A striking and unrealistic picture the two made as they lay on their
cushions alone in the desert. The girl in her white dress, which in
truth was somewhat crumpled, her white neck rising like a gleaming
pillar from the low-cut blouse, the little curls rippling round the
face which, under the moonlight and the stress of the past hours,
showed white with shadow-encircled eyes, gazing at the man who rose and
knelt with a towel of softest linen, and a basin of brass filled with
water.
Jill happened to be one of those lucky individuals who can with
impunity wash their face anywhere, and at any time of the day, and look
the better for it. Neither had she to fear a futurist impression in
vivid colours of Dorin rouge and blue pencillings mixed with liquid
powder appearing on her face after a sudden rain storm.
So she put her face right into the basin, lifted it sparkling with
laughter and rainbow drops to bury it in the snowy cloth. Her sleeves
she turned back, and ran the water up and down her arms.
"And you must wash your feet, woman, for so small are they, they must
assuredly be fatigued!"
And without hesitation the girl proffered her shoe to be unlaced,
whilst without lifting her skirt, with a quick movement she undid the
suspender which held her last pair of real silk stockings to the
infinitesimal girdle she wore instead of the usual figure-distorting
corset, peeled off the silken hose and put the prettiest foot in the
world in flesh, painting, or marble, into another basin of brass laid
upon the ground, and also filled with water.
"Allah!" whispered the man, as he dried each little foot, "so small, so
slender, rivalling the arch of Ctesisphon, dimpled as the sky at dawn,
never in the most perfect Circassian have I seen feet so wonderful,
glory be to Allah, whose prophet is Mohammed."
And then the Arab, filling another basin, moved to the far corner of
the rug, where facing towards the East he made ablutions of his mouth
and hands and feet, and raising his hands to heaven, gave praise to his
God for the wonder of the day, and bowed himself in obeisance.
"I was returning thanks to Allah for you, O! Moon Flower," he said
simply, and led her to the cloth of finest damask upon which the repast
was spread, praising Allah anew as he poured the contents of the wine
jars upon the sands when Jill announced that she only drank water.
Rested and cheered, the girl chatted merrily all through the al fresco
meal, in her turn inwardly giving thanks for the Arab's perfect manners
and knowledge of table methods, for in her heart she, particular to the
point of becoming finicky about the usually so unpleasant process of
eating, had looked forward with absolute horror to the moment when the
man's fingers should close upon some succulent portion of a mess of
pottage or chicken, and convey it to his mouth with charitable
distribution of rice grains upon the beard.
Reassured, her laughter rang out sweetly when the absence of methylated
spirit for the "Cona Machine" was discovered.
"And I would really rather have yours," said she, "for am I not to
become an Eastern------" and suddenly stopped, for looking up she found
the man gazing at her with eyes ablaze with love.
And once more a great silence fell between them, as they both sat
staring wide-eyed over the desert, and up into the starry heavens.
Few, very few of those who live in the West have had the privilege of
sitting alone under the stars in the desert.
This does not mean riding out on a tourist track with dragoman and
camel-driver, and retiring a few yards from their perpetual chatter to
gaze at the heavens in what _you_ imagine to be the approved style, to
the accompaniment of correct gasps, after which, finding you have left
your cigarettes behind, you look at your wrist watch and wait another
five minutes, until you can with decency saunter back to your
camel-driver with the feeling of something quite well done, and the
unuttered hope in your mind that everyone would not have gone to bed on
your return.
No! it means, when wearied from long travel you call a halt, perhaps
just before the dawn, when the very stars seem to commune with you.
Leaving your servants to pitch your tent, urge your camel to the
distance when the clattering of pans, and the jar of inter-domestic
feud shall not assail your hearing, then urge your camel to its knees,
and set you down at a distance so that the pungent odour of the beast
shall not assail your nostrils, and then removing little by little the
outer covering of the worries and pin-pricks which have made the
passing of the day unbearable, give way to your soul, or second self,
or whatever you call that which causes you to joy in the coming of the
spring, and to mourn when the fire refuses to heat but a portion of the
room in winter.
For this is what happened to Jill, the English girl, as she sat on her
cushions in the Egyptian desert, and has nothing to do with
table-turning, or ten-and-six-penny visions in Maida Vale, or
whisperings, or touchings in a conveniently darkened room; neither must
you put it down to magnetism or hypnotism, or any of those "isms" which
we, of a glacier-born country and a machine-made life, so irreverently
tag on as terms descriptive to all that which we cannot label and place
upon a museum shelf, or conveniently start by motor power.
A long dissertation on the Eastern's power of concentration, love of
meditation, and utter detachment from self, would doubtlessly prove
wearisome in the extreme, neither for a true explanation thereof can
help be got from highly or lowly born native. Without movement for
hours he will sit or squat, as becomes his station, staring, as we
should say, vacantly into space, in reality seeing and hearing that
which others, blinded by material enjoyment, can never hope to
visualise or hear.
Jill afterwards tried to explain the outcome of this, her first step in
the meadows of meditation, which she took without help and without
intention, and in which she has become so versed, to the mystification
of those about her, who look upon woman as a bearer of children, a
plaything for sunny hours, useful in time of rain, endowed with the
brain of a pea-hen, and as much soul as the priests see fit to mete out
to her.
"Something had left me," Jill explained later. "My body seemed to be
sitting on the cushions, and I could minutely describe the way Hahmed
was sitting, and the exact shape of the shadow cast before him by the
moon, which was setting behind us. But inside I was quite empty,
whilst all sorts of little things I had known so long, crept out and
stole away into the desert. I was just a husk, with no more impatience
or quick temper or restlessness, and I can remember wondering if I were
likely to break in two or crumble into dust, I felt so thin. And then
I heard all sorts of whisperings, just as though thousands of people
were standing near me, trying to make me understand something, and a
violet shadow suddenly appeared between Hahmed and myself, seeming to
get deeper and deeper in colour, and then get less and less; and as it
lessened, so did my feeling of being a mere husk leave me, until at
last, when it had all gone, I felt--well _full_ is the only way to put
it, and my heart was thudding, and the blood pounding in my head, and
well--that's all!"
Very indefinite and very unsatisfactory, and of which the whispering
can easily be put down to the snuffling of the camels, the passing of
the faint breeze, or the intake of the Arab's breath; and the purple
shadows to the folds of his black cloak. For the effect of fatigue,
excitement, and strong Egyptian coffee upon the mind of a Western maid
is quite likely to turn the buzzing of a fly into the flight of an
aeroplane, or the dripping of a tap into the roar of a Niagara.
Be that as it may, the Arab made no sound or movement when with a low
cry the girl sprung suddenly to her feet, and with both hands upraised,
although she knew it not, turned towards the direction in which Mecca
lay.
For a full minute she stood absolutely motionless, then gently moving
towards the man, who had risen and was standing behind her, she put out
her hand, saying softly, "Behold! I am ready to come with thee."