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diff --git a/3710-h/3710-h.htm b/3710-h/3710-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a73d464 --- /dev/null +++ b/3710-h/3710-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1700 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids, by Anthony Trollope</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids, by +Anthony Trollope + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2015 [eBook #3710] +[This file was first posted on July 31, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE AT THE +PYRAMIDS*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of All +Countries” edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE AT THE PYRAMIDS</h1> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the happy days when we were +young, no description conveyed to us so complete an idea of +mysterious reality as that of an Oriental city. We knew it +was actually there, but had such vague notions of its ways and +looks! Let any one remember his early impressions as to +Bagdad or Grand Cairo, and then say if this was not so. It +was probably taken from the “Arabian Nights,” and the +picture produced was one of strange, fantastic, luxurious houses; +of women who were either very young and very beautiful, or else +very old and very cunning; but in either state exercising much +more influence in life than women in the East do now; of +good-natured, capricious, though sometimes tyrannical monarchs; +and of life full of quaint mysteries, quite unintelligible in +every phasis, and on that account the more picturesque.</p> +<p>And perhaps Grand Cairo has thus filled us with more wonder +even than Bagdad. We have been in a certain manner at home +at Bagdad, but have only visited Grand Cairo occasionally. +I know no place which was to me, in early years, so delightfully +mysterious as Grand Cairo.</p> +<p>But the route to India and Australia has changed all +this. Men from all countries going to the East, now pass +through Cairo, and its streets and costumes are no longer strange +to us. It has become also a resort for invalids, or rather +for those who fear that they may become invalids if they remain +in a cold climate during the winter months. And thus at +Cairo there is always to be found a considerable population of +French, Americans, and of English. Oriental life is brought +home to us, dreadfully diluted by western customs, and the +delights of the “Arabian Nights” are shorn of half +their value. When we have seen a thing it is never so +magnificent to us as when it was half unknown.</p> +<p>It is not much that we deign to learn from these +Orientals,—we who glory in our civilisation. We do +not copy their silence or their abstemiousness, nor that +invariable mindfulness of his own personal dignity which always +adheres to a Turk or to an Arab. We chatter as much at +Cairo as elsewhere, and eat as much and drink as much, and dress +ourselves generally in the same old ugly costume. But we do +usually take upon ourselves to wear red caps, and we do ride on +donkeys.</p> +<p>Nor are the visitors from the West to Cairo by any means +confined to the male sex. Ladies are to be seen in the +streets quite regardless of the Mahommedan custom which presumes +a veil to be necessary for an appearance in public; and, to tell +the truth, the Mahommedans in general do not appear to be much +shocked by their effrontery.</p> +<p>A quarter of the town has in this way become inhabited by men +wearing coats and waistcoats, and by women who are without veils; +but the English tongue in Egypt finds its centre at +Shepheard’s Hotel. It is here that people congregate +who are looking out for parties to visit with them the Upper +Nile, and who are generally all smiles and courtesy; and here +also are to be found they who have just returned from this +journey, and who are often in a frame of mind towards their +companions that is much less amiable. From hence, during +the winter, a cortége proceeds almost daily to the +pyramids, or to Memphis, or to the petrified forest, or to the +City of the Sun. And then, again, four or five times a +month the house is filled with young aspirants going out to +India, male and female, full of valour and bloom; or with others +coming home, no longer young, no longer aspiring, but laden with +children and grievances.</p> +<p>The party with whom we are at present concerned is not about +to proceed further than the Pyramids, and we shall be able to go +with them and return in one and the same day.</p> +<p>It consisted chiefly of an English family, Mr. and Mrs. Damer, +their daughter, and two young sons;—of these chiefly, +because they were the nucleus to which the others had attached +themselves as adherents; they had originated the journey, and in +the whole management of it Mr. Damer regarded himself as the +master.