When Margaret reached her hotel she was more than astonished to hear
that in her absence her brother had called to see her. He had left a
message to say that he would return in half an hour.
"How long ago was that?" Margaret asked.
The very grand servant, in his elaborately-embroidered and gold laced
native dress, said, "About twenty minutes ago, my lady. The gentleman
said that it was important that he should see you."
"I will wait for him on the terrace," Margaret said. "Bring him to me
directly he arrives."
She was so taken back by this inexplicable piece of news that she heard
nothing more of what the man said. Why on earth had Freddy come to
Cairo? Margaret knew that he had business which was to have kept him
four more days at least in Luxor. Her first thought was that he had
heard something about Michael, but she doubted if even that would have
made him neglectful of his duty. With Freddy his work and the
responsibility it entailed came before every other consideration.
Margaret had ever been mindful of the fact that her presence in the
camp was not to interfere with his work. She knew him so well, or she
fancied that she did. His coming must be in some way connected with
his work. Perhaps he wished to stop her carrying out the instructions
which he had given her; he might have learned something in Luxor which
had upset his plans.
A few minutes before the half-hour was up, Margaret saw her brother
walking quickly towards the hotel. The moment she caught sight of him,
she left the terrace and hurried down the street to meet him. There
was no one else within sight. He was walking with his head bent and as
though he was deeply immersed in thought.
When she got within speaking distance, she called out, "Oh, Freddy,
what is it? Why have you come?"
His expression had convinced her that something was wrong, that
something very serious had brought him to Cairo.
Freddy linked his arm in his sister's and took a deep breath before he
spoke. "Chum dear," he said, "I've brought bad news for you."
"Michael's dead!" Meg stood still and dropped her brother's arm. It
was a pitiful face, that paled to the lips as her eyes gazed into
Freddy's.
"No, Meg, Mike's not dead."
"Then he's dying, and you're afraid to tell me!" Margaret strode
forward, as if she was then and there starting off to find her dying
lover. Freddy laid his hand on her arm. "Freddy, let me go!" she said
impatiently. "Take me to him quickly. Wild horses won't detain me!"
She shook off his hand.
"Steady, old girl. Let me tell you all about it. Mike's quite well,
so far as I know. I've heard nothing about any illness."
"Then what's the matter? More lies? Hadassah Ireton doesn't believe a
word of them! She is an angel--she is going to help me." Meg's head
dropped; her chest rose and fell with suppressed emotion.
"Don't walk so quickly, Meg. I can't tell you while you dash on like
that. Have some pity on me--I hate my job."
Meg fell back. "Well, tell me--out with it!"
"The Government has got wind of the 'site.' Michael's discovery has
been anticipated. Experimentary digging has begun."
"And where is Mike?" Meg's eyes blazed.
"That is just it! He ought to have reached the hills two weeks ago, at
least. While he has been idling, someone has played him
false--betrayed him--informed the Government for the sake of the
reward."
Meg gave a little cry. It lashed Freddy to fury against Michael; it
was the cry of a crucified soul.
"It's just his casual drifting again!"
"But you didn't believe in the treasure!" Meg's loyalty was up in arms
against Freddy's voice of accusation.
"I know I didn't, and it's yet got to be proved that it is there. But
the fact remains that I heard from the Director of Public Works that a
temporary camp has been pitched on the very site Mike was going for.
The whole story is a complication of truth and fiction."
Meg spoke with difficulty. The agony at her heart was choking her.
"Why have they suddenly sent excavators to that particular spot, if
there is nothing there?"
"On the strength of the information given by a native."
"And what had the native found? Isn't it just too diabolical and
wicked?"
"It's jolly hard lines, but if Mike had gone there straight and as
quickly as he could, if he hadn't played the idiot, he'd have been
there before the native who has betrayed him."
While Freddy was speaking, thoughts came to Meg of her vision of
Akhnaton, of the strange and occult incidents connected with the story
of the hidden treasure.
"What do you mean by playing the fool?" she said. "Have you heard from
Michael? Have you any reliable ground for supposing that he played the
fool?" Meg's voice was beautifully scornful.
"I've heard again, that Millicent was with him. The facts are
undeniable. The whole thing makes me furious. Why couldn't he have
written to me and told me, if she followed him, as you suggested? His
silence condemns him."
