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Updated: June 24, 2025
Monny and Biddy were quivering with fear lest they should be refused admission, as at Asiut: but this time their coachman was Ahmed Antoun, carefully disguised as a common driver of an arabeah, a rather exaggeratedly common driver perhaps, for his face and turban were not as clean as the face and turban of a self-respecting Moslem ought to be.
Then the arabeah turned, and dashed wildly off according to the custom of arabeahs, back in the direction whence it had been crawling. The two dark-faced men in the vehicle talked rapidly in low voices, speaking the language not only of the country but the patois of Luxor itself. "Your brother passed you in his arabeah?"
He had ceased to brilliantine his once sleek hair, and dust and crumbs were allowed to collect in each fold of his clerical waistcoat. As we of the Set buzzed richly away in taxicabs, I saw him in a shabby arabeah between two old ladies, gazing wistfully after us. He was envying me Enid!
If the gatekeeper tried to send them away, Antoun would bribe him, or threaten him with black magic, or say some strange word which would be for them as an "Open Sesame." The fat creature at the gate had no French, but the driver of the arabeah addressed him in Arabic, and translated his answers. Yes, the great lady had come hither with her husband the Bey. Word should go to her.
There was the waiting arabeah, and there on the box was a much cleaner, more self-respecting Arab to drive it than the soiled figure which had left the horses and strayed into the garden. Afterwards they learned that the new man was the "sister's cousin's uncle" of the Hadji's cafe acquaintance.
"Yes, Hadji, he passed with the three European ladies you told me had been in secret to visit their friend." Then Anthony knew that Brigit and Monny had been able already to carry out their plan of wrapping Mabella Hanem in one of their own cloaks. This was well, and would save gossip, if the occupants of the arabeah were stared at by passers by.
But what would have happened to Brigit and Monny before the sounding of that dinner gong? What did happen at the beginning I must tell as best I can, because I was not there, and can speak for myself only from the Temple of Mut. When they stole almost secretly away from Karnak, they took an arabeah which was waiting and drove to the sugar-plantation of Rechid Bey.
Ahmed Antoun Effendi's own dignified, old-fashioned robes of the Egyptian gentleman flowed round his tall figure, when once more he took his place in the waiting arabeah this time not on the box seat and drove off at more furious speed than ever, toward the Temple of Mut. The Temple of Mut I think must always be mysterious even by day. That night it was more than mysterious. It was sinister.
It should be ascertained whether it was her pleasure to receive these friends who had journeyed from a far country to pay her a visit. Monny and Brigit sat in the arabeah to wait, but they dared not talk to the dirty-faced driver, lest some spy should be on the watch, where every group of flowering plants might have ears and eyes.
"Antoun" accounted for his presence in front of Rechid Bey's high garden wall, by attracting a crowd, and lecturing them in his character of Hadji, while I dashed off in a jingling arabeah, to the American Consulate. As in Cairo, my progress was one long adjuration of the crowd by the driver, who would have revelled in conducting the car of Juggernaut. "Shemalak, ya welad!"
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