When Mrs. Armine got into the night train at Luxor, heard the whistle of
the engine, felt the first slow movement of the carriage, then the
gradually increasing velocity, saw the houses of the village
disappearing, and presently only the long plains and the ranges of
mountains to right and left, hard and clear in the evening light, she
had a moment of almost savage exultation, as of one who had been in
great danger suddenly and unexpectedly escaping into freedom.
At last she was alone, unwatched by the eyes of affection and of perhaps
menacing suspicion and even hatred. How had she endured so long? She
wondered, and could scarcely tell where she had found her courage. But
though now she felt exultation, she felt also the tremendous strain she
had undergone. She knew that her nerves were shattered. Only in
happiness could she recover. She must have the life she wanted, and she
must have it now. Otherwise she was "done for." Was she going to have
it?
And soon the exultation passed, and again fear beset her. Even if she
found Baroudi in Cairo, what reception would she have at his hands?
With anxious fingers she took out of her dressing-case the gilded box he
had given her, and opened the lid. But, having opened it, she dared not
look at herself in the glass, and she shut it sharply, replaced it in
the case, and leaned back in her corner.
"I won't bother," she said to herself; "I won't worry. To-night I must
sleep. I must look my best to-morrow. Everything now may depend on how I
look when I get to Cairo."
And she shut her eyes with the determination to be calm, to be tranquil.
And soon she went to bed, determined to sleep.
But of course she did not sleep. Quietly, then angrily, she strove to
lay hold on sleep. But it would not come to her wooing. The long hours
of darkness wore gradually away; the first pale light of the new day
crept in to the rocking carriage; the weary woman who had been tossing
and turning from side to side, in a sort of madness of restrained and
attenuated movement, sat up against her crushed pillow, and knew that
there was probably some new line on her face, an accentuation of the
sharpness of the cheek-bones, a more piteous droop at the corners of the
mouth.
As she sat there, with her knees drawn up and her hands hanging, she
felt that she was uglier than she had been only the day before.
When the train reached Cairo, she pulled down her veil, got out, and
drove to Shepheard's. She knew an address that would find Baroudi in
Cairo, if he were there, and directly she was in her room she sat down
and wrote a note to him.
"Shepheard's Hotel, Tuesday morning.
"I have come to Cairo for a day's shopping. Can I see you? If so,
please tell me where and at what hour.
"Ruby Armine."
She wrote in French, sealed the envelope, and told the waiter to have it
taken at once by a messenger. Then she ordered coffee and rolls to be
sent in half an hour, and took a hot bath. How she wished that she had a
clever maid with her! It was maddening to have no help except that of a
clumsy Swiss housemaid, and she now saw, with horror, that she was
haggard. She scarcely recognized her own face. Instead of looking
younger than she was, it seemed to her now that she looked older, much
older. She was shocked by her appearance.
But she had had a night journey and had not slept, and every woman
looks old after a night journey. She would be all right when she had
rested. On arriving she had engaged a sitting-room. She went into it and
had breakfast, then asked for newspapers, and lay down on the sofa to
read. At every moment she expected the return of her messenger to
Baroudi. He came at last.
"Have you brought a note?" she asked, starting up on the sofa.
The messenger said no; the gentleman was not in.
"Did you leave the note?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"You can go back presently. Go back at twelve, and see if the gentleman
has come in. He may come in for lunch. Stay till lunch-time and see. I
want an answer."
The man went away. Slowly the morning passed. Twelve o'clock came, but
the messenger did not return. Mrs. Armine had lunch in her room, but she
could scarcely eat anything. After lunch she ordered very strong coffee.
As she was drinking her second cup, there was a tap on the door. She
cried, "Come in," and the messenger reappeared.
"Well?" she said. "Well?"
The man looked at her as if her voice had startled him.
"The gentleman has not come in, ma'am."
"When is he coming in?"
"I don't know, ma'am."
"Is he in Cairo?"
"I don't know, ma'am."
"What do you know? What's the good of you? What are you here for? Go
back at once, and find out whether the gentleman is in Cairo or not."
The messenger went out rather hurriedly.