"It makes me more than furious." Meg's voice was horrible in Freddy's
ears; it was older, shriller, cruelly defiant. "It makes me furious to
think how easily evil is believed of the absent, who can't defend
themselves."
They strode along. Both were walking blindly forward.
"It makes me sick, sick, sick!" She flung the words out and then broke
into a little cry. "Oh, Freddy, have you no faith? no trust? Is that
your friendship?"
"What can I do?" he said. "I'm not blinded with love as you are. I
see things dispassionately. I want to do what is best for you. Why
hasn't he written? I'm quite willing to believe what Michael tells
me--I don't doubt his word--but he has said nothing. This is another
example of his weakness."
"Do you believe that Millicent is still with him?"
"Her dragoman who took her into the desert has returned to Luxor. I
haven't seen him--he could tell us everything we want to know."
"The news came from him?" Meg's voice was a stinging reproach.
"Yes. He only remained in Luxor a few hours; he was going to his home
in Assiut, but he spread the story."
There was a pause.
"He took Millicent to Michael?"
"He took her into the desert; they met."
"And because we have had no word from Michael, no explanation, you are
ready to condemn him?" Meg's words were loyal, while her heart was
torn with jealousy.
"Meg," said Freddy gently, "will you go home to England?"
"No." The word came sharply, abruptly.
"You promised, old girl."
"I never promised to accept the words of a dragoman against my own
knowledge of Michael, against my conscience. I have another promise to
keep, my promise of absolute trust."
"The dragoman can have no object in lying, and added to his report,
there is the fact that if Michael had not dallied for some reason or
another, he would have reached the hills long before this. He has
allowed the Government to anticipate him."
"Freddy, I believe in God, and He has told me that Michael is as true
to me as I am to him."
"Poor old girl!" Freddy said tenderly. "You're such a loyal old thing."
But Meg rounded on him; she was a truer Lampton than she ever
suspected. "Oh, don't 'poor' me, Freddy! I can't bear it. It sounds
as if I were half an imbecile, or as if Michael was a villain! I've
got my wits all right--and Egypt has given me super-wits. It has shown
me things beyond. If there is such a thing as conscience, then I
should be sinning against mine if I doubted my lover for one instant."
"But didn't you say that the Lampton pride would not be wanting when
you really discovered that Mike had taken Millicent with him?"
"And it won't be wanting, if either Mike or Millicent tell me with
their own lips that they have been together on this journey. I'll
start off home by the next boat."
"Oh, do be reasonable, Meg! You won't see either of them. If this
thing has happened, they'll keep out of the way. That's why they are
keeping silence."
"You are asking me to accept circumstantial evidence of what I call the
lowest order--dragomans' gossip. Well, I simply say I won't do it."
"What about the time he has taken to reach the hills?"
"I don't pretend to understand. Mike will explain when he gets a
chance. I only know that he wouldn't believe a word of the story if he
heard that I had been away with six good-looking men who admired me."
Freddy gave a mirthless laugh. "There is safety in numbers, Meg. If
he had the evidence you have, I wonder what he'd feel?"
"Just what I feel. I have seen Hadassah Ireton. Her husband will help
me. He knew Mike; they planned this journey together."
"I wish you'd leave things alone. I asked you to."
"I can't. Michael may be ill."
"It doesn't sound like it. Bad news travels quickly."
"Look here, Freddy," Margaret said, "you haven't the slightest idea of
what it feels like to be in love. When you do, you will understand.
What a lot you have still to learn! You won't believe any old lie that
comes along about the girl you have vowed to trust and whom you believe
in as you believe in your God. As lovers we Lamptons don't deal in
half measures."
"Then are you going to remain in Cairo indefinitely, waiting and
waiting for Michael to come back to you, when he is away fooling with
another woman?"
"Don't kill me, Freddy! I can't stand much more." A sob burst from
Meg's lips. "All that's best in me trusts in Michael and all that is
bad doubts and distrusts. It's the bad that is killing me. Do you
understand? For pity's sake, if you care for me, don't add to the
evil, don't give it the upper hand. Freddy, I need you, I need some
trust to add to mine!"
"I'd kill myself if it would help you, you know I would!"
