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Page 29
The fortune-teller had sent word that there would be no more reading of
horoscopes or hands that evening, and had absented himself therewith
through a back entrance.
"You _have_ been a long time," said Ben Kelham. He looked magnificent
as the great Sestoris, who had stood well over six feet in the days of
Ancient Egypt. "What was the man telling you?"
Damaris was disturbed, and it was most unfortunate that, under the spur
of inquietude, he should have chosen just this occasion and this moment
to allow a hint of authority to creep into his voice and a shadow of
proprietorship to show in his actions.
"How do you know who I am?" parried the girl coldly, as she shrugged
the proprietory hand off her shoulder.
"Wellington gave you away. He followed your trail to the tent and sat
growling at everybody until I came along and removed him."
"I wish you would leave the dog alone," said Damaris, with a certain
amount of acerbity. "He is my custos."
"But that is not the kind of guardian you want, Damaris--you are too
beautiful, you know. Let us sit here; it's lovely and warm, and the
stars look just like diamonds, don't they?"
"I would rather walk," said Damaris, who was longing to sit down.
But she sat down when Ben Kelham took her by the elbow and led her to
the seat; and she sat quite still when he suddenly took both her hands.
"Oh! don't, Ben," she said, when he pulled them up against his heart.
"I can't stand any more to-night." And he, being over-slow in the
uptak', failed to catch her in this slip of the tongue.
"I want you for my wife, dear," was all he said.
Then Damaris pulled her hands away and, removing the yashmak, looked up
into his face, whilst he drew a breath sharply at the beauty of her.
"I love you so, dear! I'm a clumsy fool at speaking, but I could show
you how I love you. I want to marry you and take you right away home.
Do you know, I--I don't know how to explain it, but I--somehow feel you
are in danger out here. I--will you------?"
Damaris looked to the right and looked to the left, hesitated and chose
the middle path.
"I can't answer you now, Ben. I'm--I'm not sure about loving you, and,
of course, one can't marry without that on both sides, can one?"
Oh, the blessed little ignoramus!
"Besides," she added as an afterthought, "I'm so young, and so are you."
"Oh, Damaris! Surely you don't want to wait until you find someone
who's had lots of experience, which only means that he hasn't been
playing the game as far as his future wife is concerned and will come
to you like a ready-made suit returned from the cleaner's. The Kelhams
always marry young, and our brides are always very young. That's why,
I think, we're so strong and long-lived." He veered suddenly from the
mazy subject of eugenics and pleaded hard, persuasively, stubbornly.
But Damaris, just as stubbornly, shook her head.
"Besides, Ben, this is unexpected. I haven't seen anything of you
since I have been out; surely, if you love me so, you would have come
over more often to--to--prepare the way."
She unashamedly exposed her hurt, whilst the man inwardly called
himself every kind of a fool for having listened to another's voice
upon a subject as vital and tricky as love.
Still he urged and pleaded, being of those who, refusing to take No as
an answer, usually succeed in attaining their desire.
A wearisome process, but well worth while once in a lifetime, whatever
kind of a clutter those first cousins, obstinacy, stubbornness and
strong will cause you to accumulate about your feet at other times.
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