The Garden of Allah

e pulses in her temples beating. She lifted her arms swiftly from the parapet and turned her head. She had heard a little grating noise which seemed to be near to her, enclosed with her on this

t had caused the little noise she had heard. What was it? When she turned her head she could only see the outer wa

n Beni-Mora. But they did not concern her, and she wished to shut them out from her ears. What did concern her was to know what was with her up in the sky. Had a bird alighted on

had been carried so far away from the world that she felt unable to face the scrutiny of any world-bound creature. Having been in the transparent region of magic it seemed to her as if her secret, the great secret of the absolutel

n looking out over the desert. A sudden idea struck her. Probably it was Count Anteoni. He knew she was coming and might have decided to act once more as her cic

ase. She would let him find her there. Less troubled now, but in an utterly changed mood, she turned, leaned once more on the parapet and looked over, this

me circle, or to smell at flowers laid beside them as solace to their industry. An old grandmother rocked and kissed a naked baby with a pot belly. A big grey rat stole from a rubbish heap close by her, flitted across the sunlit space, and disappeared into a cranny. Pigeons circled above the home activities, delicate lovers of the air, wandered among the palm tops, returned and fearlessly alighted on the brown earth parapets, strutting hither and thither and making their perpetual, characteristic motion of the head, half nod, half genuflection. Veiled girls promenaded to take the evening cool, folding their arms beneath their flowing draperies, and chattering to one another in voices that Domini could not hear. More close at hand certain roofs in the dancers' street revealed luxurious sofas on which painted houris were lolling in sinuous attitudes, or were posed with a stiffness of idols, little tables set with coffee cups, others round which were gathered Zouaves intent on card games, but ever ready to pause for a caress or for some jesting absurdity with the wo

t she seemed to see their coarse peasant faces rigid with surprise, their hanging jaws, their chi

ch was surely unattractive to her. Yet was it unattractive? She scarcely knew. But she knew that it had kindled in her a sudden and very strong curiosity, even a vague, momentary desire that she had been born in some tent of the Ouled Nails-no, that was impossible. She had

eaks! And how she travelled within herself, with swiftness of light, with speed of th

mplete strangers, wholly indifferent to each other. They met in the sky, almost as one bird may meet another on the wing. And, to Domini, at any rate, it seemed as if the depth, height, space, colour, mystery and calm-yes, even the calm-which were above, around and beneath them, had been placed there by hidden hands as a setting for their encounter, even as the abrupt pageant of the previous day, into which the train had emerged from the blackness of the tunnel, had surely been created as a frame for the face which had looked upon her as if out of the heart of the sun. The assumption was absurd, unreasonable, yet vital. She did not combat it because she felt it too powerful for common sense to strive against. And it seemed to her that the stranger felt it too, that she saw her sensation reflect

," she sai

at of his hand, the shiver that ran over his body, his attitude as he shrank with a kind of timid, yet ferocious, politeness against the white wall, the expression in his eyes when their hands touched-a look she could not analyse, but which seemed to hold a mingling of wistfulness and repellance, as of a being stretching out arms for succour, and crying at the same time, "Don't draw near to me! Leave me to myself!"-ever

nd she made her voice rather loud, and

luctantly, looked at her anxiously, and

that seemed, and in such circumstanc

nderful,

ch had alarmed him, and looked at Domini as if he expected that she would share in his sensation.

e the only tr

less momentary, less as if he were in haste to go, bu

there are no

with an uncertain

adame-for

ed to the incident at the station of El-Akbara, that he was trying to make amends. The way he did it touched her curiously. She felt inc

an accident. Don't t

not look

d the Arabs are very per

t, and it seemed to her that she had never before seen the back of a hand expr

, Ma

way it were phenomenal to him. It occurred to her that possibly he had lived much in lonely places,

almost like some religious order when th

than she had felt till now, and the certainty that the greater force and sweetness of her feeling were caused by the fact that she had a companion in her contemplation. This was strange. An intense desire for loneliness had driven her out of Europe to this desert place, and a companion, who was an utter stranger, emphasised the significance, gave fibre to the beauty, intensity to the mystery of that which she looked on.

she saw also the things that had been hidden in the pool. The beauty of dimness, the beauty of clearness, joined hands. The one and the other were, with her, like sisters. She heard the voices from below, and surely also the voices of the stars that were approaching with the night, blending harmoniously and making a music in the air. The glo

er tiny movements which no longer roused in Domini any furtive desire not really inherent in her natur

turning to her co

in Beni-Mora from here a

haracteristic of this man before he spoke

ve not,

that roof looks graceful-the

r. She glanced a

ere, do

became stern. He kept his eyes fixed on the trees of the garde

, Ma

and that it was outrageous. For a moment she felt slightly uncomfortable, but d

y I should think them ugly enough if I were near,

s true,

most male voice she had ever heard. It seemed to be full of sex, like his hands. Yet there was nothing coarse in either the one or t

e ordinary shyness, the gaucherie of a big, awkward lout unaccustomed to woman's society but able to be at his ease and boisterous in the midst of a crowd of men. Domini thought that he would be timid even of men. Yet it never struck her that he might be a coward, unmanly. Such a quality would have sickened her at once, and she knew she wo

ransformed already by Beni-Mora? Or had the thought come to her because she stood side by side with someone whose sorrows had been

duce a happiness such as it created in her in everyone. Such beauty, with its voices, its colours, its lines of tree and leaf, of wall and mountain ridge, its mystery of shapes and movements, stillness and dreaming distance, its atmosphere of the far off come near, chastened by journeying, fine with the unfamiliar, its solemn changes towards the impenetrable night, was too large a thing and fraught with too much tender and lovable invention to be worshipped in any selfishness. It made her feel as if she could gla

ppiness here," she sa

rain itself round t

" he

to her and looked at h

speaking quite quickly, and without h

s so beautifu

he said.

