During the short time which Freddy was at the Front, how different her thoughts had been! His beauty and ability seemed to say to her, as she watched him on that memorable afternoon at the station, "Whom the G.o.ds love die young." He seemed to typify to her England"s brave and beautiful young whom the war chose for its victims. The wages of the war were England"s youth and devotion. She knew that much as Freddy loved his work and enjoyed his life, he would be the last to grudge his death. It was she herself who so ardently wished that he had died in action; that his brains and ability had been given a chance; that he could have done as he would have wished to do, taken a life for a life; that he could avenge in honest warfare the hideous death of his comrades.
This letter from Hada.s.sah made Margaret realize the awful fact that Freddy was dead as nothing else had done, that his death meant that she could never, never again consult him, or speak to him, or hope to hear from him. It was not only a case of patience and the distance of half the world between them; it was a case of never, never again on this earth. She had scarcely known the meaning of death until this starvation for his sympathy revealed itself to her. The awful difference between mere distance and death had escaped her. Hundreds of men were dying, but death was talked of unconvincingly, superficially.
Now, by some strange means, she suddenly saw the years of doing without Freddy stretching out before her. The Valley where his work lay would never see him again. His brains and extraordinary energy were lost to the world; his archaeological work would be taken over by others.
The pent-up tears which Margaret had not shed when she received the news of his death, or during all the busy days which followed it, mingled themselves with the unrestrained weeping which Nature sent to save her overwrought system. She cried uninterruptedly, until the urgency of tears subsided. She dried her eyes and braced herself up.
Her weeping had stopped suddenly; it had exhausted itself.
It seemed to her that she could almost hear a voice repeating to her a sentence out of Hada.s.sah"s letter. It was strikingly like Hada.s.sah"s own voice. "Try to remember that your wonderful brother is still doing his bit. He is working hard, wherever he is--be sure of this, for it is what he would wish."
Margaret carried this thought in her mind as she returned to her pantry. Hada.s.sah was right. Freddy was working; wherever he was, he was busy, for he could not be happy if he was not working and helping on the cause of the Allies. Freddy had been one of the few enthusiasts in the early days of the war who had never pretended, even to himself, that England"s primary object in declaring war against Germany was to avenge the devastation of Belgium. He knew that England had to enter it to save herself and France from a similar devastation.
When she was busy at work again, Margaret said to herself, "Of all the strange things which have happened during the last six months, perhaps the strangest of all is the fact that in all the wide world, the only human being to whom I should dream of applying for help or for sympathy in the things that matter is Hada.s.sah Ireton, Hada.s.sah the Syrian, whose marriage with an Englishman of good family would have so shocked and horrified me not so very long ago!"
A smile of amus.e.m.e.nt changed the expression of her face. She was thinking of Hada.s.sah as she really was, and of the outcast Hada.s.sah as she would have pictured her. The smile lost itself in the shame with which the memory of her ignorance and prejudice filled her. How well Hada.s.sah and her husband could afford to forget the narrow-mindedness and the conceit of it all!
CHAPTER XXII
And now to return to Michael. During the weary weeks of anxiety and suffering which Margaret spent in Egypt before she sailed for England, Michael lay hovering between life and death in the _Omdeh"s_ house near the subterranean village in the Libyan Desert.
Abdul had taken him there when he gathered him up in his strong arms on the eventful evening when he left the excavation-tent in the hills. A violent attack of fever, made more serious and difficult to throw off by the overwrought condition of his nerves, kept Michael a helpless exile in the hands of the hospitable but somewhat ignorant _Omdeh_ and the devoted Abdul.
When the fever was at its height, Michael was very often delirious; in his ramblings he let the discreet Abdul see deep down into the secret hiding-places of his heart. Sometimes he spoke in English, and sometimes in Arabic. Abdul could understand a great deal more English than he could speak, and as Michael often repeated the same things in Arabic--when he thought he was addressing Abdul--he soon found the key to much which, without the Arabic translation and constant reiteration, might have escaped his understanding. Arabs learn a language with extraordinary rapidity; it is no unusual thing to meet a dragoman who can understand three or four languages, and speak a fair smattering of each; the same man is probably unable to read or write in any one of the four. From the deep waters of affliction came strange and terrible revelations, of desires and temptations which the conscious man had not allowed himself to recognize. In his helplessness they leapt forth and proclaimed themselves unmistakably. He innocently betrayed the nature of the woman who had earned Abdul"s hatred.
At other times he called upon Margaret and implored her forgiveness, denouncing the woman who had followed him. He cursed her in horrible words. Even Abdul was surprised at their impiety. Once, when Abdul laid his fine fingers on his burning forehead, Michael took his hand eagerly and tried to kiss it. The next instant he rejected it and with the strength of delirium threw it from him and tried to get out of bed.
"That"s not Margaret"s hand?" he said angrily. "And I want no other woman than Margaret. I have told you that before--I belong to Margaret, I am Margaret"s body and soul. I told you that the first time we ate our meal together, even before your white tent went up."
