CHAPTER XXV--BREAKING LOOSE
The road, or rather camel-track, from El Homra to El Hamran passesacross a wide plain of comparatively flat sand, which looks like the bedof a vast lake from which the waters have been drained off. It is a hugehollow separated by high ground from the smaller basin in which theformer oasis is situated. Ranges of hills form the boundaries of thisarea, those to the east being high and many-peaked, the others low andundulating; and from one side of the plain to the other must besomething like twenty miles. There are three wells between the twooases, the second being practically in the centre of the plain, andmarking the half-way point of the journey.
Muriel and her dragoman reached this well at about one o'clock, when thesun was almost directly overhead and the glare intense. It was a deeppool not more than a dozen feet from side to side; but in the clearwater the blue of the sky was so vividly reflected that Muriel, as shestood staring down into it, had the impression that the earth was flatand that she was looking through a hole into further spaces of empty airbeneath.
A few yards distant there were some tamarisks, providing a little patchof shade, almost as blue as the sky and water; and a stone's throw awaythere was a hillock of sand upon which grew a few low and dusty bushes.With these exceptions there was no vegetation to be seen, and the sandstretched out in all directions, barren and dazzling, until the surfacewas lost in vaporous mirage, so that the far-off hills looked likeislands floating above the haze.
She called her dragoman to her. "Mustafa," she said, "I'm going tobathe. You must go and sit behind that hillock over there, and youmustn't move till I tell you you may."
Servants in the East are ever accustomed to be told to take themselvesoff in this fashion, when their native mistresses desire to amusethemselves; and he now received his orders from the daughter of theforeign ruler of Egypt without surprise. He quickly filled thewater-bottles from the pool, and, telling her that he would prepare theluncheon on the other side of the hillock, walked off across the sand.
As soon as she was alone, Muriel divested herself of her clothes in theshelter of the tamarisks, and plunged into the cool water. Never in herlife had she felt so boisterously, recklessly happy; never before hadshe realized how cramped her existence had been. Here in these emptyspaces of the world she was like a child with all the delights of theopen garden to herself; and presently she would slip into the nextgarden and greet there her playmate.
As she splashed in the water she learned for the first time thewonderful sensation of bathing without the weight of a costume about herlimbs; and her thoughts flashed back with disdain to those elegant daysat fashionable seaside resorts where she had almost feared to let thewaves wet her dainty bathing-dress, and where she had been aware ofopera glasses levelled upon her as she walked sedately into the sea.
From side to side of the little pool she swam, tossing the water intothe air in showers of sparkling drops; and, presently, when, clamberingback on to the sand, she stood with arms stretched out to the sunlight,she felt that at last she knew the meaning of life.
The hot sun dried her body, without much need of the aid of herhandkerchief; and when she was dressed she hastened with a wonderfulappetite to her luncheon. Mustafa, being a well-trained dragoman, didnot trouble her with his presence; and she was thus able to make veryfrank inroads into the tongue and sweet-pickles, the biscuits and thejam, which he had provided. And after the meal she lay back in theshade, against the slope of the sand, and slept for half an hour inprofound content.
She awoke with the conviction that at last all was well with her. Itseemed to her that what Daniel had all along desired was that she shouldrenounce "the World," as he called it, and come to him; and now, inthese last few days, she had realized that this was no renunciation atall. He had been perfectly right: a life in the open was the only lifefor Youth; and here, not in the cities, real happiness was to be found.
All he had asked of her was to break loose from her conventionalexistence, and to come to him; and now she knew how incomprehensible herreluctance must have seemed to him. He had been holding out to her thefree joys of her youth: he had been saying to her, "Come and be myplaymate and my dear companion," and when she had refused, he had goneoff by himself, bidding her follow him if at last she should shakeherself free of her imaginary bonds. How stupid to him, how vulgar, musthave been her wish for a correct betrothal!--no wonder he had given upin dismay.
