . ." He did 
 not finish, for Stella's cry of " Going away ? " startled him : 
 her words merely repeated his own, but there was a world 
 of meaning in them. 
 
 " Yes, going away," he said, " for I find myself defeated, 
 utterly routed. I can't be only your friend, Hadassah. . . . 
 I knew it when I saw you to-night ; it's no use pretending." 
 
 A sudden desire to free herself from Vernon over- 
 whelmed her . . . she longed for nothing so much as to 
 tell Michael Ireton to stay to stay and pretend no 
 longer. She could scarcely get breath enough to speak . . . 
 Ireton thought he had hurt her. 
 
 " I know I promised," he said, " never to speak of this 
 again : I'm a selfish beast, but . . ." he paused, " well, I 
 only wanted to explain why I am going away for ever with- 
 out seeing you any more ; I was pretending it was for 
 your sake, but it is pure selfishness . . . forgive me ! " 
 
 Stella held out a trembling hand. " Don't go, please 
 don't go ... I want you to stay . . ." there was some- 
 thing in her voice that made him turn with a sudden direct- 
 ness and look at her ... he had been avoiding her eyes, 
 not even glancing at her pale face while he spoke. 
 
 " I am not to go ... you ask me to stay 1 " He seemed 
 to tower over her in a way which made her feel very help- 
 less and captured. " You can only mean one thing in 
 saying that . . . do you mean it, Haddassah ? . . . canyon 
 mean it I " He seized her hands and crushed them in his 
 until the pain almost made her cry out they were alone 
 in a part of the passage which was unfrequented. She did 
 not answer, so he repeated, " Is it true ! Why do you ask 
 me to stay t " 
 
 She tried to free herself and said, " Go oh go, go ! You 
 must think I am mad." 
 
 But he held her fast. " You are not mad," he said ; 
 " but the maddest thing you can do is to marry a man 
 you don't any longer love ... it is wronging Mm as well 
 as yourself . . . Don't send we away if you care for me ! 
 Things will come right." 
 
 The suggestion from his lips that she no longer loved 
 Vernon horrified her : of course she loved him, if she loved 
 any one on earth. She tried to tell him so, but her 
 lame protests were stopped, for there was a commotion 
 and cries of alarm : Stella heard words which blanched 
 her cheeks and made her fly from Michael Ireton's side
 
 132 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 to the entrance of their box, where a crowd had gathered, 
 When she reached the door, Nicolas sprang to her side, 
 and put his arm round her : " Come with me, Stella," he 
 said tenderly ; " Vernon has been wounded : he saved 
 father's life a moment ago down in the buffet." It seemed 
 as if Stella herself had been suddenly stabbed, for she 
 almost sank to the ground. Nicolas whispered to her, 
 " Be brave, dear ; he is not dangerously hurt." 
 
 " And father, is he safe T Where is Vernon t Take me 
 to him." With a splendid effort she straightened herself 
 and said, " I am all right ; I will be perfectly calm." 
 
 " Father wasn't touched, and Vernon's not badly hurt." 
 
 " Where is he f You must let me go to him." 
 
 A feeling of shame for her disloyalty to Vernon 
 flooded her being. " Take me to him, Nicolas," she 
 said most pleadingly ; " he will be expecting me." She 
 longed to abase herself before Vernon to atone for her guilt. 
 
 " You can't see him to-night, dearest ; he's gone to the 
 hospital. Fortunately Dr. Mason was in the house, just 
 outside the buffet ; he carried him off at once in a cab ; 
 he'll be all right when the bleeding's stopped." 
 
 Stella collapsed on the seat nearest the door in their 
 box. Nancy flew to her, pale and trembling but calm ; 
 her young arms closed tenderly round the shattered girl. 
 " He'll be all right, darling, in no time ... it is nothing 
 serious, it really isn't," she appealed touchingly to Nicolas. 
 " The doctor said it wasn't, didn't he ! " She looked 
 again to Nicolas to back her words, for Mrs. Lekejian 
 had gone home with her husband. 
 
 Stella made a great effort to regain her self-control. 
 " How did it happen f " she said. " Have they caught 
 the murderer t Oh, these wretches, how merciless they 
 are!" 
 
 " Yes, they got him he's in safe keeping now. To do 
 him justice, he didn't make any attempt to escape ; he's 
 one of the Al-Lewa crowd, and considers that the part 
 father has played in exposing the corruption of the native 
 courts has proved conclusively that he is a traitor 
 to Egypt's freedom, it fired a wretched youth, an in- 
 dependent Nationalist, to attempt his murder ; he con- 
 siders father's work in the whole affair was ' anti-Egyptian.' 
 Poor youth he's simply been inflamed to madness by 
 the Al-Lewa party. Anyhow he's risked his own neck 
 for the sake of what he considers his country's good. 
 Vernon behaved splendidly : father undoubtedly would 
 have been killed if he hadn't sprung at the wretch and 
 spoilt his aim." 
 
 " Oh," Stella said, with a pitiful cry, ' ' the wicked
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 131 
 
 murderers ! How I hate them all ! How I hate myself ! 
 Take me home let's go home, Nancy." She said the 
 last words insistently. As she saw Michael Ireton's tall 
 figure enter their box, she clung feverishly to Nicolas. 
 " Where is he wounded ? Poor Vernon ... is he con- 
 acious ? . . . are you keeping anything back 1 ... Tell 
 me the truth, I prefer it. . . ." 
 
 Nicolas drew her away while he asked Ireton to look 
 after Nancy, to whom the whole thing was bewilderingly 
 and horrifying ; truly the lust and passion of the East 
 was being revealed to her hour by hour. She could not 
 but feel very proud of Vernon, and somehow just a little 
 glad that he had been given an opportunity of proving 
 to Stella the sound metal he was made of. Knowing his 
 excellent constitution, she felt confident of his quick 
 recovery ... in a day or two he would be playing polo 
 again just as he so often had done after accidents which 
 had alarmed all onlookers at the game. Nicolas had 
 described to her how Vernon had seen the man's revolver 
 pointed at his father, and without pausing for one second 
 had thrown his glass of lemon squash in the man's eyes, 
 with the result that the weapon was turned on himself 
 as the man's arm swung round. 
 
 Any snobbishness she had accused him of in Cairo was 
 entirely wiped out : he was wholly reinstated in Nancy's 
 good books again. 
 
 As Michael Ireton said good-night to her in the Arab 
 courtyard of the Lekejians' house, he said : " This is the 
 first time we have met, but there is a great bond of sym- 
 pathy between us. We are both Stella's devoted friends, 
 I am going away, and I will not see her again for a long 
 time. I am very thankful to know that you are with her 
 . . . her life is very difficult here, she has told me that 
 you make all the difference in the world." 
 
 " I do nothing," Nancy said ardently. " What can 
 any one do ? I only love her and . . ." She paused. 
 
 He quickly interrupted her. " That is how you help 
 her," he said : " you love her, she needs love abundant 
 love and understanding. You will not grudge her either f " 
 
 As he finished speaking he raised the girl's small hands 
 to his lips. " Good-bye," he said gravely, " and God 
 bless you : I may never see you again." 
 
 " Good-bye," Nancy said. With girlish simplicity she 
 added, " I wish you weren't going away : I think in Egypt 
 it would be nice to have a big friend like you."
 
 ( 134 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 VERNON'S recovery was not such an easy and speedy one 
 as Nancy had predicted. The wound healed satisfactorily, 
 but his temperature had a nasty habit of rising and falling, 
 in the way that temperatures do rise and fall in the East, 
 even with the healthiest patients. When Stella saw him 
 for the first time after the accident he made so little ol 
 what he had done that she could have knelt at his bedside 
 in humility, but whenever she attempted to thank him ol 
 to praise him for his splendid nerve he would say, " Oh 
 chuck it, old girl ! There isn't the greatest rotter living 
 who wouldn't have done the same thing as I did." 
 
 Until her brother was in a more safely convalescent stage 
 Nancy refused to go up the Nile or leave Cairo, so the 
 Little Johns had to go without her ; after all she didn't 
 care very much, for it would have meant leaving Stella 
 and losing touch with the thrilling life she was living. 
 Was she not almost taking part in the making of Egyptian 
 history 1 That the East was not her home, made every- 
 thing that belonged to it absorbingly fascinating. What 
 revolted Stella and made her heart-sick often thrilled 
 Nancy : it was all a part of the mystery and spell of the 
 East, even when it was horrible. 
 
 When Vernon was well enough to be moved he was 
 ordered off to a sanatorium at Helouan, and it was during 
 his convalescence there that Stella begged her mother 
 to take Nancy and herself for a short visit to Medinat-al 
 Fayyum. Instead of staying in the town itself, with 
 Girgis Boutros and his aunt and cousin in their white villa, 
 with its green jalousies, on the bank of the Bahr Yusuf, 
 they induced Girgis to make arrangements for them to 
 Bleep in the sportsman's hotel or rest-house, built on piles 
 over the historical Lake Moeris, which lies out in the 
 desert some miles from Medinat-al Fayyum. 
 
 It was a roasting hot afternoon when Girgis, attired in 
 the most perfect riding kit of English build, met them at 
 the station. Nancy, who had only seen him once, in 
 correct calling attire in Cairo (his mother had a fine houso 
 there and was very particular about her son's social 
 etiquette), was not prepared for his appearance in im- 
 maculate brown riding-boots, the latest thing in riding 
 coats and breeches, surmounted with the inevitable scarlet 
 tarltush. It made an odd combination, but the costume 
 uited him perfectly and he knew how to wear it. He
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 135 
 
 told them that he wished to take them to his aunt's house 
 in the town he lived with his aunt to have tea before 
 escorting them to Lake Moeris. Feeling very tired and 
 hot, they gladly consented to do as he had arranged. 
 When his three visitofs were seated in a luxuriously ap- 
 pointed, but strangely old-fashioned, landau, Girgis 
 mounted his Arab mare. Nancy thought it the most 
 beautiful beast she had ever seen as it all but danced at 
 their side : its curved neck, its long, flowing tail, its delight 
 in its own beauty, kept her in a constant state of accla- 
 mation. Girgis, who knew that he set off the Arab's 
 beauty to its greatest advantage, did not betray by even 
 a smile that he was in the seventh heaven of delight. 
 Stella he still worshipped, she was his divinity, he hungered 
 to own her, to make her his wife but this flower -like girl 
 appealed to his imagination like a garden where exotic 
 flowers wafted their fragrance to him over cool waters. 
 Her fair throat and delicate face, her laughing eyes of 
 lapis-blue, could make him forget that her people, her 
 own brother belonged to the hated race who despised 
 him. From the moment when she placed her soft-palmed 
 hand in his he had succumbed : her fragrant personality 
 had lifted him into realms of Oriental delight. 
 
 As they drove from the station and passed from a hideous 
 bareness, mingled with dust and flies and Eastern smells, 
 to the cool river banks, bordered with spreading willows 
 and swaying tamarisks, Nancy's quick eye and intuitive 
 brain taught her more than years of explanation could 
 have done. She already knew that in the East, where 
 strong contrasts are for ever forcing themselves upon you, 
 you need never be surprised at anything : Girgis's tarbusk, 
 worn with English riding-boots and tweed clothes, were 
 illustrative of the fact. So when they stopped in front 
 of an imposing villa, which seemed to her very French 
 and un- Eastern with its white walls and green jalousies, 
 she was not astonished when the door was opened by a boy 
 of seven years of age who looked like an unfeathered 
 starling which had not yet digested its early meal of worms 
 
 Girgis hurried them into a sitting-room on the ground 
 floor. It was the most uninteresting, uninviting room 
 Nancy had ever been in. Photographs in silver-wire 
 frames, tied up with bright yellow ribbons, were con 
 spicuous on every article of furniture whiclu 'ould hold a 
 picture frame ; heavy albums, bound in plush, lay on 
 oval-shaped maplewood tables. A set of stiff gold chairs 
 too uncomfortable to sit upon, were planted in a row round 
 the walls ; the cool view of the flowing Bahr Yusuf was 
 entirely hidden by stiff Nottingham -lace curtains. Girgie
 
 136 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 knew that the room was hideous, but neither of the girls 
 knew that he did. He also knew that his aunt would 
 appear in a few minutes in an appalling tea-gown of purple 
 flannelette, but he might have thought it a creation of 
 Worth's for all the girls could guess by his expression 
 when she entered the room. He knew that the whole 
 business of afternoon tea would shock Stella, but he was 
 not ashamed : they were his relations and her near con- 
 nections ; Stella's neck must be bent ! 
 
 When at last his aunt came awkwardly into the room, 
 followed by her heavy -featured daughter, Stella could 
 scarcely believe they were people of the same rank in life 
 as Girgis, for Mrs. Ha Boutros seemed to Stella more like a 
 second-rate Italian inn-keeper's wife than an Egyptian ; 
 but her voice was soft and her clear pronunciation of 
 English was refined. Mrs. Lekejian, who had only seen 
 her once before, many years ago, greeted her with a charm- 
 ing air of family relationship she had heard many things 
 from Girgis about his aunt which had made her respect 
 and like her very much. But Mrs. Boutros was very shy, 
 and this made conversation extremely difficult. Her 
 daughter, who was too shy to speak, sat on the edge of 
 her gilt chair close to Nancy and looked at her with the 
 surprised eyes of a cow. Nancy did not know what to 
 speak to her about . . . Anything like intimacy was 
 hopeless, for the girl simply answered " yes " and "no " 
 to her remarks about Al Fayyum. Topics soon became 
 exhausted. Girgis, realising Nancy's difficulty, asked if 
 tea was coming ; it arrived just as he spoke. 
 
 A huge silver tea-tray was carried round the room to 
 each person by a trembling Coptic maid -servant, whose 
 complexion and features were so beautiful that Nancy could 
 scarcely resist speaking about her. She wore a native 
 dress of clinging black, with her hair modestly hidden under 
 a bright blue handkerchief. Nancy wondered why her 
 mistress could not see how sweet she looked compared to 
 her own daughter ; Girgis must, she felt sure, for he had 
 perfect taste in his own details of dress. After the maid 
 had handed round the tea, which was cold and weak, 
 Miss Boutros rose from her chair awkwardly and offered her 
 guests some of Huntley and Palmer's mixed biscuits, 
 piled up in a little wire basket decorated with bright 
 yellow ribbon. ' Stella and Nancy dared not let their eyes 
 meet. In a land where old dishes of exquisite colours 
 and shapes are to be bought for a few pence it seemed a 
 dreadful perversion of taste to be drinking tea out of vile 
 Japanese cups and eating biscuits off twisted-wire baskets. 
 
 When the tea, a dreadful concoction made with unboiled
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 1ST 
 
 water, was drunk, and a few more platitudes had been 
 exchanged, Stella said she thought the./ ought to be getting 
 on their way, as her mother was very tired. Their hostess, 
 obviously relieved that their visit was at an end, did not 
 attempt to detain them, though she was delighted Girgis 
 had brought them, and she felt proud that such a beautiful 
 girl as Stella was her own nephew's first cousin. She was 
 longing to discuss every point of their looks and dress 
 with her daughter, who, poor thing, was not so well satis- 
 fied with her best clothes as she had been before their 
 arrival. With a jealous woman's double-sight she had 
 seen that Girgis was in love with Stella and that he was 
 enthralled with Nancy's beauty, though Nancy's fairness 
 was to her too strange to be beautiful. She had heard 
 of fair Western women in romances, but she had never 
 imagined that a living woman could look so unreal as the 
 English girl seemed in her Eastern eyes. 
 
 When they were once more comfortably seated in the 
 carriage, Nancy gave a sigh of relief. She did not like to be 
 the first to say anything, because, after all, these people 
 were near connections of Stella's and first cousins of 
 Girgis ; but when he was out of hearing, which was very 
 soon, for his Arab mare could not be induced to go at their 
 driving pace, Mrs. Lekejian said to Stella, " What a pity ! 
 Why can't they be contented to live in the old style 1 
 I wonder Girgis doesn't see it." 
 
 " I'm sure he does, mother," Stella said ; " but be thinks 
 that living in the European style is a step towards progress 
 and regeneration, and you know how keen he is about all 
 that sort of thing. It certainly gives the women something 
 to do, for there's more to look after, with lace curtains 
 and carpets and all those hideous ornaments about." She 
 laughed at the memory of their visit, but it was a kindly 
 laugh. 
 
 " How would they live if it was in the native way ! " 
 Nancy asked. " Not like harem women, doing absolutely 
 nothing f " 
 
 " Oh, no, but quite differently," Mrs. Lekejian said. 
 " The old native houses were lovely." 
 
 " Had the Copts fine houses like the Arabs ! " Nancy 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, no, they hadn't " she paused " for in the old 
 days, when these splendid houses were built, the Christians 
 were too poor they were never allowed to have any money ; 
 but now why can't they build their grand new houses in 
 the old way, and live in them in the old style f They would 
 feel at home in them and look much less absurd. That 
 poor girl ! . . ." she sighed. 
 E
 
 138 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Nancy had seen some of the glorious old Arab houses in 
 Cairo, hidden away in unexpected quarters, but she had 
 associated their beauty with the fact that they were Moham- 
 medan buildings ; she did not know that in most respects 
 the Copts in the old days lived like their Moslem neighbours 
 and would have had houses similar to theirs if they had had 
 the money to buy them . . . she did not understand that 
 their wealth was a thing of later growth.that.like all despised 
 races, they had made their money by usury and diligent 
 hoarding. 
 
 Nancy thought for a moment and then, turning to Stella, 
 she said : " I did think Girgis was sweet to them, didn't 
 you t He was so well bred, so dignified. I'm sure I 
 should have been a snob and done my best to show visitors 
 that I knew how awful they were." 
 
 Stella looked pleased, and so did her mother. " Girgia 
 is quite extraordinary," they both said ; " one never knows 
 what he feels. With all his revolutionary ideas he's a 
 true philosopher." 
 
 " Oh," Nancy said, " I'm sure he is awfully sensitive ; 
 but it was his loyalty to his people." 
 
 The Arab mare pranced up to them at that moment. 
 Girgis managed to keep her within speaking distance ; he 
 looked very happy. He addressed Stella : " My aunt 
 was greatly pleased to see you. She asked me to thank 
 you for honouring her." (Girgis very seldom now said 
 
 If you please," Stella had chaffed him out of it.) " She 
 thinks you are very beautiful and high-minded." 
 
 " Oh, you mustn't make me vain ! It was your aunt 
 who deserved our thanks." 
 
 " Excuse me, but I could not make you vain." 
 
 Stella laughed. " Why not t " she said. " I am only 
 human." 
 
 " Because what I think and what my cousins think could 
 not make you vain, and you know it ; and I thank you also 
 for coming," he bowed to Nancy. " It was not gay for 
 you. I am sorry." 
 
 " Oh, but I enjoyed my visit," she said ; " I wish we 
 could have stayed longer. Your cousin must know such a 
 lot of things that would interest us. I wanted to make 
 friends and talk with her about all sorts of things." 
 
 " They have been very curious to see my cousin Hadassah, 
 now they are satisfied. For many days they will talk about 
 your visit." His un-mirthful Egyptian smile broke the 
 severity of his features. " My cousin has only seen painted 
 pictures of virgins like you " he looked at Nancy ; " she 
 did not understand that in a country where there is much 
 moisture the women row up like flowers ; they are aa
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 139 
 
 sweet to the nostrils as almond blossom in spring. And so 
 you must excuse her ; I saw her look very much." 
 
 " You say these things so prettily that even when I know 
 you don't mean them I enjoy hearing them," Nancy 
 Buid gaily. Her laughter was so infectious and mirthful 
 that it inflamed his quick blood. His mare responded to 
 his mood : her nostrils distended, her tail curved, she 
 danced with the pride of life. . . . 
 
 " But I speak the truth, if you please " his eyes met 
 Stella's as his old habit of speech slipped out " you carry 
 the sweetness of white night-flowers into the unwatered 
 desert." 
 
 Nancy seeing that he was serious, smiled her thanks. 
 
 " You think, do you not, that my cousin Hadassah 
 is very beautiful ? " Nancy nodded her head. " And 
 Hadassah told me that you wore like an English rose. Why 
 is it then not true if I say you are both beautiful to me f " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian and Stella joined in Nancy's laughter, for 
 Girgis had certainly gained his point. 
 
 They had left far behind them the precincts of the oasis 
 city, with its dull bazaars full of cheap European goods, 
 and its streets with fine European villas, built out of the 
 wealth which has belonged to the people of Al Fayyum 
 ever since the day when Joseph, the controller of Pharaoh's 
 household, bestowed upon the surrounding country the 
 network of canals and reservoirs which have made the 
 Fayyum famous as an agricultural centre for all Egypt. 
 
 In the desert the dazzling heat was moving like a wave 
 over the country ; the long, dusty road was black with 
 market people coming towards them on camels, on donkeys, 
 and on foot ; the heavy necklaces and anklets of the women 
 showed the wealth of the country and caught the sunlight 
 as they walked. It was all intensely Eastern, and, as 
 Nancy remarked, the " limit " was reached when a por- 
 cupine instead of a rabbit scurried across their path into 
 the dust of the desert. 
 
 As the hours passed, and there was little to break the 
 monotony of the endless processions of blackrobed women, 
 and the long string of camels walking as though they were 
 all one beast, at the same pace, with the same movements, 
 and the same lofty indifference, they were not sorry to 
 arrive at the little hotel which has been built for sportsmen 
 on piles over the lake. They had to climb an outside stair 
 like a ladder to reach the front door. A cry of delight 
 burst from Nancy's lips as she saw the cool interior where 
 they were to dine : the canvas walls were hung with the 
 usual Egyptian decorations, the animal gods of the ancients, 
 and gay texts from the Koran, cut out in brilliant shades of
 
 140 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 yellows and greens and blues, and stitched on to red cotton. 
 At intervals there were openings in the walls to admit the 
 cool breeze from the lake and show inviting glimpses of 
 softly moving tamarisks and low-flying water-birds. The 
 dinner-table was decorated with crimson roses which Stella 
 knew her cousin Girgis must have ordered the day before 
 from Al Fayyum, and comfortable couches ran ail round the 
 room, which was long and narrow, and not unlike the cabin 
 of a ship. The glimpses of the lake which surrounded 
 it on all sides added to the impression and delighted each 
 one of the party as they sank gratefully on to the divans. 
 
 Hadassah sat next to her cousin ; in a low voice she said 
 to him, " Girgis, dear, you are so kind." She laid her 
 hand lightly on his arm, but she felt him tremble under 
 her touch, and quickly removed it. " We are enjoying 
 ourselves so much, and I understand the trouble you have 
 taken. All this is perfectly delightful." 
 
 " But you are not happy," he said. All her attempts to 
 appear gay had not deceived him. 
 
 " I have been anxious about father and Vernon," she 
 said ; " the change here will do me good." She turned her 
 eyes away, his unnerved her. 
 
 " You are unhappy," he repeated. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian and Nancy had put their heads outside, 
 the canvas opening ; they could not hear what Stella said. 
 " Why do you say it ? " she said ; " I wish you wouldn't " 
 but she had not denied it. 
 
 " I know why you are unhappy it is not anxiety for 
 your father but for to-day please try to forget." His 
 voice was so gentle that the smile she bestowed upon him 
 was appreciative of his kindness. 
 
 Suddenly he said : " Since I have seen his sister I do not 
 hate him so much." 
 
 " Hush ! " Stella aaid. She looked nervously at him ; 
 an unacknowledged fear took definite shape in her mind 
 as she did so. 
 
 " No ! " he said, " I do not love Miss Nancy. If I had 
 never seen you I would have desired her, but not now. 
 You exhaust my senses : I have none for any other woman. 
 But she is pure and beautiful, and she is his sister, How 
 is such a thing possible t " 
 
 " Have you already forgotten what we owe to Vernon f 
 You should love him for it. When I think that but for 
 him we should not have had father, I feel that I could lay 
 my very soul in his hands to do just as he liked with." 
 
 Girgis became excited. " And what did he do, if you 
 please t Only what any man would have done, only what 
 no man could not have done. He had the good chance
 
 141 
 
 to be the man chosen to do this thing . . . while I, who 
 long to serve you, was only a few yards away. Why has 
 he all the fortune ? Now will you feel that whatever he 
 does, or thinks, you must bear with it ; you will give him 
 your soul. ... I would have saved your father and died 
 for him, if only to win tenderness always from your eyes 
 when you thought of me." 
 
 " Girgis, why do you still think of me like that f . . . 
 Try not to." 
 
 " When you loved Vernon Thorpe could you have made 
 yourself not love him ? Who can do these things ? We 
 cannot help love, we cannot help love." 
 
 Stella noticed that he had said " when " you loved Vernon, 
 but she ignored the inference. " No, no," she said, " one 
 can't help loving, I know that, but you only think you 
 love me, I'm sure you do you gave yourself no time, 
 you didn't know me ; you said you would marry me the 
 first time we met. Do you remember t " she tried to treat 
 the matter more lightly. 
 
 " Because you came like light into my heart, and, like 
 the full moon, the mystery of your beauty raised my love 
 to worship. You are my divinity." 
 
 His romantic manner of expressing his love for her 
 brought the tender smile that he loved to see into her 
 eyes. In spite of the fact that her Western upbringing had 
 imbued her with the feeling that love poetically expressed 
 was seldom, if ever, deeply felt, she was conscious that her 
 cousin had a, feeling for her which was far removed from 
 the sensuous passion of most Egyptians. She felt sorry 
 for him, and troubled about how fco treat him ; at the same 
 time the relief she experienced in the fact that Nancy, 
 with her glowing personality and vitality, had not inspired 
 him with an overwhelming passion, outbalanced her sorrow 
 that he was still romantically attached to herself. He 
 was very attractive this afternoon in his capacity as host, 
 and his good qualities appealed to Stella none the less for 
 Nancy's very obvious approval of him. 
 
 They had good appetites for the beautifully cooked 
 dinner, he had personally supervised. He knew Stella's 
 likes and dislikes, and as she watched him while he attended 
 to their various wants, she could scarcely believe that his 
 home life was spent in the absurd surroundings they had 
 seen that afternoon ; yet, in spite of his ease of manner and 
 perfect familiarity with Western methods of entertaining, she 
 could not think of him as her cousin by blood, he was still 
 one of the enigmas of Egypt. That Vernon had saved her 
 father's life was never long absent from Stella's thoughts 
 she was in return ready to lay down her life for him ; but
 
 142 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 the deed had not brought them any closer together, for in 
 her gratitude she had placed herself on a new and almost 
 strange footing towards her lover. He implored her to 
 forget her gratitude in her tenderness towards him 
 he missed the old fire of her first passion. If Michael 
 Ireton had not spoken to her, and she had not allowed 
 herself to be false in thought to her lover at the very 
 moment when he was offering up his own life for her 
 father's she might perhaps have retained her former 
 independence. Now she must make amends for that 
 moment of sudden surrender to the man who had taught her 
 what his deeper nature knew of a lover's devotion for the 
 woman he prized. 
 
 After dinner Girgis disappeared, and they did not see 
 him again until they said good-night to him : they little 
 imagined that he was supervising the erection of mosquito- 
 curtains on their various beds, and seeing that their bed- 
 rooms were as attractive as he could make them. With 
 the awful masterfulness of an ancient Egyptian he had 
 insisted upon mosquito -netting being produced from some- 
 where. It had been forgotten, but it was produced ! A 
 native runner had been to the Fayyum and back in an 
 incredibly short space of time. His brown body, naked 
 but for the meagerest loin-cloth, was now steaming like a 
 roast of beef which had just been pulled from the oven, 
 and his tongue was parched to a cinder, but the mos- 
 quito-netting for the rich " Seti " had been procured. If 
 Stella had seen the poor wretch panting on a circular prayer- 
 mat made of straw, at the back door of the inn she would 
 have thought her security from mosquito -bites dearly 
 bought. But Girgis feared that malarious mosquitoes 
 might hover round their lake dwelling, and if the native 
 had died from exhaustion, his place in the world could be 
 filled at dawn by a new man. 
 
 It was only nine o'clock when they went to bed, because 
 their day had begun very early ; but Nancy and Stella, 
 who shared one queer little room, talked until at least an 
 hour later. Their mosquito -curtains prevented them 
 sitting on the edge of their beds in their customary fashion 
 so they sat on the cool straw-matted floor, with their arms 
 hugging their knees. 
 
 Nancy's flood of golden hair, which entirely hid her face, 
 made Stella's seem very dark, just as her gay and mis- 
 chievous face proved that Stella's had grown very serious 
 for her years. In Nancy's eyes Stella now resembled 
 Rossetti's " La belle dame sans merci " especially when 
 her hair was let down for brushing. 
 
 Suddenly Nancy put her chin on her knees, and for a
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 143 
 
 moment her gay voice became serious. " Stella," she 
 said, " how does it feel to have three men in love with you 
 at one time t " 
 
 Stella, to hide her embarrassment said, " Don't be an 
 ass, Nancy." 
 
 Nancy sighed. "I'd be quite contented with one. 
 What's the use of being pretty if no one loves you f " 
 
 " One of the three who, you imagine, are in love with me, 
 do you mean t " 
 
 ' No." Nancy's eyes dropped. " No," she repeated 
 slowly, " I'm not a Ptolemy, so I couldn't marry my own 
 brother, and Michael Ireton . . ." she paused and looked 
 at Stella, who instantly unclasped her hair and let it fall 
 over her face. Her apparent impatience did not unnerve 
 Nancy, who continued, " Michael Ireton is too monogamous 
 he'd make me unfaithful in a week ; while Girgis . . ." 
 she gave a little shiver, " oh ! he'd terrify me. He might 
 turn out to be a Bluebeard." 
 
 Stella looked at her sxispiciously. ..." Why ... I 
 thought you admired him t " 
 
 " So I do, and I like him most awfully, all we know of 
 him ; but neither you nor I really know him, or will ever 
 know him." 
 
 Stella nodded her head. " That's what I feel." 
 
 Nancy always spoke as though she and Stella belonged 
 to the same race of people. " He knows far more about 
 us than we know about him I mean the human part of 
 our natures. He may not have met many Englishwomen, 
 but he has the ancients' understanding of human nature. 
 
 Stella said very gravely : " We know only the civilised 
 part of him, which is the lesser part." 
 
 " Of course, that's all we ever know about any one," 
 Nancy said ; " it's all we allow people to know ... we 
 hardly know the ' other part ' of our own selves, do we ? " 
 
 " But with Girgis the uncivilised part belongs to a 
 strange people. ..." Stella paused abruptly in the 
 middle of her speech ; her hair still veiled her face. 
 
 " Well t " Nancy said, " go on." 
 
 " I often try to visualise the Girgis we don't know, the 
 Girgis who has nothing to do with Coptic schools, and 
 electric ploughs, and automatic wells, and brown riding- 
 boots, and afternoon teas ; the Girgis who still in his heart 
 worships ' Sebek,' the Crocodile God of Al Fayyum ; the 
 Girgis who would have offered up his own sister as a victim 
 to the Nile for the propitiation of its bountiful overflow- 
 ing." 
 
 Nancy shivered. 
 
 " He is, with all his love of progress and hunger for
 
 144 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 modernity and for the regeneration of Egypt, a reincarna- 
 tion of an ancient Pharaoh I see it BO often in him. He 
 wears his clothes beautifully and how well he chooses 
 them ! but they don't really hide the inscrutable statue 
 of the Pharaoh he really is, do they t " 
 
 " No," Nancy said, " not a bit." 
 
 " There is nothing living," Stella said slowly, " that 
 I have seen in all Egypt so Eastern as my own cousin 
 Girgis. And the more he adopts the fine veneer of European 
 civilisation, the more Eastern he appears to me." 
 
 " Aren't you very proud of it t I feel so terribly modern 
 when I am with him." She was examining Stella's pretty 
 almond nails and slender fingers. 
 
 Stella caught her hand tightly in hers : " You're a dar- 
 ling, Nancy ; you've been so sweet, we all adore you." 
 Her voice shook. 
 
 " Oh, Stella ! It is all of you who have been adorable 
 to me." 
 
 " You know everything and understand everything now, 
 you have met my relations on my father's side : are you not 
 just a little ashamed of the connection t " 
 
 Nancy took the veil of dark hair in her hands and drew 
 it away from Stella's face so that she c/>uld look into her 
 eyes while she answered. " Not in the least," she said 
 slowly ; " I hate the beastly stuck-up English people 
 who can't see the difference there is between you, dearest, 
 and all your clever family, and the ordinary common 
 Levantines and natives whom both you and I abhor. 
 Who could be ashamed of Girgis ? " 
 
 " I'm not," Stella said, " but I know the way in which 
 English people are taught to regard all races who belong to 
 the Eastern hemisphere. . . . Vernon didn't want you to 
 visit us : we almost quarrelled over your coming." 
 
 " Good heavens ! Is that why you wrote that letter 
 and sent the wire which I never got ? " 
 
 " Yes, it was to please him." 
 
 " And I came in spite of everything. How can you 
 love such a snob ! . . ." she looked into Stella's eyes 
 searchingly, and said again ... " Why do you love 
 him!" 
 
 Stella let her hair screen her face again as she bent her 
 head ... " Hush, Nancy, don't ! You shouldn't speak 
 of him like that how can you ! . . . we never know why 
 we love ; but surely, now, he is worth loving. . . ." 
 