"Yes, I know it, of course I know it. I just go mad when you doubt
him, Freddy, I see red. I could kill you. It's because your doubts
feed my evil thoughts. I can't explain, but I know what I mean myself."
"I want to save you further pain, Meg."
"Hadassah Ireton said, which is quite true, that it is sometimes a
privilege to suffer. If only you, Freddy, won't doubt Mike, I can
endure almost anything. You're just a bit of myself. I can't bear you
to doubt. It's like myself doubting and forgetting, forgetting the
most beautiful thing in my life."
They had wandered on until they had come to the Nile Bridge. The sight
of the tall masts of the native boats, silhouetted against the crimson
of the evening sky, reminded Freddy that already they had gone too far.
He stopped abruptly.
"We must drive back, Meg, as quickly as we can. I've my train to
catch. We shall only just do it."
"Did you come to Cairo on purpose to see me?"
Freddy had signalled to a cab--an open landau, of ancient and decayed
splendour, driven by two white horses. They came dashing up at a wild
gallop. The native driver, in his red fez and white cotton jacket,
barely gave Freddy time to jump into the carriage after Meg was seated
when, with a noisy cracking of his whip, he urged the horses to a still
more reckless speed.
"I had to come. I was afraid you might get the news in some horrible
way. You've been a brick, but you can't think how I dreaded telling
you."
"I've not been a brick. I've been horrid. I am always horrid
nowadays." Meg's voice was contrite and humble.
"I like you for it. We understand each other."
"You're the dearest and best brother on earth, Freddy, and you know I
think so, and yet I speak as if I hated you!"
"We're chums," he said, as he put his hand on the top of Margaret's.
After that conversation became impossible. The horses were going at a
mad pace, through crowded, noisy streets. Margaret was a little
nervous, but she realized that there was only just time for Freddy to
catch his train, if he allowed the coachman to take his own way, to
drive in the arrogant native style. Every other minute she felt sure
that they would run over a child or dog, or knock down a foot
passenger. It seemed to be the privilege of anyone who could afford to
pay for a cab to drive over pedestrians if they got in the way; the
humble poor were of less account than the dust beneath the horses'
feet. The coachman's absurd cries to "clear the way" pierced
Margaret's ears without amusing her, while the cracking of the whip
almost drove her to despair. The noise and crowd of idle human beings
was bewildering to her nerves after the silence of the desert.
At last they reached the station, where they had to say good-bye
hurriedly and regretfully.
"I'll let you know," Margaret said, "what Michael Ireton advises.
Remember, I'm all right. Don't worry. You've been a dear. It was
awfully good of you to come."
"Good-bye, old girl," he said. "Take care of yourself."
As Meg walked back to her hotel, she comforted herself with the
assurance that Michael Ireton would find some way to help her. She
visualized to herself repeatedly the personality of Hadassah and her
expression of absolute confidence in Michael's Amory's loyalty and
honour. Her finer senses told her that it was natures like Hadassah's,
natures keenly sensitive to purity and uprightness, which could judge
people like Mike justly. The magnet of righteousness draws kindred
souls together. If Hadassah had doubted, then indeed she might have
listened to Freddy's counsel. Freddy was just and splendid in his way,
but Margaret did not blind herself to the fact that his knowledge of
human nature, even though it was singularly correct in most instances,
was derived from a more material source of evidence. His judgment was
governed by his practical common sense rather than by his super-senses.
Hadassah's nature was tuned to the inner consciousness of human beings,
as a musician's ear is tuned to the harmonies and discords of music,
even to the hundredth part of a tone.
If a woman like Hadassah had doubted Michael, or given a moment's
thought to the gossip of the dragoman, Margaret's faith might have been
troubled. But as matters stood at present, she knew that she herself
had a finer understanding of Michael than Freddy possessed, in spite of
his years, as compared to her own months of friendship. She tried to
strengthen herself against the invasion of unhappy thoughts by thinking
over in her mind all the various objects of beauty she had seen in the
Iretons' house. The picture of the cool courtyard, with the
dark-leaved lebbek-tree reaching up to the romantic balcony, brought a
smile to her lips. It was such an ideal setting for an Eastern Romeo
and Juliet. Busy as she knew the Iretons' life to be, their mediaeval
home suggested the repose and the charm and the romance of Love in
Idleness!