NEPHTHYS.
Kāra’s plans were now maturing excellently, save in one particular. He
did not wish to acquire a fondness for the girl who was his proposed
victim, yet from the first she had cast a powerful spell over him, which
all his secret struggles failed to remove. Waking or sleeping, her face
was always before him, nor could he banish it even when engaged in play
with her father at the club.
The Egyptian was shrewd enough to recognize danger in this extraordinary
condition, and it caused him much uneasiness.
Finally, during a wakeful night, he thought of a means of escape.
“Tadros,” said he to his dragoman in the morning, “go to Fedah and fetch
Nephthys here. I have an empty harem at present; she shall be its first
occupant.”
Even the dragoman was surprised. He had begun to look upon his master as
one affecting the manners and customs of the Europeans rather than the
followers of the lax Muslim faith; but his face showed his pleasure at
receiving the command.
“Most certainly, my prince,” said he, with alacrity. “I will take the
first train to Fedah, and the beauty shall be in your harem within three
days.”
Kāra caught the tone and the look.
“On second thought, Tadros,” he said, gravely, “I will send Ebbek in
your place. I may need your services here in Cairo.”
“Ebbek! that doddering old Arab! He will never do at all,” cried the
dragoman, blusteringly. “I alone know Fedah, and I alone know how to
deal with Sĕra, and how to bring her fat daughter to you in safety. It
is I who will go!”
“Send Ebbek to me.”
“Not so; I will go myself to Fedah.”
“Am I the master, Tadros?”
“You think so, because you are rich. If I knew of the tombs you are
plundering, it is I who would be the master!”
“You are in great danger, my poor dragoman.”
Tadros, who had been glaring defiantly upon the other, dropped his eyes
before the cold look of Kāra.
“Besides, some one must pay old Sĕra the two hundred and fifty piastres
due her,” he muttered, somewhat confused. “It was the contract, and she
will not let the girl come unless she has the money.”
“Send Ebbek to me.”
The dragoman obeyed. He did not like Kāra’s manner. He might, in truth,
be in danger if he persisted in protesting. No one was so deep as he in
his master’s confidence. But what did he know? Merely enough to cause
him to fear.
Ebbek performed the mission properly. He not only paid Sĕra her due, but
gave her five gold pieces into the bargain, by his master’s
instructions; and he brought the girl, closely veiled, to Cairo and
delivered her to Kāra’s housekeeper.
The rooms of the harem had been swept and prepared. They were very
luxurious, even for Cairo, and Nephthys was awed by the splendor of the
apartments to be devoted to her use. Her dark, serious eyes, glorious as
those attributed to the houris of Paradise, wandered about the rooms as
she sank upon a divan, too dazed to think or speak.
Neither faculty was a strong point with Nephthys, however. Meekly she
had obeyed the summons from the master who had purchased her. She did
not try to consider what that summons might mean to her. What use? It
was her fate. Perhaps at times she had dimly expected such a change.
Kāra had once mentioned to her mother the possibility of his sending for
her; but she had not dwelt upon the matter at all.
In the same listless manner that she had carried water from the Nile and
worked at the loom she followed old Ebbek to Cairo, leaving her mother
to gloat over her store of gold.
The journey across the river was a new experience to her--the journey by
railway was wonderful; but she showed no interest. The great eyes calmly
saw all, but the brain was not active enough to wonder. She had heard of
such things and knew that they existed. Now she saw them--saw marvelous
Cairo, with its thousand domes and minarets, its shifting kaleidoscope
of street scenes, its brilliant costumes and weird clamor--and the
medley of it all dulled her senses.
In a way she was really amused; but the amusement was only sensual. This
costume was more gorgeous than the braided jacket of Tadros the
dragoman, she observed; that house was better than the one old Hatatcha
had lived in. But beyond this vague comparison, the sights were all
outside her personal participation in them. The part she herself was
playing on the world’s great stage, the uncertainty of her immediate
future, the reason why this tall, gray-bearded Arab was escorting her to
Cairo, were all things she failed to consider.
