“Oh, you needn’t bother to find out,” she said. “You wouldn’t understand the real reason.”
“Ah, then there is a secret: I thought as much,” she replied, with a knowing smile. “There’s always a secret about the movements of such men as Mr. Lane.”
“Yes,” answered Muriel, suddenly seeing red, as the saying is; “absolute frankness and absolute honesty must always seem fishy to those who can’t conceive what such things mean. If you want to know, Daniel Lane has gone away because he was fed up with the rotten life we lead here in Cairo. The sham of it all sickened him. He has gone away to escape from the pretences and the hatefulness and the pettiness of people like you and me. He’s gone to get some fresh air: he was being suffocated here.”
Lady Smith-Evered stared at her in blank astonishment, and the pinkness of her face turned to a deeper red. “Oh, that’s what he has told you, is it?” she scoffed. “He must think you very gullible.”
Muriel rose from the sofa, and faced her visitor with blazing eyes. “I said you wouldn’t be able to understand,” she exclaimed. “There’s no mystery about it: he was just frankly disgusted, and off he went. But he’ll come back one day, when the hot weather begins and we’ve all gone home. Then he and Father will be able to get on with their work, with England’s work, without being distracted by fussy little interruptions from women like you and me....”
Lady Smith-Evered managed to raise herself with some dignity from the sofa. “I wanted to speak to you about plans,” she said, stiffly; “but that can wait now till another day. I don’t know what is the matter with you, but I know we shall quarrel if I remain. I don’t care to be spoken to as you are speaking to me.”
Her large bosom was heaving threateningly, and Muriel was abashed.
“I’m sorry,” she answered, the light of battle dying in her eyes.
Lady Smith-Evered took her departure without many more words, and thereon Muriel went directly up to her room again, her heart aching within her. Here at the open window she stood staring out across the lawn to the translucent Nile. A native boat, with huge bellying sails, was making its way slowly up stream; and she could hear the wailing song of the blue-gowned youth at the rudder. Away in the distance the Pyramids marked the edge of the placid desert, now bathed in sunlight; and above, the cloudless sky stretched in tranquil splendour.
She was ashamed of herself, ashamed of her inconsistency. Her mind was confused, but in its confusion she was conscious of one clear thought, namely that Daniel would have rebuked her for her show of temper. “Look away over there at the quiet desert,” he would have said. “Do you see how it is smiling at you for your angry thought and for that flush in your face? You won’t get at the root of things by raising your little voice in protest.”