When Abdul managed to subdue his master"s fears, he laughed wildly and idiotically. "Of course it is only you, Abdul. I had forgotten. I seem to forget everything . . . I thought that . . ." here his words became incoherent. "I was so tired, Abdul, and you were sitting up in the sky above the horizon . . . so very tired."
Abdul fanned his babbling master and offered him a cooling drink.
Michael swallowed it eagerly; his bright eyes gazed pitifully into Abdul"s after the last drain was swallowed.
"Don"t let the other woman come near me," he pleaded. "She is wearing all Akhnaton"s precious stones--they are hung round her neck, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s are covered with them. But her skin is so white and tender, the sun is burning it--I must lend her my coat." He laughed horribly.
"Mean little beast, Abdul, how frightened she was! The saint gave me the amethyst--it"s for Margaret."
Abdul listened to these strange outpourings with the philosophy and trust of a devout Moslem. If Allah willed it, He would let his master recover. He had put the Effendi in his care, and no trouble was anything but a pleasure to him if it brought some sense of ease and comfort to the delirious Michael.
The _Omdeh_ was the very soul of hospitality. He observed the teachings of the Koran in the spirit as well as in the letter. He spoke no English, so he was ignorant of all that Michael"s delirious words conveyed to Abdul. On his master"s concerns, Abdul was a well of secrecy.
By night and by day he heard him go over the same ground again and again. His life in Egypt for the last few months was expressed in broken sentences and vivid declarations, uttered sometimes with astonishing gravity and lucidity. At times Abdul was deceived into thinking that he was conscious, that his reasoning powers had returned, that he was quite sensible. But he was soon undeceived by a sudden breaking-off in the continuity of the words, or a return to confused, half-meaningless sentences. It was only by the constant repet.i.tion that Abdul learned the whole truth. A bit out of one raving fitted into another, and things hard to explain were made clear.
Once he said very gravely, "Hada.s.sah Ireton will help Margaret, the beautiful Hada.s.sah. She is more beautiful than Margaret, Abdul, much more beautiful, but Margaret is the mistress of my happiness."
Abdul answered by saying, "_Aiwah_, Effendi, she is your guarded lady, she will be the mother of your sons."
"She who sends me to rest with a sweet voice, and with her beautiful hands bearing two sistrums."
Abdul was ignorant of the fact that his master was quoting the words of Akhnaton, as written in the tomb of Ay in reference to his queen. He thought they were his master"s own words, and so thinking, his heart was cheered, for Michael"s voice was gentle and reasonable. But the hope was suddenly wiped out.
"Are the camels ready, Abdul? We must get away, get away from the woman. It"s the only way. And you thought I cared, you came in sorrow to tell me that the little beast had slipped away, just while Margaret was standing among the daffodils. I heard her calling, calling in the breeze. I was in England with Margaret."
Abdul saw that he had been mistaken. His master had never been sensible; he was declaiming again, in his high-pitched, unnatural voice.
"I was a Christian--they wouldn"t allow me to see the holy man buried.
But he gave me the jewel, the gem precious beyond all rubies. Abdul covered his poor body with quick-lime; he said it would prevent infection. Freddy won"t believe it, Margaret, so we won"t tell him--he would only laugh. "A child of G.o.d shall lead you"--that is what the old African said. But I never told Freddy; he thinks I stand on my head . . . Abdul! Abdul!" Michael"s cry was ringing forlorn. "Do you see the Government flag? It"s all up, Abdul, it"s all moonshine!
We"re too late, too late. Freddy will say that Millicent detained me!
Is it the fluttering flag of the saint? It was Millicent who saw it in the sunlight."
In despair Abdul recited a _sura_ from the Koran. "The G.o.d Who gives a good reward for the good deeds of His creatures, and does not waste anyone"s labour."
Michael took up the last words of Abdul"s prayer, in the way in which a delirious mind will often carry on a sentence which drifts to the brain.
"Nothing is ever wasted, Freddy--I"ve told you that over and over again. You say I waste my time. You won"t say so, when you see the jewels. The saint kept it in his ear, Abdul--wasn"t that clever for a child of G.o.d? Look, look, Abdul!" Michael stared into the distance; his eyes became transfixed; he was excited, strong physically.
"Millicent"s small b.r.e.a.s.t.s are so white, so white and fair. Her two b.r.e.a.s.t.s are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, that feed among the lilies. They are covered with jewels, they catch the sunlight. How beautiful she is! Do you see her, Abdul? She is walking in the air in front of me, all the way, Mohammed Ali"s "golden lady.""
Abdul applied a wet towel to his master"s burning temples. He sank back on his pillow exhausted; his voice became low and feeble.
