XIX
Victoria did not wait in her room to be told that the carriage had cometo take her away. It was better, Si Maieddine had said, that only a fewpeople should know the exact manner of her going. A few minutes beforeseven, therefore, she went down to the entrance-hall of the hotel, whichwas not yet lighted. Her appearance was a signal for the Arab porter,who was waiting, to run softly upstairs and return with her handluggage.
For some moments Victoria stood near the door, interesting herself in amap of Algeria which hung on the wall. A clock began to strike as hereyes wandered over the desert, and was on the last stroke of seven, whena carriage drove up. It was drawn by two handsome brown mules withleather and copper harness which matched the colour of their shiningcoats, and was driven by a heavy, smooth-faced Negro in a white turbanand an embroidered cafetan of dark blue. The carriage windows wereshuttered, and as the black coachman pulled up his mules, he lookedneither to the right nor to the left. It was the hotel porter who openedthe door, and as Victoria stepped in without delay, he thrust twohand-bags after her, snapping the door sharply.
It was almost dark inside the carriage, but she could see a whitefigure, which in the dimness had neither face nor definite shape; andthere was a perfume as of aromatic amulets grown warm on a human body.
"Pardon, lady, I am Hsina, the servant of Lella M'Barka Bent Djellab,sent to wait upon thee," spoke a soft and guttural voice, in Arabic."Blessings be upon thee!"
"And upon thee blessings," Victoria responded in the Arab fashion whichshe had learned while many miles of land and sea lay between her and thecountry of Islam. "I was told to expect thee."
"Eihoua!" cried the woman, "The little pink rose has the gift oftongues!" As she grew accustomed to the twilight, Victoria made out ablack face, and white teeth framed in a large smile. A pair of dark eyesglittered with delight as the Roumia answered in Arabic, although Arabicwas not the language of the negress's own people. She chattered as shehelped Victoria into a plain white gandourah. The white hat and hat-pinsamused her, and when she had arranged the voluminous haick in spite ofthe joltings of the carriage, she examined these European curiositieswith interest. Whenever she moved, the warm perfume of amulets grewstronger, overpowering the faint mustiness of the cushions andupholstery.
"Never have I held such things in my hands!" Hsina gurgled. "Yet oftenhave I wished that I might touch them, when driving with my mistress andpeeping at the passers by, and the strange finery of foreign women inthe French bazaars."
Victoria listened politely, answering if necessary; yet her interest wasconcentrated in peering through the slits in the wooden shutter of thenearest window. She did not know Algiers well enough to recognizelandmarks; but after driving for what seemed like fifteen or twentyminutes through streets where lights began to turn the twilight blue,she caught a glint of the sea. Almost immediately the trotting mulesstopped, and the negress Hsina, hiding Victoria's hat in the folds ofher haick, turned the handle of the door.
Victoria looked out into azure dusk, and after the closeness of theshuttered carriage, thankfully drew in a breath of salt-laden air. Onequick glance showed her a street near the sea, on a level not much abovethe gleaming water. There were high walls, evidently very old, hidingArab mansions once important, and there were other ancient dwellings,which had been partly transformed for business or military uses by theFrench. The girl's hasty impression was of a melancholy neighbourhoodwhich had been rich and stately long ago in old pirate days, perhaps.
There was only time for a glance to right and left before a nailed dooropened in the flatness of a whitewashed wall which was the front of anArab house. No light shone out, but the opening of the door proved thatsome one had been listening for the sound of carriage wheels.
"Descend, lady. I will follow with thy baggage," said Hsina.
The girl obeyed, but she was suddenly conscious of a qualm as she had toturn from the blue twilight, to pass behind that half-open door intodarkness, and the mystery of unknown things.
Before she had time to put her foot to the ground the door was thrownwide open, and two stout Negroes dressed exactly alike in flowing whiteburnouses stepped out of the house to stand on either side the carriagedoor. Raising their arms as high as their heads they made two whitewalls of their long cloaks between which Victoria could pass, as ifenclosed in a narrow aisle. Hsina came close upon her heels; and as theyreached the threshold of the house the white-robed black servantsdropped their arms, followed the two women, and shut the nailed door.Then, despite the dimness of the place, they bowed their heads turningaside as if humbly to make it evident that their unworthy eyes did notventure to rest upon the veiled form of their mistress's guest. As forHsina, she, too, was veiled, though her age and ugliness would havepermitted her face to be revealed without offence to Mussulman ideas ofpropriety. It was mere vanity on her part to preserve the mystery asdear to the heart of the Moslem woman as to the jealous prejudice of theman.
