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In his soul there was a depression as deep as in that of the singing-woman. "Al'mah had her debt to pay, and I shall have mine," he said, wearily. People were in London in September and October who seldom arrived before November. War was coming.
Once after an outburst of applause from the brilliant audience, there came a tiny echo of it from across the courtyard. It was Jigger, enraptured by a vision of heaven and the sounds of it. Al'mah turned towards the window with a shining face, and waved a kiss out of the light and glory where she was, to the sufferer in the darkness.
The demoralization which had stealthily gone on for a number of years was now suddenly a debacle of will and body. Of the superb physical coolness and intrepid mind with which he had sprung upon the stage of Covent Garden Opera House to rescue Al'mah nothing seemed left; or, if it did remain, it was shocked out of its bearings.
Stafford went forward hurriedly, but Al'mah stood like one transfixed. There was a whispered word, and then Stafford came back to her. "You will not need to do anything," he said. "He is gone like that!" she whispered in an awed voice. "Death, death so many die!" She shuddered. Stafford passed her arm through his, and drew her towards the door of the hospital.
Yet there came a sudden half-angry feeling when she heard Rudyard Byng say, so loosely, that Al'Mah had kissed him. Was it possible, then, that a man, that any man, thought she might hear such things without resentment; that any man thought her to know so much of life that it did not matter what was said? Did her outward appearance, then, bear such false evidence?
Pale of face, but courageous and solicitous, Jasmine, accompanied by Al'mah, moved among the dead and dying and the bitter and bereaved living, with a gentle smile and a soft word or touch of the hand. Men near to death, or suffering torture, looked gratefully at her or tried to smile; and more than once Mr.
Then, at last, with a crash of sweetness, the voice broke over them all in crystals of sound and floated away into a world of bright dreams. An instant's silence which followed was broken by a tempest of applause. Again, again, and again it was renewed. The subordinate singers were quickly disposed of before the curtain, then Al'mah received her memorable tribute.
The critical nature of things on the Rand did not lessen the gaming or the late hours, the theatrical entertainments and social functions at which Al'mah or another sang at a fabulous fee; or from which a dancer took away a pocketful of gold partly fee.
"A woman of the Prince heard him give instructions for thy disposal, Effendina, when the Citadel should turns its guns upon Cairo and the Palace. She was once of thy harem. Thou didst give her in marriage, and she came to the harem of Prince Harrik at last. A woman from without who sang to her a singing girl, an al'mah she trusted with the paper to warn thee, Effendina, in her name.
He was justified in disposing of a dangerous and recalcitrant prisoner. He could find a sufficient explanation if he was challenged. As he turned round from the doorway through which Krool had disappeared, he saw Al'mah, who had entered from another room during the incident. A light came to Stafford's face.
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