Think for me. A great deal has changed within the year,
and the men I knew are not here. The Egyptian lighthouse steamer goes down the
Canal to Suakin--and the post-boats--But even then----"
"Do not think any longer. I know, and it is for me to think. Thou shalt go--
thou shalt go and see thy friend. Be wise. Sit here until the house is a little
quiet--I must attend to my guests--and afterwards go to bed. Thou shalt go, in
truth, thou shalt go."
"Tomorrow?"
"As soon as may be." She was talking as though he were a child.
He sat at the table listening to the voices in the harbour and the streets, and
wondering how soon the end would come, till Madame Binat carried him off to bed
and ordered him to sleep. The house shouted and sang and danced and revelled,
Madame Binat moving through it with one eye on the liquor payments and the
girls and the other on Dick's interests. To this latter end she smiled upon
scowling and furtive Turkish officers of fellaheen regiments, and was more than
kind to camel agents of no nationality whatever.
In the early morning, being then appropriately dressed in a flaming red silk
ball-dress, with a front of tarnished gold embroidery and a necklace of plate-
glass diamonds, she made chocolate and carried it in to Dick.
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