So it was that on her entry into Kāra’s splendid harem the girl could
not at first understand that the luxury surrounding her was prepared for
her especial use. Had she comprehended this fact, she would still have
been unable to imagine why.
She rested upon the cushions and gazed stupidly, yet with childish
intentness, at the rich draperies and rugs, the gilded tables and
chairs, the marble statuary and the tinkling perfumed fountain in the
corner, as if fearing the vision would presently dissolve and she would
awake from a dream.
She had brought a bundle under her dark blue shawl, a bundle containing
her cotton tunic, the spangled robe and the wreath of artificial
flowers. The blue beads Kāra had once given her were around her
neck--all but one, which she had carefully removed and given to Sĕra her
mother for an amulet.
She scarcely noticed when the old hag who acted as Kāra’s housekeeper
tossed her precious bundle scornfully into a corner and began to disrobe
her. The shawl, the black cotton dress, the coarse undergown, were one
by one removed, and then the flat-bottomed home-made shoes.
When she was nude, the hag led her to an adjoining chamber, where her
bath was prepared. Nephthys wondered, but did not speak. Neither did old
Tilga, the housekeeper. She saw that the girl needed a scrubbing rather
than a bath, and gave it to her much as if she were washing a child.
Afterward, when the fat, soft skin was dried, and annointed, and
properly perfumed, Tilga led Nephthys to the robing-room, and dressed
her in underclothing of silken gauze and a marvelous gown that was
fastened with a girdle of cloth of gold. Pink stockings were drawn
snugly over her chubby legs, and pink satin slippers, with silver
bead-work, adorned her feet.
Then Tilga dressed the girl’s magnificent hair, placing a jeweled
butterfly against its lustrous coils.
When Nephthys was led before a great mirror, she could scarcely believe
the image reflected therein was her own. But the woman in her was at
last aroused.
[Illustration: She smiled at herself, then laughed--shyly at first, now
with genuine delight]
She smiled at herself, then laughed--shyly at first, now with genuine
delight. She could have remained hours before the mirror admiring the
gorgeous vision; but the hag pulled her away, dragging her by one wrist
back to the boudoir, with its gilded furniture and the fountain.
As she sank again upon the divan her eyes saw a tabouret at her side,
upon which was a bronze lamp with a floating wick and a tray of
cigarettes. She seized one of the latter eagerly, with a half-defiant
look at old Tilga, and lighted it from the tiny flame of the lamp. Then
she leaned back upon the cushions and inhaled the smoke with perfect
enjoyment.
Tilga nodded approval, surveying her new charge the while critically.
She had much experience with harems, and wondered where Prince Kāra
could have found this exquisite creature; for, to Oriental eyes, at
least, Nephthys was rarely beautiful, and, perhaps, few men of Europe
would have gazed upon her perfect features and great velvet eyes without
admiration.
The rich dress transformed the Nile girl. Her luxurious surroundings but
enhanced her beauty. Seemingly she was born for a harem, and fate had
qualified her for this experience.
The afternoon that Nephthys arrived, Kāra was at the club, playing
écarté with Lord Consinor. He was steadily winning, and in compliance
with his usual custom, he declared he would continue to double until he
lost.
“I’m not anxious to get your money, Consinor,” he remarked, carelessly.
“There will doubtless come a change in the luck before long.”
The viscount was visibly disturbed. In all his experience he had never
seen a man win so persistently. Already the stakes, because of Kāra’s
system of doubling, were enormous, and the game had attracted a group of
spectators, who were almost as eager as the participants.
Gradually the afternoon waned, until at length the prince announced in a
low voice that the stakes were ten thousand pounds. Consinor shivered:
but with his eyes on the flame-lit ring of the prince, he cut the cards
and played his hand as well as he was able. Kāra won, and the viscount
threw down the cards with a white face. Already he was ruined, and to
risk a deal for twenty thousand pounds was more than his nerves could
bear.