A faint glittering of the walls told Victoria that the corridor she hadentered was lined with tiles; and she could dimly see seats let in likelow shelves along its length, on either side. It was but a shortpassage, with a turn into a second still shorter. At the end of thishung a dark curtain, which Hsina lifted for Victoria to pass on, roundanother turn into a wider hall, lit by an Arab lamp with glass panesframed in delicately carved copper. The chain which suspended it fromcedar beams swayed slightly, causing the light to move from colour tocolour of the old tiles, and to strike out gleams from the marble floorand ivory-like pillars set into the walls. The end of this corridor alsowas masked by a curtain of wool, dyed and woven by the hands of nomadtribes, tent-dwellers in the desert; and when Hsina had lifted it,Victoria saw a small square court with a fountain in the centre.
It was not on a grand scale, like those in the palace owned by NevillCaird; but the fountain was graceful and charming, ornamented with thecarved, bursting pomegranates beloved by the Moors of Granada, and themarble columns which supported a projecting balcony were wreathed withred roses and honeysuckle.
On each of the four sides of the quadrangle, paved with black and whitemarble, there were little windows, and large glass doors draped on theinside with curtains thin enough to show faint pink and golden lights.
"O my mistress, Lella M'Barka, I have brought thy guest!" cried Hsina,in a loud, sing-song voice, as if she were chanting; whereupon one ofthe glass doors opened, letting out a rosy radiance, and a Bedouinwoman-servant dressed in a striped foutah appeared on the threshold. Shewas old, with crinkled grey hair under a scarlet handkerchief, and ablue cross was tattooed between her eyes.
"In the name of Lella M'Barka be thou welcome," she said. "My mistresshas been suffering all day, and fears to rise, lest her strength failfor to-morrow's journey, or she would come forth to meet thee, O Flowerof the West! As it is, she begs that thou wilt come to her. But firstsuffer me to remove thy haick, that the eyes of Lella M'Barka may berefreshed by thy beauty."
She would have unfastened the long drapery, but Hsina put downVictoria's luggage, and pushing away the two brown hands, tattooed withblue mittens, she herself unfastened the veil. "No, this is _my_ lady,and my work, Fafann," she objected.
"But it is my duty to take her in," replied the Bedouin woman,jealously. "It is the wish of Lella M'Barka. Go thou and make ready theroom of the guest."
Hsina flounced away across the court, and Fafann held open both the doorand the curtains. Victoria obeyed her gesture and went into the roombeyond. It was long and narrow, with a ceiling of carved wood painted incolours which had once been violent, but were now faded. The walls werepartly covered with hangings like the curtains that shaded the glassdoor; but, on one side, between gold-embroidered crimson draperies, werewindows, and in the white stucco above, showed lace-like openings,patterned to represent peacocks, the tails jewelled with glass ofdifferent colours. On the opposite side opened doors of dark wood inlaidwith mother-o'-pearl; and these stood ajar, revealing rows of shelveslittered with little gilded
bottles, or piled with beautiful brocadesthat were shot with gold in the pink light of an Arab lamp.
There was little furniture; only a few low, round tables, or maidas,completely overlaid with the snow of mother-o'-pearl; two or threetabourets of the same material, and, at one end of the room a low divan,where something white and orange-yellow and purple lay half buried incushions.
Though the light was dim, Victoria could see as she went nearer a thinface the colour of pale amber, and a pair of immense dark eyes thatglittered in deep hollows. A thin woman of more than middle age, withblack hair, silver-streaked, moved slightly and held out an emaciatedhand heavy with rings. Her head was tied round with a silk handkerchiefor takrita of pansy purple; she wore seroual, full trousers of softwhite silk, and under a gold-threaded orange-coloured jacket or rlila, ablouse of lilac gauze, covered with sequins and open at the neck. On thebony arm which she held out to Victoria hung many bracelets, goldenserpents of Djebbel Amour, and pearls braided with gold wire and coralbeads. Her great eyes, ringed with kohl, had a tortured look, and therewere hollows under the high cheek-bones. If she had ever been handsome,all beauty of flesh had now been drained away by suffering; yet strickenas she was there remained an almost indefinable distinction, an air ofsupreme pride befitting a princess of the Sahara.
