"Beside," I reminded him, "your uncle will hardly
hurry down to Jaffa, because he will have no reason to think but
what you have already started. There are no telegraphs here, you
know."
In the evening he was still very sad, though the paroxysm of his
terror seemed to have passed away. I would not bother him, as he
had himself chosen the following morning for the telling of his
story. So I sat and smoked, and talked to him about our past
journey, and by degrees the power of speech came back to him, and I
again felt that I loved him! Yes, loved him! I have not taken many
such fancies into my head, at so short a notice; but I did love him,
as though he were a younger brother. I felt a delight in serving
him, and though I was almost old enough to be his father, I
ministered to him as though he had been an old man, or a woman.
On the following morning we were stirring at daybreak, and found
that the vessel was in sight. She would be in the roads off the
town in two hours' time, they said, and would start at eleven or
twelve. And then we walked round by the gate of the town, and
sauntered a quarter of a mile or so along the way that leads towards
Jerusalem.
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