</p> +<p>The adherents were, firstly, M. Delabordeau, a Frenchman, now +resident in Cairo, who had given out that he was in some way +concerned in the canal about to be made between the Mediterranean +and the Red Sea. In discussion on this subject he had +become acquainted with Mr. Damer; and although the latter +gentleman, true to English interests, perpetually declared that +the canal would never be made, and thus irritated M. Delabordeau +not a little—nevertheless, some measure of friendship had +grown up between them.</p> +<p>There was also an American gentleman, Mr. Jefferson Ingram, +who was comprising all countries and all nations in one grand +tour, as American gentlemen so often do. He was young and +good-looking, and had made himself especially agreeable to Mr. +Damer, who had declared, more than once, that Mr. Ingram was by +far the most rational American he had ever met. Mr. Ingram +would listen to Mr. Damer by the half-hour as to the virtue of +the British Constitution, and had even sat by almost with +patience when Mr. Damer had expressed a doubt as to the good +working of the United States’ scheme of +policy,—which, in an American, was most wonderful. +But some of the sojourners at Shepheard’s had observed that +Mr. Ingram was in the habit of talking with Miss Damer almost as +much as with her father, and argued from that, that fond as the +young man was of politics, he did sometimes turn his mind to +other things also.</p> +<p>And then there was Miss Dawkins. Now Miss Dawkins was an +important person, both as to herself and as to her line of life, +and she must be described. She was, in the first place, an +unprotected female of about thirty years of age. As this is +becoming an established profession, setting itself up as it were +in opposition to the old world idea that women, like green peas, +cannot come to perfection without supporting-sticks, it will be +understood at once what were Miss Dawkins’s +sentiments. She considered—or at any rate so +expressed herself—that peas could grow very well without +sticks, and could not only grow thus unsupported, but could also +make their way about the world without any incumbrance of sticks +whatsoever. She did not intend, she said, to rival Ida +Pfeiffer, seeing that she was attached in a moderate way to bed +and board, and was attached to society in a manner almost more +than moderate; but she had no idea of being prevented from seeing +anything she wished to see because she had neither father, nor +husband, nor brother available for the purpose of escort. +She was a human creature, with arms and legs, she said; and she +intended to use them. And this was all very well; but +nevertheless she had a strong inclination to use the arms and +legs of other people when she could make them serviceable.</p> +<p>In person Miss Dawkins was not without attraction. I +should exaggerate if I were to say that she was beautiful and +elegant; but she was good looking, and not usually ill +mannered. She was tall, and gifted with features rather +sharp and with eyes very bright. Her hair was of the +darkest shade of brown, and was always worn in bandeaux, very +neatly. She appeared generally in black, though other +circumstances did not lead one to suppose that she was in +mourning; and then, no other travelling costume is so +convenient! She always wore a dark broad-brimmed straw hat, +as to the ribbons on which she was rather particular. She +was very neat about her gloves and boots; and though it cannot be +said that her dress was got up without reference to expense, +there can be no doubt that it was not effected without +considerable outlay,—and more considerable thought.</p> +<p>Miss Dawkins—Sabrina Dawkins was her name, but she +seldom had friends about her intimate enough to use the word +Sabrina—was certainly a clever young woman. She could +talk on most subjects, if not well, at least well enough to +amuse. If she had not read much, she never showed any +lamentable deficiency; she was good-humoured, as a rule, and +could on occasions be very soft and winning. People who had +known her long would sometimes say that she was selfish; but with +new acquaintance she was forbearing and self-denying.</p> +<p>With what income Miss Dawkins was blessed no one seemed to +know. She lived like a gentlewoman, as far as outward +appearance went, and never seemed to be in want; but some people +would say that she knew very well how many sides there were to a +shilling, and some enemy had once declared that she was an +“old soldier.” Such was Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>She also, as well as Mr. Ingram and M. Delabordeau, had laid +herself out to find the weak side of Mr. Damer. Mr. Damer, +with all his family, was going up the Nile, and it was known that +he had room for two in his boat over and above his own +family. Miss Dawkins had told him that she had not quite +made up her mind to undergo so great a fatigue, but that, +nevertheless, she had a longing of the soul to see something of +Nubia. To this Mr. Damer had answered nothing but +“Oh!” which Miss Dawkins had not found to be +encouraging.