"Which of them?"
"All of them—pashas, people, effendis, officials, your own Ministers—everybody."
"Everybody?"
"Everybody! The stupids! They can't see farther than the ends of their noses, or realise that they would only be exchanging one master for fourteen. What would Egypt be then? A menagerie with all the gates of the cages open. Oh, I know! I say what I think! I'm their Princess, but they can take my rank to-morrow if they wish to."
The second cigarette was thrown away, and a powder-puff and small mirror were taken from a silver bag that hung from the lady's wrist.
"But serve you right, you English! You make the same mistake everywhere. Education! Civilisation! Judicial reform! Rubbish! The Koran tells the Moslem what to believe and what to do, so what does he want with your progress?"
The powder-puff made dabs at the white cheeks, but the lady continued to talk.
"Your Western institutions are thrown away on him. It's like a beautiful wife married to a blind husband—a waste!"
The sun began to set behind the wall of purple creeper and the lady rose to go.
"No news of your Gourdan yet? No? He was the best of the bunch, and I simply lost my heart to him. You should have kept him more in hand though.... You couldn't? You, the greatest man in.... Well, there's something to say for the Eastern way of bringing up boys, it seems."