Further down the river we began to pass the tombs and monuments of the ancient dynasties and here the entertainments became more and more elaborate for Ab-Domen cleverly utilized the crumbling temples, gigantic columns and seated figures as a background for the performers. At the temple of Philae, notably, he put on a superb show with three principals and a chorus of six Egyptian beauties which caused Swank and Whinney to tie their dahabeah alongside forthwith.
Late into the starry night I sat with my loved-one, continuing the story of my life which had been so often interrupted, filling in the details of my college career with its mad, glad days and then my plunge into exploration, the wonderful things I had accomplished, the people I had met, the honors ... it is not my way to talk about myself but I felt I should tell all to this wonderful woman. She was such a superb listener, quiet, mute.
“Say something,” I murmured, brushing her locks, sweet with jasmine and asphodel, “speak, my oleander.”
“I am speechless,” she said.
I have always loved women of that sort, the simple, quiet ones,—broad between the eyes,—are they bovine? stupid? I do not know. They listen to me.
Thus Lady Sarah lay in her chaise-longue, quiet, smiling, listening to my odyssey. Sometimes her eyes closed and it almost seemed she slept....
Chapter XII
The Tomb of Dimitrino
Chapter XII
It is not my way to pass through a country without drawing from it as much information and interest as possible. All my life I have been a close student of archeology and here was an opportunity not to be missed of pursuing certain investigations which had been attempted by others and which I myself had begun and abandoned when the war called all able-bodied men to the colors.
Like all Englishwomen Lady Sarah had a keen interest in investigations of this sort and heartily seconded the suggestion that I should give a day or two to the clearing up of some of the dynastic mysteries which have baffled historians for many years.