Mrs. Armine was shaking. She had felt inclined to attack the man, to
beat him for his stupidity, as slaves are often beaten by their masters
when they do wrong. When she was alone, she uttered two or three
incoherent exclamations. Her body was burning with a sort of cruel, dry
heat. She felt parched all over. An hour passed, and at length she
again heard a tap. The messenger came in, and very sulkily said:
"The gentleman was in Cairo last night, ma'am."
"What I want to know is whether he is in Cairo now!" she exclaimed,
angrily.
"They don't know, ma'am."
"Don't know! They must know!"
"They don't know, ma'am."
"I tell you they must know!"
"They don't know, ma'am."
She sprang up, tingling. She didn't know what she was going to do, but
as she faced him the expression in the messenger's eyes recalled her to
a sense of the proprieties. Without another word, she gave him some
money and turned her back on him. When she heard the door close, she no
longer controlled herself, until suddenly once more she remembered her
ravaged face.
She went into her bedroom and after half an hour she came out dressed
for driving. She was resolved to go herself to Baroudi's house. After
all these months of slavish obedience and of fear, something rose up
within her, something that had passed for the moment beyond obedience
and even beyond fear, that was fiercely determined, that was reckless of
consequences. She engaged a victoria and drove to Baroudi's house. It
was on the outskirts of Cairo, near the Nile, on the Island of Gezira. A
garden surrounded it, enclosed by high walls and entered by tall gates
of elaborately-wrought ironwork. These gates were shut and the coachman
pulled up his horses. Inside, on the left, there was a lodge from which
there now came a tall Arab. Mrs. Armine got quickly out of the carriage,
passed the horses, and stood looking through the gate.
"Is Mahmoud Baroudi in Cairo?" she said, in French.
The Arab said something in Arabic.
"Is Baroudi Effendi in Cairo?" Mrs. Armine said in English.
"Yes, I think," replied the man, in careful English, speaking slowly.
"In the city?"
"I think."
She took her purse, opened it, and gave him some money.
"Where?"
"I dunno."
"When will he be back here?"
"I dunno."
She felt inclined to scream.
"Will he come back to-night, do you think?"
"I dunno. Sometimes stay in Cairo all night."
"But he has not gone away? He is not away from Cairo? He is in Cairo?"
"I s'pose."
They stood for a moment staring at each other through the dividing gate.
The man's eyes were absolutely expressionless. He looked as if he were
half asleep. Mrs. Armine turned away, and got into the carriage.
"Go back to Shepheard's."
The coachman smacked his whip. The horses trotted.
When she reached Shepheard's, she resolved to spend the whole afternoon
upon the terrace. By chance Baroudi might come there. It was not at all
improbable. She had heard it said that almost every one who was any one,
in Cairo, either came to Shepheard's or might be seen passing by in the
afternoon hours. She took an arm-chair near the railing, with a table
beside it. She bought papers, a magazine, and sat there, sometimes
pretending to read, but always looking, looking, at the men coming up
and down the steps, at the men walking and driving by in the crowded
street. Tea-time came. She ordered tea. She drank it slowly. Her head
was aching. Her eyes were tired with examining so many faces of men. But
still she watched, till evening began to fall and within the house
behind her the deep note of a gong sounded, announcing the half-hour
before dinner. What more could she do? Mechanically she began to gather
the papers together. She supposed she must go in. The terrace was almost
deserted. She was just about to get up, when two men, one English, the
other American, came up the steps and sat down at a table near her. One
of these men was Starnworth, whom she did not know, and of whom she had
never heard. He ordered an aperitif, and plunged into conversation with
his companion. They talked about Cairo. Mrs. Armine sat still and
listened. Starnworth began to describe the native quarters. Presently he
spoke of the hashish cafe to which he had taken Isaacson. He told his
friend where it was. Mrs. Armine heard the name of the street, Bab-el
Meteira. Then he spoke of the rich Egyptians who frequented the cafe,
and he mentioned the name of Baroudi. Almost immediately afterwards he
and his companion got up and strolled into the hotel.
