The same evening the new doctor of the expedition was presented to
Madame de Guéran. M. Delange, as long as his passion for play left
him at rest, was an exceedingly nice fellow, a pleasant companion,
with a fund of agreeable conversation, and very well informed. He
impressed the Baroness very favourably, and she at once endorsed the
choice made by M. de Morin.
The chief parts in the expedition were thus filled up, and there was
nothing now to do but to select the subordinates. The application of
the trusty Joseph-Mohammed was then taken into consideration, and,
after a short discussion, accepted. It was determined, at the same
time, to add to him some other European servant. In Egypt, according
to custom, a few Arabian attendants were to be engaged, who might
not, in every way, be all that could be wished, but whose familiarity
with the usages of the country would be of great use in many
contingencies.
An exception was, however, made to this limit in favour of a female
companion whom the Baroness desired to have with her. As soon as the
expedition had been decided on, Madame de Guéran had written to her
friends in London to find out for her a lady of irreproachable
respectability, who had already travelled and was willing to travel
again, and the result was the immediate offer of a Miss Beatrice
Poles. She had, it was said, accompanied the celebrated Dutch
traveller, Mdlle. Alexina Tinne, throughout the greater part of her
explorations in Africa, and with the courage and determination so
remarkable in the case of many female travellers, she only asked to
be allowed to expose herself to fresh fatigue, and to encounter new
dangers.
The Baroness at first hesitated to engage this applicant. Miss Poles,
she thought, might, whilst in the service of Mdlle. Tinne, have
become accustomed to an amount of ease and luxury which she certainly
would not find in the society of her new companions. In fact, Madame
de Guéran, without having any idea of travelling in as primitive a
fashion as did the pretended dervish, Vambéry, or Dr. Barth, or many
others, had fully made up her mind not to dazzle the Arabs and
negroes by any display of magnificence. In barbarous countries
cupidity and envy can never be roused with impunity, and the
Thouaregs proved that by the massacre of Mdlle. Tinne under the very
eyes of Miss Poles.
But the friends of Madame de Guéran in England brought fresh
arguments to bear on her hesitation. Their _protégée_, they said,
from her experience of Africa, and her thorough knowledge of the
customs of the country, would be of the greatest use, and, moreover,
both her zeal and unlimited devotion might be relied upon. These
arguments prevailed with Madame de Guéran, and she accordingly
engaged the whilom companion of Mdlle. Tinne.
Miss Beatrice Poles, to judge from her appearance, was about forty
years of age when she first made her appearance in Madame de Guéran's
drawing-room, in the Boulevard Malesherbes. She was a tall, angular
female, so thin that she looked as if she had been flattened out by
hydraulic pressure, and so dry and withered-looking that M. de Morin
was quite uneasy when he saw her near the fire. She had a long neck,
long arms, stilts, presumably, for legs, and feet which were a source
of never-ending admiration to M. Périères. "They were so long," he
said, "that she need never walk. She arrived at her destination
before starting."
Her face was almost entirely hidden by huge blue spectacles, with
side-guards, which she had got into the habit of wearing in Africa,
to protect her against the diseases of the eye so prevalent in that
country. Under a tropical sun she had lost that fresh colour which
had in former days, as she professed in her moments of confidence,
rendered her so attractive, and her complexion had become embrowned
to such an extent that she might very well have been taken for a
negress. That such a mistake was possible is evident from the
"Times," which in giving an account of the death of Mdlle. Tinne,
said—"The other servants succeeded in escaping with the exception of
a negress, who was carried off by the Thouaregs." The negress was no
other than Miss Beatrice Poles, an Englishwoman, and a cockney to
boot.
She was a most estimable woman, all the same, well brought up,
speaking English, French, and Arabic, understanding a joke, and quick
at repartee, without prejudice, and, a rarity in Englishwomen, free
from prudery, but that was to be accounted for by her familiarity
with the manners and customs of the not too particular tribes of
Africa.
After his first interview with her, M. de Morin asked permission to
paint her portrait, which she graciously accorded. Underneath the
sketch, he wrote—"Return from Africa. This is how we shall all look
when we come back."