Her scorching fingers pressed Victoria's hand, as she gazed up at thegirl's face with hungry curiosity and interest such as the Spirit ofDeath might feel in looking at the Spirit of Life.
"Thou art fresh and fair, O daughter, as a lily bud opening in the sprayof a fountain, and radiant as sunrise shining on a desert lake," shesaid in a weary voice, slightly hoarse, yet with some flutelike notes."My cousin spoke but truth of thee. Thou art worthy of a reward at theend of that long journey we shall take together, thou, and he, and I. Ihave never seen thy sister whom thou seekest, but I have friends, whoknew her in other days. For her sake and thine own, kiss me on mycheeks, for with women of my race, it is the seal of friendship."
Victoria bent and touched the faded face under each of the great burningeyes. The perfume of _ambre_, loved in the East, came up to hernostrils, and the invalid's breath was aflame.
"Art thou strong enough for a journey, Lella M'Barka?" the girl asked.
"Not in my own strength, but in that which Allah will give me, I shallbe strong," the sick woman answered with controlled passion. "Eversince I knew that I could not hope to reach Mecca, and kiss the sacredblack stone, or pray in the Mosque of the holy Lella Fatima, I havewished to visit a certain great marabout in the south. The pity of Allahfor a daughter who is weak will permit the blessing of this marabout,who has inherited the inestimable gift of Baraka, to be the same to me,body and soul, as the pilgrimage to Mecca which is beyond the power ofmy flesh. Another must say for me the Fatakah there. I believe that Ishall be healed, and have vowed to give a great feast if I return toAlgiers, in celebration of the miracle. Had it not been for my cousin'swish that I should go with thee, I should not have felt that the hourhad come when I might face the ordeal of such a journey to the farsouth. But the prayer of Si Maieddine, who, after his father, is thelast man left of his line, has kindled in my veins a fire which Ithought had burnt out forever. Have no fear, daughter. I shall be readyto start at dawn to-morrow."
"Does the marabout who has the gift of Baraka live near the place whereI must go to find my sister?" Victoria inquired, rather timidly; for shedid not know how far she might venture to question Si Maieddine'scousin.
Lella M'Barka looked at her suddenly and strangely. Then her facesettled into a sphinx-like expression, as if she had been turned tostone. "I shall be thy companion to the end of thy journey," sheanswered in a dull, tired tone. "Wilt thou visit thy room now, or wiltthou remain with me until Fafann and Hsina bring thy evening meal? Ihope that thou wilt sup here by my side: yet if it pains thee to takefood near one in ill health, who does not eat, speak, and thou shalt beserved in another place."
Victoria hastened to protest that she would prefer to eat in the companyof her hostess, which seemed to please Lella M'Barka. She began to askthe girl questions about herself, complimenting her upon her knowledgeof Arabic; and Victoria answered, though only half her brain seemed tobe listening. She was glad that she had trusted Si Maieddine, and shefelt safe in the house of his cousin; but now that she was removed fromEuropean influences, she could not see why the mystery concerning BenHalim and the journey which would lead to his house, should be kept up.She had read enough books about Arab customs and superstitions to knowthat there are few saints believed to possess the gift of Baraka, thepower given by Allah for the curing of all fleshly ills. Only the verygreatest of the marabouts are supposed to have this power, receiving itdirect from Allah, or inheriting it from a pious saint--father or moredistant relative--who handed down the maraboutship. Therefore, if shehad time and inclination, she could probably learn from any devoutMussulman the abiding places of all such famous saints as remained uponthe earth. In that way, by setting her wits to work, she might guess thesecret if Si Maieddine still tried to make a mystery of theirdestination. But, somehow, she felt that it would not be fair to seekinformation which he did not want her to have. She must go on trustinghim, and by and by he would tell her all she wanted to know.
Lella M'Barka had invited her guest to sit on cushions beside the divanwhere she lay, and the interest in her feverish eyes, which seldom leftVictoria's face, was so intense as to embarrass the girl.
"Thou hast wondrous hair," she said, "and when it is unbound it must bea fountain of living gold. Is it some kind of henna grown in thycountry, which dyes it that beautiful colour?"
Victoria told her that Nature alone was the dyer.