 " I couldn't marry a man who was a snob. You think 
 he was frightfully brave because he saved your father . . . 
 well, if he hadn't done it, he'd have been a coward that's 
 another way of looking upon his act of heroism. . . ."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 145 
 
 " Fancy being ashamed of anything that belonged to 
 you ! " she went on hotly. " I thought Girgis's cousins 
 were funny and awfully awkward in their stuffy, ugly 
 European clothes, and so did you ! . . . but just think what 
 we should have looked like in their eyes if we had chosen 
 to wear Eastern dresses without knowing how they should 
 be put on ! I guess we'd have made an even greater 
 muddle of it than they did ; besides, isn't it awful to let 
 ourselves care so much about these trivial things. I felt 
 all the time that both the mother and daughter must 
 know about all sorts of interesting things that they were 
 too shy to introduce into conversation. Think of how little 
 chance they have had to feel at ease in strange society." 
 
 " It's the trivial things that weigh down the scales of 
 life. . . ." Stella said quietly ; " if we could rise above 
 trivial things life would be comparatively easy." 
 
 " That's true," Nancy said thoughtfully, " but I can't 
 believe that my own brother didn't want me to visit his 
 future wife's relations. It makes me sick to think of it, 
 and ashamed of him." 
 
 " But it's quite true. He urged me to go home and wait 
 for him in England, so that I should not have to mix with 
 my father's people . . . and I want to do things he'd 
 hate ... I want to do all I can with money and educa- 
 tion to help to raise the women, for if the women were 
 better educated and were treated with greater respect 
 by the men, they could do far more for the advancement of 
 Egypt than all the acts of parliaments and public bodies 
 put together that try to put down vice and dirt and horrible - 
 ness : for you mustn't be mistaken about things . . . out 
 here they are horrible . . ." she made a face of disgust. . . . 
 " Cairo is horrible ; the visitors only see the fair side of 
 it, but the truth would horrify you. . . ." She sighed. 
 " When scarcely any of the women can read, and when 
 they have no idea of a moral training for their sons, and are 
 even without the most ignorant sense of decency in the 
 matter of cleanliness, what can you expect ? . . . Vernon 
 never wants you to know that I belong to that side of 
 Cairo really the native side, I mean." 
 
 Nancy's temper was up in a flash, her violet eyes were as 
 black as onyx : " Know what ? I should like to know : 
 know that your brother and father have twice the brains 
 that he has, that they are both too well bred to be the 
 Bnob that he is, that when he's with them he must, if he has 
 any feelings at all, know how ignorant he is compared to 
 them both. Oh ! don't you see that he's a walking monu- 
 ment of Anglo-Saxon vanity and prejudice ? I don't see 
 how you can go on loving him. I saw Nicolas looking at
 
 146 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 him the other night when he said quite proudly that he 
 had never even heard of, let alone read a word of ' Omar 
 Khayyam ' in MB life. Nicolas couldn't believe it . . ." 
 She looked at Stella for a reply. 
 
 " Don't you want me to go on loving him, dear f " 
 
 Nancy's anger broke down. " Yes, of course I do ; I'll 
 be awfully sick if you ever fall out of love with him ; if you 
 were lost to the family it would be ghastly." 
 
 " Then why say things like that ! " 
 
 " I only say them because I know you always will love 
 him in spite of everything. You're so blind when you care 
 for people : I suppose that's why they say love is blind." 
 
 Stella began brushing her hair very diligently. In the 
 days that had passed since the attempted murder of her 
 father she had almost succeeded in banishing Michael's 
 dominating personality from her thoughts, and was living 
 once more in a dream of imaginery love for Vernon . . . 
 he had saved her father's life, and by so doing had un- 
 consciously surrounded himself with an atmosphere of 
 heroic romance. Yet if her soul could have spoken to 
 Nancy it would have said, " The man I once loved bored 
 me : he is your brother ; take him away, let everything be 
 finished between us, let me pay for his deed of heroism in 
 another way than by becoming his wife. . . ." But the 
 soul did not speak, and the woman was too eagerly engaged 
 in deceiving herself and clothing her Fallen God with the 
 garments of Love to allow it a chance. 
 
 Nancy, little dreaming of the thoughts Stella was hiding 
 behind her veil of dark hair, said : " Tell me, Stella, has 
 Nicolas ever been in love t " 
 
 " I think he once cared for a girl, I'm nearly sure he 
 did ; but he's never mentioned a word of it to me ; he is 
 very reserved, as you can see." 
 
 " What happened ? . . . Was she an English girl ? " 
 If Stella could have seen Nancy's eyes as she asked the 
 question, she would have learned that the asking of that 
 question was the " postscript " of the girl's conversation. 
 
 " I think he'd hate me to speak about it." Stella 
 
 Eaused ..." Yes, the girl was English, he knew Lor when 
 e lived in Paris . . . she allowed him to get fond of her, 
 and do everything for her, all that a devoted friend may 
 do, I mean ; when he came to Cairo she got her mother to 
 bring her out to Egypt. . . ." Stella was breathless ; her 
 indignation had risen, but she was trying to speak in- 
 differently. Nancy saw her emotion. . . . "In Cairo 
 she . . . well, she dropped him ! " 
 
 " Little beast ! " Nancy hissed. " What's become of her 1 
 Does he love her still t "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 147 
 
 " She's married the heir to a baronetcy who is drinking 
 himself to death." 
 
 " And does Nicolas still care ? " Nancy said persis- 
 tently. 
 
 " No, 1 don't think so ; he was heart-hurt rather than 
 heart-broken at the time even ; but he was so badly hurt 
 that he never trusts any woman now : with all his gentleness 
 of disposition he is dreadfully cynical. The girl looked so 
 young and sympathetic, mother says, but she was really as 
 hard as nails and as selfish as a man." 
 
 Nancy picked up her brush and rose to her feet. . . . 
 " Then if I fall in love with Nicolas I shall have to propose 
 to him ! " 
 
 Stella caught hold of her feet and brought the girl 
 toppling to the ground ; she caught her in her arms and held 
 her like a child. " Nancy," she cried, looking into the 
 naughty eyes and laughing face . . . ' Nancy, you mustn't 
 . . . promise me, Nancy, you won't play with him." 
 
 " Oh ! don't be alarmed," she said ..." Your Nicolas is 
 quite safe, he doesn't think me ' as sweet to the nostrils ' as 
 Girgis does ..." she went into a fit of laughter at the 
 thought of Girgis's similes. ..." Girgis makes me scream, 
 he's so quaint, and so delightfully poetic ; I can't imagine 
 Vernon even thinking the things he says :..."! 
 shouldn't think Vernon ever took the trouble to think out 
 poetic speeches, does he 1 " 
 
 Stella blushed guiltily, for in her imagination it was not 
 Vernon's form of English love-making to which her mind 
 had flown, but the few fierce words Michael Ireton had 
 spoken, words which had stirred more fire in her veins, and 
 wakened more songs in her heart, than all the Oriental 
 phraseology of Girgis at his best. She wished Nancy 
 would stop talking and go to bed, for with the sudden 
 opening of her memory to Michael Ireton's devouring eyes 
 and the confession of his love, the woman in her was thun- 
 dering at her senses, and she was ashamed ! 
 
 But Nancy loved teasing. " You're blushing ! I do 
 believe he's better at it than I thought. I can only imagine 
 him saying, ' I'm beastly fond of you, old girl.' Does he 
 talk everlastingly about cricket and polo and golf 1 Do 
 you remember the day at Lord's when you thought the 
 umpire in his white coat was the doctor in attendance ? " 
 
 They both laughed at the memory of that terrible day 
 when Stella had tried her best to please her lover by being 
 interested in cricket. . . . 
 
 " It's all so absurd," Nancy said, " you classing yoxirself 
 with the native life here ; you're not Egyptian, you're 
 Syrian, and if you were, Egyptians aren't niggera ! "
 
 148 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " No, we're not Egyptians," Stella said slowly, " we are 
 Syrians, and Syrians are classed with the Jews and the 
 usurers of the world generally. Our intelligence annoys 
 rather than pleases you English . . ." she stopped abruptly 
 ..." We belong to the Semitic races ! " 
 
 Nancy gave a breathless little gasp. ..." Does . . . 
 does your father lend money, Stella t " 
 
 " No, but Syrians do, and so do the Jews, because the 
 Mohammedans can't, the Koran forbids it ... but it 
 doesn't prevent them borrowing." Stella smiled sar- 
 castically. 
 
 ' ' Are Mohammedans great gamblers, then t " 
 
 " Frightful." 
 
 " Does Girgis lend money f " Nancy spoke timidly. 
 
 " No, rather not ; he does all he can to prevent young 
 Egyptians from borrowing money . . . they mortgage 
 their cotton-crops year after year . . . the money all 
 goes on the ' fleshpots of Egypt ' ... on the very things 
 that the Prophet forbade. The young Egyptians who 
 live in cities care for nothing but dress, horse-racing, and 
 gambling . . . the Jews and Syrians are hated because 
 they are careful and have made big fortunes by lending 
 money at high interest to foolish gamblers . . . the Egyp- 
 tians would always borrow money somehow and some- 
 where ! " 
 
 " But moneylending is horrid . . ." Nancy shivered . . . 
 " I'm glad Girgis never does it, aren't you ! " 
 
 " Yes, I am glad," Stella said, " and thank God father 
 abhors it." 
 
 Both girls were silent for a few moments. 
 
 " You see what I mean," Stella said. " The regenera- 
 tion of Egypt, must be effected by elevating the standard 
 of womanhood." She paused. ..." We must raise 
 these women even if we awaken them to suffering. I 
 know they are happier as they are, but they have slept 
 long enough, poor things." 
 
 " Do you think they are really happier as they are T " 
 Nancy asked. " Why t " 
 
 " I think they are, for they are unconscious of their un- 
 happiness . . . the enlightened woman is not. They 
 don't know that they are ignorant, and filthy, and idle, 
 and not fit to be the mothers of any race of men." 
 
 " Then, dear," Nancy said, " why, oh, why waken 
 them t " 
 
 " Why wake them 1 " Stella said. " Because every one 
 must suffer for a big cause, and surely the regeneration of 
 their nation is a big enough one . . . the ancient Egyptians 
 never could have been as great a race if their women had
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 149 
 
 been as the women are to-day ... we know they weren't ; 
 history tells us that they weren't ; the pictures on the walls 
 show us that they weren't . . . the Egyptian mother of 
 to-day is a disgrace to her l^nd . . . why the men are as 
 decent as they are is a marvel." 
 
 " The Koran," Nancy said : " the men can read the 
 Koran." 
 
 " Oh, the Egyptian youth of to-day pays very little 
 attention to the Koran ... to escape military service he 
 goes through a course of education at El-Azhar, the Moham- 
 medan University, where he has to study the Koran, but 
 when he is through his course he shakes it off. . . . El- 
 Azhar," Stella said dreamily, " is the most beautiful thing 
 in Cairo. You must go there." 
 
 " I'd love to," Nancy said. 
 
 "El-Azhar," Stella said, "is like the Vatican: it's a 
 vast, mediaeval organisation which appeals to the emotions 
 and annoys the intellect. When I walk through its 
 ancient courts full of devout students, apparently lost to 
 the world in their search after Truth, I hate all modern 
 progress, I loathe the idea of changing in any way this 
 beautiful seat of learning which has gone on since . . . 
 long before England saw the Normans." Again she 
 paused. " But if you were to go through the ' fish mar- 
 ket ' at night, as I did disguised as a native woman once, 
 you would want to open the gates of El-Azhar to even the 
 most vulgar inroads of modernity . . . you would want 
 to let in the fresh air of progress . . . you would want 
 to let in the idea that women, as the mothers of all nations, 
 must hold an even higher position in the land than the 
 men ; that, grafted on to the Prophet's teachings, must 
 come the teachings of the world of to-day." 
 
 " Stella, why don't you teach the women these 
 things t You could do a lot of good by public speaking." 
 Nancy kad heard of the " fish market." 
 
 " I want to, but it's so difficult ; more than I can tell 
 you," Stella said. 
 
 " I suppose it would be difficult," Nancy said. 
 
 " There are so many people to consider : there's father 
 . . ." She was going to say " and Vernon," but refrained 
 ..." and even mother, I believe she would . . ." 
 
 " Would your father object ? Really I don't believe 
 he would." 
 
 " Yes, I thinJc BO ... Not that he would think it 
 wrong, but you must always remember that at the back 
 of everything . . ." she hesitated . . . "father is an 
 Eastern, and he knows the vile Oriental mind ... he 
 knows the sort of things Arabs say and think about
 
 150 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 women who do anything in public, and he simply can't 
 bear the idea of even the vilest and most ignorant of them 
 thinking horrible thoughts about hie own wife and child." 
 
 " I see," Nancy said ; " it's awfully difficult." 
 
 " Father is hated almost as much as if he was an Eng- 
 lishman by all the different sects, except perhaps by the 
 ' Independent Egyptian Party,' which is repesented by 
 the highest Coptic people ; and I think he's respected by 
 many of the influential and wealthy Moslems, whose aim 
 is ' Representative Government in Egypt irrespective of 
 race or religion,' because they know that he is not sell- 
 interested, that like them, his first wish is for Egypt." 
 
 " Does Girgis belong to that party 1 " 
 
 " He goes much farther ; he has many sympathies with 
 the ' Nationalists.' He used to belong to the Party of the 
 People, as the moderate Nationalists are called . . . but 
 you must remember that Girgis is awfully young ; father is 
 old enough to have seen the days of Turkish oppression." 
 
 " How old is Girgis f " 
 
 " Just my age . . . not twenty -three." 
 
 Nancy laughed. " Good heavens ! Stella, he's only a 
 boy." 
 
 " You must remember that most native ' boys ' of his 
 age are married men and fathers. Twenty-three in an 
 Egyptian is equvialent to thirty -three and more in an 
 Englishman. Boys have all the independence of men : in 
 Egypt they have often homes of their own at sixteen." 
 
 " I'm sorry for Girgis," Nancy said. " You've given him 
 a soul : he's bound to suffer." 
 
 Stella did not pretend not to understand what she meant, 
 but said sadly : " I don't know how much he feels, I don't 
 begin to understand him ; he likes me, I know, but hov 
 deeply or how lastingly it is impossible for us to judge. 
 His life is unusual, so his feelings may be different from 
 the ordinary Egyptian's." 
 
 " One can't fathom him," Nancy said, " but anyhow, you 
 have given him a new standard of womanhood ; he can 
 never fall in love with an ignorant Copt after having loved 
 you, and that's rather sad for him." 
 
 " He never would have ' fallen in love/ my dear ... Ha 
 would have married in due time and had sons, by Allah ! " 
 
 " And after all that's man's chief end," Nancy said. 
 
 " The Moslem makes no pretence that it is not," Stella 
 said. " Sentiment is a Western idiosyncrasy : the East 
 keeps sentiment for outside the walls of the harem." 
 
 " And all his great aspirations, his theories t " 
 
 " Oh, about them he's quite in earnest ; he is full of 
 ' sentiment and emotion for Egypt. Beside*, cotton and
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 151 
 
 the growing of it interests all native-born Egyptians ; it's 
 in their blood, like wool is in Australians. He's deep in 
 the great problem now of how to mature Egyptian cotton 
 earlier in the season, before the boll-worm has time to ruin 
 the crops. . . . The boll-worm does its worst in Septem- 
 ber. The great question which is puzzling Egyptian cotton- 
 experts is : Should Egyptian farmers introduce more 
 American cotton into the country ? ... it produces a 
 heavier head of cotton and is less affected by the boll- 
 worm on account of its early ripening ... or should they 
 stick to the superior Egyptian plant, which is the only 
 cotton in the market which will mercerise satisfactorily t 
 Egyptian cotton fetches a far higher price in the market 
 ... at the same time two or three successive years of 
 bad boll-worm produce disastrous results. Girgis is, of 
 course, all for preserving the Egyptian plant, and I think 
 he's right, for it has qualities no other cotton possesses . . . 
 dear boy, he's setting his whole mind to work on the problem 
 of the boll -worm ... if his heart has other interests . . . 
 He's awfully interested in all the experiments of the agri- 
 cultural society ; he's working with them privately, as 
 well as on his own farm." 
 
 " How splendid ! " Nancy said. " I wish he would tell 
 rno all about these things . . . they are much more interest- 
 ing than foolish compliments, pretty as they are ! " 
 
 " Poor fellow, he's only used to the vapid minds of the 
 native women, who never concern themselves about any- 
 thing that matters ; but if you once start him he'll talk 
 cotton and boll-worm until you will know all there is to be 
 known on the subject. You see how well informed I am." 
 
 " Good-night, dear," Nancy said ; " I suppose we must 
 go to bed . . . but you're so interesting . . . I'll try my 
 hand at boll-worm with Girgis." 
 
 " Nancy," Stella said, " you look such a fresh wild rose 
 in this dry land ; but everything gets mummified 
 sooner or later, so put some grease on that baby skin of 
 yours, or it will be burnt to a cinder." 
 
 " All right," Nancy said ; " I don't want to lose my one 
 asset." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THEY awoke next morning to find the world hot and sun- 
 less ; a vapour bath enveloped their small lake-dwelling ; 
 the air was so stifling that Nancy was almost prostrate. It 
 was her first experience of the damp heat of a warm country. 
 On a sunless day Egypt is as ugly as it really is ... on
 
 152 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 a day of dazzling sunshine, it is as beautiful as it really i 
 not. So Nancy said as she stood at the door of thcit 
 canvas room and looked out upon the mist-enveloped lako 
 and along the dusty, breathless road which stretched to- 
 wards the desert. 
 
 Suddenly she called to Stella, who was talking to Girgis 
 in the room behind her. " Oh, both of you come quickly ! 
 A horse has bolted and is tearing down the road ; a man is 
 holding on to the reins and trying to stop it, but he's being 
 dragged along horribly . . . quick, come and look ! " 
 
 Stella and Girgis ran to her. As they reached the opening 
 Nancy fled down the outside staircase, which took her to 
 the ground, the other two at her heels. By this time the 
 horse with the lorry had almost reached the iron gate and 
 the two white posts which did duty as an entrance to the 
 domains of the lake-inn. As there were no hedges or 
 dividing lines to mark the enclosure of the property from 
 the surrounding desert, the gate was merely an ornament. 
 As the beast swung round the posts the man lost his foot- 
 ing and was flung on the ground, and one of the horse's 
 fore-feet passed over his right hand. The girls heard a 
 scream of pain from the wounded Arab ; the next instant 
 a labourer appeared and got hold of the horse by the 
 bridle : it had slackened its pace after the collision with the 
 gate-post. The thrown man was lying in a huddled-up 
 heap on the path. 
 
 Stella and Nancy hurried towards him ; Girgis was 
 quietly returning to their hotel when Stella called to him : 
 " Girgis, the man's hurt didn't you hear him scream ! 
 Send some one to help him, or come and help him your- 
 self." Girgis stood still and let Stella run on. When she 
 reached the man she asked him where he was hurt ; he 
 was groaning and moaning as though in mortal agony. 
 He stretched out a crushed hand : it was streaming with 
 blood and the palm was disgustingly bruised. As he 
 rolled over on his side he displayed a nasty cut on his 
 temple . . . Stella turned to Girgis for advice : he was not 
 there ! He was speaking to the Arab holding the restive 
 horse . . . she heard him asking " had he brought th| 
 chickens he had ordered for lunch, and the fruit ? " 
 
 Stella was furious. " Girgis ! " she cried, " didn't you 
 hear me 1 The poor creature is in agony." 
 
 Girgis sauntered towards her unconcernedly. " Leave 
 him," he said ; " he's only moaning because you are there. 
 Come away." 
 
 Nancy's eyes flashed with anger she could not trust her- 
 self to speak. She was holding the fellah's hard-worked, 
 Blender hand in her soft fingers. " Here, Stella," ahe said,
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 153 
 
 " make a wad of my handkerchief and put it in the palm 
 of his hand, and then tie your own closely round it ... 
 yes, tightly, that's right. . . ." 
 
 Stella did as Nancy told her, and when the wound was 
 bound up as well as it could be with two little pieces of 
 cambric and lace, Stella urged the man to sit up, to try if 
 he could walk. He did so for a moment, but rolled over 
 again, moaning pitifully. 
 
 " Let's go to the inn," Nancy said, " and send some one 
 to him. The cut on his head ought to be washed : the flies 
 are getting at it." Nancy had been keeping the pests oil 
 the wound with her fly-switch. 
 
 Before they left him Stella took four Egyptian shillings 
 out of her purse and gave them to the man. " You can't 
 do any work for a few days," she said ; "that will buy you 
 gome food. I will send some one from the inn to look after 
 your wounds : turn over on your face again and keep the 
 flies off." 
 
 The man did as he was bid. 
 
 Girgis was still talking to the Arab who had caught the 
 horse. Stella passed him without a word or a glance, and 
 so did Nancy. He hastened after them. " The boat is 
 ready when you wish to go." 
 
 " Thank you," Stella said, very coldly, " I must first 
 Bee that some one attends to that poor creature's head and 
 hand ; it's bleeding horribly." 
 
 " It is not at all necessary," Girgis said casually. 
 
 " I think it is, and so does Nancy." 
 
 " As you wish," he said. 
 
 Stella was exasperated at his brutality. 
 
 Girgis turned to look at the man : ho was walking away, 
 his groaning had ceased ; he was evidently not seriously 
 hurt, judging by the manner in which he was holding him- 
 self. " Did I not tell you that he was only groaning 
 because you were there 1 " Girgis looked pleased. 
 
 " But he is really hurt," Nancy said ; " his hand is 
 crushed and there is a big cut on his head." 
 
 Girgis was not listeing his interest was centred on an 
 automatic native well they were passing at the moment, 
 which he had induced the landlord of the inn to purchase. 
 He left the girls to inspect it. Automatic sakiyas were a 
 great feature on Girgis's estates. Stella thought them 
 very ugly, and regretted the innovation : they were all 
 very well in a land where labour had to be saved, but in 
 Egypt she considered them an unnecessary substitute for 
 the old, picturesque Nile-wells. 
 
 When Girgis was out of hearing Stella turned to Nancy : 
 " What do you think of that 1 "
 
 154 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " I think it is the ancient Egyptian showing its head, 
 he's too nice otherwise to be utterly devoid of pity." 
 
 " I'm convinced he thinks that the fellahin can't feel 
 they're little more than flies to him." 
 
 " But of course they do feel, else why should he be work- 
 ing for their progress t " questioned Nancy, whose eyes 
 were following the now quickly moving figure of the Arab. 
 Against the pale sand of the desert and the low scrub of 
 pink-tipped tamarisks and dark-leaved castor-oil plants, 
 his cotton jebba looked as blue as the necklace of mummy 
 beads Stella was wearing. 
 
 " Of course they feel," Stella said, " but they are philo- 
 sophers as well as children, and the worst of it is that the 
 man understands Girgis and his brutality far better than us 
 and our sympathy : he probably respects him more." 
 
 Girgis was so totally unconscious of having disgusted the 
 two girls with his callous behaviour, that he attributed 
 their silence in the boat to the excessive heat. 
 
 They were in a huge boat manned by three brown Arabs 
 who were pushing their way through a narrow channel 
 overhung with a dese scrub of low-branching tamarisks 
 . . . the heat was stifling, and here and there the boat 
 Btuck on the channel's muddy bottom. Then the men had 
 to wade waist-deep in the water to push her off. Before 
 they got into the water they had taken oft their long gala- 
 beahs and dexterously converted their red handkerchiefs 
 into loin-cloths otherwise they were naked. 
 
 When they at last got out into the open lake the men 
 climbed back into the boat, but there was not much more 
 air to boast of, and they could scarcely see a hundred 
 yards in front of them. The two girls and Mrs. Lekejian 
 lapsed into silence, and Girgis sat like a carved image 
 in the end of the boat. Long before they got to the other 
 side of the lake, the unanimous wish was to return to their 
 comfortable quarters in the hotel. 
 
 Their return journey was made in dead silence. 
 
 When they reached their inn they were amazed to find 
 Nicolas there. He said he had given himself a holiday, 
 as he was feeling rather slack. He had spent the night 
 in the hotel in the Fayyum. They were all delighted to see 
 him, and Nancy said, " Now I shall have some one to flirt 
 with : Girgis would like to recite Persian poems to Stella 
 all day long if I was not here, but he has too good taste to 
 speak in a language I can't understand, and the only 
 English poems he knows are nursery rhymes." 
 
 Nicolas laughed because of the girl's infectious high 
 spirits and love of mischief. " But it takes two to flirt. 
 Supposing I can't or won't t " he said gravely.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 155 
 
 " I'll teach you if you can't, and if you won't, what's 
 the use of your coming ! " 
 
 " What is flirting, in your opinion ? " 
 
 " Oh, having a ripping time ! Two people liking each 
 other well enough to pretend they like each other a lot 
 more, and not really liking each other well enough to have a 
 a bad pain if they don't ! " 
 
 " That's just what I thought," Nicolas said, " and it's 
 a game in which I can't see myself the winner." 
 
 " Well, what are we going to do if we don't flirt ? " 
 I didn't come to Al Fayyum to read books ! " 
 
 Girgis, who had come into the room at that moment, 
 pulled out a pack of cards from his pocket. " Bridge ! " 
 he said, with the solemnity of an oracle. " Will you like to 
 play the game of bridge, Miss Nancy ? " 
 
 Stella consulted with Nancy. " Shall we play ? It 
 seems so rotten to be playing bridge at Lake Moeris, yet 
 what are we to do ?" 
 
 " When there ain't a-going to be no lake, why not try 
 to forget it f " Nicolas said. 
 
 " That's true," Nancy said, " and if Nicolas won't flirt," 
 she rebuked him with soft eyes, " perhaps he'll condescend 
 to play to come down to my level and amuse my small 
 mind." 
 
 They sat down to a game of bridge while Mrs. Lekejian 
 wrote a letter to her husband. Girgis played an excellent 
 game he was Stella's partner. Nancy and Nicolas both 
 were much stronger than Stella, who had no natural in- 
 stinct for games, but was clever enough to learn anything 
 she set her mind to, and Girgis felt frightfully happy at 
 finding himself for once in a position to help her and at the 
 eaine time show off his own quickness. 
 
 Occasionally Mrs. Lekejian looked up from her writing 
 to speak or smile to one of the quartette, and each time 
 she did so Nancy's fair hair struck her as strangely incon- 
 gruous beside the scarlet tar bush of her nephew and the 
 dark glossy hair of her son and daughter. Once, as she 
 raised her eyes, she saw Nancy and Nicolas looking for a 
 card some one had dropped their heads were close to- 
 gether under the table. She could see Nicolas's hand rest 
 on Nancy's for just one moment before the girl raised a 
 flushed face to the level of the table. As she did so she 
 said : 
 
 " Stella, he's flirting with me he's better than his 
 word." A burst of laughter came from all four, and 
 Nicolas turned scarlet. " Don't you call holding hands 
 flirting, Mrs. Lekejian ? " . . . *iancy had risen from her 
 Beat and flown to Mrs. Lekejian'a Bide. Flinging herseH
 
 156 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 on her knees she said, " What will you give me if I make 
 your grave son really flirt enough to forget how young he 
 is, and stop being grown up f " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian pretended to whip the laughing girl, who 
 flew back to Nicolas. " If you are so grave you will die 
 an early death," she said, "or be put in the museum, or 
 somewhere worse." 
 
 " What do you want me to do t " he said. 
 
 " Amuse your guest," she said, bowing with mock 
 gravity before him. 
 
 " How shall I amuse her 1 " 
 
 " Oh ! don't ask her how, just begin ; tell her stories 
 naughty ones if you don't know any good ones, I don't 
 mind only I must be amused or interested." She sighed 
 despondently." 
 
 Stella laughed ; she knew Nancy's fits of teasing too well 
 to do anything else. 
 
 Nicolas sat down beside her. " I'll try," he said, " to 
 tell you a story." 
 
 Their voices instinctively fell into lower tones. " What's 
 it about ! " she said. 
 
 " About a little boy who played with fire." 
 
 " Has it a moral ? " she said, pouting absurdly. 
 
 " Yea ... all good stories have morals." 
 
 " But I don't want a good story." 
 
 " And I don't know any bad ones." 
 
 " Make one up," she said ; " or I'll ask Girgis to tell me 
 one he's sure to know lots." 
 
 " Don't you want to hear what became of the bad little 
 boy t " 
 
 " Oh ! was the boy bad ! " her face mimicked ezcitement. 
 
 " Yes, very bad." 
 
 " Then that will do," she said. " I don't mind the 
 story being good if the boy was very bad. Why was he 
 very bad." 
 
 " Because he had been warned not to play with fire." 
 
 " Who had warned him T " 
 
 " A lady called ' Experience.' " 
 
 " Where did he meet her ? " 
 
 " When he was idling instead of working." 
 
 " What did she say to him ? " 
 
 " That if he played with fire it would burn him, and 
 it would hurt." 
 
 " Go on," Nancy said. " Did the boy play with it t " 
 
 " At first there wasn't any fire," he said, " only two 
 tiny sticks ; but the boy knew that if the two sticks came 
 too close together there would be fire, but he couldn't 
 resist the fun of making just little tiny sparks and flashes
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 157 
 
 . . . tiny ones at first, and then bigger and bigger until 
 they burst into a big bright flame, and then he couldn't 
 stop them burning. They burnt him frightfully and hurt 
 his hands horribly, and still he couldn't help holding them ; 
 the flame fascinated him almost more than the pain 
 hurt . . ." he stopped. 
 
 " And then ? " Nancy said. 
 
 " And then . . . well then . . ." he said, " there was 
 nothing more, nothing at all, except the awful pain and 
 the memory of all that the lady called ' Experience ' had 
 told him." 
 
 " Do you think that little boy will ever play with fire 
 again! " she said. 
 
 " I think not," he said ; " he sticks so hard at his work 
 now, and never even looks at matches." 
 
 " Do you know the little boy ? " she said gravely. 
 " I am his most intimate friend." 
 " Should I like him ? " she said. 
 " I think not," he said, " he is too grave for you." 
 " You think, like Girgis, that I am only ' sweet to the 
 nostrils like orange flowers.' " 
 
 He laughed. " Did Girgis say that ? " 
 " Yes, and much more ; he flirts better than you." 
 " I don't flirt at all." 
 
 " And you will not introduce me to the little boy T " 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " You are afraid he would play with the matches again." 
 " Yes, I am afraid." He looked into her half-laughing 
 eyes. " Yes, I am afraid ; I think you are so eager for fun 
 tiiat you could not resist tempting the little boy to play 
 with the matches, and I think that you are so clever that 
 you would drop yours before they burnt your fingers." 
 
 " You think I am heartless," she said, " because I am 
 not always serious ? " 
 
 " I don't think," he said ; " what you really are does 
 not signify to me so long as ..." 
 " Then you are rude." 
 
 " It is better to be rude than foolish, in my case at 
 least." 
 
 " I don't think so ; I want to be friends we are almost 
 brother and sister." 
 
 He laughed. " Oh ! very nearly." 
 " Well, I'm going to be Stella's sister-in-law." 
 Nicolas frowned. " Poor Stella." 
 
 " Why poor Stella ! Becauf e I am to be her sister-in- 
 law ? " 
 
 " No," he said quickly, " that almost reconciles me to 
 it." His eyes were so tender that Nancy blushed.
 
 158 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Then why poor Stella 1 " 
 
 " Because I think the whole thing's a mistake." 
 
 Stella and Girgis had left the room, and Mrs. Lekejian 
 could not hear them speaking from where she sat. 
 
 " You do not like Vernon ; I felt that the first night I 
 arrived." 
 
 " I shouldn't dislike him if he was not going to marry 
 Stella." 
 
 " You think he is not good enough for her ... I agree 
 with you." Their eyes met : Nancy's laughing ones had 
 become dark and grave. " But who is good enough for 
 Stella ? interesting enough, I mean ? " 
 
 " Vernon could be if he did not think himself too good." 
 
 " Oh, you surely don't think he does ! " Nancy gave a 
 little cry. " He's horribly narrow, I know, and has an 
 absurdly narrow outlook upon things he's unaccustomed to, 
 but he couldn't think he was too good for Stella . . . 
 why, he used to tell us at home that he felt ashamed of 
 himself for having asked her to marry him." 
 
 " He doesn't think that since he came out here ? " 
 
 " Nicolas," Nancy said, very seriously, " you exaggerate 
 all that sort of thing, you are far too sensitive." 
 
 " I have learnt my lesson." 
 
 " But surely," she said, " it's almost as narrow of you 
 to think that all English people think alike." 
 
 " Perhaps it is," he said, " but anyhow, the fact's un- 
 alterable." 
 
 " The English out here are hateful," Nancy said. Tears 
 had filled her eyes, for Nicolas's voice was lifeless. 
 
 " They aren't altogether to be blamed," he said ; " some 
 of them have tried to be friends with the best of the natives, 
 but they get disgusted . . . they give it up." 
 
 Nancy was silent. Then as though speaking her 
 thoughts aloud, she said : " The mother of the most in- 
 tellectual king of all Egyptian history . . . the great re- 
 former who lived more than two thousand years before his 
 time, was a Syrian, so Stella says . . . you are Syrians." 
 
 " A despised race," he said, " because we have the busi- 
 ness instincts of the Jews and their ability to outlast 
 persecution." 
 
 " You are bitter." 
 
 He glanced at her. " Who wouldn't be . . . ? " He 
 paused. " I am never so bitter as when I'm speaking to 
 you." 
 
 " Why t " she asked " why, when you are speaking 
 to me of all people, who sees no barrier between your race 
 and her own why with me, Nicolas 1 " 
 
 " Because," he said slowly, " because, as Girgis said,
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 159 
 
 you are sweet to my nostrils as a wild rose ; that is 
 why." 
 
