The Weavers: a tale of England and Egypt of fifty years ago - Volume 1

fulfilment of my drea

m set on a road of lif

ms of the past are he

e night, I heard Uncl

ces said, 'Come away,

d hear my heart beat i

not whither

ce Pasha called me t

one who has the ear o

h me upon that which

nk not that h

vourites look upon m

h the great hall was

d men smiled and feast

I was summoned to my

ook was shadowed, ever

d set down. I have no

the unexpected acts of

not wonder men fail

ur, where all is stri

; who shall enjoy t

oly; who shall wring

e coin his poor body

ields of dourha

g we ever dreamed at

all I stay till the s

he desert upon a missi

artoum, and Darfur an

r is near, unless it i

to my study of Arabic,

I must not forget to

that faithful Muslim E

of them I shall

e moving in the midst

y that I may not hate

l breathe the air of

ind me wherever I go;

ave ears; that the gr

. Shall I be true? Sh

believe in no one, mu

onfidences to use the

now what he can bear o

life around him? wha

long the vital energy

seduction, the fres

of evil, that it is e

t and achievements. I

ore upon the offence

lure of freedom from

of sym

not of in Soolsby's b

seemed a time of tria

sues seem till we hav

t the larger life has

truer still that it ha

s never tried in the

hat of the Epicurean.

way I might have walk

dden depths of luxur

nding for the forbidd

ith a laughing heart,

ve kept me in the bet

o him from whom the

ow, to feel the storm

e. I begin to see how

nfaith; and how diffic

ttle we can know to-

learn to see deeper,

faith, but in char

ation,

ed a low, hurried knocking at his door. He threw a hand over his eyes, and sprang up. An instant later the figure of a woman, deeply veiled

aid at last, and sank into the

ter he had been writing; and had he not been writing of her-of what concerned them both? How mean and small-hearted he had been, to have though

l. He was almost rigid with emotion, for the ancient habit

d, her back upon him now, her face still veile

he past that thee is

s a fiery brightness. "I did not know. It was so hard to come-do not blame me. I went to Alexandria-I fel

slowly. "Thee should not have returned.

een sorry all my life long had I not come back to tell you what I feel, and that I shall never forget. All my life I shall be grateful. You have saved me from a thousand deaths. Ah, if I could give you but on

s mine, in truth. But for you I should n

. She looked and looked, but did not understand. She only saw troubled

ng to say, truthful though it was, must hurt her, and she had been

fe. I was behind the hedge. I have broken through upon

tand that at least! Tell me, please, tell me the whole truth. You are hiding from me what you feel. I have upset your life, have I not? You are a Quaker, and Quakers are better than all other Christian people, are they

arm, and she sank back again. "Oh, it was not you; it was I who did it!" she said

have been the same. You were the occasion; the thing I did had only one source, my own heart and mind. Th

ed this, and drew back, then made as though to dry the tears from the paper with her handkerchief. As she did so the words that he had written met her eye: "'But

ouched her arm and said hea

d. "I could not help but see, and no

come. Thee was safe-none knew. A few hours and it would

k. You want to tell the truth about-about it, because you are honest and hate hiding things, because you want to be punished, and so pay the price. Oh, I can understand! If

much in your debt. I will not demand so much o

r hands were clasped at her side rigidly, her pulses throbbing. He stood looking at her fixedly,

ad in his heart-he had what you saw. But you repent that you killed him-by accident, it was by accident. Do you realise how many times others have been trapped by him as was I? Do you not see what he was-as I see now? Did he not say as much to me before you came, when I was dumb with terror? Did he not make me unders

mystery; I wanted more than the ordinary share of knowledge. I wanted to probe things. Yet I meant no wrong. I thought then nothing of which I shall ever be ashamed. Bu

upon her, he seemed lost in a dream

the impulse to-to do it," she said keenly; "you have

not shrink I shrank yesterday because I was afra

w light had come upon her mind. "But I see," she added. "To tell all is to make you the victim, too, of wha

impulsive nature revolted at his silence. She misunderstood him, or, if she did not wholly misunderstand hi

ust not turn back now. Thee must not alter the course which was your own making, and the only course which thee could, or I should, take. I have planned my life a

now what your religion is; that fighting

ened-that which I may feel has nothing to do with whether I was justified or no. But if thee has thought that I have repented doing what I did, let that pass for ever from your mind. I know that I should do the same, yes, eve

selfish, and that makes one blind to the truth. It is all clearer now. You have shown me that I was right in my fi

to go. Presently she spoke again: "I shall always want to know

lda will do in a day what a score of years could not accomplish, will insinuate confidences which might never be given to the nearest or dearest. In neither was any feeling of the heart begotten by their experiences; and yet they had gone deeper in each other's lives than a

n as a sister to me. She was my mother's sister though she is almost as young as I. Her name is Faith. There is nothing there of what concerns thee and me, though it would make no difference if

think

itive mind might one day, out of an u

not ma

one

le me. Tell me," she added, "tell me one thing before

ed quietly. "I remain in t

l government, an

s why I

try and change thi

ot alone,

your family, your place-in Hamley, was it not?

d an uncle here in the East for twenty-five years, yet I knew him better than all others in the world. Space

to minds, no matter what the dis

d try to say to him or her what was in my mind, no

a thought like that!" Then with an impulse, and the flicker of a sad smile, she reached out a hand. "If ever

the laws of its need. By instinct it turns to where help lies, as a wild

per, "but now I see him lying there cold and still, and you stooping over him. I see you touch his breast, his pulse. I see you close his eyes. One instant full of the pulse of life, the next struck out into infinite space. Oh, I shall never-how can I

other men have died, and none has inquired too closely. To-day they told me at the Palace that his carriage was seen to leave with himself and Mizraim the

do nothing more. Thee must go. Thee should not have come. In England thee will

andmother was an American Quaker. She always spoke like tha

any language in the future," he answer

he noise of loud talking, and the sound of footsteps in the court-yard. He opened the door slightly and looked out, then closed it quickly. "It is Nahoum Pasha," he said. "Pleas

down her veil, then taking from her pocket anothe

said-"go quickly.

ed, with determination, and