The Fortieth Door

htened haste the girl drew out the key from the gate and slip

t the key into a hole in the loose earth, coveri

e a guarded

ugh the bushes, but the thorns held her

g herself, she hurried forward towards the dark, bulky

ckly-he is here-thy father! And thou in the garden, at this hour.... But come," and urgently she g

her. "My father!" she murmured,

one seen her slip out? Or

o rally her force, but her swimming senses were still invaded with the surprise of those last moments at the gate, her heart s

p their swift reactions. Oh, what wings of wild, incredible folly had brought her

r so lightly.... And yet there had been no lightness in his e

to think of this thing.

ur bed not touched!... Oh, Allah's ruth upon me, I went trotting through the house, mad with fear.... Up to the roofs then down to the gar

" breathed the girl, her face hot

o coolth up

the r

ught you? Have you no

ing attended! Can

stop put to this-hush, would you have him hear?" she admonished, in a sudden whi

d off the girl's mantle and veil, muttering at the pins that secured it. She shook out the pale

e on the roofs,"

rm rose of her cheek against the

said softly, using the Turkish

and affection Miriam pushed her a

set about with the empty expectancy of a stage scene in a French salon. French were the s

old wood, of solidly screening mashrubiyeh wood, jutted out from one cream-tinted wall, and above a gilded sofa, upholstere

case. He was in evening dress, a ribbon of some order acros

sharp a gleam from his full, somewhat protuberant blac

comforting to have Mir

t, and implore his indulgence.... She would admit nothing but the garden

dew-drenched satin slippers and an upsettingly hammering he

sha liked always to be kept in good humor-he had touches of that boyish charm that had made him the enfant gaté of Paris and Vienna as well as Cairo and Constantinople. An

tly, uneasily asking his daughter not to make something too unpleasant for him ... that something that had brought h

hen a knowledge

elcome, the alternative alarm that he had decided to marry again-that nightmare from whose realization th

itement about him that

the illuminating lig

rn nonchalance ahead and determinedly unaware of her instant stiffening of attention, "I have by no means been neglectful of it.... To-day-i

nothing then of the ball! She could breathe aga

w many times had he promised that she should have no unknown husband, imposed by tr

him. With wide eyes painfully intent, her little, jeweled fingers very still in their lock

really decided upon so

to prevent their reaching her, and about his very tender affection for her and his understanding of all those girlish reticences and reluctances which made innocent youth so exquisite,

so horrific that she flinc

r, that this man had ca

e. She had a dreamy desire to close her eyes an

wealth, not merely the nominal riches of his somewhat precarious politic

in," she declared, her face brightening with moc

her breath, that any name woul

the first time and he seemed delighted to indulge a laugh,

to-night, my father?" Aimée went on, in that

his glance went une

nd-the devil of a serious affair!" and for the firs

resonantly. A man he knew well. Not a young man, perhaps-certainly he was not going to hand his only daughter to any boy,

t, was Hamdi Bey. He was a gene

e she could piece any shre

ked ... more than once he had dropped resentful phrases of his airs,

lanning-no, seri

He must be t

d mean nothing in her life. She would have none of him ... none of him.... Never would

her such a speech. Or perhaps his dislike of Hamdi had been founded on nothing but resentment of Hamdi's airs of superiority, a

e to Tewfick Pasha's eter

surrender to this degradation; for all her fright and all her flinching from defiance she divined in herself some hidde

dancing in their fairy land of freedom?... Was that young man in the Highlan

ere in the lane.... If she would come! As if she would demean herself, afte

Did her father dream that she would not resist? It was against such a danger that she had long ago stol

ot tell me that you really mean-that you really think

a suddenly direct

ve arranged

o-night. That is wha

shocked dismay. He abandoned his airy pretense that the affair could possibly e

t last, without looking round at her. "I hope

me inf-fernally sorry," sa

ded sofa beneath the banner of Mahomet; as he regarded her two gr

jumped to his feet and began

s.... After all he had done-more than any other father! To sit and weep! Weep-at such a marriage! What did she expect of life? Was she not as other wome

quiveringly. "Oh, my father, d

nown! Do I n

ou pro

w what is good for you or do I not? Have I your i

my father,-I should die with such a life before me, with su

your marriage? You might see the fiancé," he caught the words out of her mouth, "but only for a time or two-after the arrangements-and what is that? What more would you know than what your father knows? Are you a thing to be exhibited-gi

tested, "But my

gratitude and obedience." He turned his back on her. "This is w

s if he were casting all t

and his word were engaged with the general more than she had dreamed.

ther, if yo

le one, if y

ed mottling his olive cheeks, he came and sat beside he

old her, "but this is what a man gets for being good natured.... But, tears or

ching flesh. Aimée looked down with a sudden wild dislike.... That soft, ingratiating hand, wi

ecided on the match-perhaps he had foreseen her protests and plunged into it, so as to be

opes! After all

e silent fear, slipping through the shadows like a serpent.... Some instinct for character, more pr

is a surprise, of course, but after all you w

a still, tenacious little voice, "but you cannot make me marry him.... I will never put

e got up violently from beside her. She did not

he did not know what he would do bu

nine channels, would not be long in reaching Hamdi Bey.... And no man could to-day be so callous

stood irresolute, as if meditating a last exhortation, and the

e ruined?" he sa

was not inconceivable that old Miriam was lurking, and strode over

, of those papers back.... He came to me to-night. I knew that hound of Sata

of a cornered fox!... She caught her breath with the shock of it. H

lood of broken phrases at her. She caught unintelligible references to narrow laws and the

been smuggling in hasheesh. Hamdi Bey had discovered this

nt. Vaguely the horrors loomed-arrest, trial..

of his danger and its deliverance, small wonder that his b

! He hated and feared him. The old fox had done this, he declar

.... And undoubtedly the rumor of that beauty-Tewfick Pasha received his inspiration upon the mo

d this accursed business of the hasheesh had served

his is. And how any talk of-of unreadiness-if you were not amiable, for examp

trembling face. She quivered with confused pain, with shame for his shame, with

reassuring little words that would not come.

er suddenly dropped beside her, with an abandon reminiscent of the enfant gaté of his Paris days, and drew her hands to his l

y for a hurt child. And her sorriness held h

old tide was rising in her, a tide o

of her life.... Fo