 " Oh, now you flirt ! " she said nervously, " but Girgia 
 said ' orange blossom.' " She looked at him mischievously. 
 A deep flush spread over her neck and face when she saw 
 the wound her words had inflicted. 
 
 " I was not flirting," he said coldly : " you were annoyed 
 because I did not take you seriously, and now, because I 
 betrayed a deeper understanding of myself to you, you 
 turn everything into banter." 
 
 " I am so sorry," she said, " but I thought you were 
 teasing me. I did not mean to hurt." She laid her soft 
 fingers on his wrist : " Don't be cross, Nicolas." 
 
 He drew his hand away and rose from his seat. " Little 
 English rose," he said gently, " don't prick me with your 
 thorns." He turned and left her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE next morning the glamour of Egypt had returned ; 
 for all that had been barren ugliness was now turned, by the 
 glory of Amon Ra, into a vision of magic beauty. They 
 were intoxicated with the mere joy of living. Mrs. Leke- 
 jian was happy in seeing her two children almost as gay 
 and light-hearted as Nancy, whose bubbling vitality was 
 so magnetic that it acted like an intoxicant upon the sensi- 
 tive temperament of her two more seriously minded com- 
 panions. 
 
 A picnic to see the ruins of the famous labyrinth and the 
 pyramid of Amen-em-hat III., and his daughter Ptah- 
 nefert, was to be the order of the day. They lay about 
 five miles out, in the desert, from the town of Medinat-al 
 Fayyum. . . . Girgis was to ride on his Arab mare while 
 the others drove in his comfortable carriage as far as 
 the good roads of the irrigated country would allow them. 
 After that they wore to pick up donkeys and ride across 
 the roadless desert. It was necessary for them first to 
 return to Medinat-al Fayyum, as Girgis had to attend to 
 some business in the town. 
 
 Girgis was very excited, and talked often about a portion 
 of the drive where, he assured Nancy, the scenery waa 
 exactly like Scotland, for which country he had a romantic 
 admiration. He had seen pictures of Highland scenery 
 on postcards. 
 
 On their wa> back to the city of Al Fayyum the scenery 
 was exactly the same as it had been two days before, for 
 Egypt, with its infinite variety of light and shade and ita
 
 160 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 extraordinary mixture of human types, is in its essentials 
 always the same : its procession of black-veiled women, 
 like funeral mourners, never draws to an end : its strings 
 of obstinate buffaloes, moving slowly through the desert 
 sand, never alter their grudging pace ; its groups of nimble- 
 footed asses carrying stately riders, whoso turbaned heads 
 bring to mind the prophet-law-givers of ancient days, 
 never slacken their willing trot ; the mud villages, with low 
 houses and high pigeon-towers, never change : the saints 
 tombs, with white domes and dark palm trees, repeat 
 themselves with the same unfailing regularity. 
 
 When Girgis reached his property he often cantered 
 away across the country on his exquisite mare ; after a 
 little while he would be back at their side again and ready 
 to tell them all that he could about the country. Upon 
 things agricultural he was a walking encyclopaedia of 
 information. 
 
 The third time he bounded off Nancy asked Stella if he 
 was bored by riding so slowly by their carriage t 
 
 Stella smiled. Oh, no ; but Girgis is a very level- 
 headed young man, he never forgets the main object of 
 an Egyptian." 
 
 Nancy looked at her with questioning eyes. 
 " Cotton," Stella said : " cotton is to the Egyptian farmer 
 what wool is to the Australian." 
 
 Stella nodded her head towards the richly irrigated 
 country as she spoke. " Some fellahin are ploughing with 
 camels and a wooden plough over there . . . can you see 
 their blue galabeahs and the camels' heads t Girgis is 
 paying them a surprise visit . . . he's going to see how 
 many of the men are sleeping instead of working : the last 
 time he left us the sakiya boy was playing dominoes with 
 one of the ploughmen, and the ox-wheel was standing still 
 at the irrigation well." 
 
 Nancy's practical mind had a respect for any one who 
 could so admirably combine business with pleasure as 
 Girgis did, and also be so unfailingly ornamental. When 
 he returned to their side he looked very stern. 
 
 " What's the matter, E.G. ! " Nancy asked. (R.G. 
 stood for " Rameses the Great," which had been her pet 
 name for him from the first day she met him.) " How 
 many slaves have you bastinadoed t How many hands 
 have you cut off 1 " She raised herself on her seat and 
 looked across his mare's neck. " Have you no heads to 
 show t . . . how very tame ! . . ." 
 
 " I should very much have enjoyed cutting off two 
 hands," he said sternly, " and I think Lord Minton would 
 have thanked me if I had sent them to him." He muttered
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 161 
 
 something in Arab which Stella recognised as a popular 
 native curse : some one was to have deformed sons and 
 some one else was to be eaten by flies and his wife was to 
 be barren. 
 
 "Do tell us what has happened," Nancy said, " it will 
 help to entertain us. . . ." 
 
 " You would not understand," he said ; " it would not 
 interest women." 
 
 Stella laughed. " Remember, Girgis, you are not speak- 
 ing to native women." 
 
 " Give our combined intelligences a chance, E.G. ; 
 Englishwomen are awfully inquisitive." 
 
 It is very simple to you " he addressed Nicolas " you 
 know how much harm late berseem crops do to the cotton 
 crops, and how much I have done to try to prevent the 
 farmers from cutting berseem after April ; I won't allow 
 any berseem to be sown close to my cotton on my own land 
 at any time." 
 
 " I think even Stella knows something about that. Lord 
 Minton is taking very strong measures to stop the short- 
 sightedness of the natives in that respect," said Nicolas. 
 His eyes addressed Nancy. 
 
 " I don't know anything about it," she said simply, 
 " but tell me, if you please." She laughed as she used 
 Girgis's old expression. 
 
 " During the early stages of the cotton-growing, up to 
 the end of June, the boll-worm can find nothing to live 
 upon in the cotton fields, and so it goes to the berseem crops 
 and puts in time until the cotton is to its taste. . . . The 
 natives foolishly plant their berseem quite close up to the 
 cotton crop, so as not to waste any land. If there was 
 no berseem for their worms to feed upon they would die of 
 starvation and want of moisture." 
 
 " Then why do the natives plant it so close ? Isn't 
 cotton far more valuable than berseem t " 
 
 " Yes, much, but berseem grows quicker and so gives a 
 ready return for their money. Two or three berseem crops 
 can be grown in one season, but only one cotton crop." 
 
 Girgis burst in : "I pay nearly all the working expenses 
 of my farm off berseem and other light crops ; my cotton is 
 clear profit." 
 
 " Then why doesn't berseem hurt your cotton ! " 
 
 " Because I cut my last crop of berseem before it can 
 hurt the cotton the boll-worm does not do its work so 
 early ; and I never keep a berseem crop standing for seed 
 anywhere near my cotton crops, or water it after a certain 
 date." 
 
 " I see," Nancy said. " But why should the natives
 
 162 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 be such fools f . . . they have been growing cotton ever 
 since the Nile ran through Egypt, practically." 
 
 " The poor things try to squeeze in another crop," 
 Nicolas said, " because of their greed for ready money. 
 The greater part of th small growers have gambled away 
 their cotton crops almost as soon as the green shoots have 
 shown above the ground." 
 
 " Is the Berseem Act one of Lord Minton's reforms t " 
 Stella asked. " He strikes at the root of evils. . . . In- 
 stead of introducing new cottons which are not so valuable 
 as the old ones, how much wiser to make it illegal to cut 
 berseem and sow it after a certain date ! " 
 
 " He has not got so far as that yet," Nicolas said, " it 
 is not illegal , . . the fellahin wouldn't stand that all at 
 once." 
 
 Girgis gave his mirthless laugh. " He is much wiser," 
 he said ; " he has ordered the Muduirg to persuade the 
 fellahin not to do it." 
 
 The real interpretation of the word persuade was not 
 hard to guess by the tone of Girgis' s voice. 
 
 " How do you persuade your men ! " Nancy asked. 
 " Are you a Mudir f " 
 
 " No, I am not a Mudir I am a Christian." 
 
 They all laughed at his veiled sarcasm except Nancy, 
 who did not understand it. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian shook her head. " Oh, Girgis , Girgis ! ' 
 she said in a kindly tone, " is that the only reason why 
 you are not a Mudir 1 " 
 
 " That is why I can never be one," he said, " while Egypt 
 is governed as she is at present, yet who knows ! . . ." 
 his eyes gleamed in his sun-browned face like moving 
 onyx beads ... " But I am a land-owner, Miss Nancy, 
 and when I let a small piece of land to a tenant farmer 
 last year, it was laid down in the agreement that no berseem 
 was to be sown within a certain distance from the cotton, 
 after a certain date, and that no crop of berseem was to 
 stand for seed after a certain date." 
 
 " Well 1 " Nancy said. 
 
 " Well," Girgis said, " that contract has been broken." 
 He looked at his riding-whip significantly. ... " If I had 
 done what I should have liked to have done I should have 
 sent his two hands to Lord Minton, as you so wisely sug- 
 gested." 
 
 " If they could have been taught by the cutting off of 
 hands they would surely have learnt long ago," Stella 
 said. 
 
 " If only the Prophet had laid it down in the Koran," 
 Nancy said ... "It seems to me that the Koran is the
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 163 
 
 only thing they ever will obey ; a new and enlarged edition 
 should be brought out." 
 
 " You think they obey it," Stella said, " but ! " she 
 shrugged her shoulders ..." well, the Prophet forbade 
 the drinking of strong wines, but he did not mention whisky 
 and liqueurs; even music was forbidden, yet the most devout 
 fellah sings whenever he gets the chance, and almost every 
 wealthy Mohammedan has a music gallery in his house . . . 
 and so with dancing they adore it, and it was most strictly 
 forbidden." 
 
 " On the old caravan roads," Nicolas said, " you often 
 meet strolling singers who entertain the travellers round 
 the camp fires at night ! " 
 
 Nancy's eyes sparkled. " How I should love to get 
 into the real desert life ! I want dancers, and fortune- 
 tellers, and snake-charmers, and jugglers, and story-tellers, 
 and buffoons in their proper environment. Can't we go ? " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian whispered to her : " They generally become 
 BO improper, my dear, that if you understand what they 
 are saying no lady can bear it : that is why they were put 
 down in the streets of Cairo. The people love lewd jests 
 and low fun so much that they won't pay the performers 
 any money until they pass all bounds of decency." 
 
 Girgis had left them again. They saw him riding beside 
 a steam plough which was doing its work in its rapid modern 
 way. When he returned he told Nicolas the time it took 
 to plough an acre of land with the new machine compared 
 to doing it with the camel and wooden plough of classic 
 days. Nancy noticed that all his ploughix.g was not done 
 in this rapid fashion. 
 
 " You have to consider the fellahin," he said. " What 
 would they do t " 
 
 Nancy's eyes softened : for once Girgis had shown that 
 he was human. " I forgot that," she said. " What would 
 they do ? Is it right to retard progress for the sake of 
 employing human beings who are little better than 
 animals ? " 
 
 " Socialists would solve that problem in their own way," 
 Nicolas said, " but fortunately Girgis is still a considerate 
 master rather than a theoretical reformer." 
 
 They had left the agricultural land of the oasis, with its 
 wide roads and rich green crops, and were descending into 
 a rocky valley, hedged on either side by a beautiful under- 
 growth of natural wild plants. This was Girgis's Scotland. 
 In Egypt, greenness and luxurious vegetation always 
 means abundant irrigation. The road from the city of 
 Medinat-al Fayyum to Lake Moeris was one of the wide 
 roads for agricultural transport common in the Fayyum,
 
 164 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 go, when they left their carriage at the point where Girgis 
 told them they were to meet their donkeys, a new experi- 
 ence awaited Nancy ; they were to ride across the roadless 
 desert to the pyramids of Hawara. 
 
 Their donkeys were splendid animals, and the best and 
 quietest of them was given to Nancy. It stood as high as 
 a small pony, and was as white and smooth of skin as her 
 own fiuede glove. On its breast there were necklaces of 
 blue beads hanging, with silver charms and amulets of 
 every description, cowrie shells, and passages from the 
 Koran rolled up in little red leather cases, and lumps of 
 sacred soil from Mecca. The ass looked like a beast got 
 up for an Eastern fancy bazaar. 
 
 Girgis, with Stella and her mother, led the way : how 
 Nancy could not imagine, for in her eyes the desert held 
 as few landmarks as the open sea ; but they never seemed 
 to have the slightest doubt about their direction, and the 
 donkeys ambled on as though they were going to market 
 with native women on their backs. But Nancy felt very 
 different from the placid native women who grow fat 
 through indolence of mind and Oriental compliance with 
 the will of Allah, for the air was electric and her senses 
 were intoxicated with the spell of Egypt. Everything 
 she had ever heard or read about the desert fled from her 
 mind at the actual realisation of its wonder, and she was 
 more nearly able to comprehend the infinity of God than 
 she had been before. In the desert God is in the light 
 and in the silence, He is the Lord of the Sweet Wind ; 
 so much so that Nancy, with her practical mind and irre- 
 pressible modernity, felt the Mystery of the Sublime. In 
 the desert man's place in the world is lost. 
 
 Nicolas did not disturb the reverie into which his usually 
 talkative and amusing companion had fallen. He was 
 riding a few steps behind her, partly for the pleasure of 
 watching the natural grace of her seat in the saddle, and 
 partly because the girl's donkey persisted in leading the 
 way. She looked such a childish figure under her long 
 veil of dark blue, which she wore right down to her knees, 
 that Nicolas longed to hold her in his arms as one holds a 
 child that one loves. Nancy's violet eyes could not bear 
 the fierce glare of the pitiless sun as well as Stella's dark 
 ones, which, like her own, had long been accustomed to 
 the half-light of England. Stella wore a green gauze veil 
 only half as thick as Nancy's. Nicolas and Girgis did not 
 ever wear blue glasses. To Nancy it seemed incredible 
 that any mortal eyes could bear the terrific glare. Besides, 
 the thick veil saved her fair skin from the hot air, which 
 burnt like the breath of an oven. Wearing it as long as
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 165 
 
 she did, right down to her knees, prevented flies getting 
 under it, and as it flapped about it created a little draught. 
 
 After they had been riding for some time in the intimaU 
 revealing silence, little towns appeared on the far horizon, 
 little towns with white minarets and green palm trees ; 
 and evidently there was water, for Nancy could see the 
 white wings of sailing boats, like birds on the edge of the 
 desert. 
 
 " I had no idea," she said to Nicolas, " there were so 
 many towns in the real desert ; I thought only Bedouins and 
 various sorts of tent-dwellers lived on its barren waste 
 away from the Nile . . . but there must be water there 
 ..." she was nodding towards the far-distant town. . . . 
 " What are we coming to ! " 
 
 Nicolas smiled. " I'm afraid it would take you a very 
 long time to come to that city," he said ; " about as long 
 as it took the boy to reach the end of the rainbow, where 
 he went to find the buried treasure. ... I doubt if any 
 of the inhabitants of the Medinat-al Fayyum have ever 
 been any nearer to it than we are now ' 
 
 " Why ? Is there something sacred about it f Is it a 
 forbidden city t The Moslems have many forbidden 
 cities, haven't they ? " 
 
 " It's a city forbidden to all mortals." 
 
 " Do explain ! " Nancy said impatiently. " What do 
 any but mortals want with mosques and houses and boats ? 
 . . . It's growing clearer and clearer how lovely it is ! " 
 
 " No mortal has ever trodden its streets, no prayer has 
 ever been offered up by human lips from those white 
 mosques, no call to prayer cried from those minarets." 
 
 Nancy made her donkey halt until Nicolas was by her 
 side ; her questioning eyes met his. " Do you understand, 
 Miss Hedge-rose, do you realise that at last you have seen 
 a ' mirage ' . . . a real desert mirage that that city over 
 there doesn't exist at all." 
 
 Nancy's expression was one of wonder, of incredulity. 
 " Do you really mean it f Am I to believe that, though 
 we both see them, there are no real houses over there, no 
 water with boats on it, no palm trees ! " 
 
 Nicolas shook his head. " No, none at all." 
 
 " Then I suppose, you will be saying that there is no 
 me! . . ." 
 
 " No, I won't," he said, " though I often try to wish 
 there wasn't ... do you know why I " He put his hand 
 on the pommel of her saddle. " Of course you know," 
 he said a little bitterly, " though, like all women, you will 
 pretend you don't." 
 
 " Because I ' ra ' and waste your time ! "
 
 166 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Her eyes were not turned to his, and through her dark 
 veil he could not see that the tint of her cheeks had turned 
 to crimson. 
 
 Nicolas lifted his hand from her saddle. " Yes, sweet 
 Nancy, you are dangerously real, as real and living to me 
 every minute of the day as I am myself even when we 
 are miles apart. You are far more real than that great 
 tomb of Amen-em-hat, which was placed there two thou- 
 sand years before Christ introduced His strange theories 
 into the East and gave the world a new religion to fight 
 over, a Saviour to die for, and new ideals to live for." He 
 paused ... " Behind it lie the ruins of the famous 
 Labyrinth." 
 
 Nicolas had spoken of these things to detract from the 
 embarrassment his first words might have caused . . . 
 he was angry with himself for having allowed his feelings 
 to unbridle his tongue 
 
 " What is the Labyrinth t Stella talked about it last 
 night as though I ought to understand all about it." 
 
 " The Labyrinth is the name given to the huge city 
 which grew up round the pyramid of Hawara, while the 
 king (Amen-em-hat III.) was building it for his own tomb 
 when he was dead . . . these pyramids took so long to 
 build and decorate that cities used to grow up around 
 them during their construction. They died away when 
 the king was buried, and another city grew up round the 
 next pyramid that the new king was having raised for 
 himself." 
 
 " I see," Nancy said, but she spoke absently, for her 
 eyes were once more on the mirage. " I never imagined 
 mirages were things that every one could see at the same 
 time," she said dreamily. " I thought they wore optical 
 delusions which highly sensitive and imaginative people 
 saw . . . but you see that town, and I see it, and I sup- 
 pose all the others see it t " 
 
 Nicolas laughed at her consternation over the unreal. 
 " And it doesn't exist after all ! ... it really doesn't ; 
 it's like our happiness," he said reflectively. 
 
 " Oh, don't say that ! Happiness is real when you feel 
 like this aren't you happy this morning t " 
 
 " Yes, just now, too happy," he said, and his eyes told 
 her the reason why ..." but will it last, like the kind's 
 tomb, or will it fade away when the sun goes down like 
 your mirage city ? " Something in his voice conveyed 
 more than his words. 
 
 " If happiness lasted for ever I suppose we should get 
 awfully sick of it." 
 
 " Perhaps you're right : unhappiness is like rain, it
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 167 
 
 noftens humanity. . . . People who have never known 
 real happiness can't sympathise with a girl like you who 
 can be happy through the mere joy of living isn't that so ! " 
 
 " Yes, but I really believe that for ordinary mortals 
 there is more danger in too much happiness than in too 
 much suffering." 
 
 " It seems to me that even you must have suffered ! 
 Yet who would have imagined it ? But then you are 
 amazingly sensible too, and you don't look it. He laughed 
 affectionately. 
 
 " I don't know what I look, but I feel a walking monu- 
 ment of common, everyday sense. . . . I'm not a bit 
 temperamental. ... I think that's the word used nowa- 
 days, isn't it, to express people like Stella ? I'm so sanely 
 ordinary beside her, when I'm old and fat I shall be dread- 
 ful." 
 
 " Why should you ever be f at ? " Nicolas made no 
 flattering rejoinder. 
 
 " Because the women of our family grow fat, the men 
 stay thin . . . we're like the hedge-roses truly enough : 
 when the bloom goes off we turn into round, red, prosaic 
 food for the birds. ... I shall be absolutely commonplace 
 both in mind and appearance, not one scrap different from 
 all the other little round, red-faced women who knock 
 the bottom out of the most charming illusions by their 
 bump of common sense." 
 
 " It was I who knocked the bottom out of your desert 
 city, wasn't it t Will you forgive me ? " 
 
 Nancy laughed as her beast bore her swiftly away from 
 her companion's side ; it was a gentle beast, with nice 
 manners, but it did not like being passed, and Nicolas's 
 donkey had been trying to gain the lead. " You're yet 
 got to prove that your words are true," she called put ; 
 
 anyhow, I'm not going to let the mirage of my happiness 
 fade away at sunset." 
 
 After a good long scamper across the open desert her 
 donkey halted abruptly in front of a native hut whose 
 amall windows were jealously guarded with wooden blinds 
 to keep out the sun. The door was shut, to exclude the 
 hot air ; but the moment the animal stopped it was opened 
 and a stately Arab salaamed in front of Nancy. 
 Nancy had not been aware of the tremendous tempera- 
 ture they had been riding in for the dry heat of the desert 
 is curiously deceptive until she entered the cool hut, 
 whose gracious shade and air of spotless cleanliness made 
 it seem an earthly paradise. The Arab servant, whose 
 beautifully rolled turban and long grey silk robe endowed 
 him with the air and dignity of an Old Testament prophet,
 
 168 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 helped her to dismount ; he next relieved her of her veil and 
 riding-gloves. 
 
 With a sigh of content she looked round her and in- 
 spected the building : the one large room, with its mud 
 floor and mud walls, seemed as cool as an ice-house ; 
 pleasant streaks of desert light strayed into it through the 
 wide ribs of the wooden shutters, but the chief delight was 
 the total absence of flies. Since sunrise the windows had 
 been carefully closed, and so had the door. During the 
 night the cool air had been allowed to flow in, and the flies 
 which had got in at night had been suffocated in the 
 Keating's powder which had been laid for them all round 
 the window-panes. Their corpses had been buried and 
 put out of sight long before the appearance of the master 
 and his guests. 
 
 On a tressel table Nancy saw preparations being made 
 for an appetising lunch ... it had just been unpacked 
 from a very up-to-date luncheon-baaket whose little brass 
 label was marked " Harrods." When she saw the label 
 she could not help smiling : it took her mind back so 
 abruptly to scenes far different from her present surround- 
 ings. Stella was in the hut beside her before the smile 
 the label had called up had faded from her lips. 
 
 " Look," she said, " at the modernity of R.G. Your 
 Pharaonic cousin has had his lunch-basket sent out from 
 Harrods'. His riding-breeches came from Thomas's, his 
 boots from Hook and Knowles, and here's a thermos flask 
 from . . ." 
 
 The Arab handed it to her politely and without a vestige 
 of a smile said : " From Amon-Ra, sitt." 
 
 " What does he mean 1 " Nancy asked. 
 
 " He means that they are heat-giving, like the great Bun- 
 god Amon-Ra . . ." 
 
 " Oh, stop about the ancient gods ! . . . I prefer the 
 gods of the present day, there's plenty of them and other 
 things." 
 
 Nicolas held up a jar of pate de foie gras. " Things like 
 this, for instance," he said., " and this ..." he threw a 
 dessert chocolate across the table for her to catch, " and 
 this," he laid a glass of preserved peaches on the table ; 
 " and what of this t " a roast chicken, exquisitely cool in 
 its wrapping of green leaves, was exhibited. 
 
 " I didn't know I was so hungry or so greedy until I 
 saw these delicacies, did you t Isn't it all ripping t " 
 She turned to smile upon Girgis, but he was busy outside 
 the hut seeing that the saddles were removed from the 
 donkeys before the beasts took their midday siesta. The 
 saddles had to be taken out of the sun, or they would be
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 169 
 
 too hot to sit upon later on. Nancy's eyes were turned 
 to Nicolas again : " When I saw this basket I had a terriblo 
 wave of depression ; it's passing off now." 
 
 " Why depression ? " 
 
 " That label called up all sorts of boring visions in my 
 mind ; it reminded me that there is a London of shops and 
 blouses and gowns and things." She sighed. ..." I'd 
 love to live in the desert with a praying-mat and a gullali 
 for ever." 
 
 " I wonder if you would really be contented to live in 
 Egypt, to make it your home," Stella said. Nicolas 
 appeared not to be listening, but Nancy felt his searching 
 eyes awaiting her answer. 
 
 " If I could live in the desert for half the year I should 
 be more than content, and the other half in Cairo as you live, 
 not as the English live. ... At present I can't imagine 
 wanting to live anywhere for always. I'd love to see 
 the very latest civilisations, but I should like to live for 
 four years in Egypt first if I could live with your people." 
 
 She slipped her hand into Mrs. Lekejian's. " Will you 
 adopt me when Stella's gone ? Let me be your little black 
 sheep 1 " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian patted the girl's hand affectionately. 
 " What a temptress she is. What are we to do when you 
 are gone, Nancy t You keep us all alive : you seem to be 
 a part of our life already." 
 
 " You darling for saying that, when you know I'm a 
 perfect plague . . . Nicolas will get some work done again, 
 and Mr. Lekejian will grow quite old for want of teasing. 
 But I suppose you will have to leave Cairo soon." She 
 spoke regretfully. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian looked towards Stella : " So much depends 
 upon her future plans : if Vernon is sent home I suppose 
 Bhe will want to go too " in speaking of home Mrs. Leke- 
 jian always referred to England. " We had thought of 
 going this summer to some watering-place near Alexan- 
 dria, and Stella had some idea of visiting Syria with 
 Nicolas, of staying on the slopes of Mount Lebanon for the 
 hot summer months ; but Vernon may be sent home on 
 sick-leave if his recovery is not satisfactory, then I don't 
 suppose she'd want to go to Syria." 
 
 Nancy said, " I suppose not," though, to her mind, living 
 on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, with Nicolas for a daily 
 companion, sounded so much more interesting than going 
 back to England with Vernon, that her words dropped out 
 in slow wonder. Something kept her from asking why 
 Vernon did not marry Stella whenever he was better and 
 <jo with her to Syria if he could get sick-leave. 
 
 1C
 
 170 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Girgis was inwardly delighted that his picnic was prov- 
 ing such a success and surprise to his guests, who did 
 ample justice to the good things he had ordered. The 
 whole affair was such & striking contrast to the uncom- 
 fortable tea provided by his aunt two days before, that 
 Stella and Nancy were amazed that he should have known 
 how to do all these things so well and yet remain contented 
 with his aunt's attempts at Western habits. 
 
 In the great stretch of desert, which seemed to Nancy's 
 untutored eye to constitute the whole world as she looked 
 out upon it from the shade of the cool hut, lay the tomb of 
 the Pharaoh whose imperishable work laid the founda- 
 tions of the wealth of the oasis city of this day. It rose 
 up brown and stern in its primitive grandeur against the 
 blue Egyptian sky. 
 
 Nancy nodded to Stella, who like herself was looking 
 at two Arabs who were praying on two circular praying 
 mats of plaited straw : she was envying them their com- 
 plete surrender to god. 
 
 Nancy asked Girgis why he employed Mohammedans 
 when he was such a jealous Copt. 
 
 " I make no difference," he said. " I employ Copt or 
 Moslem according to what I think the man is worth . . . 
 that is how it should be ; but I do not give all my best- 
 paid posts to Moslems." 
 
 " I think that is perfectly fair," the girl said eagerly ; 
 " but I imagined you would only employ Copts, as Mr. 
 Lekejian does." 
 
 " My party does not consider a man's religion. If a man 
 is better for the religion he believes in, what does it matter 
 what religion it is 1 We do not let religion govern our 
 politics, we are striving for the betterment of Egypt . . . 
 that is the great thing. ... But I am not very pleased 
 when I see your Government giving all the pensionable 
 posts, all the posts which uphold the dignity of the people, 
 to the Moslems ; I wish to see the Christians given the same 
 chance as Moslems that is all I ask. This can never be 
 done until the Independent Egyptian Party ' is in 
 power. Which is representative of the Coptic community 
 and many of the representative and wealthy Moslems. Its 
 aim is Representative Government in Egypt, irrespective 
 of race and religion . . . but I go farther than my party 
 . . . they are too slow." 
 
 Girgis said the last words with an unlovely smile curling 
 his scarlet lips and showing his gleaming teeth. Mrs. 
 Lekejian, who knew her nephew's fanatical views upon 
 political subjects, tried to divert the conversation the 
 picnic was not to be spoilt by political discussions.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 171 
 
 She was glad when the two Arabs, who had finished their 
 prayers, entered the hut carrying the brass tisht and ibreek 
 for washing the guests' hands after meals. 
 
 The head servant stopped at the side of Nancy and held 
 the basin in front of her a clean towel was laid across 
 its wide brim. When she put out her hands a second 
 servant trickled some cold water, scented with attar-of- 
 roses, over her fingers from the brass ibreek, whose slender 
 Bpout was as gracefully curved as the neck of a flamingo. 
 The water ran through an exquisitely pierced raised recep- 
 tacle which acted as a soap -dish, at the same time hiding 
 from view the used water. In this way the next guest 
 did not see the water his neghbour had washed in. 
 
 " If this isn't the very essence of refinement and Oriental 
 indulgence ! " Nancy said. " I do wish we could live in the 
 desert for a bit couldn't we ^ " 
 
 " It's almost too hot now," Mrs. Lekejian said. " I 
 was afraid to let you ride under that burning sun to- 
 day." 
 
 " I loved it," Nancy said. " I didn't feel the least 
 hot did you, Stella ! not half as hot as you do in a 
 London omnibus." 
 
 In spite of her protest the two girls almost shrank back 
 from the blast of hot air which fanned their faces as they 
 emerged from the hut it was like the air of a furnace ; 
 and the sun was so blinding that Nancy had to drop her 
 veil instantly. Yet Girgis did not seem to be aware of the 
 difference, his thickly lashed eyes never flinched, and he 
 wore nothing to protect the back of his head. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian decided to wait in the rest-house until 
 the party picked her up on their return journey from 
 the Labyrinth and the tomb of Amen-em-hat, so Girgis 
 had the bliss of Stella's undivided attention. He helped 
 her to climb the pyramid, while Nicolas assisted Nancy. It 
 was very unlike the gigantic efforts in climbing which have 
 to be made at the pyramids of Gizeh, for here the whole 
 thing was built of small bricks made of sun-baked mud, 
 which crumbled to pieces under their leather -soled boots, 
 after successfully defying the elements for three or four 
 thousand years. Girgis had been finding it harder and 
 harder to content himself with smiles and tender looks 
 from his cousin ; he had broken out once or twice into 
 rhapsodies of love, but as they were generally quotations 
 from Persian or Arabic poems, they were not personal 
 enough to deserve censoring. 
 
 At last words escaped him which he had meant not to 
 say, words he had been thinking all day long, for he 
 realised that Stella was gayest and happiest now, when
 
 172 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Vernon Thorpe was forgotten, when her mind was occupied 
 with other things. 
 
 They were seated on the ground. Stella was letting 
 the hot desert sand trickle through her fingers ! Girgis 
 suddenly grasped her wrist with his firm hand, his master- 
 ful eyes drew hers to his. " Tell me, because I adore and 
 worship you, because you have brought into my heart a 
 higher love than I ever understood before, a love which 
 could not offend your pure mind if you could reafd it all 
 why do you not desire to marry your English lover any 
 more ... is it because you have learnt to love your own 
 people too much t Have you ceased to respect the 
 English ? " 
 
 Stella drew her hand from his fierce grasp. " Girgis, 
 why do you persist in saying these things t Of course I 
 wish to marry Vernon, I love him more than ever." 
 
 " That is what you wish was true, but is not true." 
 
 Stella felt her heart beating more rapidly. " You have 
 no right to say such things. What do you know about 
 my feelings ? " 
 
 " I know," he said, " because I can read your mind 
 . . . but not all your mind, for I do not yet understand 
 why your passion for him has died ... if you loved me 
 that would explain . . . but you do not . . . not yet . . ." 
 
 " I never shall, Girgis . . . not in the way you wish 
 me to, not in the way a woman should love the man she 
 marries." 
 
 " How is that way, if you please 1 " 
 
 " With her whole heart ; she should feel that for her 
 there is only one man whom she could marry, and that 
 man is the man she loves." 
 
 There was silence for a little time and then he said, " For- 
 give me, but that is not how you love, Mr. Thorpe, and yet 
 you are willing to marry him . . . you are marrying him 
 now because you are grateful to him for having saved your 
 father's fife because he is a hero ? " 
 
 Stella smiled rather sadly, but did not answer. 
 
 Girgis waited a moment or two. 
 
 " Would you marry me if I were a hero ? " he paused 
 as though thinking " if I did something for Egypt . . . 
 very great . . . would you marry me f " 
 
 " I am going to marry Vernon." 
 
 " Perhaps not t " 
 
 " But I tell you I am, Girgis, so there is no use in youi 
 talking so childishly." She rose to her feet impatiently. 
 
 Girgis saw that she was annoyed : " You are my guest 
 to-day," he said, " and I did not mean to anger you ; I 
 have tried very hard not to speak of my love, but ' out oi
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 173 
 
 the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Will you 
 forgive me T I only live for the sweetness of your smiles." 
 " Dear Girgis, I do care for you very, very much, or I 
 tvould not forgive you ; but you must not say these things 
 again if you wish to always keep my affection and you 
 don't want to kill it, do you ? " 
 
 She held out her hand, he grasped it passionately in his. 
 " Kill it ! " he said, " I will make it grow and grow until 
 it becomes the love you speak of ; there is nothing I would 
 not do for you. ... I would die the worst death, and 
 it would be sweet, for your sake ; to do you the smallest 
 service I would become a slave. But as I cannot do these 
 things, please give me your sympathy I have found no 
 occasion to earn your gratitude and love." 
 
