Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Volume 3 — John Shaqi
Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Volume 3Parker, Gilbert
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Donovan Pasha, and Some People of Egypt — Volume 3
Parker, Gilbert
Egypt -- Fiction; Short stories
He looked at the woman beside him, and he saw in her face a look it never
had had before. Revelation of a kind was there; beauty, imagination,
solicitude, delicate wonder were there. It touched him. He had never
been arrested on his way of life by any dream of fair women, or any dream
of any woman. It did not seem necessary--no one was necessary to him;
he lived his real life alone, never sharing with any one that of himself
which was not part of the life he lived before the world. Yet he had
always been liked by men, and he had been agreeable in the sight of more
women than he knew, this little man with a will of iron and a friendly
heart. But he laughed silently now as he saw Kingsley approaching; the
situation was so beautifully invented. It did not seem quite like a
thing in real life. In any other country than Egypt it would have been
comic opera--Foulik Pasha and his men so egregiously important; Kingsley
so overwhelmed by the duty that lay before him; the woman in a
whimsically embarrassing position with the odds, the laugh, against her,
yet little likely to take the obvious view of things and so make possible
a commonplace end. What would she do? What would Kingsley do? What
would he, Dicky Donovan, do? He knew by the look in Kingsley's eyes that
it was time for him to go. He moved down to Foulik Pasha, and, taking
his arm, urged him towards the shore with a whispered word. The Pasha
responded, followed by his men, but presently turned and, before Dicky
could intervene--for he wanted Kingsley to make his own revelation--said
courteously:
"May the truth of Allah be with you, I will await you at the boat,
Kingsley Bey."
Dicky did not turn round, but, with a sharp exclamation of profanity,
drew Foulik Pasha on his imbecile way.
As for Kingsley Bey, he faced a woman who, as the truth dawned upon her,
stared at him in a painful silence for a moment, and then drew back to
the doorway of the house as though to find sudden refuge. Kingsley's
head went round. Nothing had gone according to his anticipations.
Foulik Pasha had upset things.
"Now you know--I wished to tell you myself," he said.
She answered at once, quietly, coldly, and with an even formal voice:
"I did not know your name was Kingsley."
"It was my grandmother's name."
"I had forgotten--that is of no consequence, however; but--" she stopped.
"You realise that I am--"
"Yes, of course, Kingsley Bey--I quite understand. I thought you Lord
Selden, an English gentleman. You are--" she made an impatient gesture--
"well, you are English still!"
He was hit hard. The suggestion of her voice was difficult to bear.
"I am not so ungentlemanly as you think. I meant to tell you--almost at
once. I thought that as an old friend I might wait a moment or two. The
conversation got involved, and it grew harder every minute. Then Foulik
Pasha came-and now. . . ."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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