That night, quietly dressed and veiled, Mrs. Armine, accompanied by a
native guide, made a pilgrimage into the strange places of the city;
stayed long, very long, beneath the blackened roof of the cafe where the
hashish was smoked. She was exhausted, yet she felt feverishly, almost
crazily alive. She drank coffee after coffee. She watched the dreaming
smokers, the dreaming dancers, till she seemed to be living in a
nightmare, to be detached from earth and all things she had ever known
till now.
But Baroudi did not come. And at last she returned through the dancing
quarters, where her sense of nightmare deepened.
Again she did not sleep.
When day came, she felt really ill. Yet her body was still pulsing, her
brain was still throbbing, with an activity that was like a fever within
her. Directly after breakfast, which she scarcely touched, she again
took a carriage and drove to Baroudi's house.
The sleepy Arab met her at the grille, and in an almost trembling voice
she made enquiries.
"Gone away," was the reply.
"Gone? Where to?"
"Him gone to Luxor. Him got one dahabeeyah at Luxor."
"Gone to Luxor! When did he go?"
"We know last night."
"Did he get a note I sent him yesterday morning?"
The Arab shook his head.
"Not bin back heeyah at all."
Mrs. Armine telegraphed to the villa, and took the night train back to
Luxor.
She arrived in the morning about nine, after another sleepless night. As
she drove by the Winter Palace Hotel, she saw a man walking alone upon
the terrace, and, to her great surprise, recognized Meyer Isaacson. He
saw her--she was certain of that--but he immediately looked away, and
did not take off his hat to her. Had she, or had she not, bowed to him?
She did not know. But in either case his behaviour was very strange. And
she could not understand why he was at the hotel. Had something happened
at the villa? Almost before she had had time to wonder, the horses were
pulled up at the gate.
She had expected Ibrahim to meet her at the station. But he had not
come. Nor did he meet her at the gate, which was opened by the gardener.
She nodded in reply to his salutation, hastened across the garden, and
came into the house.
"Nigel!" she called out. "Nigel!"
She immediately heard a slow step, and saw her husband coming towards
her from the drawing-room. She thought he looked very ill.
"Well, Ruby, you are back," he said.
He held out his hand. His eyes, which were curiously sunken, gazed into
hers with a sort of wistful, yearning expression.
"Yes," she said. "I hurried. I couldn't stand Cairo. It was hot and
dreadful. And I felt miserable there."
They were standing in the little hall.
"You look fearfully tired--fearfully!" he said.
He was still holding her hand.
Her mouth twisted.
"Do I? It's the two night journeys. I didn't sleep at all."
"And the maid? Did you get one?"
"No. What does it matter?"
Infinitely unimportant to her now seemed such a quest.
"I must sit down," she added. "I'm nearly dead."
She really felt as if her physical powers were failing her. Her legs
shook under her.
"Come into the drawing-room. And you must have some breakfast."
He let go her hand. She went into the drawing-room, and she sank down on
a sofa. He followed almost immediately.
"Oh!" she said.
She leaned back against the cushions, stretched out her arms, and shut
her eyes. All the time she was thinking, "Baroudi is here! Baroudi is
here! And I can't go to him; I can't go--I can't go!"
She seemed to see his mighty throat, his eyebrows, slanting upwards
above his great bold eyes, his large, muscular hands, his deep chest of
an athlete.
She heard Nigel sitting down close to her.
"Why didn't Ibrahim come to the station?" she said, with an effort
opening her eyes.
"Oh, I suppose he was busy," Nigel replied.
His voice sounded cautious and uneasy.
"Busy?"
"Yes. He'll bring your breakfast. I've told him to."
Then he was in the house. She felt a slight sense of relief, she
scarcely knew why.
The door opened, and Ibrahim came in quietly and carefully with a tray.
"Good mornin' to you, my lady," he said.
"Good morning, Ibrahim."
He set down the tray without noise, stood for a minute as if considering
it, then softly went away.
"You'll feel better when you've had breakfast."
"I ought to have had a bath first. But I couldn't wait."
She sat up in front of the little table, and poured out the strong tea.
