"But I'm not a
competent cicerone. If you want Knight to do justice to the wonders of
this place, you'll have to be our guide. We've got room for several
large-sized chaperons in the car. Do come. Don't say you won't! I feel
as if I couldn't stand it."
His tone was so desperate that Josette laughed some of her brightness
back again. "Then I suppose I mustn't refuse. And I should like
going--after school hours. Madame de Vaux, who is the bride of a French
officer, will join us, I think, for she and I are friends, and besides,
she has had no chance to see things yet. She has been busy settling in
her quarters--and I have helped her a little."
"When can you start?" asked Nevill, enraptured at the prospect of a few
happy hours snatched from fate.
"Not till five."
His face fell. "But that's cruel!"
"It would be cruel to my children to desert them sooner. Don't forget I
am malema--malema before all. And there will be time for seeing nearly
everything. We can go to Sidi Bou-Medine, afterwards to the ruins of
Mansourah by sunset. Meanwhile, show your friend the things near by,
without me; the old town, with its different quarters for the Jews, the
Arabs, and the Negroes. He will like the leather-workers and the bakers,
and the weavers of haicks. And you will not need me for the Grande
Mosquee, or for the Mosquee of Aboul Hassan, where Monsieur Knight will
see the most beautiful mihrab in all the world.
Pages:
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198