Burning Sands Part 14

"Yes," he answered, and his voice failed him. He turned his eyes to the bank of the river and clenched his teeth. He felt very uncomfortable.

"Why?" she asked. Her face was very close to his, and his hand was about her wrist.

"Because I love you, Muriel," he whispered; and the hoa.r.s.eness of his voice would have seemed comical to her had she been in a normal condition.

Suddenly he put his arm about her shoulder and pulled her down to him, so that her head lay upon his breast and her hair touched his face. She did not resist; the drowsy warmth of the afternoon, the Oriental beauty of their surroundings, and the still unevaporated magic of that great enchanter, Sleep, held her powerless.

Again and again he kissed her-kissed her mouth and her eyes, her forehead and her cheeks, her throat and her hair; and with each touch of his lips the fires of her womanhood leaped up within her, so that in these few moments the whole course of her life, so it seemed to her, was changed, and new directions, new vistas, were revealed in intense illumination.

At last, dazed and flushed, she released herself from his hold and stood before him, her fingers clasping and unclasping themselves, her eyes wild and yet tender in their wildness.

"Rupert!" she gasped. "O Rupert!"

Suddenly she turned and ran to the companionway, and the next moment had disappeared.

Rupert sprang from his chair, and banged his fist into the palm of his other hand. "Gad!" he cried aloud, and there was exultation in his voice. He walked the length of the deck, with his hands in his pockets; then he sat down, and immediately got up again. His knees seemed to be trembling under him. He wondered whether that was a symptom of love, and decided that it was not. No he was not in love; he was just excited. And no wonder! Muriel was one of the great heiresses of England, and one of the most charming girls on the market, so to speak; and he had practically got her! Well, perhaps he was in love: her kisses were wonderful; the feeling of closeness to her was exquisite! How delighted his father would be! "Lady Muriel Helsingham," and, in time to come, "Lady Helsingham of Singleton!" And all that money!

He lit a cigarette, puffed frenziedly at it, and threw it into the river. Then he, too, went below.

Muriel's cabin was opposite his own, and at the door he paused and listened. He thought he heard her sigh, and his heart heat faster. She was madly in love with him! Why hadn't he acted sooner? His school-friend had been perfectly right: a man has only got to take his courage in both hands and attack a woman forcibly, and she succ.u.mbs.

He went into his cabin and shut the door briskly. He sat down on the edge of the narrow bed, and stared critically at himself in the mirror opposite. He was quite good-looking. He wondered how Lord Blair would take it. After all, it was not a bad match for his daughter: he was the son and heir of a Peer of the Realm, and his father had a very nice little estate.

In the cabin opposite, Muriel, likewise, sat upon the edge of her bed.

She had been crying, and there were still tears in her eyes. Surely, she thought, this must be love that had come to her, though sudden and unexpected had been its advent. She was profoundly stirred, and wonderingly she recalled every moment of the experience through which she had just pa.s.sed. It had been so sweet; his eyes had looked into hers so tenderly; his lips had aroused something so mighty within her. Of course she would marry him if he asked her; but she was so selfish, so stupid, and he was so clever. Everybody loved him: perhaps he would quickly grow tired of her....

At tea-time she could not look at him. She talked at random to the others, and as they all sat afterwards on deck watching the sun go down, she still kept aloof from him. Later, in dressing for dinner, she exacted particular care from her maid; and she was thankful that she had brought her most becoming dress with her.

"My dear, you look a dream!" exclaimed Kate Bindane as she came into the dining-room. "A dam' sight too beautiful for my liking! I'll have to keep my old man out of your way, or you'll make him feel all of a twitter. As it is, I see him eyeing you all the time. He's a dark horse, is Benifett: you never know what he's up to."

And certainly during dinner his watery eyes were fixed upon her from time to time with disconcerting directness. A gla.s.s or two of champagne helped her to overcome a feeling of shyness in relation to Rupert, and soon she became conscious of a growing excitement. She wondered what would happen before the evening was over, and alternately she longed for the meal to come to an end, and was dismayed to find it advancing so quickly. She talked feverishly, and, indeed, Lady Smith-Evered once felt it her duty to make signs to the butler to refrain from filling the girl's gla.s.s. Muriel, however, observed the signal, and laughed aloud.

"Am I talking too fast or something?" she asked, holding up her empty gla.s.s to the hesitating butler.

"No, it's only that wine is not very good for one in this climate,"

whispered Lady Smith-Evered, her expression hinting at strange things.

"It can't hurt her," said Mr. Bindane, yet he drank only water himself.

As they went up on deck for their coffee, Muriel felt her face burning and her heart thumping; and when Rupert stood at her side and surrept.i.tiously touched her hand she experienced so wondrous a thrill of emotion that she forgot what she was saying at the moment to Professor Hyley, and their conversation-something about ancient Egyptian G.o.ds-completely broke down.

