His voice used to shake when he prayed, in those days when Davy
was away in the desert, down at Darfur and elsewhere among the rebel
tribes. He frightened me then, he was so stern and still. Ah, but that
day when we knew he was safe, I was eighteen, and no more!" she added,
smiling. "But, think you, I could marry while my life is so tied to him
and to our Egyptian?"
No one looking at her limpid, shining blue eyes but would have set her
down for twenty-three or twenty-four, for not a line showed on her smooth
face; she was exquisite of limb and feature, and had the lissomeness of a
girl of fifteen. There was in her eyes, however, an unquiet sadness; she
had abstracted moments when her mind seemed fixed on some vexing problem.
Such a mood suddenly came upon her now. The pen lay by the paper
untouched, her hands folded in her lap, and a long silence fell upon
them, broken only by the twanging of the strips of cane in Soolsby's
hands. At last, however, even this sound ceased; and the two scarce moved
as the sun drew towards the middle afternoon.
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