The heat in the Valley had become intense. The work in the
excavation-camp was at a standstill; nothing more could be done on the
actual site until the late autumn.
Margaret and Freddy were soon to say good-bye to the little hut which
had been their home for many months.
No direct news had come to them of Michael. Freddy had heard many
accounts and varying reports from unreliable sources of his travels in
the eastern desert. He was almost convinced that Michael's silence was
due to the fact that there was some foundation for the scandal, which
was persistent, that Millicent was one of his party. The report had
drifted to him from so many sources that he could scarcely doubt it.
It had sprung up and flourished like seed blown over light soil. He
was loath to believe that his friend, even if it had not been by his
own willing or desire, should have permitted the woman to stay with him
when he was Margaret's acknowledged lover. He despised him for being
such a weak fool. If Freddy could have left his work, he would have
started off without delay to look for Michael, or at least he would
have contrived to discover the reason for his silence and what degree
of truth there was in the story of Millicent's being with him.
Situated as he was, it was impossible for him to desert his post. He
had purposely avoided opening up the subject again with Margaret; it
was better to wait until a sufficient length of time had elapsed and
then, if no word came from Michael, he would speak to her again and
hold her to her promise to return home and try to drive the whole
affair from her mind.
Even as he said the words to himself, he knew that they were absurd,
that such a thing was hopeless. Meg was not the sort of woman to trust
and love a man and then forget him. There could be no driving him from
her mind. Freddy knew that she had enough strength of character to do
whatever she thought was right. If circumstances compelled her to give
Michael up, she would do it, but in so doing her youth would be killed,
her heart broken. Her life would have to be re-made. A love like
Margaret's was a serious thing; Freddy realized that. He must go to
work carefully and judiciously.
It hurt him more than Meg ever knew, to watch her suffering and
ever-growing anxiety. She made no complaint and very seldom alluded to
her lover's silence or to his absence. When she spoke of him, it was
generally to recall some happy incident which had happened in their
secluded life, little things culled from the store-closet of her
precious memories.
It was to the stars and to the wide heavens that her heart relieved
itself. They heard the full story of her trust and loyalty and the
confessions of her jealous woman's heart; they bore her cry to the
understanding ear.
It was impossible for Margaret to believe any wrong of her lover. If
she had short waves of doubt and agonizing moments of uncertainty and
indecision, they were always dispelled by the sudden inflow of
beautiful thoughts, which came like divine visions to her, as direct
assurances of Mike's loyalty and steadfastness.
It was Freddy who caused her the cruellest suffering. It was so
dreadful to think that he, of all people, doubted, distrusted Mike! If
she had not cared for him so greatly it would not have mattered, but
apart from Michael he was the being she loved and respected most on
earth. His eyes haunted her; the doubt in them never left her mind; it
argued against her finer judgment. That her dear chum should be
working against her higher voice, her super-self, troubled her. It
seemed to set up a barrier between them, which was the cruellest part
of the whole affair. If he would only let her alone, she would go to
some cooler spot and there wait and wait until Michael came to her, for
she knew that he would come back to her, bringing her the same
beautiful love as he had carried away. She knew perfectly well that in
spite of her foolish fits of depression and distrust, he was wholly and
absolutely hers while he was alive on this earth.
Freddy bore the expression of one who was waiting to deliver judgment.
Meg could see his annoyance kindling day by day. She could feel him
looking at her when he thought that she was not noticing. The deeper
circles under her eyes told Freddy their tale; the sagging of her
clothes, as they hung from her boyish limbs, the pitiful flattening of
her young breasts. This new and delicate-looking Margaret was very
beautiful. Our Lady of Sorrows had laid her hand upon her with a
softening grace; the new Meg had acquired what boyish Meg had never
possessed. Under her eyes, on her clear skin there were dark shadows,
which looked as if they had been made by the impress of carboned thumbs
which had pressed tired eyes to sleep. Meg's steadfast, honest eyes
now expressed things of a deeper meaning than mere comradeship and
brains; their beauty was quickened by the soul of suffering. Even in
Freddy's eyes she was much more attractive than she had been six months
ago. She was now a great deal more than merely pretty. As he watched
her bearing her anxiety and what appeared to him her humiliation with
so much calm dignity and braveness, he said to himself over and over
again, "She's a thousand times too good for a man who could behave like
a weak fool, if indeed Mike isn't worse!"
He was looking at her now, as she lay in a deck-chair, her eyes closed
and her hands folded across her book. They had both been reading,
after a hard day's work. Meg had not turned many pages of her book;
her thoughts had wandered. As she felt her brother's eyes upon hers,
she raised her eyelids and looked at him steadily as she said:
"Freddy, I'm going to see Hadassah Ireton."
Freddy sat bolt upright. He, too, had been lying stretched out on a
lounge-chair.
"Going to see Mrs. Ireton? But you don't know her!"
He did not ask Meg why she was going; he knew.
"That doesn't matter--I know all about her. My heart and mind know
her, and, after all, that's the important thing--it's the only thing
that matters."
"But, Meg----"
"Chum, no 'buts'--'buts' belong to small things. This is my life. We
must do something. You can't leave your work; I am no longer needed."
"But what can Hadassah Ireton do?"
