The White Prophet, Volume I (of 2). Sir Hall Caine
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for her wit and daring, came down the pavilion steps. She was one of the few Egyptian women who frequented mixed society and went about with uncovered face – a large person, with plump, pallid cheeks, very voluble, outspoken, and quick-tempered, a friend and admirer of the Consul-General and a champion of the English rule. Making straight for Helena, she said —
"Goodness, child, is it your face I see or the light of the moon? The battle? Oh yes, it was beautiful, but it was terrible, and thank the Lord it is over. But tell me about yourself, dear. You are desperately in love, they say, and no wonder. I'm in love with him myself, I really am, and if … Oh, you're there, are you? Well, I'm telling Helena I'm in love with you. Such strength, such courage —pluck, you call it, don't you?"
Helena had turned to answer the American lady, and Gordon, whose eyes had been on her as if waiting for her to speak, whispered to the Princess —
"Isn't she looking lovely to-day, Princess?"
"Then why don't you tell her so?" said the Princess.
"Hush!" said Gordon, whereupon the Princess said —
"My goodness, what ridiculous creatures men are! What cowards, too! As brave as lions before a horde of savages, but before a woman —mon Dieu!"
"Yes," said the Judge in his slow, shrill voice, "they are fond of talking of the old book of Egypt, yet the valley of the Nile is strewn with the tombs of Egyptians who have perished under their hard taskmasters from the Pharaohs to the Pashas. Can't they hear the murmur of the past about them? Have they no memory if they have no gratitude?"
At the last words General Graves came up to the group, looking hot and excited, and he said —
"Memory! Gratitude! They're a nation of ingrates and fools."
"What's that?" asked the Princess.
"Pardon me, Princess. I say the demonstration of your countrymen to-day is an example of the grossest ingratitude."
"You're quite right, General. But Ma'aleysh! (No matter!) The barking of dogs doesn't hurt the clouds."
"And who are the dogs in this instance, Princess?" said a thin-faced Turco-Egyptian, with a heavy moustache, who had been congratulating Colonel Lord.
"Your Turco-Egyptian beauties who would set the country ablaze to light their cigarettes," said the Princess. "Children, I call them. Children, and they deserve the rod. Yes, the rod – and serve them right. Excuse the word. I know! I tell you plainly, Pasha."
"And the clouds are the Consul-General, I suppose?"
"Certainly, and he's so much above them that they can't even see he's the sun in their sky, the stupids."
Whereupon the Pasha, who was the Egyptian Prime Minister under a British Adviser, said with a shrug and a dubious smile —
"Your sentiments are beautiful, but your similes are a little broken, Princess."
"Not half so much broken as your treasury would have been if the English hadn't helped it," said the Princess, and when the Pasha had gone off with a rather halting laugh, she said —
"Ma'aleysh! When angels come the devils take their leave. I don't care. I say what I think. I tell the Egyptians the English are the best friends Egypt ever had, and Nuneham is their greatest ruler since the days of Joseph. But Adam himself wasn't satisfied with Paradise, and it's no use talking. 'Don't throw stones into the well you drink from,' I say. But serve you right, you English. You shouldn't have come. He who builds on another's land brings up another's child. Everybody is excited about this sedition, and even the harem are asking what the Government is going to do. Nuneham knows best, though. Leave him alone. He'll deal with these half-educated upstarts. Upstarts – that's what I call them. Oh, I know! I speak plainly!"
"I agree with the Princess," chimed the Judge. "What is this unrest among the Egyptians due to? The education we ourselves have given them."
"Yes, teach your dog to snap and he'll soon bite you."
"These are the tares in the harvest we are reaping, and perhaps our Western grain doesn't suit this Eastern desert."
"Should think it doesn't, indeed. 'Liberty,' 'Equality,' 'Fraternity,' 'representative Institutions'! If you English come talking this nonsense to the Egyptians what can you expect? Socialism, is it? Well, if I am to be Prince, and you are to be Prince, who is to drive the donkey? Excuse the word! I know! I tell you plainly. Good-bye, my dear! You are looking perfect to-day. But then you are so happy. I can see when young people are in love by their eyes, and yours are shining like moons. After all, your Western ways are best. We choose the husbands for our girls, thinking the silly things don't know what is good for them, and the chicken isn't wiser than the hen; but it's the young people, not the old ones, who have to live together, so why shouldn't they choose for themselves?"
At that instant there passed from some remote corner of the grounds a brougham containing two shrouded figures in close white veils, and the Princess said —
"Look at that, now – that relic of barbarism! Shutting our women up like canaries in a cage, while their men are enjoying the sunshine. Life is a dancing girl – let her dance a little for all of us."
The Princess was about to go when General Graves appealed to her. The Judge had been saying —
"I should call it a religious rather than a political unrest. You may do what you will for the Moslem, but he never forgets that the hand which bestows his benefits is that of an infidel."
"Yes, we're aliens here, there's no getting over it," said the Adviser.
And the General said, "Especially when professional fanatics are always reminding the Egyptians that we are not Mohammedans. By the way, Princess, have you heard of the new preacher, the new prophet, the new Mahdi, as they say?"
"Prophet! Mahdi! Another of them?"
"Yes, the comet that has just appeared in the firmament of Alexandria."
"Some holy man, I suppose. Oh, I know. Holy man indeed! Shake hands with him and count your rings, General! Another impostor riding on the people's backs, and they can't see it, the stupids! But the camel never can see his hump – not he! Good-bye, girl. Get married soon and keep together as long as you can. Stretch your legs to the length of your bed, my dear – why shouldn't you? Say good-bye to Gordon? … Certainly, where is he?"
At that moment Gordon was listening with head down to something the General was saying with intense feeling.
"The only way to deal with religious impostors who sow disaffection among the people is to suppress them with a strong hand. Why not? Fear of their followers? They're fit for nothing but to pray in their mosques, 'Away with the English, O Lord, but give us water in due measure!' Fight? Not for an instant! There isn't an ounce of courage in a hundred of them, and a score of good soldiers would sweep all the native Egyptians of Alexandria into the sea."
Then Gordon, who had not yet spoken, lifted his head and answered, in a rather nervous voice —
"No, no, no, sir! Ill usage may have made these people cowards in the old days, but proper treatment since has made them men, and there wasn't an Egyptian fellah on the field to-day who wouldn't have followed me into the jaws of death if I had told him to. As for our being aliens in religion" – the nervous voice became louder and at the same time more tremulous – "that isn't everything. We're aliens in sympathy and brotherhood and even in common courtesy as well. What is the honest truth about us? Here we are to help the Egyptians to regenerate their country, yet we neither eat nor drink nor associate with them. How can we hope to win their hearts while we hold them at arm's length? We've given them water, yes, water in abundance, but have we given them – love?"
The woman in Gordon had leapt out before he knew it, and he had swung a little aside as if ashamed, while the men cleared their throats, and the Princess, notwithstanding that she had been abusing her own people, suddenly melted in the eyes, and muttered to herself, "Oh, our God!" and then, reaching over to kiss Helena, whispered in her ear —
"You've got the best of the bunch, my dear, and if England would only send us a few more of his sort we should hear less of 'Long live Egypt.' Now,