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Page 24
CHAPTER VIII
"_If God in His wisdom have brought close
The day when I must die,
That day by water or fire or air
My feet shall fall in the destined snare
Wherever my road may lie_."
DANTE GABRIEL ROSETTI
"May I come in? Oh, Maris, what _do_ you think? There is to be a real
native fortune-teller in the Winter Garden. They've made the corner
near the fountain like an Arab's tent, and he'll tell us our horoscopes
in the sand, and all sorts of things."
"Not forgetting the stars, let us hope?"
"Oh, there's sure to be that."
Damaris laughed as she turned in her chair and looked at the excited
little visitor in fancy-dress.
"You _do_ look sweet. A Light of the Harem, for certain."
"Yes; and what do you think? There are three dozen Lights. Isn't it a
shame? I thought I should be the only one. And there are two and a
half dozen Sheikhs, and I don't know how many dozen Bedouins. You
are--what are you? You look awfully--awfully--er--I don't quite know
what."
Damaris adjusted the _selva_, the quaint silver kind of tube between
the eyebrows which connects the yashmak and the _tarhah_ or head-veil,
took a final look in the mirror, and rose.
"I am an Egyptian woman of the humblest class."
She was all in black, as befits a member of that class. The simple
bodice, cut in a yoke, of the black muslin dress fitted her like a
glove; the skirt fell in wide folds from the waist and swung about her
ankles encircled by big brass rings, which clashed as she moved. She
wore the black yashmak and _tarhah_; upon her arms were many brass
bracelets which tinkled; on one hand she wore a ring and there were
flesh-coloured silken hose and sandals upon her feet. She had made a
mistake and henna'd her finger-tips, which members of the humblest
class have not time to do--besides, their patient hands matter so
little--and her great eyes looked as black as the yashmak over which
they shone.
Her beautiful face was hidden, yet was she infinitely alluring,
tantilising, mysterious, under her veils.
Heavens! if only women knew how easy it is to enhance the looks by the
simple method of touching up the eyes with _kohl_ and covering the rest
of the face!
"All of us in veils and masks will have to take them off at one."
"Yes, there'll be the rub," said Damaris, as she knelt down beside the
perplexed, growling bulldog.
"Don't know Missie? Don't love her?"
"Woomph!" replied Wellington, hurling his great weight into her lap.
"How he loves you, Maris!"
"Yes, miss, he does," broke in Jane Coop. "And I firmly believe he's
my mistress's guardian angel."
"After you, Janie dear," said the girl, smiling fondly up at the plump
maid and tying a huge crimson bow round the neck of the long-suffering
animal.
"What is he going as, Maris?"
"A gargle, miss," broke in the maid. "I think it's just fun on the
part of Miss Damaris, because nothing as solid as him,"--pointing of
comb to shamed dog--"could go as anything watery."
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