 Stella laughed affectionately. " Live for me, Girgis 
 that will be of much more use and far nobler than dying ; 
 you can live and help me to work for Egypt. Do everything 
 that lies in your power to teach the people self-respect ; 
 teach the men the wisdom of granting liberty to their 
 wives and daughters, the wisdom of educating them so that 
 there may be many companionable girls in Egypt, like 
 Nancy and myself, for men like you to associate with and 
 marry. . . ." She paused. ... " Do you know why 
 you love me, Girgis f Shall I tell you ? It is because 
 I am the first girl you have ever known intimately who 
 is a companionable human being ; you think I am very 
 wonderful because you never dreamt that there were such 
 girls as Nancy and myself : but we aren't a bit wonderful, 
 there are hundreds and thousands like us all over the 
 world." 
 
 " God has only made one Hadassah Lekejian," he said 
 gravely, " as He has only made it possible for me to love 
 one woman." 
 
 " You will love one who will be far more suited to bring 
 you happiness than I am. You don't know what you 
 need ; you're only in the making yet, although you are BO 
 very wise over many things. You will remember what I 
 am saying now some day, and know that I am right." 
 
 " I shall always remember to-day," he said, "for never 
 before have I been so much alone with you ; and I shall 
 remember it because I have sworn to you that I will 
 accomplish some work for Egypt ... I have determined 
 to be as deserving of your gratitude as Vernon Thorpe." 
 
 Stella looked at him with gratitude already kindling her 
 eyes. " I shall be very proud of you." 
 
 " I hope so." He said the words so significantly that 
 hia cousin questioned him anxiously. 
 
 " It will be work done in my own way and according to
 
 174 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 my own ideas . . ." he was helping her to mount her 
 donkey, which the Arab had brought to them, as a sign 
 that it was time that they began their homeward journey. 
 . . . Girgis held the reins in his hands a moment before 
 giving them to her. " You will always remember that, 
 whatever sacrifice I may make, whatever work I may do, 
 it has been done for Egypt, and that I have done it for 
 Egypt and your sake." 
 
 Stella could not look at his burning eyes or take the 
 reins from his trembling hands without realising the 
 terribleness of the Oriental passion which her own de- 
 sirability as a woman had roused in her hard-headed 
 modern cousin. 
 
 Yet with her pulses unmoved she looked into his burning 
 eyes, and as she took the reins into her own hands she said, 
 " I will remember, and I will love you for the work you are 
 going to do, as I love you for the work you have done." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 To the Lekejian household the visit to Al Fayyum was 
 already a thing of the past ; they were busy with prepara- 
 tions for going to England. Vernon had been given three 
 months sick-leave owing to his slow recovery. Since their 
 return to Cairo none of the family had seen anything of Girgis 
 Boutros. In his parting there had been a little more 
 intensity of feeling than Stella thought necessary con- 
 sidering that it was likely to be for so short a time ; she 
 wondered if he meant to absent himself from their society 
 until his feeling for herself had become more platonic. 
 
 Nicolas appeared to be very much engrossed in a light 
 opera (on Oriental lines) he was writing in collaboration 
 with a Frenchman who had been his greatest chum in 
 Paris. Since their ride across the desert to the tomb 
 of the Great Irrigator, Amen-em-hat, he had never let 
 one word escape his lips which Nancy could have inter- 
 preted as meaning more than the most ordinary platonic 
 friendship might allow, while in every way in her power 
 Nancy had tried to find out the true state of his feelings for 
 herself. Sometimes she was convinced he was putting 
 great restraint upon himself and that the words he had 
 uttered at Al Fayyum were spoken out of the fullness of 
 his heart ; that in the desert, the elemental man gains the 
 upper hand of the conventional man of the world in 
 Nicolas's case a man who was obviously determined never 
 to cause himself suffering again at the hand of a woman. 
 At other times she was equally convinced that she had
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 176 
 
 put too much meaning into his Oriental gift of flattery, 
 that he cared no more for her than all men care for an 
 attractive girl who takes the trouble o make herself 
 amusing. Sometimes she was so angry with his impersonal 
 manner that she felt worn out with her endeavours to upset 
 his self-control, and with her own well-concealed vexation. 
 With regard to her feelings for Nicolas she was only 
 conscious of the fact that his good or bad opinion of her 
 mattered far too much for her peace of mind, and she was 
 in a constant state of irritation and unhappiness if his last 
 word or attitude towards her was cynical or indifferent. 
 
 On their last day of sight -seeing they were going to take 
 part in the popular holiday called " Shem-en-Neseem " 
 or " The Smelling of the Zephyr," which the Cairenes cele- 
 brate on the Nile and in the semi-tropical gardens of the 
 Delta Barrage below Cairo. On that day the populace of 
 Cairo, of all nationalities and creeds, join together in com- 
 mon fellowship to " smell the air." It is observed on the 
 first day of the Khamlseen, when hot southerly winds are 
 of frequent occurrence. 
 
 On the morning of the festival of the Shem-en-Neseem, 
 the women of the households rise very early, and before 
 doing anything else they take an onion and break it open 
 and smell it. In the course of the day thousands of the 
 citizens of Cairo ride or walk into the country, or, what is 
 still more popular if they can afford it, go by steamer or 
 barge, or indeed by any sort of river craft, to the garden 
 of the barrage. The sight on the river is exquisite, for 
 every boat is decorated with palms, and flowers, and gay 
 Egyptian bunting. Every sort of musical instrument 
 is heard, from the classic reed-pipe of the Egyptian to the 
 tink-tinking of the Italian mandoline ; and extraordinary 
 tunes are played in a manner beyond recognition on Euro- 
 pean brass instruments by natives on board chartered 
 excursionist steamers. 
 
 Nicolas was with them, and had entered wholeheartedly 
 into the girls' desire to see all that there was to be seen of 
 the picturesque side of native life on this curious holiday 
 which, unlike most festivals in a Mohammedan country t 
 the Koran had not originated its proceedings. Here 
 and there in some retired spot in the public gardens a pious 
 Moslem was chanting a passage from the " Excellent Book " 
 to some elderly friends, and once Stella and Nicolas were 
 able to stand by and listen to a song being sung in the old 
 Arab style. It was in praise of a favourite camel : the 
 effect was wonderfully restful. 
 
 The old Arab songs usually extolled the praise of a 
 tavourite horse or camel, the glory of war and fighting, the
 
 176 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 beauty of some maiden of purely legendary renown ; modern 
 Egyptian songs are, alas ! usually about love, and, as Stella 
 and Nicolas knew only too well, often horribly indecent in 
 character, at least to European ears. 
 
 On their journey up the river to the gardens Nicolas had 
 had an experience of this kind. The boat was crowded, 
 and they had been fortunate enough to secure seats in the 
 bows, when they were surrounded by a crowd of holiday- 
 makers, girls, women, and children as well as men, of every 
 grade, of the commerical lower classes in Cairo. 
 
 The Egyptian boy at the piston pipe, a really beauti- 
 ful creature, dressed in the simplest of hot-weather work- 
 ing garments, was shouting down a tube from the top deck 
 his orders for steering to another of the ship's hands on the 
 lower deck. Nancy saw Stella look very uncomfortable 
 and try to move away. Presently she saw most of the 
 women and men smiling with good-natured amusement : 
 something was happening which she did not understand, 
 and all the while the boy's orders had been getting louder 
 and louder. As his language grew more and more excited, 
 the people laughed more openly ; then suddenly Nicolas, 
 who had been paying for their tickets and getting 
 change from the steward, appeared on the scene, and 
 Nancy thought she had never seen a face so altered with 
 rage . . . she scarcely knew him. For the first time 
 she saw the demoniac expression of hate which only an 
 Oriental can show in his eyes and in the subtilty of 
 his expression. Up till now she had only seen him as the 
 gentle, refined dreamer whose perfect manners never 
 tailed him. The reason for his rage she was totally at a 
 loss to discover, even when he put his arm roughly through 
 his sister's and drew her unresistingly through the crowd 
 of holiday-makers to the farthest part of the boat from 
 where the gesticulating boy stood at the speaking-tube. 
 Nancy he left standing in blank amazement close to the 
 boy's elbow. For a moment she felt a little injured that 
 she, was left there quite alone as a rule Nicolas guarded 
 her as though she would break in pieces if she were roughly 
 touched, as she often laughingly told him ; but the next 
 moment he was back at her side with the ras of the ship, 
 who addressed himself to the unsuspecting youth by kick- 
 ing him as though he were a dog, at the same time ex- 
 pressing to Nicolas the folly of his objecting to the boy's 
 very ordinary language. 
 
 As Nicolas drew Nancy away to where his sister was 
 seated, she asked him to tell her what was the matter, but 
 he could not speak, his face was still white with anger. 
 When Nancy reached Stella's side she said : " Do tell me
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 177 
 
 tvhat lias happened ? Was that boy rude to you t I 
 didn't see him do anything ? He's such a lovely creature, 
 surely he wasn't rude ? Did you ever see such a perfect 
 mouth or such teeth ? What has happened ? " 
 
 " Unfortunately I understood the words that came 
 out of his mouth. ... So I do not think it so lovely." 
 
 " Were they awful ? " 
 
 Stella shuddered. " I want to forget them. . . . Talk 
 of something else. . . . Poor Nicolas ! " 
 
 Nancy was silent for a moment, and then she said 
 meditatively. " And all these Greek and Italian girls and 
 these tiny children understood ! How little one realises 
 when one doesn't know the language ! " 
 
 " Every one of them understood : they're accustomed to 
 it. The tiny children sing revolting songs. . . ." Stella 
 sighed : " That's why father never will allow me to go 
 about alone when I first came out, and I didn't understand. 
 . . . He hated telling me ... it isn't only the men, it's 
 every one ; though probably that boy never imagined we 
 understood a word of what he was saying. He thought 
 we were ordinary tourists, and that's the way he's accus- 
 tomed to giving orders to any poor creature whom he thinks 
 is one degree below him in his official capacity." 
 
 When Nicolas returned to them he was his ordinary 
 gentle self again ; but for the rest of the day Nancy under- 
 stood why he was so careful not to allow Stella or herself 
 to listen to native singers, or watch the amusing antics of 
 buffoons, until he had himself heard the nature of their 
 performances. The effect of the little incident, was 
 curiously far-reaching. It had unsealed a door for her in 
 Nicolas's nature. She understood that the awful passion 
 she had seen was as much a part of him as the gentle and 
 refined personality she was accustomed to, yet it served 
 rather to increase her respect for him than to disgust her. 
 When any similar thing occurred, Nancy noticed that 
 Nicolas always hedged himself in with a stronger wall of 
 reserve than usual, and became a few degrees more mis- 
 anthropic in his attitude towards herself, or peculiarly 
 cynical. He seemed to think that this most objectionable 
 feature of the Oriental character reflected upon himself. 
 On such occasions he hated the East with a deadly hatred. 
 What right had he, whose mind knew the minds of these 
 men, to think of this girl as ever entering into his inner- 
 most life ? And yet there were occasions when he loved 
 the East as only an Oriental born with a philosophical turn 
 of mind can love it and understand it.
 
 ( 178 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 IN a native cai'6 of dishonourable repute in a lonely suburb 
 of Cairo, tbyee young men, members of the advanced 
 Nationalist party, were waiting for the arrival of their 
 fourth companion ; they had met together to discuss their 
 final plans for the assassination of the Khedive, Lord Minton, 
 and the Prime Minister. 
 
 Their fourth man was Girgis Boutros ! 
 
 During their residence in Europe as students, these mis- 
 taken young Egyptian patriots had become non-believers, 
 in everything except their own ideas as to the proper 
 governing of their country. They felt themselves per- 
 fectly capable of filling any one of the posts held by the 
 great personages whom they were conspiring to murder. 
 
 Girgis Boutros had only recently joined them. In his 
 ardent desire to see the establishment of Representative 
 Government in Egypt, he had thrown himself unreservedly 
 into the projects of the most active of the advanced 
 Nationalist party. Personal matters had greatly helped 
 to make him take this step, a step which naturally pleased 
 the Nationalists, who were delighted to have a man of 
 Girgis's wealth and social standing aiding their cause and 
 schemes. 
 
 His natural prejudice against the British had for months 
 past been fanned into a flaming fire by what he chose 
 to term personal social slights. Certainly since he had 
 known Vernon Thorpe there had been many occasions 
 upon which he had been submitted to petty indignities from 
 the British, for he had been brought into closer touch with 
 the sporting community in Cairo than ever before, and over 
 and over again his feelings had been deeply wounded. 
 
 The very man who was going to marry his adored Ha- 
 dassah, his own first cousin, the girl who always treated 
 him with the affection of a sister, did not consider him fit 
 to enter his club. 
 
 It is impossible to enumerate the petty slights he re- 
 ceived or imagined he had received from his future cousin 
 by marriage, and from Vernon's friends, who never thought 
 of him for one moment as anything but a " native," with 
 whom, of course, they could not associate on terms of 
 equality. 
 
 On the fatal day he had thrown in his lot with the assassins 
 he was in a state of mind which rendered him not wholly 
 responsible for his actions. His passion for Stella had been 
 steadily gaining hold of his senses. He had been fighting
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 179 
 
 against it as best he knew how, but alas ! it was not a very 
 successful fight, for the Oriental youth is not taught to 
 restrain himself in his desires, and all that was best in 
 Girgis, as well as all that belonged to the vigour of his full 
 Oriental manhood, desired and hungered for the sweetness 
 of Stella. 
 
 He loathed Vernon because he knew Stella considered 
 him superior to himself. He loathed him because chance 
 had given him the opportunity of figuring as a hero in her 
 eyes. He loathed him because he was fair while he him- 
 self was dark. He loathed him because he knew that 
 Vernon cared as little for what he, Girgis Boutros, thought 
 of him as if he were a worm. 
 
 Since he had learnt that the date of Stella's marriage 
 was practically fixed, he felt that he had nothing left to 
 live for. His plans for the betterment of Egypt, he 
 imagined, ould best be furthered by offering up his life on 
 the altar of Nationalism. By dying a martyr's death he, too, 
 would be a hero in his beloved's eyes, for in the future she 
 would realise the blessings his party had conferred upon 
 her country. She had promised to love him if he worked 
 for Egypt this was the work Fate had selected for him 
 to do. 
 
 With the calm philosophy of an Oriental he faced death 
 fearlessly ; for him " the Land which loveth silence " held 
 no dread, and he knew that certain death awaited him 
 if he either succeeded or failed in nis attempt to commit 
 the deed that had fallen to his lot. 
 
 The thing he had not sufficient courage or self-control 
 to do was to go on living and making the best of 
 what is good in life when it has been robbed of what 
 is sweetest. 
 
 On the first occasion when the four conspirators met 
 together, at the tomb of their hero Wardani, who had not 
 long since assassinated the late Prime Minister, they did 
 not know that they had been shadowed by native detectives 
 disguised as peasants. 
 
 Although the eavesdroppers could not hear all that 
 was said on that occasion, they were quite certain that 
 this meeting was of vast importance, for solemn oaths 
 were taken, and the two leaders were w jll known to them 
 by sight as dangerous members of the Nationalist party. 
 They never lost sight of these four young men for one 
 moment. A few days later, when one of them went to 
 Alexandria quite suddenly to watch the goings out and 
 comings in of the Premier and his entourage, he was, 
 though he did not suspect it, followed the whole time by a 
 letective in the guise of a donkey-boy seeking a customer.
 
 180 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Their second meeting had been held in a small room 
 in a cafd in Cairo. Again the detectives this time dressed 
 as well-off young Arabs who had gone to the cafe to indulge 
 in illegal gambling and other vices which appeal to the 
 Oriental mind had followed them, but owing to the 
 thickness of the walls, for the building was in the heart of 
 mediaeval Cairo, they had not been able to hear much of 
 what was being said. 
 
 On this third and last evening, when the conspirators 
 were to decide upon the choice of explosives to be used 
 by the assassins for the murder of the Khedive and the 
 Prime Minister, they had contrived to sit next to their 
 prey during the long tram drive which conveyed them from 
 the city to the desert caf6. When they got out of the 
 tram they waited until they had seen their victims seat 
 themselves in an arbour made of jasmine and oleander 
 trees. The detectives, who were again dressed as simple 
 fellahin, took up their position just outside the screen, in 
 a dark corner which went well with their humble appear- 
 ance. Here they could hear and also see, if they put their 
 eyes close to the screen of green foliage, everything that was 
 being said and done, without themselves being seen for 
 they had no lights except what was afforded by the moon 
 and stars in the clear heavens. 
 
 The beauty of the balmy night was lost upon them, 
 as it was lost upon the impatient conspirators, who, as the 
 time went on and Girgis did not appear, grew alarmed 
 and anxious. The detectives noted their growing concern. 
 
 In the clear heavens the stars seemed to oscillate until 
 at moments they hung like mosque-lamps over the heads of 
 the listeners, who had ordered cups of black coffee for which 
 they paid one farthing each. When the soft wind moved 
 the jasmine flowers, their sweet, strong scent, so dear to 
 native nostrils, drifted through the air. From the desert 
 came the idle notes of a flute-player who was sitting cross- 
 legged on the sand sending across the desert, at his sweet 
 fancy, bird -like notes from his long reed " nay" and, 
 as though to intensify the stillness of the African night 
 the sharp barking of wolf-dogs, which Bedouin farmers 
 set loose at night to guard their flocks from raiding jackals, 
 came from the far horizon. 
 
 Inside the caf6, on a raised divan near the door, a bearded 
 Turk, well fed, red-fezzed, and yellow-slippered, lay smoking 
 his " hubble-bubble." The long red tube of his pipe 
 reached from the floor to his sensual lips, which sleepily 
 held the amber mouthpiece. The occasional " hubble- 
 bubble " which the water made in the enamelled glass 
 bowl on the floor showed that his sleep was not sound
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 181 
 
 enough to prevent him enjoying the indulgence in his 
 favourite pastime. 
 
 On the outer floor of the building a pipe-cleaner sat 
 plying his pitifully paid trade. 
 
 The inteiior of the building, which stretched a consider- 
 able way back into the desert, was full of all-night gamblers 
 and hashish-smokers, customers who had business to trans- 
 act or pleasures to indulge in which did not meet the 
 approval of the city police. 
 
 In Cairo the cola or midnight call to prayer was being 
 cli anted from the royal mosques as Girgis Boutros, on his 
 fleet-footed mule, rode through the city. On his unheeding 
 ears fell the beautiful and familiar words which open the 
 midnight prayer as well as the call at sunrise. 
 
 " Prayer is better than sleep, there is no God but God ; 
 alone He hath no companion ; to Him belongeth the 
 dominion, and to Him belongeth praise. He giveth life 
 and causeth death ; and He is living and shall never die. 
 In His hand is blessing ; and He is almighty. There is 
 no Deity but God, and we will not worship any beside Him." 
 
 As this call is not an obligatory prayer, it was only here 
 and there that some devout figure prostrated itself to the 
 ground as the chant from the throats of the mueddins 
 floated out to the sleeping city. 
 
 In reposeful cafe's fat Mussulmans were sleeping on the 
 matted floors, rolled up in white shawls like children ; the 
 less satisfied were sitting cross-legged, smoking their 
 shibouks. In the background the gay colouring of the 
 painted pipe-racks and mirrors caught the fitful gleam of 
 dying lamps. In the silence of the deserted streets Girgis 
 could have enjoyed the majestic beauty of the mosques 
 with their soaring minarets : the exquisite effects of light 
 and shade ; but, as his mule bore him swiftly past Byzantine 
 arches and Koran schools, he had no eyes for beauty and 
 no ears for prayer : he was oblivious of all things save 
 the immediate necessity of joining his companions in the 
 desert cafe as quickly as possible. 
 
 In the morning he had seen Nicolas Lekejian, who had 
 told him very briefly and casually that Vernon Thorpe was 
 going back to England in Lord Miuton's private suite, 
 and that Stella and her mother were preparing to leave for 
 England. Nicolas wondered why Girgis had suddenly 
 left him instead of going with him, as he had promised, to 
 see his aunt and cousin. 
 
 Since the moment Nicolas told him that Vernon Thorpe 
 was io be in Lord Minton's party on his journey from Cairo 
 to Alexandria, he had thought of nothing else. He was
 
 182 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 overwhelmed with the knowledge that it was he, GirgU 
 Boutros, who must kill the man his cousin Hadassah wa 
 going to marry ; that is to say, if he carried out the vow 
 no had made at the tomb of Wardani, to wreck the train 
 which conveyed Lord Minton and his suite to Alexandria. 
 
 Though the caf6 lay some miles outside the city, and h 
 was late even for an Oriental's idea of punctuality, he 
 seemed to be drawing near to the spot all too quickly. His 
 mind was still in a state of chaos, his determination how 
 to act all unformed ; yet he dared not curb the pace of his 
 beast, and instinctively he had taken the shortest route 
 to the appointed meeting-place. Only a quarter of an hour 
 was left, and not one idea had formed itself in his mind of 
 what he was to say to his compatriots. He seemed to be 
 riding in a horrible nightmare. 
 
 As in a mirage he saw the tomb of Wardani, where he 
 and his companions had taken the oath that they would 
 assassinate the enemies of their party ; the vision moved 
 before him with extraordinary vividness as his beast care- 
 fully picked its way over stony ground and through heavy 
 Band. He wished that it was he himself who was lying 
 in that tomb, that it was he who had done that great deed 
 for his country, so that he would be saved doing one or 
 other of two deeds which his soul abhorred. He must 
 either revoke his bow or kill the man whom his cousin 
 was going to marry ! 
 
 On his appearance at the caf6 the most perfect regard 
 for the etiquette of friends meeting on an important occa- 
 sion was indulged in. Girgis was then offered some refresh- 
 ment and invited to be seated at the table, which held 
 various Oriental pipes and cups of coffee. But Girgis 
 remained standing, while he refused all forms of hos- 
 pitality. 
 
 The eldest of the party, noticing his strange aloofness 
 and the very evident nervous strain under which he was 
 labouring, asked him if anything of importance had hap- 
 pened to cause him one whole hour's delay 1 
 
 " Yes," Girgis said, " something which is of grave im- 
 portance to me has happened." 
 
 The -tone of his voice more than his words made his 
 companions look at him anxiously, and caused the eaves- 
 droppers behind the jasmine screen to strain their ears. 
 After Girgis's significant remark they had to strain their 
 eyes as well as their ears, for the conversation between tho 
 conspirators was conducted in truly Oriental fashion. 
 Much was expressed that was not said, and much was said
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 183 
 
 that had to be gathered from involved and obscure lan- 
 guage. The Eastern saying that the " walls have ears " 
 is accountable perhaps for the fact that Orientals have 
 from time immemorial learnt to speak and give orders 
 without using words. But in this case the walls had eyes 
 as well as ears, eyes that had not only an Oriental's know- 
 ledge of a language without words, but had the double 
 eight acquired by highly trained detectives. 
 
 " Will you kindly explain the nature of your informa- 
 tion f " The words were spoken with an acidity which 
 showed that Girgis's words had fallen upon subtle ears, 
 ears quick to note the finest inflection of voice and expres- 
 sion of speech. 
 
 " The information I received this morning which detained 
 me to-night, has nothing to do with the subject we have 
 met here to discuss, except as regards myself. It is a purely 
 personal matter ; but it affects me so gravely that I have 
 come here to-night, not to help you to carry out your 
 plans, but to deliver myself up into your hands." 
 
 The words " traitor," " cursed Christian," and hisset 
 passed from lip to lip. The three men closed round him. 
 
 Girgis felt their instant distrust, and knew the reason : 
 he was a Christian, they were Mussulmans, even if they had 
 renounced their faith politically. 
 
 " I wish to say that I cannot carry out the deed I have 
 vowed to perform." 
 
 Obscene curses instantly flew from the lips of his com- 
 panions, foul insults were hurled at the Christian dog 
 they had always known him to be. " Death to the re- 
 voker ! " they hissed as they gripped his wrists and held 
 them in their grasp like those of an arrested pickpocket. 
 
 But it was only for one moment. With the fighting 
 power of an ancient Pharaoh, Girgis flung them off as easily 
 &a though their restraining grasp had been from the hands 
 of delicate girls. " I will allow no man to treat me as a 
 coward," he said ; " I am alone and unarmed, and at your 
 mercy." 
 
 In the most insulting words the leader of the party 
 demanded a full explanation for his so suddenly revoking 
 his vows. 
 
 " I must refuse to give my reason," Girgis said. 
 
 "Then let me recall the fact to your memory that 
 1 death ' is the penalty to bo paid by any one of the party 
 who revokes his vow you agreed to that very necessary 
 clause in our agreement at Wardani's tomb ? " 
 
 " I have not forgotten it," Girgis said solemnly ; " I 
 Reserve death at your hands, and I am prepared to meet 
 tuy God."
 
 184 A WIFE OtJT OF EGYPT 
 
 He had no desire to break the vows he had made. Death 
 meant so little to him, since the sweetness of life had been 
 denied him, that he accepted the fact of it with quiet 
 approval. 
 
 " You will also recollect that on that same night, at 
 that same sacred spot, you solemnly swore, by the blood of 
 our beloved hero, who gave his life for our cause, that if 
 by any chance whatsoever you were compelled to renounce 
 the part you vowed to undertake in the affair, you would 
 give a truthful explanation of your reason for withdrawing. 
 The sacredness of such a vow may mean nothing to the 
 son of a black camel, but if you persist in refusing to tell 
 us your reason, we will drag it from you as the secrets of 
 your forefathers were dragged from their lips when they 
 renounced their faith for fear of bodily torture, and were 
 received into the bosom of Allah." 
 
 Remembering that such a vow had been taken, Girgi* 
 determined to tell them the truth ; but first he cursed them 
 from the bitterness of his heart. 
 
 Out of the fullness of his native tongue, out of the multi- 
 plicity of its curses and oaths, he rent them in pieces, for 
 he realised that it was because he was a Christian they had 
 instantly denounced him as a traitor and treated him as 
 a thief. He had seen most plainly that, in spite of the 
 persuasions the Moslems had offered to the malcontent 
 Copts, they would, as soon as self-government was estab- 
 lished in Egypt, drive them out of the land and rid it of 
 every native Christian. He recognised the hatred of the 
 man who is born a Moslem for the man who is not of his 
 faith. These feelings flooded his brain like an inrolling 
 wave dashing its full force against a harbour wall. His 
 curses had scarcely left his lips before he said : " If there 
 had been any need to treat me as a prisoner and a traitor 
 I would not have come here to-night ; but as I swore at the 
 tomb of Wardani to tell you the reason if I revoked my 
 vow, I will do so now. My cousin," he spoke very slowly, 
 "is going to marry an Englishman. ... I have just 
 heard that he is to be in the train, which I swore to wreck 
 on its journey to Alexandria. I cannot kill him." 
 
 Filthy epithets expressed the scorn of the three National 
 ists for his sentimental reason, but the listening detectives 
 felt relieved that their estimate of the young Copt's charac- 
 ter had not been at fault. 
 
 " And you wish for and seem proud of the fact that this 
 man, who belongs to the cursed race who rule our country, 
 and tax our people, and boast of their inability to under- 
 stand us, speaking of Orientals as though we were animals 
 and not superior human beings to themselves this race
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 186 
 
 Ivho, while boasting that they cannot understand us, yet 
 wish to rule us this race of bribe-receivers and seducers, 
 who despise all Orientals and, above all, all Christian 
 Orientals this is the race you are pleased and proud to 
 annex yourself to by marriage for one of this race you 
 are willing to turn renegade to your party and sacrifice 
 your principles." 
 
 " I do not wish my cousin to marry this Englishman," 
 Girgis said hotly, " but I cannot kill him ... I have come 
 here to-night to ask you to kill me and find a substitute 
 for my part in your conspiracy." 
 
 " That is a request you will make many times in the 
 course of the next few weeks," the leader said. " Death 
 will seem very desirable ! " The leader's further expres- 
 sions were too disgusting to be put into English. What 
 had taken place during this eventful half -hour had either 
 been expressed in a form of language which is wholly un- 
 translatable or by signs. 
 
 At a sign from the leader a move was made by the party. 
 Instantly the detectives were on the alert : it was thek 
 plan to close in upon the men as they left the arbour, which 
 they must do by the narrow opening in the oleander hedge. 
 Though Girgis protested that it was unnecessary, he 
 quietly submitted to being bound before going with hia 
 companions to the place they chose for his concealment. 
 It would be some hole where his unclean tongue could find 
 no chance of betraying their secrets. 
 
 Even had he desired to leave them, which he did not, 
 he knew that the attempt to do so would be useless, for 
 they all carried firearms, and experience had told him that 
 there are many nameless graves in the desert which secret 
 hands have dug. 
 
 As the three men were emerging from the arbour with 
 Girgis in their midst, their exit was blocked by six fellahin ! 
 With the arrogance shown by Egyptians belonging to 
 the better-off classes to the poor who treat them with the 
 slightest sign of disrespect, the Nationalists tried to thrust 
 them out of their way. To their intense surprise the six 
 follahin covered them with revolvers. 
 
 " You are charged with conspiring to murder the Khe- 
 dive, the Prime Minister, and Lord Minton. We therefore 
 arrest you in the name of the Khedive." 
 
 In the scuffle that ensued two of them allowed themselves 
 to be handcuffed tamely, but the leader of the party 
 managed to draw his revolver and shoot Girgis Boutros, for 
 it flashed into his mind that the Christian dog had betrayed 
 them, that his coming to deliver himself up into their hands 
 had only been part of his well -laid plot to trap them.
 
 186 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 As Girgia sank to the ground, the man who had shot 
 him and was now struggling to free himself from the grasp 
 of the detectives, spat upon his upturned face and kicked 
 his tarbush off his head. It was his last effort : while he was 
 insulting the wounded man he felt his hands caught and 
 his wrists forced into handcuffs. His companions could 
 not assist him : they were already manacled. 
 
 The whole affair of their arrest had been so neatly and 
 quickly effected that it was over in less than ten minutes. 
 
 The pipe-cleaner was still cleaning his master's pipes 
 for the next day's customers, the flute-player was still 
 piping his liquid tune, when the prisoners were escorted 
 from the cafe" by the detectives and their accomplices who 
 had been lying in wait not far away. 
 
 Before the first pale light of dawn had fallen upon the 
 brooding features of the Sphinx, or the stars had vanished 
 from the heavens, the three conspirators were safely lodged 
 in gaol and Girgis Boutros was in the Kasr-el-Hainy, 
 the city hospital of Cairo. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 STELLA was seated in her father's garden awaiting the 
 arrival of her lover. He was coming to lunch, and to 
 spend his idly midday hours with her, probably the last 
 before his departure for England. In the dark pergola, 
 where only glints of the fierce African sun could penetrate 
 the thickness of the luxuriant foliage, it was easy to forget 
 the heat and squalor of the native city, with its plague of 
 flies, and the sun-blazoned side-paths of the Esbekiya 
 square, where natives who have nothing to sell, and wish 
 to beg from the wealthy travellers, lie on the flagstones 
 as though they were there to provide the homeless with 
 beds. 
 
 Presently Vernon appeared at the end of the long pergola. 
 At his coming Stella rose eagerly from her seat in the cen- 
 tral kiosk, where iced drinks and cool fruits were tempt- 
 ingly displayed on Persian dishes of ancient blue enamel. 
 
 But her steps slackened as she saw the expression on 
 her lover's face ! He carried an open newspaper crushed 
 in his hand. As he reached her he threw it at her feet, 
 saying, " Read what your beautiful cousin has done, or 
 rather what he tried to do ! " 
 
 Too taken aback to feel hurt at his abrupt and unman- 
 nerly greeting, Stella took up the paper with shaking hands ; 
 it was a copy of the Coptic daily paper, the " Al Watan," 
 which, for the benefit of its foreign subscribers, has the
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 187 
 
 English version of its contents printed side by side with the 
 Arabic. 
 
 Where Vernon's hand had crushed its print Stella saw 
 in large letters the words, " Attempted assassination of 
 the Khedive, the British Agent, and the Premier. Con- 
 spirators captured." 
 
 A little further down she read the names of the four men 
 who had been arrested : Girgis Boutros was amongst the 
 number. No details of the capture were given beyond the 
 fact that the editor expressed deep regret that Girgis 
 Boutros, an influential and highly respected young Copt, 
 had intended to wreck the train which was to convey Lord 
 Minton to Alexandria on his departure from Cairo for 
 England. Nothing was said of his renunciation of his 
 vows, or of the serious condition in which he now lay in 
 the city hospital. 
 
 With a cry Stella covered her face with her hands as 
 though to blind herself to her misery of shame, and, turning 
 her back on her lover, she flew to her seat at the end of 
 the long pergola. Where, in an attitude of hopeless des- 
 pair, she flung herself down on her knees and buried her 
 head in her arms. 
 
 Vernon followed her slowly, his heart not softened one 
 bit by the girl's pitiful weeping the girl whom, according 
 to his fashion, he loved for he was conscious of one thing 
 only at that moment his nature knew no complicated 
 emotions his intense hatred of her cousin Girgis Boutros, 
 and of all things Egyptian. The idea that he was to be 
 connected with such filthy scum of the earth as he now 
 considered Girgis was revolting to his senses ; everything 
 that was English in him rose up fiercely against it. As he 
 came closer to Stella he felt for the first time that, beautiful 
 as she looked even in her misery, she belonged to a people 
 that could never be his, that in her desolation she herself 
 was actually one of them. He could not&toop to comfort 
 her. Why was she not filled with rage and anger as he 
 was, rather than with distress f If she felt one particle 
 of sorrow for this wretched cousin of hers, then she well 
 deserved all the humiliation his deed would undoubtedly 
 bring upon her family. She had brought the disgrace 
 upon herself by having allowed the intimacy of cousinship 
 to exist between them. He had offered to cut her off 
 for ever from these horrible relations when he had first 
 discovered what they were like, and she had emphatically 
 refused to consent to his wishes. 
 
