Sacrifice

playing a waltz; but Lilla and Lawre

t counterpart, one's deepest desires. She stood still. The world-this new world drenched in an unprecedented quality

to be so; but a certain shyness remained in him, and presently announced itself to her. Whereupon, remembering that

es better than

and deadly waste. Would it surprise you to know that I should

occupied with seizing upon those syllables, those living tone

the aquatic gar

n friends, who like to see their flowers inve

t they have t

of them in very

oses, and with airy pavilions mirrored in pools that were seldom darkened by a cloud. Under date palms the white-robed Arabs sat smoking. From time to time black slaves brou

r w

r whatever they desired most. Probably

he ventured, looki

ckoo clocks and music boxes, smelling perfumes, putting their jewelry away in caskets, then bedizening themselves all over again. Their servants, who had known in childhood the hurly burly of caravanserais and slave markets, told them of a world where everybody was po

similarity to her own life. Or, at least, she felt that her lif

at it intently. "White women, for example, the women of the empire builders? At such meetings, in those far-off places, romance must b

ith a smile. "Especially

through the wilds, cheerily doctoring them in their sicknesses, herself never ailing or weary. At the charge of a lion she had withheld her fire till the last possible moment. By night, the safari encamped, she ha

ose body was so strong, whose nerves were so sound, whose courage had been proved in the face of ch

moment's struggle wit

e fellows dream of women

e one that you've lef

e wilderness with the most exquisite charms. Or else he might find an unattainable ideal ready-made. Thus it was that uncouth sailors, on long voyages, treasured the photographs of unknown actresses in fancy costume, as a religious devotee might treasure an ikon. Or thus a soldier in some Congo

e!" she exclaimed, t

bashed; but

ted to renounce that famo

hereal aspect; and nothing could have been more emphatic than the

ace according with the faltering of her heart beats. But

ng back to Africa d

rything's

ens, watching the slow withdrawal f

you ret

the stone city called Zimbabwe, which adventurers from Phoenicia were supposed to have built four thousand years ago, as a mining town

e you risk your life amid deadly fevers and insec

rts, of association with a primitive folk whom he had never failed to make his friends, of precautions that would confound the

oints. Yet it seems to me an abnormal vanity that drives one into those places, just in order th

's reflection,

cause I thought you might find it m

brought back an encouraging report, would obtain large concessions for exploiting the land. It was a gamble; the territory in question was virtually unexplored. That region, moreover, was peopled by a tribe opposed to exploitation, and, for

perhaps until recently he had never thought of money as important, but tha

a spangled dress shimmered beside a fountain, then, accompanied by a dark shadow, disappeared into a charmille. A clock in the valley struck eleven, its last vibrations mingling with a laugh that rose, through the moonbeams, from

ht of the French windows, Cornelius Rys

o Africa. He seemed quite unhappy, especially when I had to tell him no. Indeed, he gave me a

staring at him intently, "whic

ngs them back from the wilds.

descending the ste

where a circular wall of foliage, rising behind stone benches, hemmed in a fountain, above which a marble antique warrior was lifting in his arms a mar

as found a nymph bathing in a pool. If I remember, mo

the upturned face of the capti

es, especially when the person that they try to catch seems s

ould have pr

usual success when it's a questi

shoulders. "Does that acuteness also come to one in the jungle?" She se

sentimental exiles and

much the physical beauty that exerted the spell; nor was it, in this instance, the attractiveness of the incomprehensible. For the man divined from his contemplation of those features the nature of the woman, all her complexities, and even her emotional fragili

cture and kept it

the Crusaders. It crossed the Sahara, skirting the strongholds of the Senussia Brotherhood, penetrating the wastes patrolled by the Tuaregs, ferocious camel riders whose mouths were always muffled in black bandages. It went north to the steppes of the Ziban, from which the tribe of the Ouled Nail sca

e fair unknown, which had become for him, in consequen

else, before the tent of some nomad sheikh, all at once she fluttered from the notebook to the silken carpet, on which g

rt of amulet. For twice when he was in danger, and there seemed to be small hope of his survival

, thinking of another picture t

hing. She whirled past in a limousine. She disappeared into the haze of a city street in summer. Whereupon he thought, "I wa

nd her

here were d

ere happy e

d not

deserts, but bereft of all enchantment, and covered with clouds that were not positive eno

ose it

d, and pressed he