As she did this, she glanced again at her husband and again thought how
ill he looked. But she did not remark upon it. She drank some tea, and
ate a piece of toast.
"Oh," she said, "as I passed by the Winter Palace, I saw Doctor Isaacson
on the terrace."
"Did you?"
"Yes. What's he gone there for this morning?"
"I suppose he's staying there."
Mrs. Armine put down the cup she was lifting to her lips.
"Staying! Doctor Isaacson!" she said, staring at her husband.
"I suppose so."
"But--do you mean he has left here?"
"Yes. He went away last night."
"Why? Why?"
"Why? Well--well, we had a discussion. It ended in a disagreement, and
he left the house."
"You quarrelled?"
"Yes, I suppose it might be called that."
In the midst of her exhaustion, her physical misery and mental
distraction, Mrs. Armine was conscious of a sharp pang. It was like that
of joy.
"Doctor Isaacson has left the house for good?" she said.
"Yes. He won't come here again."
She drank some more tea, and went on eating. For the first time for days
she felt some appetite. A shock of fear that had assailed her had passed
away. She remembered how Nigel had held her hand closely in the hall.
"But why did you quarrel?" she said, at last.
"Oh, we had a discussion--" He paused.
"I know," she said, "I know! You did what I asked you to do. You spoke
about being strong enough now to let Doctor Isaacson go back to London."
"Yes, I did that."
"And about what we owed him?"
"Yes."
"And he was angry?"
"I had been speaking of that; and--Ruby, what do we owe him? I--I must
send him a cheque. I must send it to him to-night."
She shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. He'll open his mouth very wide, no doubt, now you've
quarrelled."
"I think--I'm sure that you wrong him there," Nigel said, slowly.
"Do you think so? Well, I must go up and take a bath. I may be a good
while."
"Let me come and sit with you. Shall I? I mean in a few minutes."
"Not just yet. Better try and calculate out your debt to Doctor
Isaacson."
She hastened away. Directly she reached her room, she locked the door,
went out on to the balcony, and looked across the river to the _Loulia_.
She saw the Egyptian flag flying. Was Baroudi on board? She must know,
and immediately. She rang the bell, and unlocked the door.
"Ibrahim!" she said, to the Nubian who appeared.
He retreated, and in a moment Ibrahim came, with his soft stride, up the
staircase.
"Ibrahim," she almost whispered, "is Baroudi on board the _Loulia_?"
"Yes, my lady."
She could hardly repress an exclamation.
"He is? Ibrahim"--in her astonishment she put one hand on his shoulder
and grasped it tightly--"to-night, as soon as dinner is over, you are to
have a felucca ready at the foot of the garden. D'you understand?"
He looked at her very seriously.
"Can you manage to row me across to the _Loulia_ without help?"
"My lady, I am as strong as Rameses the Second."
"Very well then! Get a small, light boat. We shall go more quickly in
that. How long is Baroudi going to stay?"
"I dunno."
"Try to find out. Is Hamza with him?"
Ibrahim looked vicious.
"Hamza him there. But Hamza very bad boy. I not speak any more to
Hamza."
"Don't forget! Directly after dinner."
She shut and relocked the door.
She took a hot bath, let down her hair, got into a wrapper, lay down,
and tried to rest. But her body twitched with desire for active
movement, almost worn out though she was. Again and again she got up,
went out to the terrace, and looked at the _Loulia_. She took her
glasses and tried to discern Baroudi on the upper deck. But she could
not see him. Presently she pulled a long chair out to the balcony, and
was just going to lie down on it when she heard a knock on the door.
"Ruby!"
It was Nigel. She felt inclined to rush across the room, to open the
door, to seize him by the shoulders and thrust him out of the house, out
of her life for ever.
"Ruby!"
"I am coming!" she said.
She waited an instant, striving for self-control. Every nerve in her
body seemed to be quivering.
"The door is locked."
"I know. I'm coming! I'm coming!"
She set her teeth, went to the door, and unlocked it.
"Come in! Come in, your importunate man!"
"Importunate! But I haven't seen you for three nights. And I can't get
on without you, Ruby. Thank God, to-night we shall be alone together.