"Thou art not yet affianced; that is well," murmured the invalid. "Ouryoung girls have their hair tinted with henna when they are betrothed,that they may be more fair in the eyes of their husbands. But thoucouldst scarcely be lovelier than thou art; for thy skin is of pearl,though there is no paint upon it, and thy lips are pink as rose petals.Yet a little messouak to make them scarlet, like coral, and kohl togive thine eyes lustre would add to thy brilliancy. Also the hand ofwoman reddened with henna is as a brazier of rosy flame to kindle theheart of a lover. When thou seest thy sister, thou wilt surely find thatshe has made herself mistress of these arts, and many more."
"Canst thou tell me nothing of her, Lella M'Barka?"
"Nothing, save that I have a friend who has said she was fair. And it isnot many moons since I heard that she was blessed with health."
"Is she happy?" Victoria was tempted to persist.
"She should be happy. She is a fortunate woman. Would I could tell theemore, but I live the life of a mole in these days, and have littleknowledge. Thou wilt see her with thine own eyes before long, I have nodoubt. And now comes food which my women have prepared for thee. In myhouse, all are people of the desert, and we keep the desert customs,since my husband has been gathered to his fathers--my husband, to whosehouse in Algiers I came as a bride from the Sahara. Such a meal as thouwilt eat to-night, mayst thou eat often with a blessing, in the countryof the sun."
Fafann, who had softly left the room when the guest had been introduced,now came back, with great tinkling of khal-khal, and mnaguach, the hugeearrings which hung so low as to strike the silver beads twisted roundher throat. She was smiling, and pleasantly excited at the presence of avisitor whose arrival broke the tiresome monotony of an invalid'shousehold. When she had set one of the pearly maidas in front ofVictoria's seat of cushions, she held back the curtains for Hsina toenter, carrying a copper tray. This the negress placed on the maida, anduncovered a china bowl balanced in a silver stand, like a giant coffeecup of Moorish fashion. It contained hot soup, called cheurba, in whichHsina had put so much fell-fell, the red pepper loved by Arabs, thatVictoria's lips were burned. But it was good, and she would not wincethough the tears stung her eyes as she drank, for Lella M'Barka and thetwo servants were watching her eagerly.
Afterwards came a kouskous of chicken and farina,
which she ate with alarge spoon whose bowl was of tortoiseshell, the handle of ivory tippedwith coral. Then, when the girl hoped there might be nothing more,appeared tadjine, a ragout of mutton with artichokes and peas, followedby a rich preserve of melon, and many elaborate cakes iced with pink andpurple sugar, and powdered with little gold sequins that had to bepicked off as the cake was eaten. At last, there was thick, sweetcoffee, in a cup like a little egg-shell supported in filigree gold (forno Mussulman may touch lip to metal), and at the end Fafann pouredrosewater over Victoria's fingers, wiping them on a napkin of finedamask.
"Now thou hast eaten and drunk, thou must allow thyself to be dressed bymy women in the garments of an Arab maiden of high birth, which I haveready for thee," said Lella M'Barka, brightening with the eagerness of alittle child at the prospect of dressing a beautiful new doll. "Fafannshall bring everything here, and thou shalt be told how to robe thyselfafterwards. I wish to see that all is right, for to-morrow morning thoumust arise while it is still dark, that we may start with the firstdawn."
Fafann and Hsina had forgotten their jealousies in the delight of thenew play. They moved about, laughing and chattering, and were notchidden for the noise they made. From shelves behind the inlaid doors inthe wall, they took down exquisite boxes of mother-o'-pearl and redtortoiseshell. Also there were small bundles wrapped in gold brocade,and tied round with bright green cord. These were all laid on adim-coloured Kairouan rug, at the side of the divan, and the two womensquatted on the floor to open them, while their mistress leaned on herthin elbow among cushions, and skins of golden jackal from the Sahara.
From one box came wide trousers of white silk, like Lella M'Barka's;from another, vests of satin and velvet of pale shades embroidered withgold or silver. A fat parcel contained delicately tinted stockings andhigh-heeled slippers of different sizes. A second bundle containedblouses of thin silk and gauze, and in a pearl box were pretty littlechechias of sequined velvet, caps so small as to fit the head closely;and besides these, there were sashes and gandourahs, and haicks whiteand fleecy, woven from the softest wool.
When everything was well displayed, the Bedouin and the negress sprangup, lithe as leopards, and to Victoria's surprise began to undress her.
