Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 17, 2025
"Maïeddine would not wish thee to tell the young man these things, or any other things, or show thyself to him at all," M'Barka persisted, lifting herself on the bed in growing excitement. "Dost thou not guess, he runs many dangers in guiding thee to the wife of a man who is as one dead? Dost thou wish to ruin him who risks his whole future to content thee?"
But all night he thought of what M'Barka had said, and the message of the sand. It was a dangerous message, yet the counsel was after his own heart. In the morning he was still brooding over the message; and as they travelled through the black desert on the way to Ghardaia and the hidden cities of the M'Zab, he fell into long silences.
But it was good, and she would not wince though the tears stung her eyes as she drank, for Lella M'Barka and the two servants were watching her eagerly. Afterwards came a kouskous of chicken and farina, which she ate with a large spoon whose bowl was of tortoiseshell, the handle of ivory tipped with coral.
It was the Caïd coming home, and Maïeddine was with him; for Lella M'Barka had been obliged to rest for three days at the farmhouse on the hill, and the Caïd's guest had accompanied him before sunrise this morning to see a favourite white mehari, or racing camel, belonging to Sidi Elaïd ben Sliman, which was very ill, in care of a wise man of the village.
As they travelled, she had many thoughts which pleased her thoughts which could have come to her nowhere else except in the desert, and often she talked to herself, because M'Barka could not understand her feelings, and she did not wish to make Maïeddine understand.
"Why shouldst thou consider me, whom thou hast known but a few days, when thou wouldst be hurrying on towards thy sister Saïda? Yet it will surely be my death if thou makest any sign to those men. My heart would cease to beat. It beats but weakly now." With a sigh, Victoria turned away from the moucharabia, and crossing the room to M'Barka, sat down on a rug by the side of her couch.
Not far away Maïeddine was still sitting by the fire with M'Barka. "Tell me now," he said. "What didst thou see?" "Nothing clearly. Another time, cousin. Let me have my mind fresh. I am like a squeezed orange." "Yet I must know, or I shall not sleep. Thou art hiding something." "All was vague confused. I saw as through a torn cloud. There was the great house. Thou wert there, a guest.
As for Lella M'Barka, the Rose of the West need not fear, for the bassour was easy as a cradle to a woman of the desert; and M'Barka, rightfully a princess of Touggourt, was desert-born and bred. Queer little patches of growing grain, or miniature orchards enlivened the dull plain round the ugly Saharian town of Djelfa, headquarters of the Ouled Naïls.
I tell thee fate has spoken. The sand has spoken sand gathered from among these dunes. It is for that reason in part that I brought thee here." "The sand-divining!" Victoria exclaimed. "Lella M'Barka told thee " "She told me not to wait. And her counsel was the counsel of my own heart. Look, oh Rose, where the moon glitters on the sand the sand that twined thy life with mine.
Now the mehari was dead, and as Maïeddine seemed impatient to get back, they were riding home, in spite of the noon heat. Maïeddine had left the house reluctantly this morning. Not that he could often see Victoria, who was nursing M'Barka, and looking so wistful that he guessed she had half hoped to find her sister waiting behind the white wall on the golden hill.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking