Affair in Araby | Page 2

necessary he said it was?"
"Oh, perfectly!" responded Rushford, drily. "I've suspected right along
that Samuels took his orders from you."
"From me, dad!" cried Sue, indignantly, but her eyes were shining in a
most suspicious manner. "A man of his standing--"
"It doesn't matter," broke in her father, with a wave of his arm. "I'm
willing to grant, for the sake of argument, that Samuels was perfectly
sincere. But I still protest that there is no reason why we should conceal
ourselves here. We haven't done anything--the police aren't after us--I
can speak for myself, at least."
"This seemed to be such a nice, quiet place for you, dad," explained
Nell, perching herself upon a table near the window and gazing
pensively out at the shimmering water, which told that the sun was
winning a decisive victory over the mist, and that the day would be a
fine one.
"For me!" repeated her father, turning and staring at her. "You don't
mean to say you chose this place on my account!"
Nell nodded, but she winked at Susie.
"And then, you know," she added, "we have always wanted to get a
glimpse of a real Dutch watering-place."
"I don't believe this is a real Dutch watering-place. Nobody here speaks

anything but French. Why, it's even got a French name!"
"Only two-thirds French, dad," Sue corrected.
"And everything is priced in francs."
"That is true of all Europe," asserted Nell, with superb aplomb.
"Well, Dutch, French, or Hindoo, you've had your glimpse, haven't you?
Suppose we move on and get a glimpse or two of something worth
seeing."
"Oh, but we've seen it all only from the outside! We've been like the
audience at a show--we haven't had any part in it. And it's so much
more interesting behind the scenes!"
"It's dull enough from in front, heaven knows!" agreed Rushford. "If I
had my way, I'd ring down the curtain and close the show up this
minute. It's the worst I ever saw! And I very much doubt if a
respectable American family has any business behind the scenes!"
"You're jaundiced, dad," laughed Sue. "You're looking at the place
through a yellow film of prejudice. One must enter into the spirit of the
thing!"
Rushford groaned.
"I'm afraid I'm too set in my ways, Susie," he said, dismally. "I've lived
in America too long. You might as well ask me to dance the can-can,
and be done with it!"
"Besides," continued Sue, "it's just as Nell says. We're on the
outside--we haven't got a foothold. There's something the matter."
"Maybe they think I'm that Chicago cashier who got away with a
million, not long ago. On second thought, though, I don't believe that
would make any difference. That fellow would find a very congenial
circle here. He wouldn't have any difficulty in getting behind the
scenes!"

"Sue and I have been thinking it over," said Nell, "and we've concluded
that it must be something about the hotel. We seem to have picked out
the wrong one."
"The place is empty, and that's a fact," agreed Rushford.
"It's unnaturally so," said Sue. "Something's the matter with it. It's
taboo for some reason."
"Well, it's good enough for me," remarked her father. "After all, there
isn't much difference in prisons! But I want to repeat, as emphatically
as possible, that I can't keep on loafing here for a month and preserve
my sanity. Don't you see how much whiter my hair's getting? I'm
willing to do anything in reason to oblige you, and I fully realise the
importance of your sociological and ethnological studies--"
Sue's hand on his mouth stopped him.
"Take a breath, dad," she cautioned him. "Take a breath. Those were
mighty long words."
"As I was about to remark," continued Rushford, calmly, taking the
hand away, "I am, of course, a doting parent--who would not be with
two such children? But, candidly, I don't just see where I come in. I tell
you, girls, I've got to have some excitement."
"There's plenty of excitement at the Casino, dad."
"Oh, yes--faro excitement; roulette excitement. I never cared for that
kind. I've always had the sense to keep out of sure-thing games, even
on Wall Street."
"But the people--"
"The people! French apes in fancy waistcoats; Dutch dandies in corsets;
women with painted cheeks and pencilled eyebrows whom you're
ashamed to look at!"
"Some of them are respectable, dad," laughed Sue.

"One would never suspect it!"
"Oh, yes, dad; some of them belong to the nobility."
"That's no certificate of character--rather the reverse, if one may
believe the papers."
"Gossip, dad; nothing but gossip. And you know how you've always
hated gossip. You've told us never to believe it."
"It may be; but one could believe anything of most of the women one