THE ANSWER OF THE SPHINX
Moonlight in the desert.
Jane ordered her after-dinner coffee on the piazza of the hotel, that
she might lose as little as possible of the mystic loveliness of the
night. The pyramids appeared so huge and solid, in the clear white
light; and the Sphinx gathered unto itself more mystery.
Jane promised herself a stroll round by moonlight presently. Meanwhile
she lay back in a low wicker chair, comfortably upholstered, sipping
her coffee, and giving herself up to the sense of dreamy content which,
in a healthy body, is apt to follow vigorous exertion.
Very tender and quiet thoughts of Garth came to her this evening,
perhaps brought about by the associations of moonlight.
"The moon shines bright:--in such a night as this,
When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
And they did make no noise--"
Ah! the great poet knew the effect upon the heart of a vivid reminder
to the senses. Jane now passed beneath the spell.
To begin with, Garth's voice seemed singing everywhere:
"Enable with perpetual light
The dulness of our blinded sight."
Then from out the deep blue and silvery light, Garth's dear adoring
eyes seemed watching her. Jane closed her own, to see them better.
To-night she did not feel like shrinking from them, they were so full
of love.
No shade of critical regard was in them. Ah! had she wronged him with
her fears for the future? Her heart seemed full of trust to-night, full
of confidence in him and in herself. It seemed to her that if he were
here she could go out with him into this brilliant moonlight, seat
herself upon some ancient fallen stone, and let him kneel in front of
her and gaze and gaze in his persistent way, as much as he pleased. In
thought there seemed to-night no shrinking from those dear eyes. She
felt she would say: "It is all your own, Garth, to look at when you
will. For your sake, I could wish it beautiful; but if it is as you
like it, my own Dear, why should I hide it from you?"
What had brought about this change of mind? Had Deryck's prescription
done its full work? Was this a saner point of view than the one she had
felt constrained to take when she arrived, through so much agony of
renunciation, at her decision? Instead of going up the Nile, and then
to Constantinople and Athens, should she take the steamer which sailed
from Alexandria to-morrow, be in London a week hence, send for Garth,
make full confession, and let him decide as to their future?
That he loved her still, it never occurred to Jane to doubt. At the
very thought of sending for him and telling him the simple truth, he
seemed so near her once more, that she could feel the clasp of his
arms, and his head upon her heart. And those dear shining eyes! Oh,
Garth, Garth!
"One thing is clear to me to-night," thought Jane. "If he still needs
me--wants me--I cannot live any longer away from him. I must go to
him." She opened her eyes and looked towards the Sphinx. The whole line
of reasoning which had carried such weight at Shenstone flashed through
her mind in twenty seconds. Then she closed her eyes again and clasped
her hands upon her bosom.
"I will risk it," she said; and deep joy awoke within her heart.
A party of English people came from the dining-room on to the piazza
with a clatter. They had arrived that evening and gone in late to
dinner. Jane had hardly noticed them,--a handsome woman and her
daughter, two young men, and an older man of military appearance. They
did not interest Jane, but they broke in upon her reverie; for they
seated themselves at a table near by and, in truly British fashion,
continued a loud-voiced conversation, as if no one else were present.
One or two foreigners, who had been peacefully dreaming over coffee and
cigarettes, rose and strolled away to quiet seats under the palm trees.
Jane would have done the same, but she really felt too comfortable to
move, and afraid of losing the sweet sense of Garth's nearness. So she
remained where she was.
The elderly man held in his hand a letter and a copy of the MORNING
POST, just received from England. They were discussing news contained
in the letter and a paragraph he had been reading aloud from the paper.
"Poor fellow! How too sad!" said the chaperon of the party.
"I should think he would sooner have been killed outright!" exclaimed
the girl. "I know I would."
"Oh, no," said one of the young men, leaning towards her. "Life is
sweet, under any circumstances."
"Oh, but blind!" cried the young voice, with a shudder. "Quite blind
for the rest of one's life. Horrible!"
"Was it his own gun?" asked the older woman. "And how came they to be
having a shooting party in March?"
