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Page 85
Dully, Arlee saw the preparations for a meal advancing. She shook
her head at it; a cup of tea was all that she could touch. A
lethargy had seized her; even the anger of revolt was gone. She
closed her eyes languidly, grateful when the old woman went away,
grateful when the darkness deepened. When it was quite night, she
thought, she would break open the wooden screen and fling herself
through the wood into the sands. She lay there passively waiting;
her heavy eyes closed, and she slept.
CHAPTER XVII
AT BAY
Voices sounded below; footsteps hurried; a door slammed. Then feet
upon the stairs, and a hand at the door. Arlee struggled to her feet
in sudden terror; the candle was out and the room was in darkness.
Outside a gale was blowing. The door opened, but the figure which
hurried in was not the one her fright anticipated.
It was the old woman again, bustling with haste. She brought more
candles for the table, and then a tray with a bottle and glasses and
dishes covered with napkins. Then she bestowed her attention to
Arlee, bringing her a mirror and a comb from the hamper she had left
upon the floor, and a cloth thick with powder. Then Arlee was sure.
She stood rigid a moment, listening to that low buzz of voices from
below, then desperately she shook out her tangled hair and combed it
back from her hot face. It was still damp from the water that had
been dashed upon her, and as she knotted it swiftly, soft strands of
it broke away and hung in wet, childish tendrils. She brushed some
powder on her face; she bit her bloodless lips, and stared into the
glass, to see a wan and big-eyed girl staring back affrighted.
Then the door opened, and desperately calling on her courage, Arlee
heard the Captain speaking her name and saw his smiling face
advancing through the shadows.
"A thousand greetings, Mademoiselle. Ah, I am glad to see you." A
strained emotion quivered through the false assurance of his tone.
She stood very straight and tense before him, a childishly small
figure there in the dusk, the blowing candles making strange play of
light and shadow over her. Steadily she answered, "And I am very
glad to see you, Captain Kerissen."
"And I am glad that you are glad." But his ear had caught the
hardness of her voice, for answering irony was in his. Some devil of
delay and disappointment seemed to enter into him, for his face, as
she saw it now in his advancing, struck fright into her. The four
fingers of his right hand were wrapped in a bandage and he extended
his left to her, murmuring an apology. "A slight accident, you see."
"There is so much I do not see that I do not feel like shaking
hands," gave back Arlee. "Captain Kerissen, this is too strange a
situation to be maintained. You must end it."
"It is a very delightful situation," he returned blandly, looking
about with dancing eyes. "To be again your host, even in so poor a
place as this old house of the Sheik--and the place has its
possibilities, Mademoiselle. It is romantic. Your window overlooks
that desert you were so anxious to see. The sunsets----"
"Captain Kerissen, I must say that you use a very strange way to
keep me your guest!"
"I might respond that any way was justifiable so that it kept you a
guest.... But you wrong me. Did I not bring you safely out from that
quarantine, as you besought me?" His smile was mockery itself.
"But you did not bring me to my friends. I do not like your sending
me here, without explanation," she returned, trying to be very wise
and speak quietly and not rouse him to anger. "We passed a city
where the American flags were flying over a house, and I could have
gone there."
"I am sorry you do not care for my hospitality. I did not know that
I was displeasing to you."
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