By degrees Jill had become accustomed to the habits of the East,
sleeping peacefully upon the cushion-laden perfumed divan, sitting upon
cushions beside the snow-white napery spread upon the floor for meals,
eating the curiously attractive Eastern dishes without a single pang
for eggs and bacon and golden marmalade, revelling in her Eastern
garments, from the ethereal under raiment to the soft loose trousers
clasped above her slender ankles by jewel-studded anklets, delighting
in the flowing cloaks and veils and over-robes and short jackets of
every conceivable texture, shape, and colour, passing hours in
designing wondrous garments, which in an incredibly short time she
would find in the scented cupboards of her dressing-rooms.
Then would she attire herself therein, and stand before her mirror
laughing in genuine amusement at the perfect Eastern picture reflected,
and drawing the veil over her sunny head, and the yashmak to beneath
her eyes, and a cloak about her body, would summon the Arab to her
presence.
Which shows that knowing nothing whatever about the Eastern character,
she merely added a hundredfold to her attractions, for if there is one
thing a man of the East has brought to perfection, it is his enjoyment
of procrastinating in his love-making, passing hours and days and
weeks, even months in touching the edge of the cup, until the moment
comes when, raising it to his lips, he drains it to the last drop.
To keep herself physically fit she had found strenuous recreation in
two ways. Firstly, she had made known that her wish was to learn
something of the dancing of the East, whereupon for a sum which would
have made Pavlova's slender feet tingle in astonishment, the finest
dancer in all Egypt and Asia had, for many months, taken up her abode
in the beautiful house especially built for honoured guests just
without the wall.
The supple, passionate Eastern woman found it in her soul to love the
slender white girl who laughed aloud in glee, and showed such amazing
aptitude in learning the A.B.C. of this language, especially reserved
in the East for the portrayal of the history of love and all its kin.
Presents were showered upon the teacher who, with the craft of the
Oriental mind, in some cases forbore to fully explain the meaning of
certain gestures, so that unintentionally a veritable lightning flash
of passion blazed about Jill's head one night, when with the innocent
desire of showing the Arab how well she was progressing in the art, she
suddenly stood up before him and made a slight movement of her body,
holding the slender white arms rigidly to her side, whilst her small,
rose-tinted right foot tapped the ground impatiently.
"Allah!" had suddenly exclaimed the Arab, as he had seized her arms and
pulled her towards him. "You would mock me, make fun of me, you woman
of ice!
"How dare you make me see a picture of you in--ah! but I cannot speak
of it in words, suffice that one day I will--Allah! you--you dare to
mock me with a picture of that which you refuse me------!"
"I haven't the faintest idea of what you are talking about," had
replied a very ruffled Jill, as with golden anklets softly clinking she
withdrew to a distance. "If that is the effect of my dancing I will
never dance for you, _never_!"
"But, woman, do you mean to tell me that you have no idea of the
translation put upon your movements?"
"Evidently not," haughtily replied the inwardly laughing girl.
"That you do not know the movement you made just now meant that in the
dimness of the night I--oh! I cannot tell you, but I swear before
Allah that _I--I_, Hahmed, who have known no woman, will teach you the
translation of every movement of all that you have learned."
Whereupon Jill, having seated herself upon the stuffed head of an
enormous lion skin, murmured "_soit_," and proceeded to light a
cigarette.
Her second and favourite pastime was riding, and, in as few words as
possible, so that my book shall not ramble to unseemly length, I will
tell you how the fame of her horsemanship had come to be spoken of,
even in the almost untrodden corners of Asia and Egypt.
The whim seizing her, she would bid the Arab to her presence, sometimes
to her evening repast, sometimes to sweet coffee and still sweeter
music, sometimes to wander on foot or on camel-back through the oasis,
to the desert stretching like a great sea beyond, and still beyond.
Everything, as you will note if you have the patience to get through to
the end of this book, happened to Jill in the light of the full moon.
On this night in question, clad all in black, with the moonbeams
striking rays from the silver embroidered on her veil, and the anklets
above her little feet, she seemed small and fragile, altogether
desirable, and infinitely to be protected to the man beside her on the
edge of the sand. Still more so when she waxed ecstatic with delight
on the approach of two horses, one bay ridden by a man clothed from
head to foot in white burnous, and a led mare as white as the man's
raiment.