</p> +<p>But she had not on that account despaired. To a married +man there are always two sides, and in this instance there was +Mrs. Damer as well as Mr. Damer. When Mr. Damer said +“Oh!” Miss Dawkins sighed, and said, “Yes, +indeed!” then smiled, and betook herself to Mrs. Damer.</p> +<p>Now Mrs. Damer was soft-hearted, and also somewhat +old-fashioned. She did not conceive any violent affection +for Miss Dawkins, but she told her daughter that “the +single lady by herself was a very nice young woman, and that it +was a thousand pities she should have to go about so much alone +like.”</p> +<p>Miss Damer had turned up her pretty nose, thinking, perhaps, +how small was the chance that it ever should be her own lot to be +an unprotected female. But Miss Dawkins carried her point +at any rate as regarded the expedition to the Pyramids.</p> +<p>Miss Damer, I have said, had a pretty nose. I may also +say that she had pretty eyes, mouth, and chin, with other +necessary appendages, all pretty. As to the two Master +Damers, who were respectively of the ages of fifteen and sixteen, +it may be sufficient to say that they were conspicuous for red +caps and for the constancy with which they raced their +donkeys.</p> +<p>And now the donkeys, and the donkey boys, and the dragomans +were all standing at the steps of Shepheard’s Hotel. +To each donkey there was a donkey-boy, and to each gentleman +there was a dragoman, so that a goodly cortége was +assembled, and a goodly noise was made. It may here be +remarked, perhaps with some little pride, that not half the noise +is given in Egypt to persons speaking any other language that is +bestowed on those whose vocabulary is English.</p> +<p>This lasted for half an hour. Had the party been French +the donkeys would have arrived only fifteen minutes before the +appointed time. And then out came Damer père and +Damer mère, Damer fille, and Damer fils. Damer +mère was leaning on her husband, as was her wont. +She was not an unprotected female, and had no desire to make any +attempts in that line. Damer fille was attended sedulously +by Mr. Ingram, for whose demolishment, however, Mr. Damer still +brought up, in a loud voice, the fag ends of certain political +arguments which he would fain have poured direct into the ears of +his opponent, had not his wife been so persistent in claiming her +privileges. M. Delabordeau should have followed with Miss +Dawkins, but his French politeness, or else his fear of the +unprotected female, taught him to walk on the other side of the +mistress of the party.</p> +<p>Miss Dawkins left the house with an eager young Damer yelling +on each side of her; but nevertheless, though thus neglected by +the gentlemen of the party, she was all smiles and prettiness, +and looked so sweetly on Mr. Ingram when that gentleman stayed a +moment to help her on to her donkey, that his heart almost +misgave him for leaving her as soon as she was in her seat.</p> +<p>And then they were off. In going from the hotel to the +Pyramids our party had not to pass through any of the queer old +narrow streets of the true Cairo—Cairo the Oriental. +They all lay behind them as they went down by the back of the +hotel, by the barracks of the Pasha and the College of the +Dervishes, to the village of old Cairo and the banks of the +Nile.</p> +<p>Here they were kept half an hour while their dragomans made a +bargain with the ferryman, a stately reis, or captain of a boat, +who declared with much dignity that he could not carry them over +for a sum less than six times the amount to which he was justly +entitled; while the dragomans, with great energy on behalf of +their masters, offered him only five times that sum.</p> +<p>As far as the reis was concerned, the contest might soon have +been at an end, for the man was not without a conscience; and +would have been content with five times and a half; but then the +three dragomans quarrelled among themselves as to which should +have the paying of the money, and the affair became very +tedious.</p> +<p>“What horrid, odious men!” said Miss Dawkins, +appealing to Mr. Damer. “Do you think they will let +us go over at all?”</p> +<p>“Well, I suppose they will; people do get over +generally, I believe. Abdallah! Abdallah! why +don’t you pay the man? That fellow is always striving +to save half a piastre for me.”</p> +<p>“I wish he wasn’t quite so particular,” said +Mrs. Damer, who was already becoming rather tired; “but +I’m sure he’s a very honest man in trying to protect +us from being robbed.”</p> +<p>“That he is,” said Miss Dawkins. “What +a delightful trait of national character it is to see these men +so faithful to their employers.” And then at last +they got over the ferry, Mr. Ingram having descended among the +combatants, and settled the matter in dispute by threats and +shouts, and an uplifted stick.