The evening was just beginning along the front as he passed once again
through the great Passage beneath the hotel. There was no young Jew
watching him now. That highly strung and bewildered creature was
hurrying through the lower town on his way to Bairakli, bearing
authentic news for his mistress. He had an uneasy suspicion that the
person described by his friend in the hotel would not prove so good a
friend as Mr. Spokesly. But he hurried on past the little Turkish shops,
his fez on the back of his head, the lamplight reflected on the bony
ridge of the large glistening nose that rose up between his scared pale
eyes and sallow cheeks. All along the lonely road beyond the railway
station he tripped and stumbled, muttering to himself: "Oh, Madama, he
is come, he is come! I bring great news. He is come!" Sometimes he
clasped his hands in an ecstasy of emotion and would almost fall into
some unnoticed slough or channel by the way. All the griefs of the poor
seemed to concentrate themselves upon him as he moaned and staggered.
"Father of Israel, what shall I do if she abandon me? There is no food
for a fatherless boy here. Oh, Madama!"
But when at length he scrambled up to the house on the hillside and saw
his mistress and Esther Jokanian sitting in the window overlooking the
sea, he took heart again. When Evanthia, leaning out in a loose robe
that showed transparent against the lamp behind her, called, "Who is
there?" he replied that it was her faithful servant with news. She came
down like a swiftly moving phantom and unlocked the gate, pulling it
wide with her characteristic energy and courage.
"Speak!" she said in a thrilling, dramatic whisper, all her soul
responding to the moment. The youth held out his hand palm upward while
he leaned his head against the rough wall.
"Oh, Madama, he is come," he replied in a low tone, as though he sensed
the formidable importance of his words in their lives. She stood staring
at him for a second and then, pulling him in, she closed the gate with a
tremendous clang that jarred the very foundation of his reason. It was
at times like these that this young man, born into a chaotic world of
alien beings intent upon inexplicable courses of action, inspired by
unknown and possibly sinister ideals, was upon the point of dashing his
head with maniac energy against those heavy ancient stones which, by
comparison, seemed less foreign to his distracted soul.
"Come," she said with a mysterious smile. "Your fortune is made. You
must go back with a message."
"Oh, Madama!" he wailed.
She dragged him up the steps leading to the rooms above.
"Endlich!" she cried to Esther, who sat by the window, chin on hand, and
muttering in her husky man's voice. "He is here. I must have been born
with good fortune after all."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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