"Hahmed! O! Hahmed! Stop them!" had she cried, forgetting the ice
out of which she had elected to hack herself a pedestal. "Oh, you
beauty, you priceless thing!" she continued, when the mare, whinnying
gently, rubbed its muzzle on her shoulder; whereupon she took the rein
from the servant who had dismounted, and led the beast up and down.
Perfect she stood, the Breeze of the Desert, with her flowing tail high
set, her streaming mane, the little ears so close together as to almost
touch, her great chest, and dainty hoofs which scarcely deigned to
touch the sand.
Bit and bridle she had none, her sole harness consisting of a halter
with a leather rein on the right side, and a rug upon her back hardly
kept in place by a loose girth. It seemed that she was of the Al
Hamsa, which, being translated, means being a direct descendant of one
of the five great mares of the time of Mohammed; also she was a
two-year-old and playful but not over friendly, therefore was it
astounding to see her as she listened to the girl's musical voice, and
showed no fretfulness at the touch of a strange hand.
And then there was a quick run, a cry, and a rush of tearing hoofs!
For Jill, in the twinkling of a star, had let fall the enveloping
cloak, standing for one second like some exotic bit of statuary in her
black billowing satin trousers and infinitesimal coatee over a
silver-spangled frothy vest, her great eyes dancing with glee over the
face veil. She had swiftly backed a few yards, and before either man
or horse had guessed her intention, with a quick run and a full grasp
of the great mane had swung herself into the native saddle, and was
away over the desert to wherever the horse listed. Neither was there a
second lost before the bay was racing after the mare; and Jill, riding
with the loose seat of the native, turned and waved hilariously to
Hahmed as he tore like the wind beside her, shouting something she
could not distinguish in the rush of the air past her face.
Half-frightened, half-maddened by her own tremendous pace, the Breeze
of the Desert laid herself out to beat all speed records.
Mile after mile flew under her dainty feet, whilst Jill by little cries
urged her still faster yet, the all-enduring bay keeping alongside
without any apparent effort, until at last the Arab, leaning forward,
struck the mare lightly upon the left side of the neck, whereupon
without slackening speed she turned instinctively in that direction,
turning a little each time she felt the light touch, until Jill at last
perceived the outline of the oasis and the figure of the Arab servant
standing with folded arms awaiting the return of his beloved horses or
not, as should be the will of Allah; being, however, shaken from his
native calm when this woman when some hundreds of yards from him in a
straight line, without stopping the speed of the racing horse, suddenly
slipped from the saddle, remaining upon her feet without a tremor,
whilst the "Breeze" stopped of her own free-will within a few feet of
her attendant.
"And our master whom Allah protect," as recounted the native afterwards
to an astonished, almost unbelieving bevy of listeners, "bringing his
horse in a circle, suddenly picked up that woman rider. Yea! I tell
thee, thou disbelieving son of a different coloured horse, a
woman-rider, even she for whom the palace has been built; and swinging
her across the saddle so that her feet, as small as thine are big, thou
grandchild of a reptile with poisonous tongue, as I say her little feet
hung down on one side, and her head, and may Allah protect me from the
wrath of my master if I say that it was as the sun in all its glory,
hanging down on the other, dashed into the night with her, but _where_
it is not meet for me to know."
The "where," as it happened, being Jill's palace, in which, lying full
length upon a white divan, with a small brazier of sweet smelling
incense sending up spirals of blue haze around her dishevelled head,
and an ivory tray laden with coffee and sweetmeats at her side, she
promised never to run the risk of getting lost in the desert again, on
condition that the Breeze of the Desert became her own property, and
that she could ride untroubled whenever and wherever she liked;
cheerfully promising also to have made a habit, or rather riding-dress,
which, would combine the utility of the West with the protective
covering properties of the East. After which she got to her feet,
standing the very essence of youth and strength in the soft glow of the
lamps, smiled into the Arab's stern face with a look in the great eyes
which caused his mouth to tighten like a steel trap, clapped her hands
and disappeared through a curtain-shrouded door without even looking
back.