 When her weeping, which, in its intensity, was due to 
 the overstrained state of her nerves, had abated, Vernon 
 said coldly, " Now perhaps you will at last consent to leave
 
 188 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 these connections of yours and live in England . . . will 
 you t " 
 
 His last two words were spoken with a little more 
 softness. The beauty of the bowed head and the grace of 
 the girl's supple figure were appealing to his senses. He 
 expected her to raise tear-stained eyes to his, with gratitude 
 gleaming through them like sunshino in rain ; but instead, 
 to his utter amazement, she sprang to her feet with all 
 the swiftness of her Eastern inheritance, and faced him 
 with blazing eyes. 
 
 " How dare you t " she cried. " Oh ! how dare you f 
 How can you, at this moment of all others, when I must 
 cling to my people, when I must keep the promise I made 
 to Girgis ! He has done this thing because I asked him 
 to ... Oh, you poor boy ! . . . You poor, wrong- 
 headed Girgis, what have you done ? Was it because you 
 wanted to be a hero in my eyes ? Is this your work for 
 Egypt 1 " 
 
 " Good Christ ! " Vernon said slowly, " so you are in 
 it t " His face had become ashen white ..." My God ! 
 so this is what you have come to ! ... la this how you 
 have loved me T " 
 
 " It had nothing to do with my love for you : I would 
 have given my life for you as you offered up yours to save 
 my father." Her eyes flung a new defiance at him. 
 
 " For the sake of the love I believed in once," he cried, 
 " don't lie to me, if you and your cursed race are capable 
 of speaking the truth ! " 
 
 The full significance of his interpretation of her words 
 had not yet dawned on Stella, but, maddened into Oriental 
 passion at his insulting speech, she struggled for breath 
 to speak. Her English upbringing and her father's 
 strength of will, which she had inherited, helped her to 
 address her lover with perfect control over her choice of 
 words, although her voice was breathless with emotion. 
 " As you are incapable of believing that we can speak the 
 truth, there is no use in my trying to explain to you why 
 my cousin has apparently consented to do this deed. You 
 must think what yon choose . . . nothing I can say would 
 alter your opinion. . . . You naturally imagine that it is 
 from the very lowest motive : he is simply a murderer in 
 your eyes." 
 
 " His reason is quite plain : you have already explained 
 it. You were to reward him by giving him your love. I 
 was to be in that train, and he knew it ! From an English- 
 man's point of view he is nothing more or less than a 
 murderer, though he may choose to term himself a political 
 assassin."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 189 
 
 The girl's shriek of horrified rage rent the air ; she fell 
 at his feet ! The shame of his thought of her overwhelmed 
 her. "Oh, God, let me die . . ." she moaned, "if you 
 have thought this thing, if you have believed that I could 
 love the man who would willingly have killed the saviour 
 of my father ! " 
 
 " What else is there to believe ? " he said. " Don't play- 
 act, Stella. Girgis has been arrested for conspiring to mur- 
 der the British Agent on his journey to Alexandria you 
 and all your family knew that I was going to be in his 
 party, and you yourself have confessed that you promised 
 to love your cousin when the deed was done." 
 
 Something very like hatred gleamed in Stella's eyes for 
 the man to whom she had given her first love, as she 
 said very cruelly : " Only because of the gratitude I shall 
 always feel for you, and nothing more, will I allow myself 
 to deny your horrible accusation. ... I never knew 
 anything about this hideous crime my cousin was going 
 to commit, and I do not believe for one instant that he 
 was aware of the fact that you were going to be in that 
 train . . . how could he have known ? . . . I have not 
 seen him. . . . When I told you that he had done this 
 thing for my sake, I meant that it was because he had 
 promised to work for Egypt to please me." She sighed. 
 " I remember now he said it would be work done in his 
 own way ; and this is what he meant." 
 
 '* Leaving personal matters alone," he said coldly, " I 
 am afraid you cannot alter the principal facts of the case, 
 that he was one of the conspirators who have been arrested 
 for plotting to ' kill the enemies of their country,' as they 
 would describe their brutal murders." 
 
 Stella was sitting in a huddled heap on the gravel path, 
 but she did not raise her head. " If you would only try 
 to understand ! " she said. " It is because he does most 
 sincerely believe that these men in the service of the 
 English Government are the enemies of his country that 
 he has given his young life for the cause : these patriots, 
 as they unwisely consider themselves to be, have not feared 
 death you must admit that 1 I asked him to do work for 
 Egypt, to prove his love for me. I said I would love him 
 if he did not in any way in which, as your faithful wife, I 
 might not have loved him. And this is what he has done, 
 this thing which you, the man I once unquestioningly loved 
 and promised to obey, cannot understand. You pride 
 yourself on not understanding us, you rejoice in the fact 
 that you never could ; I fail to see that it is anything to 
 boast of." f 
 
 " You are quite right," he said ; " I don't and never will
 
 190 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT; 
 
 understand. Thank God, treachery is not a character- 
 istic of the English race. We may be stupid ... I know 
 you think us so, but we are even by your race considered 
 trustworthy. I told you the very first week I arrived in 
 this hateful place that it was best for you to get out of 
 it, to cut yourself free from its influence and from the 
 relations who were nothing to you at that time. I wanted 
 you to remain the Englishwoman I thought you were in 
 every respect except name." 
 
 Stella rose to her feet very slowly : there was something 
 very Eastern in her movements, as she looked at him 
 with unlovely scorn in her eyes and said : " You see I am 
 not, and never was an Englishwoman t " 
 
 " Well, Irish, if you like," he said impatiently. " What 
 does it matter t " 
 
 " Or an Irishwoman," she said, still more bitterly. " I 
 am a Syrian ; I belong to a race which taught the Egyp- 
 tians a higher civilisation thousands of years before you 
 and your island barbarians were discovered to the world. 
 I am Hadassah Lekejian, Nicolas Lekejian the Syrian's 
 daughter, and I should be far more ashamed of denying 
 the fact or of leaving my people because the man I loved 
 scorned them than of having caused poor Girgis to do 
 this mad deed, a deed he attempted to do from a sense 
 of duty to his country ! " Her voice softened. " Are you 
 totally incapable, Vernon, of seeing any other person's 
 point of view but your own are you so characteristically 
 English t " 
 
 " With women seeing things from other points of view 
 generally means ' condoning the deed.' I'm afraid I 
 can't." Vernon's eyes were as cold as his manner was un- 
 loverlike, but he was more than a little surprised when 
 Stella, upon hearing his answer, said quite firmly : 
 
 " Then let this be good-bye ; I will never see you again. 
 I have forgotten father too long, I must go to him . . . 
 he must by this time have heard more than the papers 
 tell us." As she spoke she quietly took the ring from her 
 finger, which he had placed there with so much love and 
 tenderness, and held it out to him : " Please take it back," 
 she aaid, " I need not wear it now." 
 
 He looked at the emblem of their engagement vacantly 
 for one moment their parting had come as an overwhelm- 
 ing shock to his senses as it lay in the palm of his hand. 
 Its almost childish size struck him even at the moment as 
 pathetic : this tall girl in front of him, whom he had once 
 sworn to cherish, was cast in such delicate lines that his 
 trong manhood suddenly hungered to possess her. The 
 next moment he had sent the ring flying through the air.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 191 
 
 As it fell it hit the wing of a little Cupid who had been in 
 the act of stringing his bow on the top of an old stone 
 pedestal for many centuries. When he turned and faced 
 her all his belief in the treachery she must have inherited 
 from her people showed itself plainly in his eyes. His 
 hands were dug deep in his pockets : he would not trust 
 himself to hold hers. " Let things be as you wish," he 
 said brutally; "you are right: this had better be good- 
 bye if there is to be nothing more between us ... You 
 wish it ! " 
 
 " Yes, I wish it," she said, " for even if I loved you as I 
 once did, I would not allow you to sacrifice yourself by 
 marrying me. I know now all that you think about my 
 people, and as I owe you an unpayable debt for having 
 saved my father, I would not be so ungrateful. . . ." She 
 straightened herself, as though to gain fresh courage. " I 
 must go to him, and not waste time : this will almost kill 
 him." Her voice shook as she spoke. " I can't say any 
 more, I have no more to say " she held out her hand. " I 
 only beg of you, go home to England and forget all about 
 me and my people ; but when you do think of me, don't 
 be harder than you can help : try to remember that you 
 do not understand or wish to understand the character- 
 istics of the people whose blood is in my veins." 
 
 Vernon did not take her outstretched hand. " It is 
 horrible to part like this," he said. " Have you quite 
 forgotten the old days in England, when nothing of all 
 this sort of thing ever entered our heads, when you love 
 me so truly, or so I imagined, that you would have done 
 anything I asked of you ? . . . You would never have let 
 any one come before me then." 
 
 " I was a girl then, and girls are very selfish in their 
 love ; now I am a woman, and no self-respecting woman 
 should let herself be governed in all things by the man 
 she loves, if she disapproves of the demands he makea 
 upon her that sort of love is mere slavery, it is mere 
 animal passion. ... I couldn't do the things you ask, 
 Vernon, and still love you." 
 
 " Yet I asked so little." Vernon spoke in the past tense, 
 for, unconsciously, he was just a little relieved that it was 
 Stella herself who had broken off their engagement. At 
 the same time he could not bear to let her go out of his 
 life with this feeling of bitterness in her heart. Her beauty 
 was as desirable as ever in his eyes it was maddening to 
 think that he was losing it. It was galling to his pride 
 that she could surrender him so easily surrender him for 
 the horrible natives to whom she considered that she be- 
 longed.
 
 192 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " You asked me to forsake my people for yours, to sink 
 my identity in yours ; for you take no interest in my interests, 
 and never tried to I have always had to throw myself 
 into yours. You wanted me to make the social world to 
 which you belong forget that you had married a wife out of 
 Egypt ... to forget it where any stigma might be attached 
 to the fact. In places, perhaps, where they do not know th 
 manner in which the English treat us and look down upon 
 us in the East, it might have added a touch of picturesque 
 interest to your household if you had said ' My wife is a 
 Syrian ' . . . but the fact would have to be talked of with 
 discrimination. . . ." She paused. ..." I'm afraid my 
 woman's understanding of the respect a wife should have 
 for her husband has not stood the test of your demands in 
 these things." 
 
 " If you don't love me it is best to say good-bye ; it 
 takes a cleverer chap than I am to follow all that you wish 
 your words to imply." He spoke impatiently. 
 
 They walked in silence along the garden path where 
 sun -birds of brilliant plumage were darting from shrub 
 to shrub, dipping their long beaks into luscious tree-floweri 
 of Eastern splendour, and roses of every hue. 
 
 At the parting of their ways Stella put her hand on 
 Vernon's arm : there was pleading in her touch. " Every- 
 thing you have said and done that has hurt me and my 
 people, Vernon, will be forgotten everything will be for- 
 given . . even your "... she hesitated, " even your 
 belief in my treachery towards yourself. We will always 
 think of you as the man who saved my father's life. . . ." 
 Tears filled her eyes. " Sometimes, when I have thought 
 of what you did and of all that it means to me, I could 
 let you treat me as your slave. I could willingly obey 
 your most unlovely commands." 
 
 The next moment she had gone, and Vernon was left 
 wondering ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 ON her way to her father's private office, Stella met 
 Nancy, who, the moment she saw her, ran to her and 
 caught her by the arm excitedly. " Oh, Stella, what 
 is the matter t You look awful ! And Nicolas wouldn't 
 even speak to me just now when I passed him. He 
 was looking for you. Has anything very terrible hap- 
 pened t " 
 
 Stella pressed the girl's hand convulsively in hers. ' Yes, 
 something awful has happened : but let me go to father,
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 193 
 
 ... I can't speak, dear, dou't ask me. . . . Where is 
 Nicolas ? Which way did he go ? " 
 
 " That way," Nancy said, pointing to the passage which 
 led to Mr. Lekejiau's office. She did not try to restrain 
 Stella, but stood lost in wonder and filled with a miserable 
 anxiety. The way in which Nicolas had drawn himself 
 away from her, as though he was suffering from some in- 
 fectious disease which might harm her, had made her think 
 for the moment that some plague had broken out in the 
 city, and that he had been in close contact with the in- 
 fected. But the awful look of misery, mixed with anger, 
 which his eyes expressed when she implored him to tell 
 her what had happened, contradicted that impression ; 
 there was something far more personal and tragic in it. 
 
 Stella fled on, regardless of Nancy's discomfiture. So 
 Nancy sat herself down to think on the gnarled root of the 
 ancient lebbek tree, whose top branches reached right up 
 to the exquisite meshrebiya work which had served as a 
 window-screen for the women's drawing-room in days gone 
 by. 
 
 As Stella neared her father's door she met her brother 
 coming to it from the opposite direction. Both stopped 
 instantly and looked despairingly at each other. 
 
 " Where is Vernon ? " Nicolas said. " I thought you 
 were with him, Stella ! Does he know ? " 
 
 " He has gone, we have parted for ever ! How is father 
 bearing it ? Does mother know ? " 
 
 Nicolas put his arm round his sister ; she drew herself 
 away. 
 
 " Please don't, dear. I want all my courage for father. 
 . . . Vernon doesn't matter I mean our parting doesn't. 
 ... If he could think such things of Girgis, how could I 
 marry him ? " 
 
 Nicolas looked at her in amazement. Was she in ignor- 
 ance of the depth of their cousin's villainy ? " But Stella, 
 don't you know, don't you understand, haven't you realised 
 what Girgis was trying to do ?" he shuddered. 
 
 " Yes, of course I do. It was a hideous and cruel thing 
 but according to the poor boy's lights these men they were 
 plotting to kill were all the enemies of his country ; that is 
 a very different thing from trying to murder his cousin's 
 lover from jealousy ? Vernon imagined that Girgis knew 
 that he was to be in the British Agent's party ! " 
 
 There was silence for a moment, then Nicolas said very 
 slowly in Arabic : " He did know, Stella. . . . God have 
 mercy on his soul ! " 
 
 Stella suppressed the cry that sprang to her lips ; she 
 Jaught her brother by bis shoulders and made him face
 
 194 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 her. " That is a lie, Nicolas. Oh, say it is a lie ! Some 
 one has dared to tell you that lie ! Have you seen Girgis t 
 Did he tell you himself 1 I won't believe this hideous 
 thing until he himself confesses it : he couldn't do it, I know 
 he couldn't." 
 
 Nicolas took her two hands from his shoulder and held 
 them firmly in his own. " Be brave, Stella, and face tho 
 horrible truth. Girgis did know I told him myself ! I 
 met him early yesterday morning. I told him that we 
 were leaving for England, and that Vernon was going 
 home in Lord Minton's suito." 
 
 Stella did not speak. With bowed head she held her 
 brother's hands passionately in hers . . . when words came 
 she said : " And I loathed Vernon for thinking such a 
 thing possible " she spoke as though she was visualising 
 the scene which had just passed between her lover and 
 herself " and it was true, it was what he thought." 
 
 She looked at her brother with a face so stricken and 
 withered with shame that half a woman's lifetime, a life- 
 time of suffering, seemed to have passed over it in the last 
 few minutes. 
 
 " Girgis must have been mad," Nicolas said. " He 
 would never have brought this shame upon us in his nor- 
 mal state of mind. ... He has ruined your happiness 
 . . . and he has . . ." 
 
 She stopped him by exclaiming : " We must go to father 
 . . . will you find mother and let me go to him t Mother 
 went out I think to Cook's." 
 
 " I'll find mother," Nicolas said ; "she may not know. 
 Poor mother ! " 
 
 When Stella opened the door of her father's office her 
 eyes met a sight which she would never fail to remember 
 in after years whatsoever happiness her future might 
 bring forth. 
 
 In the ancient Coptic language Nicolas Lekejian was 
 praying aloud on his knees, beside his business desk ; his 
 head was buried so despairingly in his arms that only his 
 red fez could be seen. Stella went silently up to him, and, 
 slipping down on her knees by his side, put her arms across 
 his shoulder and joined in his prayers. Her touch made 
 him turn his head and look at her. 
 
 *' Hadassah ! " he cried, " Hadassah ! " In a moment 
 his arms were open and his child was in them. 
 
 " Hold me closer, father darling, hold me far closer ; 
 never let me go ; let me stay with you always ! ' 
 
 The tears that fell from his eyes tasted salt to hei 
 lips. 
 
 " Don't cry, father ; don't let this make you ill again.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 195 
 
 Girgis loves you ; he must have been mad ; you must for- 
 give him." 
 
 " God in His mercy forgive him," Nicolas Lekejian said, 
 "for the shame he has brought on my household." As 
 he spoke he rose from his knees, and, seating himself in his 
 business chair, he held out his arm for his daughter to seat 
 herself on his knee. Never since she was a little child 
 had his beautiful Hadassah seemed so near to him. The 
 tender affection he had given her as an infant he bestowed 
 upon her now, the old pet-names came instinctively to his 
 lips ; out of the well of anguish that he felt for her, the 
 waters of healing were poured forth abundantly ; broken 
 sentences of sympathy, fearful words of inquiry dropped 
 from his lips. " When was she to see Vernon ? Would 
 she like her father to see him first and spare her all that he 
 could 1 His little Hadassah, his pearl among daughters, 
 the precious jewel of his bosom ! " 
 
 With her two hands Stella raised his face to hers, and 
 looking into his eyes she said : " Father, I will tell you 
 something that will lessen your sorrow for me a little." 
 
 " What is that, my daughter ? " 
 
 " I have seen Vernon this morning. I have broken off 
 our engagement." In an agony of sympathy for his child 
 the old man crushed the girl's hands in his . . . but she 
 went on unheedingly ..." I would have married him 
 before this happened if he had wished me to ... because 
 he saved your life. . . ." She bent her lips impulsively to 
 his and kissed him. ..." Oh, dearest, if we had lost 
 you! . . ." She shut her eyes, and trembled at the misery 
 the idea conveyed. . . ." What should we have done ? . . . 
 I would have married him, but I did not love him it would 
 have been from gratitude. It would have been for want 
 of courage to tell the man who saved you for us that I did 
 not love him." 
 
 " Hadassah ! " Her father's voice evinced absolute 
 consternation. " You did not love Vernon ! " 
 
 " No, father, not any more ; I once did . . ." she sighed. 
 " but that sort of love seems to belong to years and years 
 ago. I'm different now." 
 
 " Does your mother know ! " he asked. " She is out 
 this morning has she returned ? Have you told her 
 this t " 
 
 " She doesn't know that my feelings for Vernon have 
 changed. ... I didn't want any one to know. . . . But 
 now that this has happened ! " she shuddered. 
 
 " Are Vernon's feelings the same for you ? " Nicolap 
 Lekejian groaned. ..." How did he take this horribk 
 news t "
 
 196 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Stella felt by the maniur in which her father spoke that 
 he did not know that her cousin had heard of Vernon's plans 
 for travelling in the British Agent's suite. A great wave 
 of hope and longing came to her that he might never 
 know. If only by some miracle it could be kept from 
 him, one drop of misery would be spared her, and the 
 bitterest shame removed from the memory of his nephew's 
 name in her father's eyes. She answered him evasively. 
 " Men's affections are so difficult to understand, father, 
 all except yours." She caressed his cheeks with her soft 
 palms. " I suppose he cared for me just as much as ever 
 until he heard of this, and until I resented the things he 
 said about my people then I spoke hatefully to him. 
 Sometimes I used to wonder if he wouldn't have been glad 
 to be free ; I think he would if he had felt quite certain 
 that I shouldn't have married any one else." 
 
 At that moment three telegrams were brought in by 
 Mr. Lekejian's confidential clerk. There was a note on 
 the top of the telegrams, which were on an ancient Arab 
 traff. " This requires an immediate answer, sir," the 
 man said in Arabic. " The hospital porter is waiting." 
 He pointed to the note, and with a respectful salaam with- 
 drew to the outer office. 
 
 The note was from the doctor of the city hospital, a 
 very able man, whom Mr. Lekejian knew intimately. 
 
 It ran : 
 
 " If you wish to see your nephew Girgis Boutros alive, please 
 oome at once the worst is feared." 
 
 " Yours with sympathy, 
 
 "K. B." 
 
 Nicolas Lekejian rose, pushing Stella gently from him. 
 " Find your mother, child, and stay with her." He 
 kissed her tenderly as he pressed an electric bell at his 
 feet. The turbaned servant was at his master's side again 
 in answer to the summons. 
 
 " Tell the man who brought this that I will follow him ; 
 give Mr. Nicolas these telegrams when he comes in and 
 ask him from me to answer them, and lock up my desk." 
 The next moment he had left his office and was out in the 
 courtyard. 
 
 Nancy, who was still seated below the lebbek tree when 
 he passed it, rose to her feet and flew to him. " Won't 
 you tell me what has happened, Mr. Lekejian f Every 
 one seems steeped in gloom f Can I help you t " 
 
 " Little girl," he said, " something very dreadful has 
 happened, something you must try to forgive, for Girgis 
 Boutros is dying."
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 197 
 
 " E.G. dying ! Oh, Mr. Lekejian, it can't be true ! " 
 But the girl's words fell upon the silent courtyard, for Mr. 
 Lekejian had passed into the outer court, where the porter 
 at his coming sprang from his old stone bench near the 
 door and, at his master's silent order, which was given by 
 the merest sign, darted up the street to find a cab. In 
 less than four minutes he had returned with one and was 
 respectfully helping him into it, while with the exquisite 
 courtesy of his language he uttered the familiar blessings 
 on the out-going of the master of the household. 
 
 When Nicolas Lekejian entered the hospital he was at 
 once taken up to the ward in which his nephew was lying. 
 As the nurse who accompanied him opened its door, the 
 doctor hurried down the length of the room to meet him : 
 he felt a sincere sympathy for the man who had given so 
 much of his time and brains for the service of British rule 
 in Egypt, who had got so little from the British in return, 
 and who was now, by this dastardly attempt of his nephew, 
 placed in a position of humiliation ; but he was quite un- 
 prepared for the change the shock had produced in the 
 man. The Syrian, the only one of his race whom the 
 doctor had ever really respected or greatly admired, was 
 now an old man ! In the East there is a very short time 
 granted between the years of middle age and infirmity. 
 With Nicolas Lekejian there had been none. These few 
 hours, since the papers had published the brief notice of 
 his nephew's attempted crime, had eaten them up. The 
 doctor shook him by the hand silently and sym- 
 pathetically as he walked with him to the patient's bed- 
 side, a sign from the nurse beckoning them to come more 
 quickly. 
 
 They hurried their steps, but the angel of death went 
 before them ; and ere they reached the narrow bed, where 
 since daybreak the life-blood had been flowing from the 
 lungs of the young patriot, it had stopped and gathered 
 in its arms the soul of Girgis Boutros and borne it to that 
 valley of expiation, wheresoever it may be, which must 
 be traversed before the erring are granted peace. 
 
 When Nicolas Lekejian stood by his nephew's dead body 
 he said : " And the goat shall bear upon him all their 
 iniquities into a land not inhabited."
 
 ( 198 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 WHEN Nicolas Lekejian returned from the hospital to hii 
 home, Stella and her brother found it unnecessary to deceive 
 him about Girgis'a knowledge that Vernon was to be in 
 the train which he had planned to wreck, for the doctor 
 had given him full details of the capture of the conspiratoi :i 
 by the police, and of Girgis's death at the hand of his own 
 confederates. The news lifted the burden of shame from 
 their hearts, and in their thoughts of him lessened thi 
 awful horror of his meditated crime. Stella underwent a 
 revolution of feeling, and hated herself for ever having 
 believed the accusation against him. Her old belief in 
 his loyalty to herself and his gratitude to Vernon for hav- 
 ing saved her father was re-established. 
 
 His sudden death came as an overwhelming shock t<i 
 the entire household. It seemed more wwreal to Nancy 
 than to any of the others. She could not realise that any 
 one so alive with the virility of manhood should have 
 suddenly become non-existent ; it was incredible. 
 
 Nicolas had found her in his mother's morning-room, 
 but Mrs. Lekejian had not yet returned. 
 
 The girl's stricken face had torn Nicolas's heart and 
 made him yearn for her all the more deeply ; the cheeks of 
 his pink hedge-rose were as pale as snowdrops. When 
 he saw that his mother was not in her room he turned to 
 go he could not trust himself alone with the pitiful figure ; 
 but as he was about to leave without speaking to her, 
 Nancy cried to him : " Nicolas, what have I done t 
 Girgis is dying, your father says. What has happened t 
 Why can't I know ? ' 
 
 " Dying ! " Nicolas started. The suddenness of the 
 news astounded him, but he felt no pity for the miserable 
 youth. 
 
 " It is the only thing he could do," he said bitterly. 
 He imagined, of course, that his cousin had committed 
 suicide. " He has disgraced himself and brought shame 
 on our household." He put the girl determinedly from 
 him as she rose to her feet and impulsively held out 
 her hands to detain him. " Don't touch me," he 
 laid : " this house is no fit home for you . . . you don't 
 understand . . . Girgis was conspiring to murder you! 
 brother ! " 
 
 Nancy staggered back : his words stunned her, she could 
 scarcely gasp out the question, " Vernon ! Is he safe 1 
 Where is he ! " as she stared at him with terror in hex
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 199 
 
 eyes. Nicolas could have killed himself for having so cruelly 
 hurt her, for the girl'a words had come labouringly. 
 
 " Vernon is perfectly safe he was here this morning : 
 the conspirators were caught before the deed was attempted. 
 . . . My cousin . . ." Nicolas emphasised the relation- 
 ship with a bitter purpose, " was arrested last night along 
 with the three other dastardly villains who were plotting 
 to kill the Khedive, the Prime Minister, and Lord Minton. 
 Girgis was to have wrecked the train which conveyed Lord 
 Minton to Alexandria." 
 
 Nancy's hands went up before her eyes the horror of 
 the idea was too near but Nicolas's abrupt movement 
 to leave her made her drop them and cry out sharply : 
 " You mustn't go ; stay with me " she caught him angrily 
 by the arm " stay with me, I tell you ! I can't bear to 
 be alone : it is cruel of you to go." 
 
 Nicolas stayed by her side and forced himself to speak 
 calmly. " I will do anything I can for you, little Nancy," 
 he said, " anything in the wide world that will help you. 
 I was a brute to tell you so abruptly, but I was mad mad 
 with anger ; and I thought the sight of any one of us would 
 naturally be loathsome to you ... I was afraid to come 
 near you." 
 
 Nancy smiled through her tears. " When you all 
 shunned me I felt lost, and a stranger amongst you for the 
 first time. And I thought you cared a little for me. . . ." 
 She shivered. " Oh, this land is terrible ! " 
 
 " You are lost to us, Nancy," he said ; " Girgis has cut 
 all our ties . . . you must forget this horrible country 
 and go home." 
 
 " What do you mean 1 Girgis must have gone mad ; 
 he was not accountable for his deeds. Love sends some 
 natures mad, when it is hopeless. Vernon will understand 
 . . , now that the poor boy is dying. Oh, poor, poor 
 E.G. ! . . ." she paused . . ."Affection makes life dam- 
 nable ! " Nancy looked at Nicolas for an answer. 
 
 " His form of madness is damnable," he said bitterly : 
 " it has broken the engagement between your brother and 
 Stella : Vernon could not marry into our family after that." 
 
 "Oh, Nicolas!'' Who said so ? ... he could ... he 
 could if he loved her even as poor Girgis loved her . . . but 
 Vernon does not know how to love . . ." 
 
 Nancy's trembling ceased ; she was suddenly transformed 
 into the combative, daring girl whose love for her school- 
 friend never wavered, and to whom the evidence of her 
 brother's self-satisfied character was constantly asserting 
 itself unpleasantly. " What proof is there," she said, 
 " that Girgis wished to murder my brother t . . . I can
 
 200 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 understand and believe that he would do anything, however 
 awful, ior political reasons, for I have always considered 
 him quite unbalanced on that subject ; but I refuse to 
 believe and I think you ought to as well, Nicolas that 
 he would stoop to murder any one for purely personal 
 _ motives, or that he would knowingly have killed the man 
 who saved his uncle's life. Girgis adores your father. Do 
 you know," she said encouragingly, " he once told me that 
 he considered that the giving of Stella to my brother 
 (whom of course, as an English soldier, he disliked) in a 
 way helped to repay the debt his family owed Vernon for 
 having saved your father t I believe that Girgis would 
 have saved Veraon's life instead of taken it, if it had only 
 been to earn Stella's gratitude ! That is not the sort of 
 stuff criminals are made of criminals who stoop to murder 
 for personal motives t " 
 
 Nicolas's eyes were aflame with gratitude for the girl's 
 words, but he made no response. 
 
 " You must prove to me that E.G. knew that Vernon 
 was to be in that train before I allow myself to think the 
 worst of him." 
 
 Nicolas was on the point of telling her the horrible truth 
 about his cousin, for he wished to spare his family nothing 
 in hor eyes, when his father hurriedly entered the room. 
 Nancy flew to him and flung her arms round him ; the 
 weight of years and sorrow that had suddenly been added 
 to his life almost made her cry out. 
 
 " Where is your mother, Nicolas T " he said as he looked 
 eagerly round the room. He had accepted the girl's proof 
 of affection gladly and was tenderly caressing her hands 
 while he spoke. When he saw that his beloved wife was 
 not there he said in a tired, hollow voice : "I have just 
 returned from the hospital. Things are best as they are ! 
 Girgis is dead ! " 
 
 The two listeners did not speak. 
 
 " I was too late to hear any confession he might have 
 wished to make. A bullet from a revolver, fired at him, 
 by one of his own party, entered his lungs ... he bled to 
 death." 
 
 " Why did they shoot him t " It was Nancy who spoke, 
 very quietly and fearfully. 
 
 " Because they thought Gingis had betrayed them. They 
 tfere all arrested only a few moments after he had arrived 
 at a little caf6 in the suburbs, where he had gone to tell 
 his companions that he could not carry out the horrible 
 crime he had bowed to commit. . . ." Mr. Lekejian 
 
 ressed the girl's hand closely in his own and looked into 
 er eyes as he said the last words. " He had heard in
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 201 
 
 the morning that your brother was to be in Lord Minton's 
 party. ... He met his compatriots in that caf6 last 
 night to deliver himself up into their hands. Ho knew he 
 would be tortured to death ! " 
 
 There was silence for a moment, then the old man 
 repeated the familiar Coptic prayer which begins with 
 the words, " Oh, my Lord, have mercy ! Oh, my Lord, 
 have mercy ! " 
 
 A groan of relief and gratitude came from Nicolaa'a 
 lips as his eyes sought Nancy's. 
 
 " Thank God he died ! " she said. " Poor wrong-headed 
 Rameses the Great ! " 
 
 " God is merciful ! " Mr. Lekejian said. " His mercy is 
 farther-reaching than we understand. He will judge the 
 boy justly." 
 
 " But he is so young to die," Nancy said. ... " I'm 
 BO glad, so awfully glad that he met his end like that . . . 
 that he refused to commit the crime. It was just as if 
 God had sent him reason at the very last. . . . Does my 
 brother know ! " 
 
 " No, my child, I think not." Mr. Lekejian hesitated, 
 and looked at Nicolas. 
 
 " Nancy knows I have told her, father." 
 
 " Yes, I know," she said hurriedly, " but, oh, when 
 Vernon understands that Girgis practically lost his life 
 because he would not be a party to murdering him, that 
 he refused to carry out the awful vows he had undertaken 
 in a fit of madness, they will be the same as they were 
 before . . . Vernon will . . . will ..." 
 
 Mr. Lekejian turned to leave her. He could not tell 
 her that his child had ceased to love her brother. " If 
 it had been you who were going to be my dear daughter 
 instead of Vernon my son, things might have been the 
 same, but alas ! that is not the case." 
 
 The next moment he had closed the door behind him, 
 and Nancy and Nicolas were left looking foolishly at each 
 other. 
 
 A crimson blush dyed Nancy's soft face from her throat 
 to her forehead ! 
 
 Instantaneously with Mr. Lekejian's words there rang 
 through her ears her own words to Stella that night at 
 Al Fayyum ! " If I fall in love with Nicolas I shall have 
 to propose to him . . ." The idea possessed her. Why 
 should she not, by one moment of daring, in this awful 
 hour of anguish, when his suffering robbed her of all false 
 pride, offer herself to him as his wife t She knew that he 
 loved her and that he would never, unless she tempted 
 him beyond measure, tell her of that love. She was willing 
 o
 
 202 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 to risk the humiliation of rejection in the hope that her 
 offer would be received with joy. 
 
 " Nicolas ! " He turned to her ; the beautiful blush had 
 not left her face, and the tone of her voice told him mora 
 of her tale than she was aware. She held out her hand : 
 he knew that she was offering it to him as his wife, but 
 he did not move. He had only to stretch out his arms and 
 she was his ; instead of which he stood with bowed head 
 and firmly clenched fingers. 
 
 Nancy went to him and placed her hand very shyly on 
 his. " Won't you take me, Nicolas f Don't you want 
 me ! " The next moment her hand was imprisoned in hia 
 passionate grasp. 
 
