The Sheik

For a moment there was utter stillness, then Diana lay back with a

little sigh. "The Kashmiri Song. It makes me think of India. I heard a

man sing it in Kashmere last year, but not like that. What a wonderful

voice! I wonder who it is?"

Arbuthnot looked at her curiously, surprised at the sudden ring of

interest in her tone, and the sudden animation of her face.

"You say you have no emotion in your nature, and yet that unknown man's

singing has stirred you deeply. How do you reconcile the two?" he

asked, almost angrily.

"Is an appreciation of the beautiful emotion?" she challenged, with

uplifted eyes. "Surely not. Music, art, nature, everything beautiful

appeals to me. But there is nothing emotional in that. It is only that

I prefer beautiful things to ugly ones. For that reason even pretty

clothes appeal to me," she added, laughing.

"You are the best-dressed woman in Biskra," he acceded. "But is not

that a concession to the womanly feelings that you despise?"

"Not at all. To take an interest in one's clothes is not an exclusively

feminine vice. I like pretty dresses. I admit to spending some time in

thinking of colour schemes to go with my horrible hair, but I assure

you that my dressmaker has an easier life than Aubrey's tailor."

She sat silent, hoping that the singer might not have gone, but there

was no sound except a cicada chirping near her. She swung round in her

chair, looking in the direction from which it came. "Listen to him.

Jolly little chap! They are the first things I listen for when I get to

Port Said. They mean the East to me."

"Maddening little beasts!" said Arbuthnot irritably.

"They are going to be very friendly little beasts to me during the next

four weeks.... You don't know what this trip means to me. I like wild

places. The happiest times of my life have been spent camping in

America and India, and I have always wanted the desert more than either

of them. It is going to be a month of pure joy. I am going to be

enormously happy."

She stood up with a little laugh of intense pleasure, and half turned,

waiting for Arbuthnot. He got up reluctantly and stood silent beside

her for a few moments. "Diana, I wish you'd let me kiss you, just

once," he broke out miserably.

She looked up swiftly with a glint of anger in her eyes, and shook her

head. "No. That's not in the compact. I have never been kissed in my

life. It is one of the things that I do not understand." Her voice was

almost fierce.