She had lovely eyes, dark, smoky-blue under black lashes, and when they held a gentle, half-shy, half-proud invitation, as they did then, they were very unsettling eyes.... And it was hot on that infernal camp stool. And there was a crick in the back of his neck and his errand was glaringly a fool's errand....
He half rose, and as he did so the door in the palace opened a crack and a veiled face peered furtively out. Billy sat down again.
"No, thank you," he said, "I think I'd better do a little more of this."
In such light ways is the gate of opportunity closed and opened. Everything that happened afterwards with such appalling startlingness hung on that instant's decision.
For the moment he felt himself a donkey as Lady Claire turned quietly away and the victoria rattled off with brisk finality. Then the door opened again, and again the girl peered out, and furtively, stealthily slipped just outside.
Billy caught up a pad and a pencil and called out a request to sketch her, holding up some silver. Instantly she assumed a fixed pose, with a nervous giggle behind her veil, and he came quickly near her, pretending to be drawing. Her dark, curious eyes met his with questioning significance, and he threw all caution aside and plunged into his demands.
Did she want to earn money, he said quickly, in the Arabic he had been preparing for such an encounter, and on her eager assent, he asked if there was a foreign lady in the palace, an American.
The flash of her eyes told him that he had struck the mark before her half-frightened words came.
His heart quickened with excitement. He might have suspected this thing—but he had not really believed it! He asked, stammering in his haste, "Does she want to get away?"
Again that knowing nod and the quick assent. Then the girl burst into low-toned speech, glancing back constantly through the door she held nearly shut behind her. Billy was forced to shake his head. It was one thing to have picked up a little casual Arabic, and another, and horribly different, thing to comprehend the rapid outpourings behind that muffling veil.