 " Oh, my darling ! God knows how much I want you, 
 but we're not fit for you, Nancy ..." his words came 
 brokenly ..." this is only pity you feel, it can't be any- 
 thing else." 
 
 " I have always tempted you, Nicolas, because I have 
 always loved you . . . you can't refuse me, dearest, after 
 my having summoned up courage to ask you. . . ." 
 She looked at him with lovely, taunting eyes. 
 
 "Little Nancy," he said wearily, as though bodily 
 exhaustion had overcome him ..." don't tempt me to 
 behave like a villain help me to resist ! " 
 
 The man's abject humility brought tears to her eyes, 
 but there was still a playful lightness in her voice when she 
 said : " I once told Stella that if I fell in love with you I 
 should have to propose if I wanted to marry you ; now 
 I must tell her that 1 have proposed and have been refused, 
 that you are shocked at my want of maidenly modesty." 
 
 " Nancy," he said hoarsely, " you know I love you ! 
 You have known it all the time ! You knew you were 
 asking me to accept the one thing that could make life 
 sweet you knew it, or you would not have done it ! I 
 will always worship and adore you, more than ever now 
 for having done this thing though God knows you have 
 tempted me almost more than I can bear." 
 
 " Then don't bear it," she held out her hand, " give in and 
 make me your wife." 
 
 " I can't allow you to ruin your life." 
 
 " Why ruin it, Nicolas, when I'd rather belong to you 
 than any one else in the world ! " * 
 
 He looked at her with exquisite tenderness shining in 
 his eyes " Little English Nancy, you are only a child 
 in years ; you will go home to England and marry a man 
 of your own people . . . you don't understand all that I 
 should be doing if I accepted what you offer, you can't 
 understand . . . you don't know what you would hava
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 203 
 
 to give up, what you would be subjected to." He shook 
 her almost roughly out of his way as his mind recalled all 
 the slights his mother and sister had endured. " Let me 
 go, for pity's sake, Nancy. Don't tempt me any longer." 
 
 "First tell me, Nicolas, why it would have been all 
 right for Stella to marry Vernon ? " 
 
 " Because he would have taken her home to England, she 
 would have borne his name, her race would have been 
 swallowed up in his . . ." he spoke bitterly ..." You 
 can't blame him." 
 
 " I see," Nancy said slowly ; " Stella would have been 
 changed into an Englishwoman by marrying my brother, 
 while I, an Englishwoman, should have been changed into 
 a Syrian by marrying Nicolas Lejekian junior, and I should 
 have lived in Cairo f " 
 
 " Exactly, for while my father lives I will never leave 
 him ; I am not much of a business man, but just of late he 
 has learnt to rely upon me in the matter of correspon- 
 dence . . ." he looked at her hungrily, for love was making 
 its demands ..." I mustn't let you do it." 
 
 The girl was thoughtful for a moment. " Your mother 
 has been happy, Nicolas f " 
 
 " You mean she has never allowed us to see her suffering : 
 she has given up her life to her husband and her children." 
 
 Nancy answered him with the pleading that was in her 
 smile. 
 
 " My darling," he said, " if I loved you less than I do, 
 if I did not treasure you as something far too pure and 
 unspotted to sully with the life out here, I would forget 
 your happiness and think only of my own." He put his 
 arms round her. " I want to hold you just once, Nancy, 
 as if you belonged to me, may It" 
 
 Nancy yielded her pliant body to his embrace, their 
 cheeks were pressed together. Nicolas dared not truat 
 himself to seek her lips : the sweetness of her breath was on 
 his neck, the fragrance of her being was enflaming his 
 senses. In that sublime draught of love all sorrow and 
 suffering was forgotten, the ecstasy of the moment obliter- 
 ated the memory of renunciations. 
 
 Then Nicolas, while the best in him still triumphed, 
 unclasped her fingers from his neck and held her from him 
 at arm's length. " God bless you," he said ; " your sweet- 
 ness and dearness are not for me, but after this I can 
 fight, I can be strong." 
 
 He crushed her hands tightly in his. 
 
 " Good-bye," Nancy said softly, but as her words were 
 spoken she thrust her pleading face quickly forward and 
 pressed her lips against her lover's.
 
 204 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 When she raised her head, she whispered : " My 
 husband ! For in my thoughts and in nay heart you will 
 be my husband, Nicolas, and I am your wife." So remem- 
 ber if you marry again you will be committing bigamy." 
 " Good-bye, little wife," he said, " and God guard you." 
 The next moment Nancy had left the room, and Nicolaa 
 was alone, enjoying over again the brief ecstasy of their 
 first embrace. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 NANCY fled to Stella's room. She found her standing by 
 the window, looking out into the palm -garden ; she did 
 not appear to notice Nancy's entrance until the girl's arm 
 was slipped through hers, then she turned questioning eyes 
 on her to see if the girl knew of Girgis's death. 
 
 Nancy understood the meaning of her look. " Yes, I 
 know, darling ! " There was silence again, for mere words 
 at such a moment seemed a pitiful mockery of the inexpres- 
 sible sorrow she felt for her friend. Tears filled Stella's 
 eyes Nancy's sympathy had brought them, and they 
 were a welcome sight to Nancy, for the girl's motionless 
 calm was harder to bear. Vernon's name Nancy could 
 not mention : he seemed to her at the moment despicable 
 and inhuman ; her passionate young being longed to trans- 
 form itself into a man and a lover, so that she might fold 
 Stella in strong arms, and show her how she would love if 
 she were a man. To know that this girl, whose loveliness 
 never grew stale in Nancy's eyes, had been thrown over 
 by her brother in this hour of trial and suffering, filled her 
 with wrathful indignation. 
 
 " Stella," she cried, " I have proposed to Nicolas, and he 
 has refused me." She could not have said it if she had 
 not been certain of Nicolas's love ; the knowledge of it was 
 in her heart like a song. 
 
 " Nancy ! " Stella's voice betrayed reproach rather than 
 sympathy reproach that her friend should have dared to 
 offer such consolation to her brother in their dire humilia- 
 tion : it seemed to her a form of patronage which was not in 
 good taste. 
 
 " Yes, I told you at the Fayyum that I should be driven 
 into doing it ... and I was." 
 
 " In what way t " 
 
 " Because I love him, and he made me understand h 
 would never ask me to be his wife, he told me that this 
 deed of Girgis's had placed a gulf between us for ever . . . 
 he could not have said more plainly, ' I can't marry you.' "
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 205 
 
 " And how could he t " 
 
 " He could do anything if he loved me . . . love can 
 move mountains ! " 
 
 " He does love you you know that f " 
 
 " Not in my way, or he'd marry me." 
 
 " His own way is nobler, Nancy ! " 
 
 " Oh, fiddlesticks ! " she said scornfully. " I don't 
 want nobility, human devotion is good enough for me ! " 
 
 " You ask for humility ? " 
 
 "I don't!" Nancy spoke emphatically. "I want the 
 happiness of becoming his wife. . . ." She paused, and 
 then added irritably, " For hypersensitive reasons he won't 
 grant me that happiness, he has refused me : why should 
 he spoil my life 1 " 
 
 Stella drew her hand away. " Nancy I wonder if you 
 really know what love is it's so deceptive . . ." Stella 
 sighed . . . "so deceptive, Nancy, for many false gods 
 will rise up and call themselves Love . . . Nicolas is unlike 
 the men you have been accustomed to meeting, just as we 
 are unlike the women Girgis knew, and you are provoked 
 because you can't make him say that he loves you." 
 
 Nancy interrupted her : " He's got brains and ideas : 
 he makes life interesting. When I'm with him I always 
 think there are so many interesting things to do that the 
 days could never be long enough . . . when I'm alone, 
 and his ideas are forgotten, I don't know how to pass my 
 time." 
 
 " Vernon was a new type to me when I met him . . . 
 I thought him very unusual ! " 
 
 " I can't describe my feelings for him then, I never 
 stopped to think ; I took it for granted that I loved him 
 . . ." she blushed ..." and I did adore him in a sort of 
 way : his good looks and active manhood roused feelings in 
 me that I mistook for love. It's really awfully difficult to 
 know, Nancy, when you are quite young, and when a very 
 good-looking man makes love to you." 
 
 " Stella ! " Nancy's voice was filled with amazement. 
 " You had ceased to love him before this happened ! " 
 
 " Yes, I asked him for my freedom ! " Stella's loyalty 
 to the memory of the man whose love she had once so 
 glorified in would not allow her to let even his sister know 
 that she had freed Vernon for his own sake, freed him from 
 a tie which she knew had become undesirable to him on 
 account of her birth. 
 
 " And Vernon ! " A tone of sisterly loyalty to her 
 brother was evident in Nancy's voice : it betokened a 
 touch of resentment. 
 
 " I have not broken his heart, the wounds will mend.
 
 206 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 We fell in love with each other's physical attractions, I 
 suppose, and intimacy has proved that in characteristics 
 we are tmmateable." 
 
 " Did you love any one else, Stella f Was it poor Girgis 1 
 I think it is only loving some one else that can show a 
 woman that sort of thing 1 " 
 
 A cry of horror told Nancy how mistaken her idea had 
 been. Stella's hands flew up to her face to hide the crim- 
 son blush of shame which her question had called up. Did 
 she love some one else 1 It was weeks now since she had 
 allowed her senses or mind to dwell on the image of Michael 
 Ireton : she had imagined she had driven him out of the 
 citadel of her heart. She had fought the fight over and 
 over again, until the repeated attacks of his strong per- 
 sonality at unguarded moments had almost ceased. 
 
 " I'm so sorry, Stella dear. Do forgive me ! It was 
 horrid of me ! " cried Nancy. 
 
 Stella raised her eyes to Nancy's, " Poor Girgis ! . . ." 
 He was so young to die ; so full of life ; and with all his 
 wealth and perfect health, life should have been so sweet 
 he seemed to have everything a young man could 
 want." 
 
 " Except your love ! " 
 
 " I never dreamt how much he wanted me really . . . 
 I thought he was only a boy ... it is so difficult to be- 
 lieve that men can really feel any lasting depth of love 
 for a woman when it begins so suddenly. Girgis would 
 have asked my father for my hand the first night he met 
 me if he had not known I was engaged to Vernon. I have 
 always heard and read that with all Eastern and Oriental 
 races real love comes at first sight : it was certainly so with 
 Girgis." 
 
 " We're too English to understand that sort of thing." 
 
 " I'm not English ; I ought to understand, I suppose." 
 
 " You are English : your mother is, and your bringing- 
 up has been English ; you're accustomed to the reserve of 
 English people Girgis's flowery expressions didn't mean 
 anything to you . . . I'm sure Vernon never said anything 
 more poetic than ' I'm beastly fond of you, old girl, and you 
 know it,' and yet you believed in him implicitly." 
 
 Stella smiled, for the remark was certainly reminiscent 
 of Vernon's attempt at expressing his feelings for her. 
 
 " Girgis promised to work for Egypt to please me : I 
 meant him to work in the way he always has worked, 
 educating the farmers, giving money for new schools, and by 
 Betting the good example he has done to other wealthy 
 Egyptian youths of not gambling, and of leading a clean, 
 healthy, open-air, active life. And now he has done this
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 207 
 
 mad act ! Allowed himself to trust these horrible Socialists, 
 who are the true enemies of his country ! And then to 
 shoot him as though he were a dog ! Of course they 
 came to the conclusion that he had betrayed them because 
 ho was a Christian that's typical of all Moslems, their 
 distrust of Christians ! " 
 
 " But he couldn't have thought it would please you, 
 Stella he knows your views f " 
 
 " He wished to appear a hero in my ej^es, as Vernon 
 did : he knew he must die if he accomplished the deed, for 
 the conspirators who have done these things have always 
 met with death, and, be it to their credit, they have never 
 feared death ; but he had not the courage to live if he could 
 not have me for his wife." 
 
 " Poor foolish Girgia ! " 
 
 " He asked me if I would love him as a hero if he did 
 some great work for his country." 
 
 " And such work ! " 
 
 " I said I would, and then he said (I recall his very 
 words now) . . . ' Kemember, it will be work done in my 
 own way, but it will be work done for Egypt and for 
 your sake.' And now he's dead, and to-night he will be 
 buried, and to-morrow the world will know him no more ! 
 And all this is because I am alive ! I must go on 
 living and hating myself every hour of the day." Stella 
 flung herself down on the low couch by the window and 
 wept. ..." Of what earthly use am I ? Why take this 
 good life and save a drone a woman like myself ? " 
 
 Nancy stood by her, not knowing what to say. 
 
 Stella turned and faced her suddenly. " Isn't it horrible 
 to be me, Nancy 1 If I could have loved Girgis, this 
 tiling need never have been if I'd never been brought up 
 to believe I was like Western women ! " 
 
 " It would have made no difference, Stella : if you had 
 married him, Girgis would have gone his own way, in 
 spite of his adoration for you. In politics you could never 
 have influenced him, he'd have come to this sooner or 
 later : he was a born revolutionist." 
 
 The truth of her remark made Stella's face less tragic. 
 
 " You must remember that death meant nothing in his 
 eyes ; life was sweet when its desires were procurable, but 
 death did not matter it was one of the things that happen : 
 a man's fate is about his neck ! " 
 
 " He was my full cousin," Stella said woefully, " and 
 yet I know that what you say is true, though it seems in- 
 credible that any one so closely allied to me could see 
 tilings in that light. . . ." 
 
 " Will he be buried to-night, Stella ! "
 
 208 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " Probably, after sun-down : in this weather there in no 
 time between death and burial. That is why we come 
 to look upon death more lightly, the whole thing is over 
 BO quickly." 
 
 Nancy shuddered. " It's awful, isn't it f There's 
 something o pitiless about Egypt. It gets down so re- 
 morselessly to the bed-rock of cruelty and of passions." 
 
 " You must leave it, Nancy, and forget its mixture of 
 races, its mixture of creeds, its mixture of hates and morals. 
 You don't understand the hundredth part of its race- 
 hatreds : how all the different sects of Christians loathe and 
 detest one another, how all races loathe and despise the 
 Jews, how the Jews in their turn loathe and detest the 
 Moslems, how the English Christians despise and scorn the 
 Eastern Christians, and how the Copts detest the Greeks." 
 
 Stella had not finished her list of hates before a knock 
 came to her door. A servant entered and said, with a 
 profound salaam : " The lady of the house has returned ; 
 she desires her daughter's presence in her room." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Two months 'at3r Miss MacNaughtan was once again waiting 
 in her green and black drawing-room for the arrival of her 
 favourite pupil, Stella Adair. She was seated in the same 
 deep-bedded sofa as she had been when she had waited for 
 her two years ago, she was again listening for the sudden 
 stopping of a taxi at her door. The sound she was ex- 
 pecting caught her ears, then the opening of the front 
 door, and then the tread of feet on the polished staircase 
 and the murmur of voices. It was Stella speaking to the 
 old man-servant. Then the door was opened and her 
 darling flew across the room to her : the next moment the 
 two women were locked in each other's arms. 
 
 When the long embrace was over the elder woman 
 drew the girl to the sofa ; they sank into it together, still in 
 Bilence. Stella let her eyes wander slowly round the room : 
 her ardent gaze took in every familiar object and marked 
 jealously each new feature of decoration, each new orna- 
 ment. Impetuously she rose to her feet and stood for a 
 moment in front of a large photograph of Watts' " Love 
 and Death." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan watched her with sympathetic eyes : 
 he knew her pupil had come into a woman's inheritance 
 of suffering, and that suffering must be borne alone. She 
 aw that the school-girl she had nurtured so carefully 
 existed no longer ; she was glad that this creature of nobls
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 209 
 
 womanhood was there in her stead. Like a bird whose 
 leathers have been bruised and bent with the buffeting 
 of many winds, Stella flew back to her seat on the sofa. 
 As she sank into it she buried her face in her hands. 
 
 With a deep breath, which was a relieving sigh, the words 
 escaped her lips : " Thank God ! " She looked up as she 
 ipoke, and dropped her hands in her lap. 
 
 " For what, my darling ? " 
 
 " For you. . . ." Thank God He has left you at least 
 unchanged." 
 
 " My poor child ! With you things had to change, 
 you were only in the making, you had to leave girlhood 
 behind and take your place in the kingdom of woman- 
 hood." 
 
 " A kingdom of suffering t " 
 
 " Not altogether ; in womanhood the sweetness is so 
 much sweeter if the pain goes deeper." 
 
 Stella suddenly changed her tone. " Naughtie, I 
 remember now all that you meant and knew when you 
 came back from Egypt and wouldn't explain. Do you 
 remember how I asked you what you were keeping back 1 " 
 
 " I didn't know nearly all, but I was afraid ! " 
 
 " Wouldn't it have been better to have told me, to have 
 warned me ? " 
 
 " It was hard to know. I thought not, dear. . . . What 
 good could it have done 1 " 
 
 Stella paused and then said reflectively, " I wonder T " 
 Her wonder was whether, if Vernon had known, he would 
 have gone to Cairo, or would have changed into some 
 other regiment and made her marry him without waiting f 
 She knew that she would have done what he asked then ; 
 but even now, as she thought of it, the sigh she had given 
 was one of relief relief that things were even as they were 
 rather than as they might have been ! Suddenly she said, 
 " You know that Nancy is in love with Nicolas ? " 
 
 " Is he in love with her ? " 
 
 " He adores her ! We all adore her ; she's such a brick ! 
 Dear, loyal little Nancy, she has never failed us." 
 
 " When are they to be married ? " 
 
 Stella shook her head. " Nicolas won't give in." 
 
 " What about ? " 
 
 " Haven't you heard that the other three conspirators 
 have got five years' penal servitude ! " 
 
 14 Yes, I saw it in the papers a few days ago." 
 
 " Girgis, my cousin, might have been one of them." 
 Stella's face quivered convulsively. 
 
 " But Girgis is not Nicolas. ... I think he is .hyper- 
 sensitive. . . . You know, dear, I would not pretond to
 
 210 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 approve of Nancy or of you marrying a man like your 
 cousin Girgis ; he was brought up in Oriental customs, he 
 was elemental in his passions, he was essentially Eastern : 
 but your brother is to all intents and purposes a European, 
 a highly-cultured man and a perfect gentleman ; besides, 
 Syrian* are not a dark race. It is not as though coloured 
 blood was to be feared . . ." she paused. " Poor little 
 Nancy ! So she, too, is passing through the fire t " 
 
 " Yes, the whole of a woman's life is pay, pay, pay, 
 and the ones who feel the most pay the most heavily." 
 Stella paused, " and yet the work I'm going to do will 
 only add to the suffering of womankind ! " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan looked at her anxiously. " What 
 work is that, dear ! " 
 
 " I am going to teach the women of Egypt to be clean 
 and to suffer ! " 
 
 " My dear ! " Miss MacNaughtan smiled. 
 
 " I am. . . . It's quite true ! " 
 
 " But how in what way 1 " 
 
 " I've at last gained father's consent. I'm going back 
 to Egypt to lecture in the schools for women. I'm going 
 to lecture on all sorts of domestic things. . . ." She turned 
 smiling eyes to her companion. " I'm going to teach 
 the humbler classes the virtue of cleanliness, not only of 
 the body but of the mind, I hope, and I'm going to teach 
 them how to work and be good housewives, instead of the 
 idle, filthy creatures they are, living solely by animal 
 instincts. . . . I'm going to show the upper classes the 
 wisdom of educating their girls so as to be companions and 
 not slaves to their husbands. . . ." She paused and 
 sighed. . . . " Oh ! and generally, Naughtie, inoculate them 
 with the sufferings of a higher civilisation. . . ." She 
 paused. . . ."I wonder if it's a case of the fox that had 
 its tail cut off f It seems woefully like it, doesn't it f " 
 
 " You wouldn't be different from what you are, would 
 you t You wouldn't change with one of them f " 
 
 "I'm going to do it, Naughtie ; the idea has been grow- 
 ing and growing. . . . My engagement to Vernon stopped 
 it. ... But now now that I am free, if seems as though 
 it had all been arranged so that I should do it. NancJ 
 wants to help me ! " 
 
 " But her people t " 
 
 " She inherits her mother's money at twenty-three 1 
 She's quite free ; but I don't want her to. ... Dissuade 
 her if you can, only I'm afraid that if Nicolas doesn't 
 marry her, she'll do something of that sort. . . . Egypt has 
 unsettled her ; she's lost all taste for conventional English 
 life. , . ." She paused. " It was modern Egypt that
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 211 
 
 fascinated her she took very little interest in the ancient 
 things. She's like Vernon in that, only he hated everything 
 Egyptian." 
 
 " But you, uearest what sort of a life is it for you t " 
 Miss MacNaughtan looked troubled. 
 
 " It's the only one I can see before me . . . and I always 
 Bee it. I have seen it ever since I began to understand 
 things that are below the surface in Egypt. ... I want to 
 work for the poor who are totally unenlightened, but it's 
 very difficult they are so afraid of Christians trying to 
 proselytise. There was a dreadful letter in one of the native 
 papers the other day, hurling the most foul abuse, and 
 insinuating, and attributing the lowest motives to a dear 
 woman who was lecturing to a crowd of women, trying to 
 teach them some of the first principles of hygiene, the 
 keeping of their babies clean, the folly of charms for cur- 
 ing sore eyes, and all that sort of thing." 
 
 " Reformers must suffer persecution ; it's splendid 
 work." While they were discussing the subject, Clarkson 
 brought in the tea and arranged it in front of his mistress. 
 
 Stella's eyes took in at a glance the fact that her favourite 
 sandwiches and cakes had not been forgotten. She laughed 
 as she inspected the dishes. " Dear Naughtie, I do be- 
 lieve I'm growing younger. The sight of these stuffed olives 
 makes me feel that life still has its moments ! " 
 
 " I'm so glad, dear, but I want it to have its years. 
 I've looked forward to this day for ages and ages, it seems 
 to me ; letters are so unsatisfying, even though you told 
 me all the essentials." 
 
 " And now things are so different, and yet the same. 
 . . . When I look at you, Naughtie, I see light ahead ! I 
 feel more confident of myself. I used to long to live a life 
 like yours, and then love came . . . ! " she paused . . . 
 " or I thought it did, and it drove out all my line ideals ; 
 but they've come back they weren't dead, they were 
 only drugged for a time. . . ." She shook herself as though 
 to throw off even the memory of her servitude. " I'm so 
 glad I'm free from the chains of love. I'm glad I own 
 myself again." 
 
 " Poor dear ! " 
 
 " I'm not speaking bitterly. My heart isn't broken . . . 
 not even chipped. . . . It's all the other things in me that 
 were hurt . . . and oh, so bruised ! . . . pride, belief, 
 loyalty, justice everything, in fact, except my heart ; 
 it was only . . ." 
 
 "But you loved him ? " 
 
 " His good looks and love-making carried me off my 
 feet, that must have been all. I suppose every woman
 
 212 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 finds a great charm in being loved ; perhaps she has to b 
 loved many times before she herself knows what real 
 love means." 
 
 " Then things, after all, are for the best." 
 
 " I suppose so. ... But was it necessary to undergo all 
 this ... to find it out t And now Nancy has to carry 
 about a hungry heart ! " 
 
 " A little waiting won't do her any harm : it either 
 strengthens affection or kills it." 
 
 " I don't think Nicolas will ever consent." Stella 
 laughed at the memory of something that had suddenly 
 flashed across her thoughts. " Do you know, Nancy 
 actually proposed to him at least she swears she did. I 
 was too sad, at the time she told me, to laugh, but I've 
 often done so since ! " 
 
 " My dear, how like Nancy ! " 
 
 " It was on the day Girgis died, when everything was 
 terrible. I had just broken off my engagement with 
 Vernon. She was so sweet, Naughtie, I wonder that 
 Nicolas could have been strong enough to resist her. 
 Father worships her, and she plays with him like a kitten 
 . . . and yet she's such a true woman. After Girgis's 
 funeral, when father was ill, she nursed him in that 
 awful heat. She sat up watching him, with mother and 
 me, night after night. She was wonderful. Nicolas 
 and she used to meet during all that time just as friends ; 
 she behaved like a brick to him. . . . We were coming 
 home then, you know." 
 
 " Yes, I expected you weeks ago." 
 
 " Father took ill quite suddenly." 
 
 " How is he now t 
 
 Stella sighed. " He's an old man, though he's not sixty 
 yet an old, old man. Girgis killed his last spark of youth. 
 It was terrible. 
 
 " My poor darling, I'm sure it was." 
 
 " In the East most men are old at sixty, and yet once 
 they get past that age many of them live on and on until 
 they are any age. The men who live frugal lives, live 
 to be as old as Methuselah." 
 
 " One of the blessings of poverty ! " 
 
 " Exactly ! Bread and coffee and smoke is all they 
 can afford. Poor father although he could have indulged 
 himself in every kind of luxury, he's lived such a temperate 
 life. . . ." She paused. " Father's religion has always 
 meant a great deal to him ; he's lived up to it ; his has been 
 a beautiful life." 
 
 " He's been a true friend to England." 
 
 " That's where he is so big," Stella said eagerly. " You
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 213 
 
 can't make him bitter towards the English, in spite of the 
 treatment we have received at their hands. ... He says 
 these are petty things, that no race is without its faults, 
 and that their shortcomings must be overlooked because 
 of the wonderful work they have done for the country. 
 He sees the difference ! . . . Poor Girgis was too young ! 
 He came into a generation grown used to the benefits 
 conferred on his country by the British, a generation 
 eager to find fault and revolt against the smallest griev- 
 ances. You don't find many of the old mer in Egypt 
 amongst the Socialist party ! " 
 
 The telephone -bell sounded, and Miss MacNaughtan 
 rose to answer it. In a few moments she called out, 
 " Stella can you come with me to-night to a lecture at the 
 Royal Geographical Society t I have had two tickets 
 offered to me. Penrose, the explorer, ia going to lecture 
 on his journey across Central America and down the 
 Amazon." 
 
 Stella nodded. " I'd love to, but if I do I must go 
 home at once." She rose from her seat. " Where shall 
 we meet ? " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan hung up the receiver. "Come for 
 me here, dear ; it's not much out of your way, and we can 
 drive there together." 
 
 Stella looked at the clock. " It's half -past five now. 
 I must be back again at what time " 
 
 " Seven-thirty, if we want good seats. It's sure to be 
 crowded." 
 
 They walked to the top of the stairs. 
 
 Stella looked up with happy eyes as she ran down them. 
 " It's like old times, Naughtie, going to lectures together ! " 
 
 Her old mistress smiled a loving answer. " Good-bye, 
 dear. Do you want a taxi t " 
 
 Clarkson was ready to open the door and blow his 
 whistle. While Stella waited he said : " H'it's been a 
 rare treat to see you h'again, miss. There's never been 
 h'any one like you in this 'ouse, h'ever since you went 
 away." 
 
 " Oh, Clarkie, I'm so glad ! I'm so awfully glad nothing 
 ever changes here . . ." she sighed. 
 
 As Stella drove swiftly up the long, familiar road she 
 felt happier and more at rest than she had done for many 
 months. Life was readjusting itself : it was not going to 
 be without its interests, its ideals, its beauty ! 
 
 Her heart gave a bound and the vivid blush of youth 
 dyed her pale akin, for while passing at lightning speed a 
 West End club, whose name she did not know, she saw
 
 214 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 the figure of Michael Ireton coming down its front Bteps. 
 The next second he was lost in the great ocean of London 
 humanity : it was as though she had seen him in a dream. 
 
 But that one flash of his Living presence instantly brought 
 back to her her life in Cairo. It was now the real thing ; 
 London was the unreal ! For the rest of her ride she noted 
 nothing of the almost supernatural movement of the 
 traffic, with it continuous roar, which only a few moments 
 before had so fascinated her, or of the familiar points in the 
 landscape of streets and squares which had brought back 
 vivid memories of her school-girl life. The taxi stopped 
 at her door, while in her mental condition she was still 
 standing in the corridor of the Arab theatre, with Michael 
 Ireton' s big figure towering over her. His last words were 
 in her ears, and her pleading cry of " Oh, don't go, please 
 don't go ! " filling her world of sound. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE auditorium of the Royal Geographical Society waa 
 almost full when Miss MacNaughtan and Stella entered 
 it. With some little difficulty they found two seats in 
 one of the upper rows of the closely-packed building. 
 They had scarcely settled themselves before the lecturer 
 stepped forward and took his place at a desk on a slightly- 
 raised dais in front of the screen on which the illustrations 
 of his subject were to be projected by magic-lantern slides. 
 
 The subject of the lecture was extremely interesting, 
 and the illustrations were delightful, but, the speaker had 
 not the feeblest idea of how to make his subject humanly 
 interesting. 
 
 Stella's thoughts strayed from his dull statistics, while 
 her eyes wandered round the gathering of oddly-assorted 
 people. From where she sat it was almost impossible to 
 see the occupants of the lowest row of seats in the audi- 
 torium the bench always reserved for " The Fellows oi 
 the Society " and their specially invited guests. 
 
 When at last the lecture was over it was the minority 
 who found their way to the reception-rooms at the back 
 of the auditorium, where interesting relics of the Society 
 are shown, and the members meet to discuss the lectura 
 and talk to their friends. 
 
 Presently there was a little excitement in the reception 
 room, for the lecturer was entering it. He was followed 
 by the well-known guests and Fellows who had been seated 
 in the places of honour.
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 215 
 
 Stella was examining the contents of a glass case at 
 the far end of the room, while Miss MacNaughtan was sur- 
 rounded by a number of friends who were regular atten- 
 dants at the lectures given by the Society. 
 
 Stella had not watched the entry of the distinguished 
 members, she had just lifted her head to satisfy herself 
 as to the cause of the flutter amongst the audience. Sud- 
 denly she became aware of a new force in the room, some 
 thing which, human or inhuman, had acted upon her senses 
 like a magnet. Without knowing why, her pulses uncom- 
 fortably quickened, her sensibilities became painfully 
 acute ; with such highly-organised natures its hers, this 
 psychic experience is not uncommon. To shake off the 
 thraldom of the magnetic force she moved to the next 
 glass case to examine its contents, but she felt incapable of 
 intelligent thought. The approach of something whose 
 near presence seemed in a way connected with her increas- 
 ing nervousness compelled her to turn her head : she 
 could not have resisted if she had tried. At that moment 
 her whole being was expectant ! The room contained 
 nothing but herself and this new devastating force. Yet 
 her mind had not connected any individual human being 
 with that power. 
 
 So when Michael Ireton's eyes looked into hers as she 
 turned what he imagined to be eyes of welcome to him, 
 the shock made her for a few moments mentally uncon- 
 scious and physically powerless. 
 
 To Stella hours seemed to pass before she could say the 
 conventional " How do you do t " Indeed she never 
 said it, nor did Michael Ireton think it necessary to speak. 
 
 The whole bearing of the man was just the same as it 
 had been on the first night when she had seen him, when 
 his dominating personality had drawn her eyes to him, 
 across the crowd of faces at the opera. 
 
 At last, bravely fighting for command of her voice, she 
 said, scarcely above a whisper, " I didn't see you during 
 the lecture : were you there t " 
 
 He took her nervously offered hand in an eager grasp, 
 which conveyed to the girl the sense of an enfolding em- 
 brace. " Yes, I was there, and I knew you were, though 
 I didn't see you." 
 
 She withdrew her hand. 
 
 He looked at her questioningly. " Are you . . . ? " He 
 nesitated ..." Are you alone ? " 
 
 " No, I am not alone ! " Stella knew that he meant 
 to say, " Is your husband here f " for the whole expression 
 of the man told her that he thought she was married. 
 She turned her head towards the talking people who were
 
 216 A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Bti iving to get as near to the celebrated explorer as possible. 
 " I am with my old school-mistress, Miss MacNaughtan ; 
 Bhe Is over there that lady with the beautiful grey hair 
 and dark eyes " her voice was gaining strength. 
 
 " I see," he said, unthinkingly, for his eyes were looking 
 at Stella's hands. The white sude gloves were inexor- 
 able ; if she wore a wedding-ring he could not see it. ... 
 There was a pregnant pause again. The burden of their 
 hearts was too heavy for their lips to speak of small things : 
 to ask each other how they were would have been the 
 bitterest sarcasm when they were horribly conscious that 
 it was just of how they were that they dared not speak. 
 
 The girl saw that the man had hardened, and yet had 
 not become embittered ; each line on his rugged face had 
 deepened, each mark of fortitude grown surer. 
 
 And he saw in the girl, physically fragile as she had be- 
 come, a new womanhood far dearer and more desirable 
 than that which had gone before. He saw in her, as the 
 wife of another, the only woman for whom his manhood had 
 suffered starvation. These impressions were the immediate 
 action of the senses, too swift for words. 
 
 " I have had no news of you since we parted," he said 
 at last. " You must have much to tell me . . . may 
 I hear it ... t " he looked at her with gentle eyes . . . 
 " I can bear it, dear." 
 
 Stella's lips quivered. " You haven't heard, you don't 
 know . . ." she paused ..." of my cousin's death . . . 
 and what caused it ; you have heard nothing since . . 
 since that night t " 
 
 " I have been out of Europe ; I wanted to cut myself 
 off from all news until . . ," he looked at her searchingly ; 
 he saw that she was trembling and deeply moved : evidently 
 there had been some painful tragedy connected with her 
 cousin's death. Stella made an effort to tell him, but he 
 prevented her. " Not just now," he said gently. " Seeing 
 me has suddenly recalled unhappy memories : don't let it 
 distress you ; you must tell me everything some other 
 time. . . ." He paused before asking, " May I come and 
 see you ... or would you prefer that I did not 1 " 
 
 His eyes assured her that if he came it would be in no 
 manner that need embarrass her or cause her husband 
 the slightest annoyance. He waited a moment for her 
 answer. 
 
