The Bride of the Nile | Page 5

grass-plot and flower-bed, as swift as a roe, without heeding his
repeated shouts of "Katharina! bewitching, big damsel, Katharina!" till
she reached the house.
It was a charming little interlude. Old Haschim was still pondering it in
his memory with much satisfaction when he and his caravan had gone
some distance further. He felt obliged to Orion for this pretty scene,
and when he heard the young man's quadriga approaching at an easy
trot behind him, he turned round to gaze. But the Arab's face had lost
its contentment by the time the four Pannonians and the chariot,
overlaid with silver ornamentation and forming, with its driver, a
picture of rare beauty and in perfect taste, had slowly driven past, to fly
on like the wind as soon as the road was clear, and to vanish presently
in clouds of dust. There was something of melancholy in his voice as
he desired his young camel-driver to pick up the flowers, which now
lay in the dust of the road, and to bring them to him. He himself had
observed the handsome youth as, with a glance and a gesture of
annoyance with himself, he flung the innocent gift on the hot, sandy
highway.
"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite. "Women
are indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life--and he in theirs, I
fear! Poor little girl!"
"The little water-wagtail do you mean? Oh! with her it may perhaps
turn to real earnest. The two mothers have settled the matter already.

They are both rolling in gold, and where doves nest doves
resort.--Thank God, the sun is low down over the Pyramids! Let your
people rest at the large inn yonder; the host is an honest man and lacks
nothing, not even shade!"
"So far as the beasts and drivers are concerned," said the merchant,
"they may stop here. But I, and the leader of the caravan, and some of
my men will only take some refreshment, and then you must guide us
to the governor; I have to speak with him. It is growing late. . ."
"That does not matter," said the Egyptian. "The Mukaukas prefers to
see strangers after sundown on such a scorching day. If you have any
dealings with him I am the very man for you. You have only to make
play with a gold piece and I can obtain you an audience at once through
Sebek, the house-steward he is my cousin. While you are resting here I
will ride on to the governor's palace and bring you word as to how
matters stand."
CHAPTER II.
The caravansary into which Haschim and his following now turned off
stood on a plot of rising ground surrounded by palm-trees. Before the
destruction of the heathen sanctuaries it had been a temple of Imhotep,
the Egyptian Esculapius, the beneficient god of healing, who had had
his places of special worship even in the city of the dead. It was half
relined, half buried in desert sand when an enterprising inn-keeper had
bought the elegant structure with the adjacent grove for a very
moderate sum. Since then it had passed to various owners, a large
wooden building for the accommodation of travellers had been added
to the massive edifice, and among the palm-trees, which extended as far
as the ill-repaired quay, stables were erected and plots of ground fenced
in for beasts of all kinds. The whole place looked like a cattle-fair, and
indeed it was a great resort of the butchers and horse-dealers of the
town, who came there to purchase. The palm-grove, being one of the
few remaining close to the city, also served the Memphites as a
pleasure-ground where they could "sniff fresh air" and treat themselves
in a pleasant shade. 'Tables and seats had been set out close to the river,

and there were boats on hire in mine host's little creek; and those who
took their pleasure in coming thither by water were glad to put in and
refresh themselves under the palms of Nesptah.
Two rows of houses had formerly divided this rendezvous for the sober
and the reckless from the highroad, but they had long since been pulled
down and laid level with the ground by successive landlords. Even now
some hundreds of laborers might be seen, in spite of the scorching heat,
toiling under Arab overseers to demolish a vast ruin of the date of the
Ptolemies and transporting the huge blocks of limestone and marble,
and the numberless columns which once had supported the roof of the
temple of Zeus, to the eastern shore of the Nile-loading them on to
trucks drawn by oxen which hauled them down to the quay to cross the
river in flat-bottomed boats.
Amru, the Khaliff's general and representative,