“In a few days” the other answered; “as soon as this matter of feud is set to rights.” And therewith he turned the conversation into that channel.
In the night as he lay upon his bed upon the tower-top, gazing up into the immensity of the heavens, he repeated to himself, almost with derision, the words of the Sheikh: “You go to choose for yourself a wife.” It was absurd, and yet somehow the thought made a way for itself amongst the crowded places of his mind. To choose for himself a wife...!
“Good Lord!” he muttered; “what a horrible idea!”
[CHAPTER XII—THE HELPMATE]
Daniel was drying himself after his bath early next morning when Hussein came to tell him that the soldier of the Frontier Patrol craved permission to ask whether the reply was ready, as he was anxious to start back as early as possible, so as not to delay the messenger who wished to leave for Cairo at noon.
He therefore fastened a towel around his waist, and, striding into the adjoining room, scribbled his answer on a half-sheet of paper.
“Excuse scrawl,” he wrote, “but am having my bath, and the messenger, whom I’ve kept all night, can’t wait any longer. All right, I’ll turn up within a week or so and take on the job you so flatteringly offer. No knighthood, please. D. L.”
He thrust the sheet into an envelope, and with a broad smile addressed it: “The Rt. Hon. The Earl Blair of Hartlestone, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., etc.; His Britannic Majesty’s High Commissioner and Minister Plenipotentiary.” He felt that, since he was now to be a respectable member of society, he ought to accustom himself at once to the world’s accepted ways, even though they seemed to him to belong to the realm of comic opera. High-sounding titles always made him laugh. He could not explain it: it was just a clear sense of actuality, a looking at things as they are and not as ceremony presents them.
Now that his mind was made up, and Lord Blair’s invitation accepted, he felt no longer troubled; and, his reply having been dispatched, he set about packing his belongings and rounding off his affairs with the greatest equanimity.
To his great regret, however, he failed to bring the matter of the feud to a successful conclusion. The chief members of the family opposed to Sheikh Ali would not be reconciled; and all that Daniel’s eloquence and persuasion could accomplish was an agreement to maintain the status quo during the Sheikh’s lifetime. But as the old man was already bending under the weight of years, and as his hopes were concentrated upon the succession of his son, Ibrahîm, this compromise was not very satisfactory.