Owing to some engine-trouble earlier in the day the steamer had not nearly reached its destination; and now, for the sake of the pa.s.sengers'

comfort, it was travelling quietly and at a much reduced pace. The night was warm, windless, and intensely dark, for the waning moon had not yet risen; but the stars were brilliant, and the Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a band of ghostly silver.

As soon as the coffee cups were removed Mr. Bindane proposed the inevitable game of bridge, and therewith their host and hostess, Lady Smith-Evered, and the Professor descended to the saloon, Muriel and Rupert remaining on deck-by the tacit and tactful arrangement of Kate Bindane, who seemed to antic.i.p.ate their inclinations.

"There's a nice little cosy corner at the stern," she whispered to Rupert, and gave him a friendly dig in the ribs. Fortunately Muriel was out of earshot.

To the stern, therefore, he led his companion when at length they were left alone, and here on a comfortable sofa they seated themselves. Nor did he allow many moments to pa.s.s before he attempted to resume the intimacy of the afternoon. Muriel, however, was self-conscious, and as he kissed her she gently thrust him away from her.

"Don't," she muttered. "Please don't, Rupert, dear."

There was a tone of anguish in her voice, for at the dawn of love a woman feels terror such as no man can understand. Instinctively, and without definite reasoning, she dreads the consequences of her actions; and whereas a man's new love is glorious with the exultation of careless conquest, a woman's is tender with the vision of uncomprehended pain to be. At the lightest touch of a new lover's lips she catches sight of her whole destiny; and where a man rejoices, a woman quakes.

Rupert was abashed, and, releasing her from his grasp, stared before him into the darkness, while Muriel waited for him to make her quake again: it was a wonderful sensation.

"Why shouldn't I kiss you, Muriel?" he asked. "You love me, you know you do." He turned to her, and his face came close to hers. "You do love me, don't you?"

For answer she ran her fingers through his hair and looked long at him.

In the dim light he could see that she was searching his face as though endeavouring to find in it the a.s.surance her womanhood required. He hoped that her hands were not untidying him beyond quick repair: he very much disliked having his hair ruffled.

Again he put his arms about her, and now she did not resist. Her eyes closed, and as in a dream she gave herself up to the emotion of the moment. In some miraculous manner it seemed to her Rupert had developed, and his arms that now enfolded her were suddenly endowed with celestial strength. It was as though by loving her he had identified himself with a force far greater than his own; and even the broken words which he uttered seemed to have a more profound meaning. She forgot that she had read such words in many a short story, many a novel; they sounded beautiful to her; they came to her ears with all the enchantment of things never before spoken in the whole history of the world.

"O Rupert," she murmured, "do I mean all that to you?"

"You mean heaven and h.e.l.l to me, Muriel," he said, dramatically.

For a considerable time-though time to her stood still-they sat together in the darkness, closely held in one another's arms, his cheek and his lips pressed against her bare shoulder and neck; and as the moments pa.s.sed the intoxication of love began to bewilder him as it had already overwhelmed her. Her skin was so warm, so soft, so alluring, and the surge of her breath was so entrancing!

Suddenly they became conscious of the sound of much shouting amongst the native crew, and at the same time the drone of the paddle-wheels ceased.

Rupert raised his head, and his hands began instinctively to tidy his hair and to arrange his disordered tie.

"We must have arrived," he said. "The others will be coming up on deck: we'd better move."

He stood up, and Muriel sank back into the corner of the sofa, her arm across her eyes. For some moments she seemed to be unable to bring her mind down from the heights of her dream; and Rupert watched her with anxiety, hoping that she would speedily master herself.

"Come," he said. "Let's walk along the deck."

Very slowly she rose to her feet, and, with a sigh, put her arm in his.

The steamer had evidently reached its destination, and the captain's bell incessantly rang his orders to the engine-room, while the hurried tread of bare feet could be heard on the bridge above them as they came into the soft light amids.h.i.+ps. On one side the bank of the river could be discerned in the darkness, still some thirty or forty feet distant; on the other the open water stretched, reflecting the innumerable stars.

To this latter side Rupert led her, and, leaning his back against the railing above the now silent paddle-wheel, he held his hand out to her as she stood before him.

"Muriel," he whispered, when fervently he had kissed her fingers, "will you be my wife?"

She drew in her breath sharply, and her hands clasped themselves against her breast. She had been waiting for these words, but now when she heard them they frightened her. Somehow in the light of the electric lamps her dream in the darkness had faded, and there was a sense of cooler reality in her mind, a kind of reaction. Why should she say 'Yes' at once? Ought she not to try him yet a little while before she gave herself to him?

She remembered that until today she had not known that she loved him: perhaps it was all an illusion, created by the Nile.

He saw the look in her face, and as he leaned back heavily against the railing his heart sank within him. Was she only playing with him? Did she only feel for him what he felt for her?

"Well?" he asked, and his hands were clenched upon the iron rail.

She did not answer. She stood staring at him with fixed eyes, and as she did so a sensation of annoyance pa.s.sed across his mind.

"Ah!" he muttered. "You don't love me. You're only amusing yourself with me."

"Rupert!" she exclaimed.