My winning must be done first, as is the way of the Roumis,
and she will be hard to win. Already she feels that one of my race has
stolen and hidden her sister; for this, in her heart, she fears and half
distrusts all Arabs. A week would give me no time to capture her love,
and when the journey is over it will be too late. Then, at best, I can
see little of her, even if she be allowed to keep something of her
European freedom. It is from this journey together--the long, long
journey--that I hope everything. No pains shall be spared. No luxury
shall she lack even on the hardest stretches of the way. She shall know
that she owes all to my thought and care. In three weeks I can pull down
that high wall between us. She will have learned to depend on me, to
need me, to long for me when I am out of her sight, as the gazelle longs
for a fountain of sweet water."
"Poet and dreamer thou hast become, Maieddine," said Lella M'Barka with
a tired smile.
"I have become a lover. That means both and more. My heart is set on
success with this girl: and yesterday thou didst promise to help. In
return, I offered thee a present that is like the gift of new life to a
woman, the amulet my father's dead brother rubbed on the sacred Black
Stone at Mecca, touched by the foot of the Prophet. I assured thee that
at the end of our journey I would persuade the marabout to make the
amulet as potent for good to thee as the Black Stone itself, against
which thou canst never cool the fever in thy forehead.
Pages:
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246