“Humph! old fellow,” said Leo aside to me in English, “the lady is very civil. We seem to have tumbled into clover. I hope that you have made the most of your opportunities. By Jove! what a pair of arms she has got!”
I nudged him in the ribs to make him keep quiet, for I caught sight of a gleam from Ayesha’s veiled eyes, which were regarding me curiously.
“I trust,” went on Ayesha, “that my servants have attended well upon thee; if there can be comfort in this poor place, be sure it waits on thee. Is there aught that I can do for thee more?”
“Yes, oh She,” answered Leo hastily, “I would fain know whither the young lady who was looking after me has gone to.”
“Ah,” said Ayesha: “the girl—yes, I saw her. Nay, I know not; she said that she would go, I know not whither. Perchance she will return, perchance not. It is wearisome waiting on the sick, and these savage women are fickle.”
Leo looked both sulky and distressed at this intelligence.
“It’s very odd,” he said to me in English; and then, addressing She, “I cannot understand,” he said; “the young lady and I—well—in short, we had a regard for each other.”
Ayesha laughed a little very musically, and then turned the subject.
XIX.
“GIVE ME A BLACK GOAT!”
The conversation after this was of such a desultory order that I do not quite recollect it. For some reason, perhaps from a desire to keep her identity and character in reserve, Ayesha did not talk freely, as she usually did. Presently, however, she informed Leo that she had arranged a dance that night for our amusement. I was astonished to hear this, as I fancied that the Amahagger were much too gloomy a folk to indulge in any such frivolity; but, as will presently more clearly appear, it turned out that an Amahagger dance has little in common with such fantastic festivities in other countries, savage or civilised. Then, as we were about to withdraw, she suggested that Leo might like to see some of the wonders of the caves, and as he gladly assented thither we departed, accompanied by Job and Billali. To describe our visit would only be to repeat a great deal of what I have already said. The tombs we entered were indeed different, for the whole rock was a honeycomb of sepulchres,[[1]] but the contents were nearly always similar. Afterwards we visited the pyramid of bones that had haunted my dreams on the previous night, and from thence went down a long passage to one of the great vaults occupied by the bodies of the poorer citizens of Imperial Kôr. These bodies were not nearly so well preserved as were those of the wealthier classes. Many of them had no linen covering on them, also they were buried from five hundred to one thousand in a single large vault, the corpses in some instances being thickly piled one upon another, like a heap of slain.