</p> +<p>They crossed the broad Nile exactly at the spot where the +nilometer, or river guage, measures from day to day, and from +year to year, the increasing or decreasing treasures of the +stream, and landed at a village where thousands of eggs are made +into chickens by the process of artificial incubation.</p> +<p>Mrs. Damer thought that it was very hard upon the maternal +hens—the hens which should have been maternal—that +they should be thus robbed of the delights of motherhood.</p> +<p>“So unnatural, you know,” said Miss Dawkins; +“so opposed to the fostering principles of creation. +Don’t you think so, Mr. Ingram?”</p> +<p>Mr. Ingram said he didn’t know. He was again +seating Miss Damer on her donkey, and it must be presumed that he +performed this feat clumsily; for Fanny Damer could jump on and +off the animal with hardly a finger to help her, when her brother +or her father was her escort; but now, under the hands of Mr. +Ingram, this work of mounting was one which required considerable +time and care. All which Miss Dawkins observed with +precision.</p> +<p>“It’s all very well talking,” said Mr. +Damer, bringing up his donkey nearly alongside that of Mr. +Ingram, and ignoring his daughter’s presence, just as he +would have done that of his dog; “but you must admit that +political power is more equally distributed in England than it is +in America.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps it is,” said Mr. Ingram; “equally +distributed among, we will say, three dozen families,” and +he made a feint as though to hold in his impetuous donkey, using +the spur, however, at the same time on the side that was unseen +by Mr. Damer. As he did so, Fanny’s donkey became +equally impetuous, and the two cantered on in advance of the +whole party. It was quite in vain that Mr. Damer, at the +top of his voice, shouted out something about “three dozen +corruptible demagogues.” Mr. Ingram found it quite +impossible to restrain his donkey so as to listen to the +sarcasm.</p> +<p>“I do believe papa would talk politics,” said +Fanny, “if he were at the top of Mont Blanc, or under the +Falls of Niagara. I do hate politics, Mr. +Ingram.”</p> +<p>“I am sorry for that, very,” said Mr. Ingram, +almost sadly.</p> +<p>“Sorry, why? You don’t want me to talk +politics, do you?”</p> +<p>“In America we are all politicians, more or less; and, +therefore, I suppose you will hate us all.”</p> +<p>“Well, I rather think I should,” said Fanny; +“you would be such bores.” But there was +something in her eye, as she spoke, which atoned for the +harshness of her words.</p> +<p>“A very nice young man is Mr. Ingram; don’t you +think so?” said Miss Dawkins to Mrs. Damer. Mrs. +Damer was going along upon her donkey, not altogether +comfortably. She much wished to have her lord and +legitimate protector by her side, but he had left her to the care +of a dragoman whose English was not intelligible to her, and she +was rather cross.</p> +<p>“Indeed, Miss Dawkins, I don’t know who are nice +and who are not. This nasty donkey stumbles at ever +step. There! I know I shall be down +directly.”</p> +<p>“You need not be at all afraid of that; they are +perfectly safe, I believe, always,” said Miss Dawkins, +rising in her stirrup, and handling her reins quite +triumphantly. “A very little practice will make you +quite at home.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know what you mean by a very little +practice. I have been here six weeks. Why did you put +me on such a bad donkey as this?” and she turned to +Abdallah, the dragoman.</p> +<p>“Him berry good donkey, my lady; berry good,—best +of all. Call him Jack in Cairo. Him go to Pyramid and +back, and mind noting.”</p> +<p>“What does he say, Miss Dawkins?”</p> +<p>“He says that that donkey is one called Jack. If +so I’ve had him myself many times, and Jack is a very good +donkey.”</p> +<p>“I wish you had him now with all my heart,” said +Mrs. Damer. Upon which Miss Dawkins offered to change; but +those perils of mounting and dismounting were to Mrs. Damer a +great deal too severe to admit of this.</p> +<p>“Seven miles of canal to be carried out into the sea, at +a minimum depth of twenty-three feet, and the stone to be fetched +from Heaven knows where! All the money in France +wouldn’t do it.” This was addressed by Mr. +Damer to M. Delabordeau, whom he had caught after the abrupt +flight of Mr. Ingram.</p> +<p>“Den we will borrow a leetle from England,” said +M. Delabordeau.</p> +<p>“Precious little, I can tell you. Such stock would +not hold its price in our markets for twenty-four hours. If +it were made, the freights would be too heavy to allow of +merchandise passing through. The heavy goods would all go +round; and as for passengers and mails, you don’t expect to +get them, I suppose, while there is a railroad ready made to +their hand?”