After dinner I want you to play to me."
Her face twitched.
"If I'm not too tired."
"We'll go to bed quite early."
He shut the door.
"I'll come and sit in here with you. I want to take your opinion about
this cheque to Isaacson."
He sighed heavily.
He had a pencil and some paper in his hands, and he sat down by a table.
"I must get this off my mind. After what has happened, I must pay
Isaacson, though otherwise I think we--" He sighed again. "Let me see,
when did he first come on board to take care of me?"
* * * * *
That day went by slowly, slowly, with feet of lead. Whether she would
endure to its end without some hysterical outburst of temper Mrs. Armine
did not know. She seemed to herself to be clinging frantically to the
last fragments of her self-control. For so long she had acted a part,
that it would be tragic to break down feebly, contemptibly, now close to
the end of the drama.
This night must see its end. For her powers were exhausted. She meant to
tell Baroudi so. He must take her away now, or let her join him
somewhere. But in any case she must get away from her life with Nigel.
She could no longer play the devoted wife, safe at last, after many
trials, in the arms of respectability. It was only by making a cruel
effort that she was able to get through the day without rousing
suspicion in Nigel. And to-day he was curiously observant of her. His
eyes seemed to be always upon her, watching her with a look she could
not quite understand. He never left her for a moment, and sometimes she
had a strange sensation that, like herself, he was on the verge
of--what--some self-revelation? Some confession? Some perhaps emotional
laying bare of his heart? She did not know. But she did know that he was
not in a normal state. And once or twice she wondered what had been the
exact truth of the quarrel with Isaacson. But, at any rate, it had not
been the truth in which she was concerned. And she was too frightfully
intent upon herself to-day to be very curious, even about Isaacson's
relations with her husband.
He was gone, and gone without having tried to destroy her. That was
enough. She would not bother about small things to-day.
At last the evening approached along the marvellous ways of gold. As she
saw the sky beginning to change Mrs. Armine's fever of excitement and
impatience increased. Now that the moment of her meeting with Baroudi
was so near she felt as if she could not bear even another second's
delay. How she was going to escape from her husband she did not know.
But she did not worry about that. She could always manage Nigel somehow,
and she would not fail for the first time to-night.
When the moment came it would find her ready. Of that she was sure.
She made up her face elaborately that evening, put a delicate flush upon
her cheeks, darkened her eyebrows more than usual, made her lips very
red. She took infinite pains to give to her face an appearance of youth.
Her eyes burned out of the painted shadows about them. Her shining hair
was perfectly arranged in the way that suited her best. She put on a
very low-cut evening gown, that showed as much as possible of her still
lovely figure. And she strove to think that she looked no older now than
when Baroudi had seen her last. The mirror contradicted her cruelly. But
she was determined not to believe what it said.
At last she was ready, and she went down to get through the last
_supplice_, as she called it to herself, the tete-a-tete dinner with
Nigel.
He was not yet down, and she was just going to step out upon the terrace
when he came into the drawing-room in evening dress. This was the first
evening since his illness that he had dressed for dinner, and the
clothes he wore seemed to her a sign that soon he would resume his
normal and active life. The look of illness which she had thought she
saw in his face that morning had given place to an expression of
intensity that must surely be the token of inward excitement.
As he came in, she thought to herself that she had never seen Nigel
look so expressive, that she had never imagined he could look so
expressive. Something in his face startled and gripped her.
He, too, gazed at her almost as if with new eyes, as he came towards
her, looking resolute, like a man who had taken some big decision since
she had last seen him an hour ago. All day he had seemed curiously
watchful, uneasy, sometimes weak, sometimes lively with effort. Now,
though intense, excited, he looked determined, and this determination,
too, was like a new note of health.
His eyes went over her bare shoulders. Then he said:
"For me!"
His voice lingered over the words. But his eyes changed in expression as
they looked at her face.
"I couldn't help it to-night Nigel," she said, coolly. "I knew I must be
looking too frightful after all this journeying. You must forgive me
to-night."
"Of course I do. It's good of you to take this trouble for me, even
though I--Come! Dinner is ready."
