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Page 3
"You have been so kind," the girl murmured, and poured a cup of tea
the Arab had placed at her elbow.
The young man ignored his. The color burned hotter and hotter in his
face. Even his hair looked redder.
"The look he gave up here was simply outrageous--a grin of insolent
triumph. I'd like to have laid my cane across him!"
The girl's cup clicked against the saucer. "You are horrid!" she
declared. "When we were on shipboard Captain Kerissen was very
popular among the passengers and I talked with him whenever I cared
to. Everyone did. Now that I am in his native city I see no reason
to stalk past him when we happen to be going in the same direction.
He is a gentleman of rank, a relative of the Khedive who is ruling
this country--under your English advice--and he is----"
"A Turk!" gritted out the young man.
"A Turk and proud of it! His mother was French, however, and he was
educated at Oxford and he is as cosmopolitan as any man I ever met.
It's unusual to meet anyone so close to the reigning family, and it
gives one a wonderful insight into things off the beaten track----"
"The beaten--damn!" said the young man, and Billy's heart went out
to him. "Oh, I beg pardon, but you--he--I--" So many things occurred
to him to say at one and the same time that he emitted a snort of
warring and incoherent syllables. Finally, with supreme control, "Do
you know that your 'gentleman of rank' couldn't set foot in a
gentleman's club in this country?"
"I think it's _mean_!" retorted the girl, her blue eyes very bright
and indignant. "You English come here and look down on even the
highest members of the country you are pretending to assist. Why do
you? When he was at Oxford he went into your English homes."
"English madhouses--for admitting him."
A brief silence ensued.
The girl ate a cake. It was a nice cake, powdered with almonds, but
she ate it obliviously. The angry red shone rosily in her cheeks.
The young man took a hasty drink of his tea, which had grown cold
in its cup, and pushed it away. Obstinately he rushed on in his mad
career.
"I simply cannot understand you!" he declared.
"Does it matter?" said she, and bit an almond's head off.
"It would be bad enough, in any city, but in Cairo--! To permit him
to insult you with his company, alone, upon the streets!"
"When you have said insult you have said a little too much," she
returned in a small, cold voice of war. "Is there anything against
Captain Kerissen personally?"
"Who knows anything about any of those fellows? They are all
alike--with half a dozen wives locked up behind their barred
windows."
"He isn't married."
"How do you know?"
"I--inferred it."
The Englishman snorted: "According to his custom, you know, it isn't
the proper thing to mention his ladies in public."
"You are frightfully unjust. Captain Kerissen's customs are the
customs of the civilized world, and he is very anxious to have his
country become modernized."
"Then let him send his sisters out walking with fellow officers....
For _him_ to walk beside _you_----"
"He was following the custom of my country," said the girl, with
maddening superiority. "Since I am an _American_ girl----"
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