</p> +<p>“Ye vill carry all your ships through vidout any +transportation. Think of that, my friend.”</p> +<p>“Pshaw! You are worse than Ingram. Of all +the plans I ever heard of it is the most monstrous, the most +impracticable, the most—” But here he was +interrupted by the entreaties of his wife, who had, in absolute +deed and fact, slipped from her donkey, and was now calling +lustily for her husband’s aid. Whereupon Miss Dawkins +allied herself to the Frenchman, and listened with an air of +strong conviction to those arguments which were so weak in the +ears of Mr. Damer. M. Delabordeau was about to ride across +the Great Desert to Jerusalem, and it might perhaps be quite as +well to do that with him, as to go up the Nile as far as the +second cataract with the Damers.</p> +<p>“And so, M. Delabordeau, you intend really to start for +Mount Sinai?”</p> +<p>“Yes, mees; ve intend to make one start on Monday +week.”</p> +<p>“And so on to Jerusalem. You are quite +right. It would be a thousand pities to be in these +countries, and to return without going over such ground as +that. I shall certainly go to Jerusalem myself by that +route.”</p> +<p>“Vot, mees! you? Would you not find it too much +fatigante?”</p> +<p>“I care nothing for fatigue, if I like the party I am +with,—nothing at all, literally. You will hardly +understand me, perhaps, M. Delabordeau; but I do not see any +reason why I, as a young woman, should not make any journey that +is practicable for a young man.”</p> +<p>“Ah! dat is great resolution for you, mees.”</p> +<p>“I mean as far as fatigue is concerned. You are a +Frenchman, and belong to the nation that is at the head of all +human civilisation—”</p> +<p>M. Delabordeau took off his hat and bowed low, to the peak of +his donkey saddle. He dearly loved to hear his country +praised, as Miss Dawkins was aware.</p> +<p>“And I am sure you must agree with me,” continued +Miss Dawkins, “that the time is gone by for women to +consider themselves helpless animals, or to be so considered by +others.”</p> +<p>“Mees Dawkins vould never be considered, not in any +times at all, to be one helpless animal,” said M. +Delabordeau civilly.</p> +<p>“I do not, at any rate, intend to be so regarded,” +said she. “It suits me to travel alone; not that I am +averse to society; quite the contrary; if I meet pleasant people +I am always ready to join them. But it suits me to travel +without any permanent party, and I do not see why false shame +should prevent my seeing the world as thoroughly as though I +belonged to the other sex. Why should it, M. +Delabordeau?”</p> +<p>M. Delabordeau declared that he did not see any reason why it +should.</p> +<p>“I am passionately anxious to stand upon Mount +Sinai,” continued Miss Dawkins; “to press with my +feet the earliest spot in sacred history, of the identity of +which we are certain; to feel within me the awe-inspiring thrill +of that thrice sacred hour!”</p> +<p>The Frenchman looked as though he did not quite understand +her, but he said that it would be magnifique.</p> +<p>“You have already made up your party I suppose, M. +Delabordeau?”</p> +<p>M. Delabordeau gave the names of two Frenchmen and one +Englishman who were going with him.</p> +<p>“Upon my word it is a great temptation to join +you,” said Miss Dawkins, “only for that horrid +Englishman.”</p> +<p>“Vat, Mr. Stanley?”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t mean any disrespect to Mr. +Stanley. The horridness I speak of does not attach to him +personally, but to his stiff, respectable, ungainly, +well-behaved, irrational, and uncivilised country. You see +I am not very patriotic.”</p> +<p>“Not quite so much as my friend, Mr. Damer.”</p> +<p>“Ha! ha! ha! an excellent creature, isn’t +he? And so they all are, dear creatures. But then +they are so backward. They are most anxious that I should +join them up the Nile, but—,” and then Miss Dawkins +shrugged her shoulders gracefully, and, as she flattered herself, +like a Frenchwoman. After that they rode on in silence for +a few moments.</p> +<p>“Yes, I must see Mount Sinai,” said Miss Dawkins, +and then sighed deeply. M. Delabordeau, notwithstanding +that his country does stand at the head of all human +civilisation, was not courteous enough to declare that if Miss +Dawkins would join his party across the desert, nothing would be +wanting to make his beatitude in this world perfect.</p> +<p>Their road from the village of the chicken-hatching ovens lay +up along the left bank of the Nile, through an immense grove of +lofty palm-trees, looking out from among which our visitors could +ever and anon see the heads of the two great Pyramids;—that +is, such of them could see it as felt any solicitude in the +matter.