she were fighting, and must fight hard if she were not to be beaten to the dust. But when

re," he said slow

desert. Then he lifted his eyes to the mountains and the clear sky and the shadowy moon. Each element in the e

full of a sort of terrified surprise, "it is

f further unbelief, of something he had never suspected, never drea

be the real home of pea

aid the ma

d towards

om civilisation, far away from modern men and modern

ensity, as if he could not perform an ordinary action, or turn his eyes upon any ob

ar away in the desert?" he said, and his face relaxed sli

d. "But I think there must. Sure

r to the light of revelation, but which was now slipping back into an underworld of magic. He bent forward as one who watches a departure in which he longs to share, and Domini felt sure that he had forgotten her. She felt, too

tricked out in scarlet and yellow shawls, headed by a male dancer clad in the skins of jackals, and decorated with mirrors, camels' skulls and chains

-la! Ya

, with a clash of enormous castanets, a

nt the shrill voi

and waving arms emerged as if from a maelstrom. The thunder of the drums was like the thunder

former fierce timidity and consciousness came back to his face. He

adame," he sa

g too," Dom

the wooden stairs. She frowned till her thick eyebrows nearly met and the corners of her lips turned down. Then she followed slowly. When she was on the stairs and the footsteps died away below her she fully realised that for the first time in he

just gone out give you hi

d a fawning, se

good gentleman, and I know w

cut him

nationali

the Coun

, n

now. But he can speak Arab

id Domini, giv

dust stirred up by the dancers whirled about him. Several small negroes skipped round him, doubtless making eager demands upon his generosity.

cumstance after another had increased it till now it was definite, concrete. She wondered that she did not feel ashamed of such a feeling so unusual in her, and surely unworthy, like a prying thing. Of all her old indifference that side which confronted people had always been the most sturdy, the most solidly built. Without affectation she had been a prof

g of curiosity would, she believed, have been impossible in the woman she had been but a week ago, the woman who travelled to Marseilles dulled

she supposed. Then it seemed to her that to do so would be undignified, and would give him the impression that he had the power to offend her. She resolved to bow to him if they met face to face. Jus

e!" Dom

Mam'

ave you bee

ears, Ma

her shallow, blue-grey eyes on her mistress, and

e same sort of person to-da

cat that has been star

me, Mam

nk I have altere

question with her hea

'zelle," she re

eagerly. "Why, I have only

e, a little emotion. Mon Dieu! Mam'zelle will pardon me, but what

s there to be emo

oked vague

e are no shops for a girl to look into. There is nothing chic except the costumes of the Zouaves. But

is

r Helmuth was polite enough to escort me through the village. Mon

! What do

igure look more tense than ever, tucked in her round

l, that is true, but it is odd. One does n

ora was certainly beginning to mould her nature into a slightly different shape. And Domini seemed to see an Eastern potter at work, squatting in the sun and with long and delicate fingers changing the ou

she thought she was glad. After dinner she spoke for a moment to the priest and then went upstairs to the verandah to take coffee. She found Batouch there. He had renounced hi

sitting down by

, Mad

ok out a tiny stone from the slipper and put it on again, slowly, gracefully and very sadly. Then

s the

er the cafe of El Hadj where Achmed sings to the keef smokers, or to witness the beautiful religious ecstasies

der with a sudden gesture of despair tha

very good to-

am of a serious disposition.

ownstairs and wait for

came suddenly a rendezv

coming ou

. Be in th

ficence of joyous bearing and move

ne! Su

finished

answered Suza

to come out wi

le is go

e the villa

ught a battle within her, as was evident by the express

Mam'zelle, and are there

ee-dancers, singers, keef smokers.

knives. And is there singing? I-I should

es then. Bring my jacket-any one.

n. Suzanne started nervously and look

is not safe out here. Men who make a

ike

always the same and t

more in it than

imagination, and made her in love with mystery, and anxious at least to steal to the very threshold of the barbarous world. Did it stir those who had had it in their ears ever since they were naked, sunburned babies rolling in the hot sun of the Sahara? Could it seem as ordinary to them as the cold uproar of the piano-organ

ing quite alon

touch will

eathed a f

ked and deplorable, and had a shabby air, in marked contrast to

ith us too,

looked vivacious and almost smart. But an

s Madame

the vi

nce at Hadj and sm

come wit

still

Ouled Nails," he said

will

ked gently at the poet's

zanne," Domini said to the poet. "S

ast of Ramadan," replied the poet, majestically. "No on

Batouch placed himself tenderly at her side an