The Baroness at first hesitated to engage this applicant. Miss Poles, she thought, might, whilst in the service of Mdlle. Tinne, have become accustomed to an amount of ease and luxury which she certainly would not find in the society of her new companions. In fact, Madame de Guéran, without having any idea of travelling in as primitive a fashion as did the pretended dervish, Vambéry, or Dr. Barth, or many others, had fully made up her mind not to dazzle the Arabs and negroes by any display of magnificence. In barbarous countries cupidity and envy can never be roused with impunity, and the Thouaregs proved that by the massacre of Mdlle. Tinne under the very eyes of Miss Poles.
But the friends of Madame de Guéran in England brought fresh arguments to bear on her hesitation. Their protégée, they said, from her experience of Africa, and her thorough knowledge of the customs of the country, would be of the greatest use, and, moreover, both her zeal and unlimited devotion might be relied upon. These arguments prevailed with Madame de Guéran, and she accordingly engaged the whilom companion of Mdlle. Tinne.
Miss Beatrice Poles, to judge from her appearance, was about forty years of age when she first made her appearance in Madame de Guéran's drawing-room, in the Boulevard Malesherbes. She was a tall, angular female, so thin that she looked as if she had been flattened out by hydraulic pressure, and so dry and withered-looking that M. de Morin was quite uneasy when he saw her near the fire. She had a long neck, long arms, stilts, presumably, for legs, and feet which were a source of never-ending admiration to M. Périères. "They were so long," he said, "that she need never walk. She arrived at her destination before starting."
Her face was almost entirely hidden by huge blue spectacles, with side-guards, which she had got into the habit of wearing in Africa, to protect her against the diseases of the eye so prevalent in that country. Under a tropical sun she had lost that fresh colour which had in former days, as she professed in her moments of confidence, rendered her so attractive, and her complexion had become embrowned to such an extent that she might very well have been taken for a negress. That such a mistake was possible is evident from the "Times," which in giving an account of the death of Mdlle. Tinne, said—"The other servants succeeded in escaping with the exception of a negress, who was carried off by the Thouaregs." The negress was no other than Miss Beatrice Poles, an Englishwoman, and a cockney to boot.
She was a most estimable woman, all the same, well brought up, speaking English, French, and Arabic, understanding a joke, and quick at repartee, without prejudice, and, a rarity in Englishwomen, free from prudery, but that was to be accounted for by her familiarity with the manners and customs of the not too particular tribes of Africa.
After his first interview with her, M. de Morin asked permission to paint her portrait, which she graciously accorded. Underneath the sketch, he wrote—"Return from Africa. This is how we shall all look when we come back."
CHAPTER XII.
As soon as the establishment of masters and servants was complete, a meeting took place at Madame de Guéran's apartments to distribute the duties which remained to be carried out. Each one, according to his or her position and means, had a proportionate share of purchases to make, letters to write, information to obtain, packages to see to, and excursions to undertake.
The experience of Miss Beatrice Poles was of the utmost value. She ransacked the shops from morning to night, and bought or ordered a thousand things of which nobody else would have dreamt. So untiring and energetic was she, that one evening, when she was recounting her perigrinations throughout Paris, M, de Morin said to her—
"Of course, to accomplish all this, you took a cab?"