ttle river kept reappearing. From the islands of
marsh grass that floated down the stream, egrets and kingfishers flew
away. On sandbars some dingy, log-like shapes, beginning stealthily to
move toward the water, were revealed as crocodiles.

In a bend of the river cashew trees overshadowed the thatch of fishing
huts. Beyond fields of lilies one made out, flitting away, sooty
wanderers clad in ragged kilts and carrying thin-bladed spears. Then
marshes spread afar: the transparent stalks of papyrus trembled above
the bluish pallor of lotuses. As the declining sun poured its gold
across the world, the air over the marshes was jeweled from a great
rush of geese, ducks, heron, ibises, and storks.

They camped on the clean, white sand beside the stream.

The luxury that had always been her atmosphere still clung round her
here, taking on an Oriental quality from this host of unfettered
slaves, these dusky armed guards, these scurrying, white-robed servants
who, in the light of the sunset, composed with the speed of enchantment
her habitation for the night. The green tent, its fly extended like an
awning, awaited her entrance. The floor sheet was strewn with rugs;
the snowy camp bed was made; her toilet case stood open on the folding
table. The tent boys, their faces obsequiously lowered, were pouring
hot water into the canvas tub.

Bareheaded, but wrapped in a tan polo coat, she emerged from the tent
to find the dinner table ready under the fly. They offered _hors
d'oeuvres_, a jellied soup, a curry, fruit tarts, and coffee. She
shook her head, and continued to stare at the candles on the table.
Fluffy, white moths were burning themselves in the flames.

Parr protested that she must eat. In this climate one did not fast
with impunity.

"I sha'n't collapse," she replied, that stony look returning to her
face.

Night fell like the abruptly loosened folds of a great curtain. The
air became vibrant with the shrilling of insects. Fireflies filled the
darkness with a twinkling mist, so that the immense spangle of the
purple sky seemed to have invaded the purple ambiguities of earth. But
along the river bank shone the fires of the safari--points of flame
that outlined, like a binding of copper wire, the silhouettes of
squatting men, or turned a half-inchoate face to molten bronze, or
illuminated, against the lustrous blackness of the water, the fragment
of a muscular back, the crook of an arm, a stare of eyeba