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Page 10
"They are, the both, of the ball of the Khedive," he continued in
his English, which was, though amazingly fluent and ready, a literal
sounding translation of the French, which was in reality his mother
tongue. "My sister thinks she can arrange that invitation. You are
sure that you will be returned at Cairo, then?"
"Oh, dear, yes! I would come back by train," Arlee declared eagerly,
"rather than miss that wonderful ball!"
She thought how astonished a certain red-headed young Englishman
would be to see her at that ball, and how fortunate she was compared
to his haughty and disappointed friend, the Lady Claire, and the
chill of her resentment against the Captain's intrusion vanished
like snow in the warmth of her gratitude.
"Good!" He smiled at her with a flash of white teeth. "Then my
sister herself will see one of the household of the Khedive and
request the invitation for you and for your chaperon, the
Madame----"
"Eversham."
"Eversham. She will be included for you, but not the daughter--no?"
"Is that asking too much?" said Arlee hesitantly. "Miss Eversham
would feel badly to be left out.... But, anyway, I'm not sure that I
shall be with them then," she reflected.
"Not with them?" The young man leaned forward, his eyes curiously
intent upon her.
"No, I may be with some other friends. You see, it's this way--I
didn't come abroad with the Evershams in the first place. I came in
the fall with a school friend and her mother to see Italy. The
Evershams were friends of theirs and were stopping at the same
hotel, and since my friends were called back very suddenly, the
Evershams asked me to go on to Egypt with them. It was very nice of
them, for I'm a dreadful bother," said Arlee, dimpling.
"But you speak of leaving them?" he said.
"Oh, yes, I may do that as soon as some other friends of mine, the
Maynards, reach here. They are coming here on their way to the Holy
Land and I want to take that trip with them. And then I'll probably
go back to America with them."
The Turkish captain stared at her, his dark eyes rather inscrutable,
though a certain wonder was permitted to be felt in them.
"You American girls--your ways are absolute like the decrees of
Allah!" he laughed softly. "But tell me--what will your father and
your mother say to this so rapidly changing from the one chaperon to
the other?"
"I haven't any father or mother," said the girl. "I have a big,
grown-up, married brother, and he knows I wouldn't change from one
party unless it was all right." She laughed amusedly at the young
man's comic gesture of bewilderment. "You think we American girls
are terribly independent."
"I do, indeed," he avowed, "but," and he inclined his dark head in
graceful gallantry, "it is the independence of the princess of the
blood royal."
A really nice way of putting it, Arlee thought, contrasting the
chivalrous homage of this Oriental with the dreadful "American
goose!" of the Anglo-Saxon.
"But tell me," he went on, studying her face with an oddly intent
look, "do these friends now, the Evershams, know these others,
the--the----"
"Maynards," she supplied. "Oh, no, they have never met each other.
The Maynards are friends I made at school. And Brother has never met
them either," she added, enjoying his humorous mystification.
"The decrees of Allah!" he murmured again. "But I will promise you
an invitation for your chaperon and arrange for the name of the lady
later--_n'est-ce-pas?_"
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