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Page 91
Not, maybe, the love which stands sweet and sturdy like the stocky
hyacinth, to bloom afresh, no matter how often the flowers be struck, or
the leaves be bruised, from the humdrum bulb deep in the soil of quiet
content. But the God-given, iridescent love of youth for youth, with its
passion so swift, so sweet; a love like the rose-bud which hangs
half-closed over the door in the dawn; which is wide-flung to the sun at
noon; which scatters its petals at dusk.
The rose!
She has filled your days with the memory of her fragrance; her leaves
still scent the night from out the sealed crystal vase which is your
heart.
But, an' you would attain the priceless boon of peace, see to it that a
humdrum bulb be planted in the brown flower-pot which is your home.
And because of this God-given love of youth which was causing her heart
to thud and the blood to race through her veins, she did not withdraw her
hands when he held and kissed them and pressed his forehead upon them.
"Lotus-flower," he whispered so that she could scarcely hear. "Bud of
innocence! ivory tower of womanhood! temple of love! Beloved, beloved, I
am at thy feet." And he knelt and kissed the little feet in the heelless
little slippers; then, rising, took both her hands and led her to the
door; and his eyes were filled with a great sadness, in spite of the joy
which sang in his heart as he took her into the shelter of his arms.
"I love thee too well," he said, as he bent and kissed the riotous curls
so near his mouth. "Yea I love thee too well to snatch thee even as a
hungry dog snatches his food, though, verily, I be more near to starving
than any hungry dog. What dost thou know of love, of life, in the
strange countries of the East? For thy life will be a desert life, my
love, if once thou art my wife. Look up; look around thee." He pointed
to the stars, he pointed to the dim horizon of the desert over which at
that very moment was padding that hound Fate. "Wilt thou be content with
that, and with me and thy children? Wilt thou not yearn for the comforts
of thy heated rooms, the company of those who will point the finger of
scorn, maybe, at thee as they have pointed it at my mother?"
He spared her not one jot as he made plain to her what might be the
result of her marriage. She would not be marrying the pure-bred son of a
splendid race, as his mother had done; she would be the wife of a
half-caste, the mixed off-spring of two great races; her children would
be half-castes, outcast from their rightful heritage of the sons of the
East and the West. The women of her race would not own her, the women of
his father's race would not permit her children to play with theirs.
Wealth, palaces, camels, horses, jewels would be hers; a place for her
children in the seat of his fathers, or her fathers, _never_.
"I should be strong, I should be strong, for in my heart something tells
me that I am thinking of my happiness and not thine."
"Your mother," whispered Damaris, so softly that he had to bend, his head
lower still, so that when she moved, in the pain of his arms which
crushed her, her cheek brushed his. "_She_ is happy--everyone says so."
Happy! Yes, she was happy, his beloved, most honoured mother; at least
she had been, until there had come the question of her child's happiness,
her half-caste child!
Then he laughed, joyfully, stretched the girl's arms wide, then crushed
her hands above her heart.
"Of course! of course!" he cried. "They are at my House 'an Mahabbha,
the House of Love, even now, where they have met to see if they, the
dears, thy wise old godmother, my beautiful wise mother, can find an
answer to this very question."
They were not. Sick with suspense, they had landed on the far side of
the Nile, on their race with Time to the Gate of To-morrow.
"We will go to them to-morrow, thou and I. To the Gate of To-morrow,
thou with the mare Pi-Kay, I with the stallion Sooltan, who will
well-nigh kill thy mare, my woman, in jealousy. Yea!" He bent and
whispered in her ear so quietly, so coldly as to cause the girl to
tremble. "As I will kill anyone who looks at thee when thou art my wife."
Then he laughed like a boy as he swung her round and held her at
arm's-length by both hands. "We will start to-morrow to meet them, when
we will lay the question before them. And then--and then--why------?"
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