"'Yes, but how—'
"'In my corner I heard all that passed, but when you spoke of a contract which you were bound to fulfil I allow that I did not understand you.'
"'We will soon unravel that mystery,' said M. de Morin, 'and the more so because this is not the last time we shall play. We shall do it every day, and it would be too bad to puzzle you any longer.'
"And with a grace of manner which is quite natural to him, the young painter gave me a detailed account of his agreement with M. Delange. I saw at once that the latter is a gambler at heart, and, as I do not like that, he has fallen in my esteem. It is not that I am very particular, for, as you know full well, my dear Emily, I have seen so much of the world and its lights and shades, and so many crimes have been perpetrated under my very eyes in this dear Africa, whither I am returning entirely of my own free will, that I am naturally inclined to err on the side of indulgence, and to place a love of play in the category of minor offences. But, as a woman, I have a grudge against M. Delange, seeing that he might very well dispense with his gambling whilst in our society. Madame de Guéran and I are sufficiently engaging, and we have attractions enough, both intellectual and physical, to make it easy for him to sacrifice his love for cards. By-and-bye I may forgive him, but at this present moment both his friends occupy a higher place than he does in my esteem.
"I really have not anything to say about our stay in Marseilles, because nothing of importance happened there. We only spent one whole day in the place, Saturday, and on Sunday, at 9 a.m., we embarked on board one of the magnificent steamers belonging to the Messageries Maritime, which plies to India and China.
"Neither have I anything to tell you of our trip across. Amongst the passengers were a number of our fellow-countrymen, on their way to Calcutta and Singapore, some Dutch going to Java, and a great many French, principally from Marseilles, with whom Mohammed-Abd-el-Gazal got on famously.
"We reached Naples in about forty hours, and three days afterwards landed in Egypt. The weather throughout was magnificent, and the Mediterranean as calm as the Thames. We, all of us, were wonderfully well except the faithful Joseph, who, as he did not deny himself anything, fell a victim to sea-sickness. How did he contrive to be ill, if the sea was so calm? you will ask. I really do not know; his ways are not our ways. If only he would have conducted his sickness in a discreet and poetical manner, as I have myself often done, and wholesale, too! But no—his sickness was of the most intrusive and prosaic character. My dear Emily, these common people cannot do anything gracefully, whereas an English girl who has been well brought up, on the contrary, elevates even the most trivial things.
"The trip to me, indeed, was simply enchanting. I gazed once more on the clear, blue sky, without which I can no longer exist. Africa knew me again, and overflowing with loving care, wafted me her sweetest odours. At length T was no longer shut up in a box, as I had been in Paris and Marseilles; I could tread the deck from stem to stern. My feet were carried away with delight, and walked—oh! how they walked! According to the calculations of M. Périères, who made a regular study of me, and, every now and then, without my knowing it, fastened a pedometer to my back, I walked about forty miles a day, from end to end of the ship.
"Very often, even at night, when the heavens were studded with twinkling stars, I resumed my walk after supper. The passengers who had betaken themselves to their cabins and wished to sleep, complained more than a little of the noise I made over their heads. But that did not affect me in the least; I am above all those petty considerations, and the deck is open to all the world. One evening, however, as I was walking, from choice, on the poop, I heard, just as I was over one of the starboard cabins, a voice immediately beneath me. 'Oho!' thought I to myself, 'here we have a fractious kind of sleeper. Wait a bit, my friend, and I'll teach you to knock like that and try to impose silence on a British female!' And with that, instead of going farther away, I began to stamp above that ill-advised cabin.
"'What are you doing, Miss Beatrice?' said M. Périères, as he joined me. 'You are right on the top of Madame de Guéran's cabin. She recognized you by the airy lightness of your step, and knocked to ask you to go down and speak to her.'