The Figure In The Mirage | Page 2

by these glorious demons. As they caracoled beneath the balcony on which she was leaning she clapped her little hands, in their white kid gloves, and threw down a shower of roses. The falling flowers frightened the horses. They pranced, bucked, reared. One Spahi--a great fellow, eyes like a desert eagle, grand aquiline profile--on whom three roses had dropped, looked up, saw mademoiselle--call her Valérie--gazing down with her great, bright eyes--they were deuced fine eyes, by Jove!----"
"You've seen her?" I asked.
"--and flashed a smile at her with his white teeth. It was his last day in the service. He was in grand spirits. 'Mem Dieu! Mais quelles dents!' she sang out. Her people laughed at her. The Spahi looked at her again-- not smiling. She shrank back on the balcony. Then his place was taken by the Governor--small imperial, chapeau de forme, evening dress, landau and pair. Mademoiselle was désolée. Why couldn't civilised men look like Spahis? Why were all Parisians commonplace? Why--why? Her sister and brother-in-law called her the savage worshipper, and took her down to the café on the terrace to dine. And all through dinner mademoiselle talked of the beaux Spahis--in the plural, with a secret reservation in her heart. After Algiers our Parisians went by way of Constantine to Biskra. Now they saw desert for the first time--the curious iron-grey, velvety-brown, and rose-pink mountains; the nomadic Arabs camping in their earth-coloured tents patched with rags; the camels against the skyline; the everlasting sands, broken here and there by the deep green shadows of distant oases, where the close-growing palms, seen from far off, give to the desert almost the effect that clouds give to Cornish waters. At Biskra mademoiselle--oh! what she must have looked like under the mimosa-trees before the H?tel de l'Oasis!------"
"Then you've seen her," I began.
"--mademoiselle became enthusiastic again, and, almost before they knew it, her sister and brother-in-law were committed to a desert expedition, were fitted out with a dragoman, tents, mules--the whole show, in fact--and one blazing hot day found themselves out in that sunshine--you know it--with Biskra a green shadow on that sea, the mountains behind the sulphur springs turning from bronze to black-brown in the distance, and the table flatness of the desert stretching ahead of them to the limits of the world and the judgment day."
My companion paused, took a flaming reed from the fire, put it to his pipe bowl, pulled hard at his pipe--all the time staring straight before him, as if, among the glowing logs, he saw the caravan of the Parisians winding onward across the desert sands. Then he turned to me, sighed, and said:
"You've seen mirage?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Have you noticed that in mirage the things one fancies one sees generally appear in large numbers--buildings crowded as in towns, trees growing together as in woods, men shoulder to shoulder in large companies?"
My experience of mirage in the desert was so, and I acknowledged it.
"Have you ever seen in a mirage a solitary figure?" he continued.
I thought for a moment. Then I replied in the negative.
"No more have I," he said. "And I believe it's a very rare occurrence. Now mark the mirage that showed itself to mademoiselle on the first day of the desert journey of the Parisians. She saw it on the northern verge of the oasis of Sidi-Okba, late in the afternoon. As they journeyed Tahar, their dragoman--he had applied for the post, and got it by the desire of mademoiselle, who admired his lithe bearing and gorgeous aplomb--Tahar suddenly pulled up his mule, pointed with his brown hand to the horizon, and said in French:
"'There is mirage! Look! There is the mirage of the great desert!'
"Our Parisians, filled with excitement, gazed above the pointed ears of their beasts, over the shimmering waste. There, beyond the palms of the oasis, wrapped in a mysterious haze, lay the mirage. They looked at it in silence. Then Mademoiselle cried, in her little bird's clear voice:
"'Mirage! But surely he's real?'
"'What does mademoiselle see?' asked Tahar quickly.
"'Why, a sort of faint landscape, through which a man--an Arab, I suppose--is riding, towards Sidi--what is it?--Sidi-Okba! He's got something in front of him, hanging across his saddle.'
"Her relations looked at her in amazement.
"'I only see houses standing on the edge of water,' said her sister.
"'And I!' cried the husband.
"'Houses and water,' assented Tahar. 'It is always so in the mirage of Sidi-Okba.'
"'I see no houses, no water,' cried mademoiselle, straining her eyes. 'The Arab rides fast, like the wind. He is in a hurry. One would think he was being pursued. Why, now he's gone!'
"She turned to her companions. They saw still the fairy houses of the mirage standing in the haze on the edge of the fairy water.
"'But,' mademoiselle said impatiently, 'there's nothing at all now--only sand.'
"'Mademoiselle dreams,'