“I’m done, Prince,” said he, hoarsely.
“Bah! it is nothing,” returned Kāra, lightly. “We will merely postpone
the play until a more favorable time, when this cursed streak of
luck--which I deplore more than you do--is broken. We will start afresh,
and you shall have a chance to win your money back. Sign me a note of
hand and I will go.”
The viscount drew a sheet of paper toward him and signed a note of hand
for ten thousand pounds. According to the rules of the club, the paper
must be witnessed by two members, so Colonel Varrin and Ering van Roden
penciled their initials upon it.
Kāra stuffed the document carelessly into a side pocket; but a moment
after, as if struck by a sudden thought, he pulled out a paper and
rolled it into a taper. This he lighted from the blaze of a lamp and
with it relit his cigar, afterward holding the taper in his fingers
until it was consumed to a fine ash. Not a word was spoken. The others
watched him silently, but with significant looks, never suspecting he
had substituted another paper for the note of hand, while Consinor, as
the ash was brushed to the floor, breathed more freely.
“The pleasure of winning ought to be enough for any man,” remarked the
prince, and, rising from the table, he sauntered from the room.
“Nevertheless, it is a debt of honor,” said Colonel Varrin, gravely.
“But it is fortunate, Consinor, you were playing with Prince Kāra. The
fellow is so confoundedly rich that money means nothing to him, and he
will not take his winnings unless you force him to accept them.”
“I know that,” returned the viscount. “I would never have allowed
another man to double the stakes during a winning streak. Perhaps I
should not have allowed the prince to do so.”
Then he also left the club, for, despite Kāra’s seeming generosity in
destroying the note, his own insidious nature led him to suspect every
man he had dealings with, and the amount involved was so enormous that
it would swallow up double the sum his father’s crippled estates were
now worth. On his own account he had nothing at all beyond the salary he
drew from the Ministry of Finance; so he realized his danger, and could
not resist feeling that he had been led into a trap.
Meantime Tadros had not forgotten, as his master had done, the probable
arrival of Nephthys by the afternoon train. He should have waited in the
ante-room of the club for Kāra’s orders; but instead he returned to the
house and found that the girl had already been there for an hour.
“I will see her,” he muttered, and disregarding old Ebbek, who would
have stopped him, he entered the harem.
Thrusting aside the draperies, Tadros coolly stalked into the girl’s
boudoir and then stopped short in undisguised astonishment at what his
eyes beheld. Nephthys was reclining upon the divan, smoking her
cigarette, resplendent in her fleecy silks, the golden braid and the
sparkling jewels.
She smiled and nodded as she saw her old friend the dragoman, but Tilga
burst into a flood of angry protestations and curses, rushing at the
intruder and trying to drive him from the room with futile pushes of her
lean hands.
Tadros resisted, and when the hag started to scream he covered her mouth
with his hand, holding her fast at the same time.
“Listen, old imbecile!” he muttered. “Do you wish to lose your place
with Prince Kāra? Be sensible, then. You are under my orders--the
orders of Tadros the dragoman, and you must obey me.”
“I obey only the prince,” retorted Tilga, sullenly. “You will not be
dragoman when the master hears you have violated his harem.”
“Ah, but he will not hear! It is to be our secret, Tilga. You are going
to enter my service, and I will make you rich in a few months. See! here
are five hundred piastres--five golden pounds in good English money. It
is only a promise of more to come. Take it, Tilga.”
The hag took it, but with reluctance.
“If the prince discovers--” she began.
“But he won’t,” declared Tadros, promptly. “He will discover nothing.
Just now I left him at the club, playing cards with an Englishman. Go
outside, my Tilga, and watch in the courtyard.”
She hobbled away, still muttering protests, and the dragoman seated
himself upon the divan beside Nephthys.