Jane smiled a fierce smile into the moonlight. Passionate love of
animal life, intense regard for all life, even of the tiniest insect,
was as much a religion with her as the worship of beauty was with
Garth. She never could pretend sorrow over these accounts of shooting
accidents, or falls in the hunting-field. When those who went out to
inflict cruel pain were hurt themselves; when those who went forth to
take eager, palpitating life, lost their own; it seemed to Jane a just
retribution. She felt no regret, and pretended none. So now she smiled
fiercely to herself, thinking: "One pair of eyes the less to look along
a gun and frustrate the despairing dash for home and little ones of a
terrified little mother rabbit. One hand that will never again change a
soaring upward flight of spreading wings, into an agonised mass of
falling feathers. One chance to the good, for the noble stag, as he
makes a brave run to join his hinds in the valley."
Meanwhile the military-looking man had readjusted his eye-glasses and
was holding the sheets of a closely written letter to the light.
"No," he said after a moment, "shooting parties are over. There is
nothing doing on the moors now. They were potting bunnies."
"Was he shooting?" asked the girl.
"No," replied the owner of the letter, "and that seems such hard luck.
He had given up shooting altogether a year or two ago. He never really
enjoyed it, because he so loved the beauty of life and hated death in
every form. He has a lovely place in the North, and was up there
painting. He happened to pass within sight of some fellows
rabbit-shooting, and saw what he considered cruelty to a wounded
rabbit. He vaulted over a gate to expostulate and to save the little
creature from further suffering. Then it happened. One of the lads,
apparently startled, let off his gun. The charge struck a tree a few
yards off, and the shot glanced. It did not strike him full. The face
is only slightly peppered and the brain quite uninjured. But shots
pierced the retina of each eye, and the sight is hopelessly gone."
"Awful hard luck," said the young man.
"I never can understand a chap not bein' keen on shootin'," said the
youth who had not yet spoken.
"Ah, but you would if you had known him," said the soldier. "He was so
full of life and vivid vitality. One could not imagine him either dying
or dealing death. And his love of the beautiful was almost a form of
religious worship. I can't explain it; but he had a way of making you
see beauty in things you had hardly noticed before. And now, poor chap,
he can't see them himself."
"Has he a mother?" asked the older woman.
"No, he has no one. He is absolutely alone. Scores of friends of
course; he was a most popular man about town, and could stay in almost
any house in the kingdom if he chose to send a post-card to say he was
coming. But no relations, I believe, and never would marry. Poor chap!
He will wish he had been less fastidious, now. He might have had the
pick of all the nicest girls, most seasons. But not he! Just charming
friendships, and wedded to his art. And now, as Lady Ingleby, says, he
lies in the dark, helpless and alone."
"Oh, do talk of something else!" cried the girl, pushing back her chair
and rising. "I want to forget it. It's too horribly sad. Fancy what it
must be to wake up and not know whether it is day or night, and to have
to lie in the dark and wonder. Oh, do come out and talk of something
cheerful."
They all rose, and the young man slipped his hand through the girl's
arm, glad of the excuse her agitation provided.
"Forget it, dear," he said softly. "Come on out and see the old Sphinx
by moonlight."
They left the piazza, followed by the rest of the party; but the man to
whom the MORNING POST belonged laid it on the table and stayed behind,
lighting a cigar.
Jane rose from her chair and came towards him.
"May I look at your paper?" she said abruptly.
"Certainly," he replied, with ready courtesy. Then, looking more
closely at her: "Why, certainly, Miss Champion. And how do you do? I
did not know you were in these parts."
"Ah, General Loraine! Your face seemed familiar, but I had not
recognised you, either. Thanks, I will borrow this if I may. And don't
let me keep you from your friends. We shall meet again by and by."
Jane waited until the whole party had passed out of sight and until the
sound of their voices and laughter had died away in the distance. Then
she returned to her chair, the place where Garth had seemed so near.
She looked once more at the Sphinx and at the huge pyramid in the
moonlight.
Then she took up the paper and opened it.
"Enable with perpetual light
The dulness of our blinded sight."
Yes--it was Garth Dalmain--HER Garth, of the adoring shining eyes--who
lay at his house in the North; blind, helpless, and alone.