The Tour Part 11

"Are you afraid that I shall bewitch you?"

"Yes. I fear the Sabaean amulets. It is perhaps because of one of them that the master dreamed the bad dream which has made him ill and sad."

"Cora, I love you so much.... Will you permit me to buy you from your master?"

"If you bought me, O Caleb, I should be a faithful slave and sing and play the harp to you. But I should be unhappy, even if I were your wife and free ... because I should be so far from my master...."

"Whom you love."

Cora hesitated. Then she said:

"Whom I love, Caleb ... but as the flower loves the sun, as the moth loves the star ... from afar and from the depths ... without hope."

The rain poured down in an endless grey sheet. In the garden, Master Ghizla was swearing at the slaves and wading, with tucked-up tunic and lean, hairy legs, through the puddles.

Caleb rose. He said nothing and went away, his head sunk in melancholy. Then he came back and resumed:

"You would go hunting with me, Cora, and you would sit in front of me on a Sabaean stallion, which would be swift as the wind, and we should catch lion-whelps in nets and tame them with palm-wine and they would follow you about like big cats."

Cora only smiled and said nothing.

"I know, Cora, why you will not be my wife. It is not because you love your master. For, even if your master loved you, you would be a slave. My wife would be a free woman and reign as queen in my house. But you will not be my wife because perhaps you know the Sabaean law which prescribes that a married woman is also the wife of all her husband's brothers. But Ghizla, dear Cora, would not dare to touch even the hem of your garment."

"I did not know that law," said Cora.

"There was a king's daughter in our country, Cora. She was dazzlingly beautiful and was the wife of fifteen brothers, who were princes. All the fifteen of them glowed with love for her. When one of the brothers wished to tarry in her chamber, he set his stick outside the door, as a sign. Then the others pa.s.sed their way.... When she wearied of their eagerness to love her, she devised a stratagem. She had sticks made for her, like the brothers'. When one of the princes left her, she placed one of these sticks outside her door. In this way she enjoyed peace.... But one day all the brothers happened to be in the square of the town at the same time. One of them went to visit her ... and found outside the door the stick of a brother ... whom he had just left in the town-square! Then he thought that his wife, the wife of the fifteen brothers, was unfaithful to them ... with a sixteenth, a stranger. And he sought his father and told him of his suspicions. But it appeared that the wife was innocent. And not only the father but the fifteen brothers and their spouse laughed at the stratagem and were happy.... But you, Cora, would never need to put a stick like mine outside your door. For I have only one brother, Ghizla, and he would not dare to touch so much as the hem of your garment."

Cora laughed and Caleb laughed and his eyes and teeth flashed and glittered.

"In that case, I'll think it over, Caleb!" laughed Cora. "In that case, I'll think it over!"

"Do think it over, Cora," laughed Caleb. "If you are willing, I'll buy you from your master. And we shall have a pleasure-boat of cedar-wood, but with sails like a bird's wings, so that we can either sail about on the sea or soar high into the clouds. And then on some nights we could visit the moon, where all the people are transparent, like shades.... This is not a fairy-tale, Cora; it's as I tell you. We have those magic ships in our seas, in our skies.... Think it over, Cora! Do think it over!"

And, while Cora was still laughing incredulously, Caleb girdled his tunic high and waded barefoot through the puddles of the palm-garden, looking round and laughing as he went. For Ghizla had called to him to see the ca.n.a.ls which the slaves were digging to carry off the rain-water to the cisterns.

CHAPTER XII

But Libyan bearers carried a litter into the garden.

The litter was close-curtained with blue canvas, against the rain.

And a veiled woman peeped through a slit in the curtains and beckoned to Caleb:

"Is he at home?" she asked.

Caleb recognized her, but he answered with an air of innocence and asked:

"Who, gracious lady?"

"He," repeated the woman. "The young Roman, Publius Lucius Sabinus."

"He is at home, gracious lady," said Caleb. "But he is unwell. He will not see any one."

"If he is at home, I want to see him," said the woman.

And she alighted on the stone steps of the portico. She was closely wrapped in her veils, but Caleb had recognized her. And she offered Caleb a gold coin, which Caleb did not refuse, because business was business and a well-invested stater brought him still a little nearer to his native land, for which he was longing.

"I do not know whether I can let you in," said Caleb, hesitatingly.

The woman produced a second piece of gold. It disappeared in Caleb's girdle as though by witchcraft.

"Where is he staying?" she asked.

"In the princes' building, of course," said Caleb, proudly. "Where his little black slave is squatting."

The veiled woman went up to Tarrar, squatting on a mat outside a door:

"I want to see him," said the woman. "I want to speak to him. Take me to him."

"The master is asleep," said Tarrar.

"Wake him."

"The master is sick," said Tarrar.

"Tell him that I can cure him."

"I dare not," said Tarrar. "He would be angry. It would be against his orders. He is accustomed to have us obey him."

"Announce me."

"No," said Tarrar.

"You're a little monkey," said the woman.

And she opened the door and lifted a curtain.

Tarrar and Caleb, dismayed, tried to stop her:

"She's inside!" said Caleb.