She shook her head, causing the disc and little golden snake she wore to glisten in the lamp-light.
“No, not quite Christian, only half, not baptized. I afraid if baptized, make old fellows—” and she pointed towards the gods in the sanctuary, “angry and bring bad luck.”
“I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious,” said Rupert, quoting aloud to himself.
She looked puzzled, then her face brightened as the meaning of the last word came home to her.
“No,” she said, “not superstitious like beastly Mahommedan, only afraid. That why I come here in not decent night-dress,” and she held out her little foot naked except for the sandal, and again shook her head as though in regret for a state of affairs over which she had no control.
Rupert laughed loudly, causing the bats which had settled to flitter from the roof again, and Mea, who seemed to be a merry little soul, joined in his laughter. This made old Bakhita angry, and she reproved them both in a stern voice.
“Do not cackle here,” she said, in Arabic, “in the very house of the gods, though it is true that to one of you they are no gods, and already the other has a foot set in that same path,” and she glanced wrathfully at Mea. “Listen, Bey! I make a request of you. I do not ask for myself, who am old and ugly, but for this lady. I have heard that you ride to-morrow at night-fall. Now our road is yours, for I know the sheiks to whom you go. Give us and our two servants leave to ride with you. We have good camels of our own,” and she looked at him with anxious eyes.
“Why do you want my escort, and whither?” he asked doubtfully.
“Why? For this reason. Do you remember the Sheik Ibrahim, he of the Sweet Wells? Yes, I see you do. Well, he is an old enemy of our house. He asked for the lady here in marriage, and was refused. Yes, the dog, he dared to ask that after once, by ill chance, he had seen her beauty. Now he has found out that we are going to make this journey, and his plan is to take her as already he has tried to take her at Luxor. But if we were with you, that he would not dare to do, for he has prostrated himself to the Government since you were away, and will not touch one whom he knows to be their envoy, although you may call yourself Mahommed, and be dressed like an Arab.”
“I am not sure of that,” answered Rupert. “Friend Ibrahim does not love me.”