“You no believe me? Well, then, perhaps I thirsty and drink water. Much weep make me thirsty. No believe still? Then perhaps I look in water and see pictures there.”
“What pictures can you see in that dark place?”
“Oh, plenty, dark no matter. See things inside, like you when you blind. I tell you what I see; I see you come back here, and so I weep no more. I—I—happy. Make that dog go the other side, he want to bite me now, he jealous because you look at me, not him.”
Accordingly the protesting Anubis was rearranged, and continued his snarlings and grumblings from a safer distance.
“Some more of old Bakhita’s nonsense, I suppose,” said Rupert. “I thought that you had given up believing in her myths and omens.”
“What mean myths and omens? No matter; Bakhita old fool, gods old stones, believe in none of them. You say it, so all right. Believe in you, and me—inside, what my heart tell me. My heart tell me you come back. That why I happy.”
“Then I am afraid, Mea, that your heart knows more than I do.”
“Yes,” she answered, “think more; feel more, so know more. That all right; what do you expect?” Then suddenly dropping her jerky and peculiar English, Mea addressed him in her solemn and native Arabic. “Hark you, Rupert, guest of my home, guest of my heart, preserver of my body, who shed your blood for me. You think me foolish, one who tries to warm her hands at the fires of the marsh, one who plucks flowers that fade, and believes them immortal stars fallen to deck her breast and hair. Yet she finds warmth in the marsh fire, and in the dead flower’s heart a star. I believe that you will come back, why or how it matters not, but to make sure you shall swear an oath to me, you shall swear it by the name of your Jesus, for then it will not be broke.”
“What oath?” asked Rupert anxiously.
“This: Sometimes lamps go out, and where we thought light was there is great blackness. Sometimes hopes fail, and death stands where life should have been. This may chance to you, Rupert Bey, yonder in the cold, western land of the setting sun.”