He drew her arm through his, and led her in to the dining-room.
"Where's Ibrahim to-night?" she said carelessly, as they sat down.
"He asked if he might go to the village to see his mother, and I let him
go."
"Oh!"
She felt relieved. Ibrahim had gone to fetch the felucca to take her
across the Nile. A hot excitement surged through her. In a couple of
hours, perhaps in less time, she would see Baroudi, be alone with
Baroudi. How long she had waited! What torment she had endured! What
danger, what failure she had undergone! But for a moment she forget
everything in that thought which went like wine to her head, "To-night I
shall be with Baroudi!" She did not just then go beyond that thought.
She did not ask herself what sort of reception he would give her. That
wine from the mind brought a carelessness, almost a recklessness, with
it, preventing analysis, sweeping away fears. A sort of spasm--was it
the very last?--of youth seemed to leap up in her, like a brilliant
flame from a heap of ashes. And she let the flame shoot out towards
Nigel.
And again he was saying:
"For me!"
He was repeating it to himself, and he was reiterating silently those
terrible words with which he had struck the man who had saved him from
death.
"You liar! You damnable liar!"
The dinner was not the _supplice_ Mrs. Armine had anticipated. She
talked, she laughed, she was gay, frivolous, gentle, careless, as in the
days long past when she had charmed men by mental as much as by merely
physical qualities. And Nigel responded with an almost boyish eagerness.
Her liveliness, her merriment, seemed not only to delight but to
reassure something within him. She noticed that. And, noticing it, she
was conscious that with his decision, beneath it as it were, there was
something else, some far different quality, stranger to her, though
faintly perceived, or perhaps, rather, obscurely divined by that
sleepless intuition which lives in certain women. Her apparent
joyousness gave helping hands to something in Nigel, leading it forward,
onward--whither?
She was to know that night.
At length the dinner was over, and they got up to go into the
drawing-room. And now, instantly, Mrs. Armine was seized by a frantic
longing to escape. The felucca, she felt sure, was waiting on the still
water just below the promontory. If only Nigel would remain behind over
his cigarette in the dining-room for a moment, she would steal out to
see. She would not start, of course, till he was safely upstairs. But
she longed to be sure that the boat was there.
"Won't you have your cigarette in here?" she said, carelessly, as he
followed her towards the door.
"Here? Alone?"
His voice sounded surprised.
"I thought perhaps you wanted another glass of wine," she murmured with
a feigned indifference as she walked on.
"No," he said, "I am coming to the terrace with you."
"For a little while. But you must soon go to bed. Now that Doctor
Isaacson has gone, I must play the sick nurse again, or you will be ill,
and then I know he'll blame me."
"How do you know that?"
The sound of his voice startled her. She was just by the drawing-room
door. She stood still and looked round.
"How?" she said. "Why, because Doctor Isaacson doesn't believe in me in
any capacity."
"But I do."
Again she noticed the amazing expressiveness of his face.
"Yes," she said, "I know. You are different."
She opened the door and passed into the room. Directly she was in it she
heard the Nubian sailors on the _Loulia_ beginning their serenade. (She
chose to call it that to herself to-night.) Their music tore at her
heart, at her whole nature. She wanted to rush to it, now, at once,
without one moment of waiting. Hardly could she force her body to move
quietly across the room to the terrace. Nigel came up and stood close to
her.
"Oh, I must have a wrap," she said.
"I'll fetch it."
"No, no! You mustn't go upstairs. You'll tire yourself."
"Not to-night," he said.
And he turned away. Directly the door shut behind him Mrs. Armine darted
into the garden.
"Ibrahim! Ibrahim! Are you there?"
"Yes, my lady."
He came up from the water's edge and stood beside her.
"I can't come yet, but I'll be as quick as I can."
"Yes."
He looked at her. Then he said:
"I dunno what Mahmoud Baroudi say to us. He got one girl on the board."
"On the board!"
"On the board of the _Loulia_."
"Ruby! Ruby! where are you?"
"Go back! Wait for me--wait!"
"Ruby!"
"I'm here! I'm coming, Nigel!"