The Sheik
Page 38"Monseigneur begs that you will excuse him until this evening. He will
return in time for dinner," he murmured as he handed her a cous-cous.
Diana looked up blankly. "Monseigneur?"
"My master. The Sheik."
She flushed scarlet and her face hardened. Hypocritical, Oriental beast
who "begged to be excused"! She refused the last dish curtly, and as
the servant carried it away she propped her elbows on the table and
rested her aching head on her hands. A headache was among the new
experiences that had overwhelmed her since the day before. Suffering in
any form was new to her, and her hatred of the man who had made her
suffer grew with every breath she drew.
her, coaxing the reluctant flame with patience that denoted long
experience with inferior sulphur.
"Monseigneur dines at eight. At what hour will Madame have tea?" he
asked, as he cleared away and folded up the table.
Diana choked back the sarcastic retort that sprang to her lips. The
man's quiet, deferential manner, that refused to see anything
extraordinary in her presence in his master's camp, was almost harder
to bear than flagrant impertinence would have been. That she could have
dealt with; this left her tingling with a feeling of impotence, as if a
net were gradually closing round her in whose entangling meshes her
to stifle her very existence. She pulled her racing thoughts up with a
jerk. She must not think if she was going to keep any hold over herself
at all. She gave him an answer indifferently and turned her back on
him. When she looked again he was gone, and she heaved a sigh of
relief. She had chafed under his watchful eyes until the feeling of
restraint had grown unbearable.
She breathed more freely now that he was gone, flinging up her head and
jerking her shoulders back with an angry determination to conquer the
fear that made her ashamed. Natural curiosity had been struggling with
her other emotions, and she gave way to it now to try and turn the
and wandered round the big room. The night before she had taken in
nothing of her surroundings, her eyes had been held only by the man who
had dominated everything. Here, also, were the same luxurious
appointments as in the sleeping-room. She had knowledge enough to
appreciate that the rugs and hangings were exquisite, the former were
Persian and the latter of a thick black material, heavily embroidered
in silver.