 Stella raised star-like eyes to his " you are quite right : 
 seeing you again so unexpectedly has brought back every- 
 thing . . . poor Girgis ! ... so much has happened . . . 
 far more than you think ! " 
 
 " I understand," he said soothingly, " you needn't y
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 217 
 
 any more ... I won't ask to come . . . some day per- 
 haps, when things are less vivid you will tell me all." He 
 turned to go, but the same cry came to Stella's lips that 
 had escaped them on that awful night . . . when Vernon 
 saved her father's life. 
 
 " Don't go ! Oh, don't go ... it isn't that ! " But 
 her cry was unheard, for in a clear, loud voice some one 
 spoke to him, and laid a white-gloved hand on his arm from 
 behind. The speaker was a beautiful American girl, whose 
 quick glance took in with some curiosity of expression 
 Stella's unusual quality of good looks and her fine individ- 
 uality of dress : in the peculiar transparency of complex- 
 ion and the delicacy of figure there was something curiously 
 star -like and ethereal about Stella when she was in evening 
 dress. As the American drew her eyes from her reluctantly 
 she said : " Oh, Mr. Ireton, at last I've run you to earth ! 
 I so much want to introduce you to my great friend Jewel 
 Gibson : you've heard me speak of her many times." 
 
 Stella quickly turned away and made a good pretence of 
 examining the contents of the glass case by which she had 
 been standing when Michael Ireton came up to her. An 
 unconscious flame of jealousy leapt through her veins ; it 
 served to steady her excited nerves. She had noticed the 
 expression of pleasure that lit up Michael Ireton's heavily 
 moulded features when he discovered who was the owner 
 of the hand which was put on his arm to arrest his attention. 
 
 The girl was so eager and radiant in the full bloom of 
 her newly developed womanhood, so wide-browed and 
 clear-eyed, a type of the most enchanting of America's 
 daughters, that compared with her Stella felt herself to be 
 cruelly seared and battered. 
 
 If only she could have said three more words, to tell him 
 that she was not married, he would have understood the 
 real meaning of her emotion. He would have known that 
 he might come and see her. But these were the very words 
 she knew that she could never say unless he deliberately 
 asked her the question, and there was no mistaking the 
 meaning of his voice when he said, " I understand ; you 
 need not explain." 
 
 He thought that one of the many things that had happened 
 was her marriage with Vernon, instead of it being one ol 
 the many things which had not happened, as she had meant 
 her words to imply. While she watched him talking to 
 the two girls her jealous eye imagined that Michael Ireton 
 was fond of the beautiful girl, that he had in all probability 
 and very wisely, thrown himself into an intimate friend- 
 ship with her in his desire to forget and conquer hia love 
 for herself.
 
 218 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 With a war of conflicting emotions tearing at her nerves, 
 Stella sought Miss MacNaughtan. 
 
 " My dear child, you look tired to death. What is the 
 matter t " 
 
 " I am dead tired," Stella said languidly. "Do you 
 mind if I go home ... no ... don't let me take you 
 away, I can perfectly well go alone." 
 
 As she said the words she wondered why she was asking 
 to go when she knew that her desire to stay in the same 
 building as Michael Ireton for as long as she could was 
 greater than anything in the worldto stay, even though 
 there was not the faintest likelihood of her being able to 
 speak to him again that night to stay and watch him 
 speaking to the beautiful American girl, whose blue 
 eyes seemed to smile so trustingly at him, even though 
 watching them tore her heart to pieces. 
 
 As Miss MacNaughtan hurried Stella off to the cloak- 
 room she wondered if anything very unusual had occurred, 
 or if Stella's present delicate state of health was account- 
 able for this sudden avalanche of physical tiredness which 
 had made the girl look as though a draught of cold air 
 would blow her out. As they opened the door, they came 
 face to face with Michael Ireton ! Then Miss MacNaugh- 
 tan understood. He had evidently been hurrying so as 
 not to miss them. A flush of clearest crimson dyed Stella's 
 pale face. 
 
 " I couldn't let you go without saying good-bye . . . 
 Mrs. Thorpe," he said. I lost you in the hall. . . . May 
 I see you into your taxi, or have you a motor ? " 
 
 Stella looked at him gratefully how comforting it was 
 to feel that he had not let her drift out of his life without 
 even trying to find her ! yet all she managed to say was, 
 "A taxi if we can get one. May I introduce you to my 
 friend, Miss MacNaughtan 1 " 
 
 Michael Ireton said cordially, while a smile of genuine 
 pleasure lit up his eyes : " I have very often heard Mrs. 
 Thorpe speak of you in Egypt. I am very glad to have had 
 the chance of meeting you." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan looked critically at this man as he 
 spoke. Did he mean anything to Stella 1 Had a chance 
 meeting with him been the cause of her sudden physical 
 tiredness t Stella was obviously affected by his appear- 
 ance at the cloak-room door, but whether the girl liked 
 him or not she was unable to surmise. Stella had fallen 
 behind, driven by the contrary forces at work in her into 
 separating herself from Michael as far as possible. His 
 words " Mrs. Thorpe " kept ringing in her ears. If one of 
 the impulses that were at work in her could have spoken
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 219 
 
 it would have cried aloud, " I am Hadassah Lekejian, not 
 Mrs. Thorpe. I am free ; don't leave me." 
 
 A storm of doubt was troubling Miss MacNaughtan. 
 Was this one of the crucial moments of Stella's life 1 Would 
 it add to her happiness if she were to toll this man 
 that she was still unmarried f And yet, if Stella had 
 desired him to know it, why had she not told him the fact 
 herself ? She had talked to him already that evening. 
 The older woman felt certain that this chance encounter 
 with this very unusual-looking man meant a great deal 
 to her pupil. He had only spoken to her about the most 
 ordinary matters for a few moments, yet he had made 
 her feel that to know any one who cared for Stella was a 
 pleasure to him, that whether she was Stella Thorpe or 
 Stella Lekejian his mind and heart were full of her. 
 
 They had to separate for a moment while Michael Ireton 
 hastily got his coat and hat ; still they were too near 
 him to allow her to ask Stella any questions. When he 
 rejoined them and Stella had again given up her place at 
 his side to her chaperon, Miss MacNaughtan suddenly 
 said, as an empty taxi drew up for them : 
 
 " My old pupil is still Stella Adair, as we used to call 
 her you have not apparently heard that she did not 
 marry Vernon Thorpe . . . her cousin's tragic death 
 broke off their engagement." 
 
 "Not married 1" A flash of almost boyish happiness 
 lit up his strong face and opened Miss MacNaughtan's 
 heart to him for ever : it told her all that she wanted to 
 know about the character and personality of this man whom 
 she now know, loved, with the simplicity and unchanging- 
 ness of a big man's nature, her old pupil. 
 
 " They were not suited to each other," she said in a 
 lower tone ; " everything is better as it is." 
 
 " Thank you for telling me," he said. 
 
 The impatient porter had now opened the taxi door. 
 Stella said mechanically, " Naughtie, are you ready t " 
 
 " Yes, I'm coming." 
 
 Michael Ireton was shaking hands with her ; Stella 
 heard him say, " Thank you for telling me." She could see 
 by his face that he knew she was free. The next moment 
 Miss MacNaughtan was seated in the taxi, and Michael 
 Ireton was waiting for her to shake hands with him and 
 take her place in the cab. 
 
 As she put her foot on the step, she held out hei 
 hand. 
 
 He took it with a clasp whic\i to the girl was deliciously 
 expressive of possession ; he meant her to understand that 
 she was his. " Ma as salamah " (good-bye), he said ten
 
 220 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 derly, " wa ateJcum essalam wa-baralcat Allah " (and on you 
 be the peace and the blessing of God). 
 
 He used the familiar Arabic words intentionally : He 
 wished to show her plainly that her connection with the 
 East was a pleasant memory to him. 
 
 As Stella answered his compelling gaze with eyes which 
 denied him no expression of her love, she said softly : 
 " Tkattan Allah (thank you), Michael, ma as salamah " 
 (good-bye). . . . The words meant literally, " May God 
 increase your goodness : good-bye." 
 
 The next moment Stella's hand was withdrawn, she 
 was seated by Miss MacNaughtan's side, the taxi door was 
 slammed, and they had moved quickly off into the night. 
 
 As Michael Ireton stood alone on the kerbstone watching 
 their disappearance, he suddenly remembered that he 
 had let her go without asking her where she lived. Nor 
 had he heard any direction given to the driver, for in hi a 
 mind's eyes he could see Miss MacNaughtan raise the 
 speaking-tube to her lips and give the driver his instruc- 
 tions while he was saying good-bye to Stella. He made 
 ready to jump into the next taxi that pulled up ; but an 
 elderly lady had hailed it and quickly took possession 
 of it. 
 
 Stella was completely lost to him in the millions of souls 
 living in London. 
 
 Defeated in his attempt to follow her, he walked slowly on, 
 his whole being still on fire with the memory of the un- 
 grudging love Hadassah had offered to him in her eyes. 
 Even though she was lost in London, he knew she was his 
 absolutely. Every sense in him at that moment told him 
 that Stella was even now rejoicing in his love for 
 her ; under such circumstances nothing else seemed to 
 matter, nothing was insurmountable. She was free to 
 give herself to him when he found her, and find her he would. 
 He did not know that he had but one day to do it in, for 
 Stella was leaving London for Lucerne the day after. 
 
 As he walked on, not taking the trouble to ask himself 
 where he was going, he thought of every possible means 
 of discovering her whereabouts. Often as he had heard 
 Stella allude to her old school -days in London, he had no 
 recollection of ever having heard her mention where her 
 school was situated. He wondered if Miss MacNaughtan 
 Was a member of the Royal Geographical Society, or if 
 she was using some friend's tickets for the lecture ; he 
 must look up the list of members the next morning. 
 
 In going over the events of the evening, he realised that 
 Hadassah had been trying to tell him that she was not 
 married, that she had not meant to tell him not to oome,
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 22] 
 
 that seeing him so suddenly had upset her it had brought 
 baok to her all the painful events of their last meeting. 
 
 Then doubts attacked him. Even now that she was 
 free, would she have allowed him to come and see her 
 had she only given him that parting look of love because 
 she knew that he would not find her ? With her hyper- 
 sensitive nature she might think it was her duty, con- 
 sidering her social position in Cairo, to prevent him marry- 
 ing her. 
 
 As he thought of the delicacy of her appearance, a fierce 
 desire to hold her closely to him overwhelmed him. Her 
 exquisite fragility appealed to every chord of strength in 
 his muscular body. 
 
 It was a beautiful night, almost Italian in the warmth 
 of the air and the violet tone of the sky. Michael Ireton, 
 wandered on, following unconsciously the demand in hia 
 present mood for the sympathy of beautiful surroundings, 
 and he found himself crossing the bridge which spans the 
 artificial lake in St. James's Park. There he stopped. 
 The outline of the Government buildings at the West- 
 minister end of the water, so curiously Oriental in effect 
 against the purple of the night sky, seemed to be the very 
 atmosphere for the crisis in his life, into which he had 
 been unconsciously drawn. Though Hadassah was lost 
 to him in the great city whose very pulse beat he could 
 feel where he stood, as totally lost to him as he had seemed 
 to her only a few hours before, he no longer felt alone in 
 London. 
 
 He had no desire now to leave the next morning. His 
 one idea was to remain remain until he had found her. 
 
 For many years Michael Ireton had lived a life almost 
 devoid of the society of women, for his profession had 
 taken him into distant parts of the world, where primitive 
 natives were the only women he saw. He had led too 
 exciting and too busy an existence to miss their compan- 
 ionship, and during the months which he had spent at 
 home he had, until only a few years ago, stayed with a very 
 aged grand -uncle who had brought him up in a desolate 
 village in Wales. The old man had died the year before 
 Ireton first saw Stella, but he had lived long enough to 
 see his nephew for whom he had stinted and saved during 
 his public -school life and all through the years he had 
 spent in training for his life as a mining engineer a suc- 
 cessful and highly-paid member of his profession. In re- 
 turn, Michael had devoted every day of his sojourns in 
 England to his uncle, guarding, and administering to his 
 smallest wants with the tenderness and unselfishness ol
 
 222 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 a woman. Every luxury the enfeebled old man could 
 enjoy Michael gloried in procuring for him, and he was able 
 to do so, for he had, as Nicolas imagined, speculated suc- 
 cessfully in rubber. He never grudged one of the long 
 hours he spent sitting beside the invalid's chair, telling him 
 about the minutest details of his last expedition. 
 
 To-night he could not return to his room in his club, 
 for to-night had given Stella back to him, and he did not 
 wish to lose one moment's consciousness of the fact. 
 
 He never doubted the possibility of finding her : it was 
 merely a matter of time and patience. Now that she 
 was free, nothing really mattered, nothing was insur- 
 mountable. If he could not find her in London, he would 
 write to her father's address in Cairo, and tell his clerk 
 to forward his letter to his mistress. 
 
 Then a fresh anger at his own stupidity disturbed him. 
 Why had he allowed her to go without getting her address t 
 If only he had had his wits about him he could have gone 
 to her in the morning and taken her into his arms. To- 
 morrow he might have felt her first kisses on his lips, her slim 
 arms round his neck. He became so impatient at the 
 thought that he had to walk up and down the length of 
 the bridge to calm his restlessness. As he returned 
 to the place he had been leaning over, a woman wrapped 
 in a tattered black shawl crept up to him and held out her 
 hand. He dismissed her instantly. . . . The woman 
 moved away her obedience was expressive of absolute 
 hopelessness ; Michael Ireton called her back. Her tragic 
 eyes were like Stella's, he could not let her go ! In hia 
 hand were a handful of coins, silver and copper : he held 
 them out to her. The woman looked at him quickly to 
 see if he was drunk, then seized the proffered money with a 
 quick, bird-like claw, and fled into the night. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 NEXT morning Michael began his search for Stella. His 
 only hope of finding her, by direct means, lay in the chance 
 that Miss MacNaughtan was a member of the Royal 
 Geographical Society. 
 
 Soon after ten o'clock he was in the secretary's office, 
 and after a good half-hour's impatient waiting he had the 
 list of the members in front of him. Never, since the 
 days when he had eagerly looked to see if his own name 
 was amongst the successful competitors in his engineering 
 examinations, had he felt so agitated or nervous in reading 
 through a list of names. Twice his heart seemed to stop
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 223 
 
 beating, when he came across the word MacNaughtan, 
 but it was only a momentary thrill, for in both cases the 
 members were males. With a defeated sigh he threw down 
 the list : there was no Miss MacNaughtan amongst the 
 members. His next plan of action was to spend the en- 
 tire morning in inspecting the fashionable shops where he 
 thought wealthy girls like Stella would be likely to go. 
 
 He first chose Landwools at Knightsbridge, because the 
 Bhop was associated in his mind with the most beautiful 
 Englishwomen he had seen on his return from savage lands. 
 He took it for granted that almost every woman spent 
 her mornings in London shopping. With the ingenuity 
 born of love, he managed to find some excuse for walking 
 through a greater part of the buildings. Downstairs, charm- 
 ing girls and sumptuously-dressed women were selecting 
 gloves and stockings and laces, and feminine fripperies of 
 all sorts, the cost of which would have appalled Michael 
 Ireton's simple bachelor soul. Upstairs the same 
 class of luxurious shoppers were sitting on comfortable 
 lounges watching young girls parade up and down the show- 
 rooms in model gowns. 
 
 Michael I ret on was too embarrassed to do more than 
 glance at these lovely creatures, whose faces appeared to 
 him too delicate and too unreal to be human. 
 
 Disappointed but not defeated, he went to Harrods. 
 By purchasing some small articles here and there he was at 
 liberty to walk about the various departments of the popular 
 stores. It seemed to him that he had as good a chance 
 of seeing Stella there as of not seeing her. But she was 
 not at Harrods, so he betook himself to the Army and 
 Navy Stores in Victoria Street, where his perseverance 
 was instantly rewarded, for who should he meet coming 
 down the steps of the building into the street but Miss Mac- 
 Naughtan ! 
 
 Michael Ireton lifted his hat and stopped abruptly in 
 front of her, but she slipped past him and hurried on. A 
 taxi-cab was waiting for her at the foot of the steps. 
 
 " Good morning," the said as she passed him ; " so sorry 
 I have no time to speak just now I must get to Victoria 
 Station by twelve o'clock." 
 
 As she stepped into her taxi Michael Ireton, who had 
 followed her, said, " Tell me your address : I must see you." 
 
 " 233, Prince's Gate, Kensington." But as she said the 
 words a private motor car, with a whistle like a train, 
 passed. As its whistle rent the air her address was swal- 
 lowed up in its arrogant roar. 
 
 Michael cursed the thing with a gorgeous energy. A taxi- 
 Cftb, passing at the same moment, stopped he had hailed
 
 224 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 it and as he jumped in he said to the driver, " Do you gee 
 that taxi passing that lorry covered with green tarpaulin f 
 If you can overtake it before we get to Victoria Station, 
 or don't lose sight of it when it arrives there, I'll give you 
 a sovereign." 
 
 The next moment they were off, and the race began. 
 Michael Ireton strained his eyes to keep the taxi ahead 
 of them well in sight : it had only had the start of him by 
 about a minute, and at the moment the street was sin- 
 gularly clear. His taxi was gaining ground, they would soon 
 be abreast of Miss MacNaughtan ! The next moment 
 something in the inner mechanism of the machine jammed 
 and they came to a dead halt. The driver jumped off his 
 seat and opened the door. " Here you are, sir, get into 
 this one " another taxi was within a yard of him " and 
 give my pal the quid : he'll do it for you." 
 
 " Don't lose sight of that 'ere taxi it's going to Victoria 
 Station ; this gent wants to catch it up he's good for a 
 quid." 
 
 They were off again, but by this time Miss MacNaughtan's 
 taxi was lost in the crowd of other cabs and motors which 
 were pressing their way into the station yard : at least it 
 was lost to Michael, who felt convinced that the driver 
 too had failed to keep his eye on it. But he was wrong. 
 To arrive at the station entrance by keeping in the order 
 of the long line of vehicles would have meant missing Miss 
 MacNaughtan when she got out of one of the front taxis, 
 so Michael jumped out of his when it was about the eighth 
 in order from the one which was being unloaded of its 
 luggage by the porters. 
 
 He watched the occupants of the five taxis, which, with 
 three private cars, made up the line of eight which was in 
 front of him. Miss MacNaughtan was not in any of them. 
 He returned to his driver, who had agreed to wait until 
 he had found his friend : " We've lost it ; I can't find my 
 friend." 
 
 " No, we 'av'n't, sir. I thought I was right : a lady got 
 out of the taxi we was following so quick that I wasn't 
 sure if I was mistaken. She didn't stop to pay the man, 
 but ran as quick as a girl but she wasn't a girl, sir. Was 
 that who you'd be looking for t Had she on a grey coat, 
 sir t " 
 
 Michael Ireton put his hand in his pocket and drew out 
 half a crown : " Take that," he said, " and wait a few 
 moments : I hope I'll have to give you the sovereign." 
 
 If Miss MacNaughtan was leaving London by a train 
 that started at twelve o'clock, he had lost her ; if she was 
 only going to see some friend off by a train leaving at
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 225 
 
 that hour, there was hope that he might meet her. He 
 would wait to see if she came out, trusting to luck that she 
 would leave the station by the same exit as she entered, 
 which was likely, as she had not paid for her cab. 
 
 Wondering what he had better do if he did not meet 
 her, he walked into the busy station. It was seven 
 minutes past twelve. He stopped under the big clock. 
 As his eyes dropped from looking at its face they suddenly 
 met the laughing and kindly eyes of Miss MacNaughtan 
 staring at him. 
 
 He rushed eagerly forward and said, " Ah ! I've found 
 you." 
 
 "So it seems," she said, still beaming with humour. 
 " And now that I've found you I'm not going to let 
 you out of my sight until you have told me where you 
 live." 
 
 " My address ! " she said, " why, I called it out to you 
 from the taxi." 
 
 " I couldn't hear it. I've been searching for you all the 
 morning don't laugh, indeed I have ; it is the greatest 
 stroke of luck that I have found you now." 
 " Looking for me ? " 
 
 " Yes, for you, because you can tell me where Miss Leke- 
 jian lives : I let you go away last night without getting your 
 address or hers." 
 
 " Does Stella wish you to know it 1 " 
 " I think so. I made a mistake last night I thought 
 she was married. When you told me she wasn't ... I 
 forgot everything else." 
 
 They had reached the station exit, so Miss MacNaughtan 
 said quickly, " If you have had time to look for me all over 
 London, you must have time to drive with me while we talk 
 . . ." she smiled good-naturedly ... "we can't speak 
 here, can we 1 " 
 
 At that moment the taxi-driver who had been waiting 
 for Michael Ireton's return came up. " Begging your 
 pardon, sir, is that the lady you wanted T " 
 
 Michael Ireton put his hand in his pocket and took out 
 his sovereign purse. Miss MacNaughtan watched him 
 with a fine light of appreciation twinkling in her eyes. 
 When he had taken a pound out of its neatly fitting abode 
 he said : " You're welcome to it : it's the best-spent 
 sovereign I've ever parted with in London." 
 
 " Thank you, sir," the man said ; " good luck to you." 
 He was wondering in his heart as he spoke why the fine- 
 looking gentleman's queer eyes glowed with happiness 
 because he had met the grey-haired lady who was certainly 
 old enough to be his aunt,
 
 226 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 When they were comfortably settled in the taxi, Miss 
 MacNaughtan said, with the air of frankness which was 
 her most characteristic quality and charm, " I'm afraid 
 you'll be terribly disappointed when I tell you that I 
 was one minute too late to say good-bye to Stella . . . 
 she has gone to Switzerland." 
 
 " Gone to Switzerland t What ghastly luck ! Do you 
 know her address 1 " His eyes pleaded. 
 
 " Yes, but are you certain she would like you to have 
 it ? Have I any right to give it ! You spoke to her last 
 night why didn't you ask her for it ? " 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " And she refused . . . then I can't." 
 
 " No, I know now that she didn't refuse, I thought she 
 did . . . she was upset by seeing me." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan put her hand lightly on his arm. 
 " I think we must be frank with each other. ... I love 
 Stella I brought her up ; she is almost my own child." 
 
 " And I love her too ; I loved her from the first moment 
 I saw her . . . how can I make you believe that she is the 
 only woman I have ever loved ? " 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan smiled at his direct avowal ; she liked 
 the man for his simplicity of speech and determination. 
 " I thought as much," she said : her eyes were smiling 
 contentedly. " You behave like a man in love," she said, 
 " but I like you none the less for it." Her eyes laughed 
 indulgently as she spoke. At the same moment the taxi 
 pulled up at her own door, and Michael Ireton's heart went 
 into his boots. Was she going to send him oft without the 
 coveted address ? She was kind, but she was tactfully 
 evasive. 
 
 It was one of Miss MacNaughton's extravagances to 
 hire taxis from the garage nearest to her house and keep 
 them waiting for her for hours. When her huge account 
 came in at the end of the year she smiled and congratu- 
 lated herself on the fact that it was not as big as the cost 
 of the upkeep of a motor would be, and there are times 
 when your motor is under repair ! 
 
 " Won't you come in T " she said, " I'm inquisitive. I 
 want to know more of the man who is going to follow my 
 child to Switzerland . . ." she paused, " shall I say it T ... 
 of the man who had the power to upset her so last night." 
 
 " May I come in t ... Oh, thank you ... I should 
 like to see the home Hadassah loved so much." 
 
 " You call her Hadassah ? " 
 
 " Yes, I prefer the old Eastern form of the name 
 Esther.' " 
 
 They were in the hall by this time, and Miss MacNaughtan
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 227 
 
 turned to him with one of her impetuous movements. " I 
 think I know why you prefer to call her Hadassah. . . . 
 I'm glad of it . . ." 
 
 He did not speak ; he was following her upstairs. 
 
 " Clarkson ! " Miss MacNaughton called out. 
 
 " Yes, mum." 
 
 " I want lunch for two in the library. Tell Miss Bateson 
 not to wait for me let them begin their lunch at once." 
 She turned to Michael : " You can stay and have a scrap 
 of lunch with me in my study. I have a lecture at 2.40, 
 until then we can talk. Are you free ? " 
 
 Michael Ireton was looking round the room ; he was 
 feeling Stella's near presence, he was thinking of the years 
 she had passed in an atmosphere like this, of beauty and 
 refinement. He had never been in her Arab home in Cairo, 
 so he did not know that the girl's whole life had been spent 
 in the midst of beauty. " What charming surroundings for 
 a girl like Hadassah to be brought up in !" he said ; " what 
 an ideal school ! " he smiled " but is it a school really t " 
 
 " Yes, truly. It is one of my hobbies to instil the love 
 of beauty into girls when they are young. I have an idea 
 that if they really worship beauty they will be disgusted 
 by all that is unlovely." Her eyes expressed the fuller 
 meaning of her words. 
 
 " I quite agree with you : Hadassah is an excellent illus- 
 tration of your theory." 
 
 " Luncheon is served, mum." It was Clarkson's voice 
 that interrupted them. 
 
 When they were eating their admirably cooked soles 
 Michael Ireton said : " It is very kind of you to let me 
 do this." 
 
 " Do what ? Eat your lunch with me ! " 
 
 " Yes, I am practically a stranger to you ! " 
 
 "That's the very reason why I asked you," she said 
 " I want to know you." 
 
 " I see," he said : " all the same it's very kind of you : 
 you might have turned me off it gives me hope." 
 
 " Like a severe schoolmistress." 
 
 He smiled, the smile which made the woman like him 
 still more. 
 
 " I will tell you Stella's address," she said, " if you will 
 explain why you thought she refused it to you last night." 
 
 " When I met her last night I thought she was married. 
 ... I mistook her emotion when I asked her if I might 
 come and see her for refusal. ... I don't know why she 
 was so upset by seeing me : she said a great many dreadful 
 things had happened since we had met last. Can you tell 
 me 1 "
 
 228 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 " You don't know, perhaps, about her cousin Girgis 
 Boutros's tragic death f it has changed her whole life." 
 
 "Is he dead t . . . that magnificent fellow . . . what 
 happened 1 ... was there some tragedy t ... he was 
 very unlike the usual native." 
 
 While Miss MacNaughtan told him the story of Girgis'fl 
 death, Michael Ireton remained silent. When she had 
 finished he said : " You don't think Hadassah ever loved 
 him t " His voice broke slightly as he spoke ; the woman's 
 heart was touched for the man's fear. 
 
 " No, oh no ! He was her cousin, but . . . well, how 
 can I explain everything 1 " 
 
 " I know," he said ; " I thought not, I hoped not." 
 
 There was silence for a moment. 
 
 " You said his death had something to do with her 
 engagement with Vernon Thorpe being broken off t " 
 
 " Yes, it was the loophole for her escape ! She had fallen 
 out of love with him long before Girgis's death t Every 
 woman loves being adored, and in England, at any rate 
 Vernon adored her. . . . The dullest sort of Englishman 
 have quite a gift for love-making that is to say, love- 
 making when things are on the footing of intimate court- 
 ship . . . and he is very good-looking." They both 
 laughed. 
 
 " Your cult of the beautiful, bearing fruit his beauty 
 made her love him." 
 
 " Yes, but his mind ... is it beautiful t " 
 
 " I don't know, I know nothing about him . . . but 
 what earthly chance have I compared to him f . . . and 
 yet . . ." he looked across the table eagerly at his com- 
 panion, " I will be truthful. Before I knew she was engaged 
 I though I had a chance ; after she told me, of course I 
 realised that ours must be merely an intellectual affinity. 
 . . ." He thought for a moment. " Later on in Cairo, 
 the last time I saw her, I fancied she cared, but it could 
 only have been that she was troubled, that she leaned on 
 me as a friend. . . . You who know her so well, will you 
 be brutally frank and tell me if I've any chance. . . . 
 God knows I adore her truly ; you needn't be afraid to 
 tell me the truth ... I left her when I thought it was for 
 her happiness, I can leave her again. ... I hope I love 
 her well enough to think of her happiness first." 
 
 " I think you have a chance." she said, " because yon are 
 persistent and insistent, and because you evidently are 
 more than negative to her : your sudden appearance upset 
 her to a very great extent last night. 
 
 " It ruay have been that I reminded her of our last 
 meeting, at which the accident happened to Mr. Thorpe
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 229 
 
 when he saved her father's life." As he spoke he remem- 
 bered Stella's cry of " Stay, don't go ! I want you." 
 
 " Don't be down -hearted," Miss MacNaughtan said 
 lightly : " Yesterday afternoon I did not think Stella was 
 in love with anyone, in fact she was very much out of love 
 with every one ; she was delighted that she had escaped 
 from the trammels of love ; she was congratulating her- 
 self on the fact that she could now carry put her scheme of 
 work in Egypt . . . has she ever mentioned it to you t 
 But she is looking very ill ... I feel quite anxious about 
 her . . . she has gone through so much." 
 
 Michael Ireton's mind was concentrated on the scheme 
 of work Stella had once laid before him. " She has spoken 
 of her desire to work amongst the women." 
 
 " Then you are more than a mere ordinary friend : there 
 are things we only tell to people we care for, even if these 
 things are no secrets." 
 
 " I want to help her in that work and I want her to know 
 that . . . will you tell her ? " 
 
 " You would live with her in Cairo t " 
 
 " Certainly why not t ... if she knows me at all she 
 knows I would," his face rolled into smiles ..." where 
 wouldn't I li ve with her, I should like to know ? It would 
 be a strange place." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan laughed. " You are very thorough- 
 going about it," she said ; " it is rather refreshing in these 
 unromantio days." 
 
 " I fell in love with her at first sight ; I would have 
 married her the next day if I could. You may think me 
 mad or anything else you like, but I'm not. I am simply 
 determined to win ... I have seldom been defeated." 
 
 " Love is madness," Miss MacNaughtan said, " a beauti- 
 ful madness, but still a pronounced form of mania." She 
 looked at her wrist-watch. " I must go soon I have a 
 history lecture at 2.40. . . ." She rose to go. 
 
 " One minute," he said. " you didn't finish what you were 
 saying : I interrupted you." 
 
 " Saying ! What about f " 
 
 " You said that in the afternoon you were convinced that 
 Hadassah was heart-whole . . . did you not think so ... 
 later on ... after we met in the evening 1 " 
 
 " After she met you, do you mean t " 
 
 " Yes, I mean that . . . you began your sentence as if 
 you were going to say something about a change in your 
 opinions." 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan looked at him with serious eyes. 
 " Would it be fair to Stella to say what I thought 1 " she 
 asked. ..." Go and try your luck . . . they are going
 
 230 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 
 
 to Lucerne if they find it suits her father . . . you know 
 that he is very ill. They are going to stay at the 
 Schweitzerhof Hotel for a month." 
 
 The moment he heard the address Michael Ireton had 
 the air of a man ready for instant flight. 
 
 Miss MacNaughtan held out her hand. " Now be oft 
 with you : I know you mean to catch the night boat from 
 Dover, and I have to interest my girls in the Seventh 
 Crusade." 
 
 " Good-bye," he said ; " wish me good luck in my first 
 crusade of Love." 
 
 "You have my best wishes," she said, " but go gently, 
 for at the present moment your Hadassah is sick of love." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 IN the evening of the day following Michael Ireton walked 
 into the Schweitzerhof Hotel at Lucerne. He had travelled 
 without stopping since three o'clock the day before, but 
 he was as spotlessly clean and carefully dressed as though 
 he had been leading an idle and luxurious life in the fashion- 
 able Swiss resort for weeks. He had driven from the 
 station to a smaller hotel, where he had engaged a room for 
 one day ; there he had deposited his luggage and changed 
 his travel -stained clothes and had had a bath. He was 
 boyishly fastidious about his appearance before presenting 
 himself to the Lekejians. 
 
 In the hall of the hotel he asked to see the visitors' 
 book ; he examined the list of people staying in the hotel 
 very carefully. The Lekejians' name was not amongst 
 them. His mood of confidence changed to one of doubt. 
 
 He went to the large letter -rack which hung on the wall 
 and scanned the addresses of the letters awaiting the 
 arrival of coming travellers ; there was nothing in the rack 
 addressed to any one of the Lekejian family. With a 
 feeling of approaching defeat, he went to the booking-office 
 and asked ii a family called Lekejian, the friends with 
 whom he had come to stay, were in the hotel. 
 
 The clerk looked up. " What name, sir t Did you say 
 Lekejian t No, sir ; they were expected this morning, but 
 we had a telegram last night cancelling their rooms . . . 
 they have not left England on account of illness Mr. 
 Lekejian is very ill. He has stayed here many times, sir ; 
 we are extremely sorry." 
 
 " Thank you," Michael Ireton said. " Do you know 
 where they are staying in England ? " 
 
 The man referred to the telegram. " No, sir, there is no
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 231 
 
 address, but they had not left Dover when this was sent, 
 off." He handed Michael the telegram. 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " Do you wish a room, sir ? " 
 
 " Not now, I will return to England. Will you send a 
 telegram for me ? I will dine here and wait for a reply." 
 
 " Certainly, sir." 
 
 Michael Ireton wrote out the wire : it was to Miss Mac- 
 Naughtan : " Mr. Lekejian ill, not left Dover. Have you 
 any information ! If you have please send it, also 
 Dover address." 
 
 At 8. 30 he got his reply. 
 
 " Leaving Dover for Cairo. Mr. Lekejian wishes to re- 
 turn via Marseilles." 
 
 The telegram fell out of Michael's hand. He was making 
 a pretence of eating something of the very good dinner 
 which the hotel provided for the table d'hote. 
 
 A great pity for Hadassah swept over him ; for the mo- 
 ment it wiped out all personal feeling. If he could only 
 write and tell her how sorry he was for her ! for undoubtedly 
 Mr. Lekejian must be very ill. It seemed to him as though 
 his gentle Hadassah was only to pass out of one affliction to 
 go into another. 
 
 The details of her cousin Girgis's death had been in his 
 mind very vividly during the long journey from London. 
 He knew that the boy had offered up his life for Egypt 
 because he was not strong enough to live without Ha- 
 dassah's love ; what it meant in the way of courage and 
 fight to live without Hadassah he knew only too well. 
 
 He knew that this fragile girl held the sweetness and 
 dearness of life for him in the palm of her little hand ; he 
 knew that if she sent him away, as Girgis had been sent 
 away when he offered himself to her, the world would be, 
 not unendurable, as it had been to Girgis, for with forti- 
 tiide all things are endurable, but it would be scentless 
 and soulless ... a mere earth with no flowers for its 
 Eden. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 THERE were sorrow and mourning in the old Mamluk house 
 in Cairo : Nicolas Lekejian was dead, and Hadassah would 
 not be comforted. Unlike the Eastern women of old, who 
 tore their hair and beat their breasts and yelled upon the 
 house-tops when their nearest and dearest were borne with 
 loud manifestations of sorrow to their place among the 
 dead, Stella had remained tearless and unemotional until
 
 232 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 long days of pent-up feeling and sleepless nights of remorse 
 had ended in a collapse of nerve and body. 
 
 Without doubt Nicolas Lekejian had died from the shock 
 his system had received when Girgis Boutros was arrested 
 with his fellow-conspirators, and Stella could not help 
 holding herself in a measure responsible for her cousin's 
 death. If she had taken more pains to discover what the 
 work was he meant to do for Egypt she could have pre- 
 vented him acting as he did ; hence she felt herself to be 
 not only responsible for her cousin's death, but in a measure 
 for her father's also. 
 
 It was absurd, of course, but natural in the highly strung 
 state of her nerves and sensibilities. In long hours of 
 sleeplessness she exaggerated every unwise step she had 
 taken and foolish thing she had said. Her own beauty 
 and her quality of attraction became an accursed thing in 
 her eyes. 
 
 Her father's love, the love that had been torn from her 
 just when she needed it most, was the only love her mind 
 could tolerate or dwell upon. 
 
 If Michael Ireton had come to her and said, " I love you 
 madly, Hadassah," if he had repeated the very words of 
 her heart's song, the song she had never been able to silence 
 since he had first said the words, she would have turned 
 from him with shrinking and horror. To love Michael now 
 would seem as dishonourable to her dead father's memory 
 as it had seemed dishonourable to Vernon, when she was 
 his promised wife. 
 
 And Michael Ireton did come ! He came one day when 
 Mrs. Lekejian was sitting by her daughter, hoping and pray- 
 ing that for a little time the girl would sleep, that for a 
 little time the tragic eyes would close and the restless limbs 
 would rest. His card was handed to her while Stella's face 
 was turned to the wall. She rose quietly and left the room, 
 bidding the servant follow her ; Stella cared too little about 
 what was happening to even ask herself why her mothei 
 was going without first explaining her reason for leaving 
 her so suddenly. 
 
 " Tell him," she said to the servant, " that I cannot see 
 him ; explain that we have sorrow in the house, and illness." 
 Mrs. Lekejian spoke quietly. 
 
 " I did tell him that our dear master is dead, sitt, and 
 he was very sad ; I told him, my lady, because he said that 
 he had been looking for you all over Europe the big tall, 
 man is very much in love ! He asked to see Miss Ha- 
 dassah." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian smiled at the man's sympathy for the
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 233 
 
 impatient lover. In Arabic, this fine arrangement of his 
 sentences had been graced with the flowers of his elegant 
 language. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian's Irish heart melted : she would go and see 
 the big, tall man for a few minutes. 
 
 When her slight figure, in widow's weeds, entered the room 
 where Michael Ireton was nervously waiting, he almost 
 cried out with surprise . . . never before had he thought 
 her the least like Hadassah ! Now, with the tragedy of 
 her recent loss deepening the beauty of her violet eyes, he 
 recognised many points of Stella in her Irish mother. 
 
 He strode forward and held out hia hand. Something 
 better than words of sympathy was in the grasp he gave 
 her and in the expression of tenderness which, like a divine 
 light, transformed his rough face. 
 
 They had not seen each other since the night when Vernon 
 had saved her husband's life, and the sudden recollection of 
 it brought a lump into both their throats. They remained 
 silent. With a gentle caress Michael Ireton at last let her 
 hand drop ; still in silence they stood looking at each other 
 while his eyes seemed to say, " We will not speak of your 
 sorrow, you need not be afraid the sorrow of death is 
 sacred." Feeling this she grew braver and said gently, 
 " You wanted to see my daughter t " 
 
 " Yes," he said ; " is it permitted f . . . May If... 
 W T ill you allow me ? " 
 
 He looked at her to see if she realised his deeper meaning. 
 
 " Stella is ill," she said " too unnerved to see any one." 
 
 " 111 ! " he said in alarm. 
 
 " A nervous breakdown ; she will be all right again with 
 quiet and care." 
 
 " Your daughter and I were friends, Mrs. Lekejian . . . 
 Do you really think it would do her harm to see me . . . 1 " 
 
 " I know you were great friends, but she is really too ill, 
 it would not be wise at present the doctor would forbid 
 it." 
 
 " I can wait," he said doggedly, " I can go on waiting . . . 
 I have waited . . . but don't you think she would see me 
 if she knew I was here, if she knew how far I had travelled 
 in the hopes of seeing her, and what difficulty I have had 
 in finding you ? " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian smiled : the man was not to be easily dis- 
 missed. 
 
 His eyes brightened. " If it is only nervous collapse, it 
 might do her good to see an old friend. Will you bee her 
 to see me," he said, " if only for five minutes t Tell her I 
 have never stopped looking for her since the night I saw 
 her at the Koyal Geographical Society's lecture." 
 Q
 
 234 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 Without a word Mrs. Lekejian turned and left the room 
 and did what ho asked. When she saw that Stella waa 
 not sleeping she said quite simply, " Stella, Michael Iretoa 
 is waiting in the drawing-room ; he has begged me to ask 
 you if you will see him, if only for five minutes. Will you 
 dear he is terribly insistent ! " 
 
 " Michael Ireton ! " The cry of the words rang through 
 the room as Stella uttered them : the next moment she had 
 drawn the bed-clothes over her face. " Oh, mother, don't 
 let him come, he loves me ... don't let me hear the word 
 Love ever again : it waa Love that killed Girgis, it was 
 the Love I thought I had for Vernon it was Love that 
 brought about all this unhappiness ... I hate the very 
 name of Love." 
 
 " Since when has he loved you, dearest t " 
 
 There was no answer, but a nervous sigh. 
 
 " He seems strong and big and true, poor fellow ! Is he 
 to be sent away because my child happens to be cross and 
 peevish t " 
 
 " Oh, mother, I want only you I want to be left alone. 
 Love has gone out of me : I will never love again." 
 
 " My dearest, you needn't see him, he will leave you 
 alone ; but what about the future ? When you are well 
 again, won't you be sorry ? Are you doing wisely ? " 
 
 " When I am well again I want to work, not to love." 
 
 " Will he prevent it t " 
 
 Stella hesitated. " Perhaps not . . . but don't you see, 
 mother, Love stopped all my work before, it might stop it 
 again." 
 
 " Then you think you might love him if you saw him t " 
 
 " I don't know . . . I'm afraid of myself . . . supposing 
 I never can love : I thought I loved Vernon : perhaps it ia 
 only that I love being made love to." 
 
 " You were too young to know." 
 
 There waa a moment's silence. 
 
 " What must I tell him, dear t . . . I think he has 
 suffered." 
 
 " Tell him I am sorry, mother, that is all." 
 
 Mrs. Lekeiian put her hand on her child's forehead and 
 looked into her eyes. " Dearest, I know very little about 
 this man, but what I have seen of him I like and admire, 
 and something tells me that, if you send him away comfort- 
 less, you are sending away your happiness." 
 
 " Do you want me to leave you, mother t " 
 
 " My dear, perverse child, of course I don't." Sh 
 smiled tenderly : "I will tell him you are sorry . . . ia 
 that all f ... he haa waited, Stella, he says he will go 
 on waiting . . . but will you give him no hope ! He has
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 235 
 
 crossed Europe to see you can you expect Ms feelings 
 to remain the same if you think only of your own and 
 nothing of his ? " 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian waited. 
 
 " Tell him I am going to work for Egypt if ever I am well 
 enough to do anything again ... he approved of the 
 idea ... tell him that, mother ; tell him that all my life 
 I am going to work ... it will be my atonement." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian went out of the room and shut the door, 
 but she did not go down stairs, she knew her daughter 
 and human nature too well. 
 
 When the door was closed, Stella burst into a flood of 
 tears, such relieving tears that much sorrow and striving 
 and fear seemed to pass away with them. . . . She called to 
 her mother to come back. ..." Mother, mother, how 
 beastly I've been, how hateful ! Mother, do come back. 
 . . . You might have known that I didn't mean it. ... 
 Oh ! say something kind he is so kind." 
 
 As though she had heard the cry the next moment Mrs. 
 Lekejian was by her side. 
 ' Mother ! " 
 ' You called me, dear t " 
 
 Stella did not answer. 
 ' What kind thing shall I tell him, dear t " 
 ' I am thinking." 
 
 ' Take your time ... he can wait. He'd wait for 
 seven years like Jacob, I think." 
 
 " He has been so kind, mother, and I wasn't fair to 
 him, not fair from the very first ... I was selfish and 
 cruel." 
 
 " Yes, dearest," Mrs. Lekejian said again. This time 
 the old humour, that was hard to kill, lurked in her eyes . . . 
 she was perfectly certain Stella cared for the tall, big 
 man downstairs. 
 
 " Ask him, mother, if he will go away and let me work 
 out my own salvation . . . ask him to go away for a whole 
 year, tell him not to write to me or to think of me unless 
 he can't help it, and at the end of the year, this very day 
 year, if he likes he can write to me and ask me if he may 
 come and see me . . . only don't promise anything, 
 mother ... let him be free . . . and let me be absolutely 
 free ... I must be free, or I shall hate him." 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " 
 
 " If I saw him now, mother, I shouldn't even say that ; 
 I can only say it through you." 
 
 Stella laid herself down again wearily. " I'm so tired, 
 mother ; send him away." 
 
 " I know you are, dear try and sleep. I will go and
 
 236 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 comfort him as best I can. I know you are not in a fit 
 state to be troubled, but this may mean your happiness." 
 
 Michael Ireton was standing with his back to the door 
 when Mrs. Lekejian entered. He turned swiftly round. 
 " How long you have been ! " he said. " Will she see 
 met" 
 
 " She is really not well enough to see you ... I am so 
 gorry," she spoke with a kindly little shake of the head . . . 
 " It is wiser not to urge it." 
 
 " Did she not even send me a message ? If you only 
 knew how much it means to me ! " 
 
 " I think I do ... and she is not unkind ; remember her 
 system has had a severe shock. You must make allowances 
 she is very highly strung, she craves for rest for body 
 and soul." 
 
 " I understand," he said, " but will you let me hope t 
 You have always been so kind, will you accept me if ever 
 Stella does ? " 
 
 " Yes, I will accept you and I will hope for you because 
 I believe that my daughter cares for you, and that her 
 future happiness lies in your hands, although just at present 
 all suggestion of any such love as you feel for her is odious 
 to her. Do you understand ? . . . I wonder if any man 
 can t ... it is not you, it is the idea of love itself after 
 . . ." she looked at him, pleading his full understanding 
 of her words. 
 
 " I know," he said, " I can wait ... I can go on waiting 
 ... I have waited for her all my life." 
 
 "Death has been too near to us," she said softly, "for 
 the child to think of love ... it hurts her." 
 
 " I can wait," he repeated. 
 
 " Stella has sent you a message ! " 
 
 Michael Ireton looked eagerly at the sensitive face, again 
 o reminiscent of Stella. 
 
 " She asks you not to write to her or think about her for 
 a year " she smiled " that is to say, if you can help it : 
 these are Stella's own words." A light of sympathy shone 
 in her eyes for the man whose face had fallen like a child's. 
 
 " At the end of the year . . . this very day year," she 
 said, " if you still care you may write. ... No ! no, go 
 slowly, there is no promise, nothing really definite . . . 
 but it is the most hopeful plan, even if it seems hard ; but 
 remember you are to be free, absolutely free." 
 
 " I'll come," he said, drawing out hi > watch, " at 6.45 thia 
 day year." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian laughed. " You certainly deserve to 
 succeed but don't feel too certain : remember Stella 
 only told me to tell you that you may write to her a,t th
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 237 
 
 end of the year if ... if you have not forgotten her, if 
 you still feel for her as you do now . . . these were her 
 very words." 
 
 He sighed it was the sigh of a man who had been strung 
 to the limit of endurance. " I must be thankful," he said. 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian put her hand on his. " She is more than 
 half won already, I think, but she doesn't know it ; or if 
 she does she is rebelling against it for the time being." 
 
 " I understand : my best chance is to go away I will 
 take your advice." 
 
 " Yes, go away and allow her to miss you ! " she smiled, 
 " and she will miss you, for every woman needs devotion, 
 and Stella has always had it." 
 
 " A year is such a long time," he said ; " supposing some 
 one else offers her that devotion." 
 
 " Would she be worth the winning if any man's love 
 would do ? " 
 
 " What's worth and what isn't worth doesn't enter into 
 love : once the malady's ripe, it's a terrible thing." 
 
 ' You are quite right, it is a terrible thing, a cruel thing. 
 But I must return to Stella. You are strong, be brave ; 
 you are not like poor Girgis, who looked so strong and was 
 so weak." 
 
 ' ' I mean to live for her . . . Girgis died for her . . . 
 that is the difference." 
 
 He raised her hand to his lips. " Pray God you may be 
 my mother some day," he said earnestly. " Good-bye." 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIV 
 
 IT was the hour of sunset in Cairo that magic hour in the 
 East when the most worldly mind is moved by the Infinite 
 Being of God. Stella Lekejian was coming out of the 
 Coptic schoolroom where she had been teaching. Her 
 long day's work was done ! 
 
 Her pupils, all closely veiled women belonging to the 
 lower-middle classes, were hurrying in twos and three, 
 to their various homes. Some of them, though wives and 
 mothers, were girls just emerging from childhood. To 
 the casual observer these closely veiled figures looked like 
 ordinary Cairene Moslem women their shapeless black 
 garments differed not one whit from all the others but on 
 a closer examination you could see that their dark eyes, 
 whose heavy lids were blackened with kohl, were larger 
 and more elongated, and that they inclined slightly up- 
 wards from the nose. Also, if you looked, you could find, 
 among the tattoo marks which decorated their wrists and
 
 238 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 faces, the distinguishing sign of their sect a little cross, 
 the emblem of Christ's suffering. 
 
 Their attitude towards Stella resembled the devotion of 
 English Sunday-School children to their teachers. Each 
 day they brought her little bunches of odorous jasmine 
 and early sprays of tuberose. During the year she had 
 worked amongst them and held meetings of various kinds, 
 in the beautiful little school -house which her mother had 
 built and endowed as a memorial to her father, Stella had 
 endeared herself to these primitive women. 
 
 At first they had only come in twos and threes, and had 
 shrunk from any form of intimacy, but gradually their 
 numbers had increased until the largest class-room in the 
 building was not big enough to hold them. She had been 
 wise enough to leave religious instruction and discussions 
 alone, for although her father had been a strict Uniat- 
 Copt all his life, she herself had been brought up in the 
 Church of England, and in Cairo the English Protestants 
 are almost as much disliked by the various sects of the 
 Copts as are the members of the Greek Church. Between 
 the Copts and the Greeks there is an undying feud. 
 
 During the year her busy life had left her little time for 
 reflection ; but it gave her the satisfaction of feeling that 
 she was at last of some practical good in the world, that 
 her reason for existence was justified and, oddly enough, 
 the trivial things of life, the things she had once envied, 
 were now offered to her ungrudgingly. She would have 
 found a warm welcome in most of the houses of the resident 
 English in Cairo if she had chosen to go there, for sud- 
 denly their doors had been opened to her ! She never 
 even questioned the reason why this change had taken 
 place in their attitude towards her, for she was now far 
 more than formerly in close touch with the native popula- 
 tion. There was only one house she visited, for the iron 
 of bitterness had entered her soul too deeply, in the days 
 of her impressionable girlhood, ever to allow her to accept 
 even the most sincerely offered tokens of hospitality and 
 friendship. It was only in the house of a celebrated lady 
 doctor, whose kindness to the poor had won Stella's admira- 
 tion and devotion, that she was perfectly happy. It was 
 when she saw the husband and wife working together in 
 the common cause of humanity for they were both 
 doctors that she used to dream dreams of what happiness 
 might be hers when her year of probation waa over. In th 
 years to come perhaps Michael and she would work to- 
 gether and play together and find Jife sweet together, ai 
 these two friends did. 
 
 On this particular evening, as Stella followed the little
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 239 
 
 company of Coptic women from the door of their school- 
 house, whose pleasant courtyard was shaded with an 
 ancient sycamore tree and one tall Victoria palm, her mind 
 was disturbed with personal emotions. She had felt 
 herself incapable of putting aside her own interests and 
 throwing herself wholeheartedly into her work as she 
 usually did. She had received a letter from Michael 
 Ireton in the morning and it had been fluttering in her 
 bosom like the wings of a bird. It was in reality lying 
 securely in its envelope in her pocket, yet she felt it in 
 her bosom like a living thing trying to get free a thing 
 trying to gain dominion over her struggling senses. She 
 had not heard from him since she had sent him away. 
 
 She had tried to banish him from her mind for her 
 work's sake, and, as a test of the enduring quality of her 
 love for him during the period she had fixed for their 
 separation, she had determined to work with one sole pur- 
 pose in view the regeneration of the Egyptian women. 
 If at the end of a year's time Michael still cared for her 
 and she still cared for him, surely their love would be 
 enduring. 
 
 Now, in this supreme hour of Egypt's beauty, when the 
 spell of its light was transforming the world into a kingdom 
 of heavenly glory, Stella unreservedly surrendered herself 
 to the joy of her new happiness. It seemed to her, as she 
 watched the black-robed figures of the Coptic women 
 disappearing into the golden distance, that the whole 
 world was bathed in a flame of Love : she let it envelop her 
 until she was lost in its mystery. Only the golden silence 
 and the limitless space of wondrous light existed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE next morning Stella asked her mother if they might 
 have their morning coffee and fruit in the mandarah the 
 large apartment on the ground floor of the house, where, 
 in days gone by, only male visitors were received. 
 
 They were sitting on a low seat encircling the wide win- 
 dow which looked out upon the courtyard, in the portion of 
 the room called the durkaah. Here the marble floor was 
 sunk about six or seven inches, and in its centre was a 
 beautiful fountain, composed of three shallow basins raised 
 on a slender shaft, one above the other. 
 
 It was a delightful apartment in the hot weather, for the 
 plash, plash of the falling water was cooling to the senses, 
 and the entire absence of any kind of furniture, kept the 
 atmosphere pure and fresh. Their coffee was placed on
 
 240 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 a, white marble table of classic shape, such as one sees in 
 the best houses in Pompei. 
 
 The morning post had just arrived, but the appearance 
 of a number of letters had not interrupted the absorbing 
 conversation between mother and daughter. They were 
 discussing the momentous question of Michael Ireton's 
 letter and of his arrival in Cairo the night before. 
 
 " Yes, he has waited for a whole year, but I didn't ask 
 him to, mother he needn't have done it ! He was per- 
 fectly free to choose any other girl. Don't look like that." 
 Stella held out her hand imploringly. 
 
 " I didn't mean to look like anything, dear," her mothei 
 aid laughingly, " but to me it seems so strange, so un- 
 necessary, when you might have been together : there are 
 none too many years allotted to any of us for youth and 
 happiness you'll find that, my darling why squander 
 one of them 1 " 
 
 "But I've not squandered it, mother, it has been a 
 precious year it has given me heaps of things, and a kind 
 of happiness I never knew before. I've been doing work 
 I love, work Michael knows I never mean to give up, and at 
 the same time I've tested the endurance of my feelings for 
 him and of his for me." She sighed contentedly. " You 
 can't think how much each day of this year has added to 
 my love for him, and from his letter, I don't think he cares 
 for me any the less." 
 
 " I'm so thankful, dearest, and I believe he is almost 
 worthy of you ; I liked the little I saw of him, and your 
 father admired him." 
 
 " Almost ! " the girl spoke scornfully " almost ! he's 
 worth a hundred of me." 
 
 " To me, darling, naturally no man is quite good enough 
 for you . . . but certainly you could never be happy with 
 a man who had not exceptional brains and a strong in- 
 dividuality." 
 
 " I understood him and he understood me at least, w 
 were in perfect sympathy with each other from the very 
 first moment we met . . . and as the days went by in 
 Luxor his companionship showed me how very little I had 
 in common with Vernon Thorpe." 
 
 " And knowing all this, Stella, you have made the pool 
 man wait for a whole year after all he had suffered while 
 you were engaged. Poor fellow." 
 
 A pause in the conversation folio wed, while Mrs. Lekejian 
 
 took up her letters and glanced at the handwritings on the 
 
 envelopes. " One from Nancy," she said brightly, " and 
 
 . . how strange ! one from Nicolas as well." She started. 
 
 " Why . . they are both from the same hotel." She
 
 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 241 
 
 pointed to the name of the hotel stamped on the envelopes. 
 When she had only read a few words she cried out, " Stella, 
 they're married ! Listen. . . ." 
 
 " MY DARLING MOTHER AND STELLA, 
 
 " Nicolas and I were married this morning, and I'm the 
 happiest girl in the world. I will tell you all about everything and 
 how it came to pass, when we meet it's quite a romance. We are 
 just off to Italy, where we are going to ' moon ' for a heavenly fort- 
 night. Then we sail from Naples, and will be with you in about 
 three weeks. Nicolas says we are all to go up the Nile by Cook's 
 first pleasure boat, so do make plans, and don't disappoint us. 
 " Your loving daughter, 
 
 " NANCY LEKEJIAN. 
 
 " P.S. This is the first time I've signed myself Lekejian except in 
 church in the register." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian's whole being was expressive of an almost 
 girlish delight. Her affection for Nancy was very genuine, 
 and she knew how deeply her son had felt his unselfish 
 renunciation of the girl's love for him. She looked to 
 Stella for the sympathy she knew she would receive. 
 
 " I'm so glad, so tremendously glad," Stella said. " Dear 
 little Nancy, how happy they will be ! I suppose they are 
 eating their breakfast together as husband and wife ! 
 What fun ! Be quick, darling, and open Nicolas's letter. 
 I do wonder if he will tell us how it happened, I so want 
 to know all about it." 
 
 Mrs. Lekejian's voice was breathless with excitement 
 as she read aloud her son's brief announcement of his 
 marriage. 
 
 " DARLING MOTHER, 
 
 " Nancy is now my wife, and I am the happiest man on 
 G'd's earth. I can't write, but we shall both see you soon, and I 
 fcnow that you will rejoice at my happiness. 
 
 " Your loving son, 
 
 " NICOLAS." 
 
 " Now that he's a celebrity I suppose he considered 
 himself more worthy of being her husband . . . dear old 
 Nicolas. . . ." Stella spoke tenderly, then suddenly she 
 gave a nervous sigh. "Mother, I'm afraid to-day's going 
 to be too good to be true." Do you think anything will 
 happen to him before he gets here 1 " she said anxiously. 
 " Nancy's good news and mine seem really too much." 
 
 At that very moment a servant came with gliding native 
 movements up the long room to where they sat. With a low 
 Balaam at his mistress's knees, he said, " A gentleman has
 
 242 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 arrived, sitt, but he says he will wait if he is too early ; it 
 is the ' tall big ' gentleman, sitt." 
 
 Stella's face flushed crimson. " Oh, mother, it'i 
 Michael ! " 
 
 She looked nervously round the room : at that moment 
 she would have escaped if she could. The joy of expecting 
 him had been too suddenly terminated by his arrival she 
 would gladly have postponed it ; but Mrs. Lekejian, un- 
 derstanding this side of her daughter's complex nature, 
 rose from her seat very quickly and left the room. " I 
 will send him to you, Stella," she said ; " don't be foolish 
 you are not a child and do give him the welcome he 
 deserves." She looked at the moment much more pleased 
 than her shrinking daughter. But her voice had laughter 
 lurking in it, though it was stern enough to bring Stella 
 quickly up against the fact that her future happiness did 
 depend upon her self-control in the next few moments. 
 
 When her mother met Michael Ireton she said, " So the 
 year has passed and you have come : you need not explain." 
 He grasped her hand gratefully. " I give my child to you 
 willingly, for I know that she loves you and you will make 
 her happy. Yueuf will take you to her . . . she is waiting 
 for you." She held his hand in hers for a moment longer . . . 
 " You will be wise, Michael, I think, to take the bull by the 
 horns . . . Stella is frightfully nervous." Her merry eyes 
 expressed clearly all that she could not tell him. As she 
 hurried away she said, "Go to her quickly ; I will see you 
 later on." 
 
 When Michael Irecon entered the room he did not hesitate 
 to take Mrs. Lekejian's advice : in two strides he seemed 
 to cross ita great length and reach the window where 
 Stella was standing, nervously waiting for him. Without 
 one word of greeting he swiftly enfolded her in his arms. 
 
 "No," he said, "not yet, don't try to struggle. . . . 
 You are mine, mine at last and for ever." He bent hie 
 head to her shrinking face and covered it with kisses, 
 kisses which made the girl realise how utterly useless it 
 was to protest. Her moment of surrender had come. 
 
 Nor did she wish to protest, for the joy of experiencing 
 the strength of his manhood, of at last feeling the comfort 
 of his strong embrace, was exquisite to her senses. 
 
 With his lips on her lips she felt aa though she was float- 
 ing through a world of space, to some unknown shore, in the 
 strong arms of love. 
 
 And when he held her passionately from him, at arm's 
 length, to look at her with ardent eyes, she said ; " Dearest, 
 can yon forgive me 1 "
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 243 
 
 " Tell me you love me, and I will forgive you everything, 
 all the waiting and the hunger of years." 
 
 " I love you," she said simply, " more than anything in 
 all the world ; I have always loved you." 
 
 " Then, darling, why did you send me away ! why did 
 you waste one year of our life ? " 
 
 She was crushed to him tenderly again : his hunger for 
 the nearness of her beauty, for the fragrance of her being, 
 was demanding its justification. " How could you have 
 done it ? How could you 1 " 
 
 " I did it," she said, " because I wanted to know if my 
 love was worthy of you. I was afraid : it was for your 
 sake, for the sake of our love ! " 
 
 He drew her back to him, " you worthy of me ! how 
 could you doubt it 1 ... Oh, my darling." 
 
 " I had to do it, the Fates made me ; I can't explain just 
 why, but they did. It's all over now," she gave a tired 
 sigh, a sigh of perfect content, a sigh of absolute thankfulness 
 for his presence and for the acknowledgment of their love. 
 
 " The waiting was worth it," he said eagerly, "if it has 
 done what you wished : I would have waited a thousand 
 years." 
 
 " It has done far more ! Things could never have been 
 BO wonderful if I hadn't learned to know how much I 
 wanted you, how much I missed you, how afraid I grew 
 that you might love some one else." 
 
 " Then thank God I waited," Michael Ireton said briefly 
 " but you are not going to send me away again, Hadassah, 
 with any more indefinite promises. I am going to make 
 you my wife whether you will or won't ! " 
 
 "But I will, dearest I am ready." With an exquisite 
 shyness she kissed him for the first time without his de- 
 manding it. " I will whenever you like ; I know now that 
 I'm not afraid." 
 
 " Thank God ! " he said, " but I can hardly believe it's 
 true, things have been so hard ... so hard and cruel, 
 and now everything seems too good to be true." 
 
 " I think we certainly must do something to appease the 
 jealousy of the gods," she held up her silver hand of Fatma ; 
 " yet we have surely suffered enough, and I have worn this 
 so constantly Fatma ought to reward us by averting their 
 envious eyes." 
 
 "And this," Michael said, raising the rough heart of 
 green stone. His eyes reminded her of the day he found 
 it in the temple of Luxor. A warm blush dyed her face ae 
 his eyes insisted upon her answer. 
 
 " I hope it will do its work, dearest, for women when 
 they love are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
 
 244 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
 
 He pressed his lips to her hand which htld the ancient 
 amulet an ecstasy of passion shone in his eyes as his mind 
 travelled out to meet hers in the days that were to come. 
 
 " It ia so glorious, Michael, to know that we may love 
 aach other, to know that you may do as you once said you 
 could do if you might, and now you may ! " 
 
 " What was that ! What did I say t " 
 
 " You once said, ' I could love you madly, Hadassah, if 
 I might.' I have never forgotten it ... often and often 
 I have driven the words from my ears, often and often I 
 have wanted to feel that ' mad love ' ... it was horrible 
 to know that I had to stamp on it and crush it and kill it, 
 that your dear affection was all wrong." 
 
 " And yet, when I found you and you were free, you sent 
 me away. ... I thought you didn't care for me." Again 
 he said, " How could you T " 
 
 " I was ill, I was sick of the very name of love love 
 had brought such misery, Michael : poor Girgis loved me ; 
 if I had never thought that I loved Vernon, how much 
 sorrow and remorse would have been saved ! " 
 
 " I know, dearest. I was a selfish brute to come at that 
 time I should have waited ; but that night when Vernon 
 saved your father's life I thought you cared ... it gave 
 me the courage ; I thought you cared when you asked me 
 to stay." 
 
 " And so I did," she said, " I cared from the very first 
 time I saw you, I have always cared ; I think I must have 
 cared for you in my former incarnation." 
 
 It was after midday when Mrs. Lekejian returned to 
 the mandarah. She entered it a little nervously, for it is 
 always an unpleasant duty to disturb lovers, but Michael 
 Ireton put her instantly at her ease by saying : " Hadassah 
 has promised to marry me as soon as it can be managed : 
 will you accept me as your son t " He stooped down and 
 kissed her, thinking to himself as he did so how delightful 
 a thing it would be to have this gentle personality, this 
 woman whose blue eyes could never wholly banish their 
 smiles, for his mother-in-law. 
 
 She turned swiftly to Stella, while she held out her two 
 hands to Michael : I'm so glad ! I knew she loved you " 
 her eyes warmed to the man who seemed to tower above 
 her like a giant " but I knew you would have to capture 
 her by strategy if you wished to marry her. . . ." Her 
 voice trembled. " You will be good to rny baby ... I 
 heard that my son was married yesterday ... I shall be 
 all alone now." 
 
 He held her slender hands in his two big ones more
 
 A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 245 
 
 tightly. " Indeed, you won't be alorie ; there's surely 
 plenty of room for us all here . . ." he looked round the 
 splendid hall. " For at least six months in each year 
 I've promised to help Hadassah with her work not to 
 hinder it, you know and for the rest of the year we're going 
 to live wherever our fancy pleases us ... wherever you 
 and Hadassah think best." 
 
 Tears sprang into Mrs. Lekejian's eyes. "Then you 
 won't take her away from me ? How kind ! I should bo 
 quite alone ! " 
 
 Stella flung her arms round her mother's neck : " Michael 
 is really the nicest thing that ever happened," she said, 
 " the nicest thing in the whole world : he couldn't do a 
 nasty or cruel thing if he tried : he would never take me 
 away from you. He's going to have a mother now to spoil 
 him, as well as a wife." She turned her love-bright eyes to 
 her lover : " Mother's a darling, Michael ; she'll not be a bit 
 an ' in-law,' for she's really much younger than I am." She 
 paused. " I grew up the first time I ever saw you ; mother 
 has never really grown up yet . . ." Stella scanned her 
 mother tenderly from head to foot, and then looked at her 
 lover " but she'll just have to look a little older now, if 
 she's going to have you for an ' in-law ' . . . you're such a 
 big thing, dear, I think you ought to be able to take care of 
 us both." 
 
 By way of answering her he put a protecting arm round 
 each of the women and drew them to him. " I'll do my 
 best," he said simply ; " God knows how I mean to try." 
 
 " If only father had known," Stella said, " there would 
 have been nothing left to wish for." 
 
 " But he does know, dear, I never doubt that ... I 
 couldn't live and doubt it." 
 
 As Mrs. Lekejian said the words Michael Ireton under- 
 stood the reason how, in spite of all her suffering, she had 
 kept her child's heart, and why her husband had so adored 
 her. One moment before he had thought his human happi- 
 ness could not be added to, but the expression in her eyea 
 had suddenly shown him fresh reasons for gratitude ; a 
 new chord had awakened in his manhood the tenderness 
 of a son for his mother. " Little mother," he said, " I will 
 do my utmost to make his child happy and to be a good 
 son to his wife."
 
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