"Please let me do it myself!" she protested, but they did not listen orunderstand, chattering her into silence, as if they had been livelythough elderly monkeys. Giggling over the hooks and buttons which werecomical to them, they turned and twisted her between their hands,fumbling at neck and waist with black fingers, and brown fingerstattooed blue, until she, too, began to laugh. She laughed herself intohelplessness, and encouraged by her wild merriment, and Lella M'Barka'ssmiles and exclamations punctuated with fits of coughing, they set towork at pulling out hairpins, and the tortoise-shell combs that kept theRoumia's red gold waves in place. At last down tumbled the thick curlylocks which Stephen Knight had thought so beautiful when they flowedround her shoulders in the Dance of the Shadow.
The invalid made her kneel, just as she was in her petticoat, in orderto pass long, ringed fingers through the soft masses, and lift them upfor the pleasure of letting them fall. When the golden veil, as LellaM'Barka called it, had been praised and admired over and over again, theorder was given to braid it in two long plaits, leaving the ends to curlas they would. Then, the game of dressing the doll could begin, butfirst the embroidered petticoat of batiste with blue ribbons at the topof its flounce, and the simple pretty little stays had to be examinedwith keen interest. Nothing like these things had ever been seen bymistress or servants, except in occasional peeps through shutteredcarriage windows when passing French shops: for Lella M'Barka BentDjellab, daughter of Princes of Touggourt, was what young Arabs call"vieux turban." She was old-fashioned in her ideas, would have noEuropean furniture or decorations, and until to-night had neverconsented to know a Roumia, much less receive one into her house. Shehad felt that she was making a great concession in granting her cousin'srequest, but she had forgotten her sense of condescension inentertaining an unveiled girl, a Christian, now that she saw what thegirl was like. She was too old and lonely to be jealous of Victoria'sbeauty; and as Si Maieddine, her favourite cousin, deigned to admirethis young foreigner, Lella M'Barka took an unselfish pride in each ofthe American girl's charms.
When she was dressed to all outward appearances precisely like thedaughter of a high-born Arab family, Fafann brought a mirror framed inmother-o'-pearl, and Victoria could not help admiring herself a little.She wished half unconsciously that Stephen Knight could see her, withhair looped in two great shining braids on either side her face, underthe sequined chechia of sapphire velvet; and then she was ashamed of herown vanity.
Having been dressed, she was obliged to prove, before the three womenwould be satisfied, that she understood how each garment ought to bearranged; and later she had to try on a new gandourah, with a whiteburnouse such as women wear, and the haick she had worn in coming to thehouse. Hsina would help her in the morning, she was told, but it wouldbe better that she should know how to do things properly for herself,since only Fafann would be with them on the journey, and she mightsometimes be busy with Lella M'Barka when Victoria was dressing.
The excitement of adorning the beautiful doll had tired the invalid. Thedark lines under her eyes were very blue, and the flesh of her faceseemed to hang loose, making her look piteously haggard. She offered butfeeble objections when her guest proposed to say good night, and after afew more compliments and blessings, Victoria was able to slip away,escorted by the negress.
The room where she was to sleep was on another side of the court fromthat of Lella M'Barka, but Hsina took great pains to assure her thatthere was nothing to fear. No one could come into this court; andshe--Hsina--slept near by with Fafann. To clap the hands once would beto bring one of them instantly. And Hsina would wake her before dawn.
Victoria's long, narrow sleeping room had the bed across one end, inArab fashion. It was placed in an alcove and built into the wall, withpillars in front, of gilded wood, and yellow brocaded curtains of acurious, Oriental design. At the opposite end of the room stood a largecupboard, like a buffet, beautifully inlaid with mother-o'-pearl, andalong the length of the room ran shelves neatly piled withbright-coloured bed-clothing, or ferrachiyas. Above these shelves textsfrom the Koran were exquisitely illuminated in red, blue and gold, likea frieze; and there were tinselled pictures of relatives of the Prophet,and of Mohammed's Angel-horse, Borak. The floor was covered with soft,dark-coloured rugs; and on a square of white linen was a huge copperbasin full of water, with folded towels laid beside it.
The bed was not uncomfortable, but Victoria could not sleep. She did noteven wish to sleep. It was too wonderful to think that to-morrow shewould be on her way to Saidee.