FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>   >|  
er, and the throbbing of the _daraboukkeh_ sounded loudly in their ears. Nigel lifted his head without kissing her. "Those boatmen are close to the garden!" he said. Mrs. Armine wrapped her cloak suddenly round her. "Would you like to go down to the river and see them?" he added. "Yes, let us go. I must see them," she said. She got up from her chair with a quick but graceful movement that was full of fiery impetus, and her eyes were shining almost fiercely, as if they gave a reply to the fierce voices of the boatmen. Nigel drew her arm through his, and they went down the little sandy path past the motionless orange-trees till they came to the bank of the Nile. Ibrahim was standing there, peeping out whimsically from his fringed and tasselled wrappings, and smoking a cigarette. "Where are the boatmen, Ibrahim?" said Nigel. "Here they come, my gentleman!" Upon the wide and moving darkness of the river, a great highway of the night leading to far-off African lands, hugging the shore by a tufted darkness of trees, there came a felucca that gleamed with lanterns. The oars sounded in the water, mingling with the voices of the men, whose vague, uncertain forms, some crouched, some standing up, some leaning over the river, that was dyed with streaks of light into which the shining drops fell back from the lifted blades, were half revealed to the watchers above them in the garden. "Here come the Noobian peoples!" "I wonder what they are doing here," said Nigel, "and why they come up the river to-night. Whose people can they be?" Ibrahim opened his lips to explain, but Mrs. Armine looked at him, and he shut them without a word. "Hush!" she whispered. "I want to listen." This was like a serenade of the East designed to give her a welcome to Egypt, like the voice of this great, black Africa speaking to her alone out of the night, speaking with a fierce insistence, daring her not to listen to it, not to accept its barbaric summons. A sort of animal romance was stirred within her, and she began to feel strongly excited. She heard no longer the name of Allah, or, if she heard it, she connected it no longer with the Christian's conception of a God, with Nigel's conception of a God, but perhaps with strange idols in dusky temples where are mingled crimes and worship. Her imagination suddenly rose up, gathered its energies, and ran wild. The boat stayed opposite the garden. "It must be meant for me, it
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118  
119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Ibrahim

 

boatmen

 

garden

 
listen
 
conception
 

standing

 
speaking
 

shining

 

voices

 

fierce


darkness
 

longer

 

sounded

 

Armine

 

suddenly

 
lifted
 

whispered

 

serenade

 

stayed

 
opposite

designed

 
looked
 

peoples

 

revealed

 

watchers

 

Noobian

 

explain

 
opened
 

people

 

worship


crimes

 

excited

 

strongly

 

temples

 

Christian

 

mingled

 

connected

 

stirred

 

accept

 

daring


insistence

 

Africa

 

strange

 

energies

 

gathered

 

animal

 
romance
 

imagination

 

barbaric

 

summons