Such thoughts occupied her brain during the afternoon as she trottedexultantly, and with wild and reckless freedom from all restraint,towards El Hamran; but very different were the thoughts in the mind ofDaniel Lane, as, all unaware of her proximity, he sat peacefully in hisroom, putting the finishing touches to his interrupted study of thecustoms of the Bedouin of the Oases.
In a manner it might be said that he was content. He had fought aterrible battle with himself during these five-and-twenty days since hehad left Cairo, and his mighty spirit had won the victory over hismutinous body. Like a monk abandoning the pleasures of the world, he hadcrushed within him the one passionate episode of his continent life.
Throughout his strenuous manhood he had put away from him the call ofthe flesh: he had mastered his body, and had subordinated all otherinterests to those of his work. In a sense he had lived the life of anascetic, save that he had not actually mortified his body. He hadgoverned and controlled his physical instincts, but he had found no needto break them with rods. In perfect health, in perfect physical fitness,he had passed his days, filled with that deep, laughing happiness whichcomes from a quiet mind. His gigantic muscles were ever ruled by hismighty reason; and serene, smiling tranquillity had been his reward.
It was only since Muriel had come into his life that he had known anydisturbance; for she was practically the first woman with whom he hadever been on intimate terms. And when she had failed him he had beatenout the very thought of her from his riotous heart, and had fled to theplacid sanctuary of the desert, there to recover his equanimity.
To him she had seemed to be tainted by her contact with that section ofsociety whose artificiality he so heartily disliked. These people paidoutward court to the conventions of life, but in secret they treated inthe lightest manner the very bases upon which these conventions werefounded. Being satisfied with the surface of things, they lived theirlives in turmoil and called it pleasure; nor had they any idea of thatdeeper happiness which comes from contact with fundamental truth andsimplicity.
And Muriel had been as blind as the blindest of them. She only playedwith life--skimmed over the surface, snatching at such pleasures as layto hand.
If she had turned her back on her dances and her parties, and had cometo him and had said, "Take me into the desert for ever," he would havebelieved in her love, and nothing could have held them apart; but,whether correctly or incorrectly he knew not, he had had the impressionthat she had wished to fill but an idle hour with the sweets of love,just as, so it seemed to him, all fair women of Mayfair were wont to do.
Therefore he had come back to the clear and open spaces of the desert;and here, in the ruined monastery which for so long had been his home,he had sought and found once more his peace of mind. In a few weeks'time he would return to Cairo; but in future he would arrange to receivehis Egyptian visitors away from the Residency, at some house in thenative quarter where he could work without distraction.
As he sat writing in his shirt-sleeves at his table near the window andthe sun was descending towards the horizon, his attention was attractedby the barking of his dogs, and he wondered whether some native from thevillage had come to see him. He was concerned just now in regard to thegrowing quarrel between the two main families of the Oasis, and visitswere frequently paid to him by persons connected with the great feud.
The barking, however, presently ceased abruptly, and therewith he wenton with his work. The room was large, and the loud chattering of thesparrows in the palms outside the window prevented him from hearing theopening of the door behind him. He was not aware tha
t his servant,Hussein, had entered, agog with excitement; nor did he see Muriel, who,followed him, as she waved him out of the room, and shut the door behindher.
It was only when she was close to him that he heard the footstep andlooked around.
He sprang to his feet. "Muriel!" he exclaimed, as he stared at her inastonishment.
She did not speak. She ran to him, and, throwing her hands around hisneck, was lifted from the ground in his arms. For a few moments she didnothing but kiss him--she rained kisses on his mouth and his bewilderedface in a very frenzy of love, so that he gasped. Then her hands,slipping from behind his neck, passed over his forehead and his cheeks,and through his hair, patting him and stroking him; while her hat felloff, unnoticed, and her feet dangled above the ground, vainly seekingfor foothold in the vicinity of his shins.
At last, having been lowered to the ground, she stood before him, herhands held in his, her face flushed, her hair falling down.
"Oh, my darling," she cried, "I couldn't live without you any longer.I've broken loose: I've run away and come to you."
And, as his arms went about her once more, nigh crushing the breath outof her, she shut her eyes and received his answering kisses inpassionate glorious silence.