"The little white tent, it is always calling, calling, its open door is always inviting me. Why does it say, all day long, "Turn in, my lord, turn in"? But Margaret came to me, she saved me. Listen--can you hear the bells, Abdul? I heard them in the night, they sounded like the bubbling of water. Then peace came, peace, when the woman had sneaked away. Freddy always said I walked on my head, Abdul; he always declared that the whole affair was moonshine, no one in their senses would believe it. I always believe in people who have no sense, for G.o.d gives finer _senses_ to people who have no sense. Sense never sees beyond, Abdul."
Often he became very wild; broken sentences would pour from his lips, the foolish, unmeaning ravings of a fevered brain.
After these wild outbursts intervals of exhaustion would set in, in which he would lie in a semi-conscious state of stillness. On one such occasion the stillness was suddenly broken by the solemn recitation, in exactly Abdul"s devout tones, of the Mohammedan rosary. When he reached the sixty-third attribute of G.o.d, he repeated it with great unction. Then his pious tones suddenly changed to a querulous cry.
"Abdul, why do you go on saying "O Source of Discovery"? You know that we"ve discovered nothing, nothing at all. It"s all mere moonshine. I wish Abdul would stop--he"s sitting in the sky above the horizon, repeating those same silly words over and over again! If I could only get at him . . . but the horizon never gets any nearer." He laughed vulgarly and hoa.r.s.ely, and then lost the trend of his thoughts. "It was a crimson amethyst--he always kept it in his ear. They buried me, Meg, beside the saint. The sand drifts very quickly, it runs and runs along the surface of the desert, so quickly and silently, like oozing water over a dry river-bed." He gazed wildly at Abdul. "Will you tell my old friend at el-Azhar that I have been dead for a long time? Tell him that the sands drift very quickly. Margaret mustn"t cry. The wind is the desert grave-digger. Take your wicked hands away!" Abdul had touched his wrist. "You"ll never, never tempt me any more, because I"m dead, I tell you. I was go tired, I got off my camel, and lay down, and you ran away, you little coward. And the sands covered me, and I"m dead, thank G.o.d!"
Abdul waited and watched and trusted in Allah. His devotion was complete; he surrendered himself to his master in his material life as completely as he surrendered himself spiritually to his G.o.d. And he had his reward, for gradually Michael"s youth and splendid const.i.tution a.s.serted themselves; the fever abated--natives have their own wise methods of treating it. There were days when he seemed almost well, far on the way to recovery, but they were often followed by hours of reaction and high delirium. These reactions were familiar to Abdul; they did not depress him. Nevertheless they required time and patience. It was Michael"s first attack of fever, and therefore he was able to throw it off more completely than if his system had been undermined by it.
To Abdul his convalescent stage was a time of perfect content. As is often the case with Orientals, he loved his European master with a sentiment and romance which finds no equivalent in Western natures.
This sentiment and romance had increased intensely during Michael"s illness. Abdul now looked upon him as a personal possession; he had nursed him back to life and health; he was a gift which Allah had placed in his hands. He had no sons of his own, so his master filled the unforgettable void. His conversion to Islam was Abdul"s most earnest prayer.
The only cloud in his blue sky was the knowledge that Michael was disappointed and distressed by the fact that he had not, in some manner or other, let the Effendi Lampton know that he was seriously ill.
Abdul could not have written himself, for he could neither read nor write English; he always spoke to Michael in Arabic. It was therefore impossible for him to write to the Effendi Lampton, and to the native mind time was of so little account that one day was as good as another.
Besides, deep down in his heart there was a pool of jealousy; he wished to nurse his beloved master back to life and health with his own hands.
If the Effendi Lampton knew that he was ill, he would come to him or send someone to wait upon him who would rob him of his sweet work. And to do Abdul justice, he did not know if his master would like any stranger, or even the Effendi Lampton himself, to know all the secrets of his heart which his ravings revealed. Michael had so often expressed the wish to Abdul that it should be from his own lips, or from his own letters, that the Effendi Lampton should hear that the harlot had been with them in the desert, and the whole story of their desert journey.
Abdul was quite convinced that his master"s letters had not yet been delivered at the hut in the Valley. It did not seem to him a very long time for a letter to take to travel across the desert and the Nile.
The carrying of news was a different matter; he had a native"s knowledge of how that can be transmitted with great rapidity. A letter belonged to a widely-different means of communication. And so he let the matter rest.
To the hospitable _Omdeh_ he confided nothing. The old man was pleased and delighted to have Michael as his guest. During the patient"s rapid recovery, after his first weeks of intermittent convalescence, he was as pleased as a child to be allowed to entertain Michael with all the delights which he had held out before his eyes when he had invited him to spend two or three days with him, before he journeyed to the camp in the hills.
During that time Michael became learned in the points of well-bred gazelles. He saw some native dancers, both male and female, who charmed him with their beauty and their art. And he listened so many times to celebrated _A"laleeyeh_ (professional musicians) that, with the help of the _Omdeh_, be became familiar with the remarkable peculiarity in the Arab system of music--its division of tones into thirds. Egyptian musicians consider that the European system of music is deficient in sounds. This small and delicate gradation of sound gives a peculiar softness to the performance of good Arab musicians.