"I don't know--she'll know, I feel she'll know. That's why I'm going."
She paused. "I've been told to go."
"Oh, nonsense! How's this going to clear things up?" Freddy paused.
"I don't know. If I did, I shouldn't go to the Iretons'. It's because
I don't know, and nothing's being done, that I mean to go to her and
consult her."
"But why on earth trouble a stranger? I dislike the idea."
"There are some human beings who are never strangers. Suffering unites
people. Hadassah Ireton has suffered."
Freddy knocked the ash from his cigarette. A lump had risen up in his
throat.
"What are you going to ask her to do?" Meg did not know the pain her
words had given him; he spoke huskily.
"She's going to advise me what to do." Meg raised herself from her
reclining position. "She will help me, if Michael's ill, Freddy."
"I don't suppose he is--I think we'd have heard."
"I think that's why we haven't heard," Margaret said quickly.
Freddy remained silent. He thought otherwise. He had a man's
knowledge of men. If Millicent Mervill was with him, he did not for
one moment believe that even Mike would be proof against such
temptation.
"If he is ill," Meg said, "the Iretons will find out. They are in such
close touch with native life. Anyhow, they understood Mike and I want
to see them."
Meg's last words were a little cry. Freddy could only feel pity for
her, although her words stung him. She must actually go from him to
strangers for the sympathy she needed.
"Well, I won't stop you, but I think it's a pity. Whatever made you
think of such a thing?"
"The thing that you call inspiration, chum--I know another name for it
now."
Freddy looked amazed; Meg had absorbed so many of Mike's strange ideas.
"I don't know Ireton," he said. His voice had grown colder.
"He married a Syrian--you wouldn't. The Lamptons don't do that sort of
thing."
Freddy kept his temper, and the moment after Meg had said the words she
felt ashamed, disgraced.
"I'm sorry, chum." She spoke gently. "It's my tongue that says these
hateful things, not my heart. Forgive me, like a dear."
"All right, old girl." Freddy had never told his sister that he had
refused the hospitality and cut himself off from the friendship of more
than two English families, residents in Cairo, because they had taken a
prominent part in the outcasting of Michael Ireton from English society
when he had married Hadassah Lekejian. He knew that Margaret had
spoken the words hastily and unthinkingly. When Meg's nerves were on
edge was the only time she was ever cross and out of temper. "The
Iretons are delightful people. If I'd known Ireton when he was a
bachelor, I should have visited them after his marriage, but I didn't,
and I haven't much time for paying society calls. Besides, it might
have looked like patronizing them. The way they were treated by some
of the English out here was so abominable that one had to be jolly
careful. Ireton never minded a scrap--he's too big to care for the
social rot that goes on out here, but all the same, I didn't like to
make a point of calling. I'm a digger, Meg, not a resident with a
house to invite people to."
"From what Mike told me, they must be the most delightful people. I
can't imagine Hadassah snubbing me if I went to see her, can you?"
"I don't suppose she would. What will you say to her? It's a rum
idea." Freddy became meditative.
"I don't know, but whatever one arranges to say on such occasions is
just the thing one doesn't say. The atmosphere will suggest the
words--it always does with me. I've never yet said the things I
planned to say. Have you?"
"Scarcely ever, but it might be well to think things out." Freddy
disliked the idea of confiding family secrets to strangers. "When do
you think of going?"
"When you leave here, I can go straight to Cairo. It will be cooler
there. I don't know Cairo--don't forget, I've never seen even the
Pyramids."
"And when do you mean to go home? The season's getting on."
"I don't know. It all depends on what news I can gather, or if a
letter comes. I can easily stay in Cairo until I hear. You won't
object to that?"
"No. It's beastly hot here, by Jove!" Freddy poured himself out a
lemon-squash and drank it off. "I'm not sorry it's time to go home."
"I don't feel the heat very much--the nights keep pretty cool."
"You're looking fagged, all the same."
"Oh, I'm all right--it's anxiety that kills. If only I was certain
that he wasn't ill, Freddy!"
"I don't see why you should think Mike's ill. He's leading an awfully
healthy life. He's well accustomed to the desert. It's cooler with
him than it is here."
"I know, but it's a very strained life. I have a conviction that he's
ill. Whenever I think intently of him, I see him ill and suffering.
These things must have their meaning."
"I think we should have heard if he was ill. We got the other news
quick enough, didn't we!"
Meg frowned.
"It will be cooler in Cairo, but give me your word that you personally
won't do anything foolish in the way of looking for Michael, or going
off alone into the desert."
"No, I won't do anything foolish. That's not in my line, is it now? I
have some Lampton common sense."
"Not about some things."
Meg laughed. "Wait till you know what it is like, chum."
"Well, you'll not forget your other promise?"
Meg thought for a moment before answering and then she said
emphatically, "No, I won't forget my promise. I'm not in the least
afraid that I shall be tempted to break it."
"You have promised to go back to England if you find undeniable proof
that Michael and Millicent were together in the desert."
"Yes, I promise. I will go back to the old life, which seems like a
dream." Meg gave a little shiver as she visualized her old-world
Suffolk home and the narrowness of her life there. "Any old place
would do, chum, to bury myself in if my heart was broken."