</p> +<p>It is astonishing how such things lose their great charm as +men find themselves in their close neighbourhood. To one +living in New York or London, how ecstatic is the interest +inspired by these huge structures. One feels that no price +would be too high to pay for seeing them as long as time and +distance, and the world’s inexorable task-work, forbid such +a visit. How intense would be the delight of climbing over +the wondrous handiwork of those wondrous architects so long since +dead; how thrilling the awe with which one would penetrate down +into their interior caves—those caves in which lay buried +the bones of ancient kings, whose very names seem to have come to +us almost from another world!</p> +<p>But all these feelings become strangely dim, their acute edges +wonderfully worn, as the subjects which inspired them are brought +near to us. “Ah! so those are the Pyramids, are +they?” says the traveller, when the first glimpse of them +is shown to him from the window of a railway carriage. +“Dear me; they don’t look so very high, do +they? For Heaven’s sake put the blind down, or we +shall be destroyed by the dust.” And then the ecstasy +and keen delight of the Pyramids has vanished for ever.</p> +<p>Our friends, therefore, who for weeks past had seen from a +distance, though they had not yet visited them, did not seem to +have any strong feeling on the subject as they trotted through +the grove of palm-trees. Mr. Damer had not yet escaped from +his wife, who was still fretful from the result of her little +accident.</p> +<p>“It was all the chattering of that Miss Dawkins,” +said Mrs. Damer. “She would not let me attend to what +I was doing.”</p> +<p>“Miss Dawkins is an ass,” said her husband.</p> +<p>“It is a pity she has no one to look after her,” +said Mrs. Damer. M. Delabordeau was still listening to Miss +Dawkins’s raptures about Mount Sinai. “I wonder +whether she has got any money,” said M. Delabordeau to +himself. “It can’t be much,” he went on +thinking, “or she would not be left in this way by +herself.” And the result of his thoughts was that +Miss Dawkins, if undertaken, might probably become more plague +than profit. As to Miss Dawkins herself, though she was +ecstatic about Mount Sinai—which was not present—she +seemed to have forgotten the poor Pyramids, which were then +before her nose.</p> +<p>The two lads were riding races along the dusty path, much to +the disgust of their donkey-boys. Their time for enjoyment +was to come. There were hampers to be opened; and then the +absolute climbing of the Pyramids would actually be a delight to +them.</p> +<p>As for Miss Damer and Mr. Ingram, it was clear that they had +forgotten palm-trees, Pyramids, the Nile, and all Egypt. +They had escaped to a much fairer paradise.</p> +<p>“Could I bear to live among Republicans?” said +Fanny, repeating the last words of her American lover, and +looking down from her donkey to the ground as she did so. +“I hardly know what Republicans are, Mr. Ingram.”</p> +<p>“Let me teach you,” said he.</p> +<p>“You do talk such nonsense. I declare there is +that Miss Dawkins looking at us as though she had twenty +eyes. Could you not teach her, Mr. Ingram?”</p> +<p>And so they emerged from the palm-tree grove, through a +village crowded with dirty, straggling Arab children, on to the +cultivated plain, beyond which the Pyramids stood, now full +before them; the two large Pyramids, a smaller one, and the huge +sphynx’s head all in a group together.</p> +<p>“Fanny,” said Bob Damer, riding up to her, +“mamma wants you; so toddle back.”</p> +<p>“Mamma wants me! What can she want me for +now?” said Fanny, with a look of anything but filial duty +in her face.</p> +<p>“To protect her from Miss Dawkins, I think. She +wants you to ride at her side, so that Dawkins mayn’t get +at her. Now, Mr. Ingram, I’ll bet you half-a-crown +I’m at the top of the big Pyramid before you.”</p> +<p>Poor Fanny! She obeyed, however; doubtless feeling that +it would not do as yet to show too plainly that she preferred Mr. +Ingram to her mother. She arrested her donkey, therefore, +till Mrs. Damer overtook her; and Mr. Ingram, as he paused for a +moment with her while she did so, fell into the hands of Miss +Dawkins.</p> +<p>“I cannot think, Fanny, how you get on so quick,” +said Mrs. Damer. “I’m always last; but then my +donkey is such a very nasty one. Look there, now; +he’s always trying to get me off.”</p> +<p>“We shall soon be at the Pyramids now, mamma.”</p> +<p>“How on earth I am ever to get back again I cannot +think. I am so tired now that I can hardly sit.”</p> +<p>“You’ll be better, mamma, when you get your +luncheon and a glass of wine.”</p> +<p>“How on earth we are to eat and drink with those nasty +Arab people around us, I can’t conceive. They tell me +we shall be eaten up by them. But, Fanny, what has Mr. +Ingram been saying to you all the day?”</p> +<p>“What has he been saying, mamma? Oh! I +don’t know;—a hundred things, I dare say. But +he has not been talking to me all the time.”</p> +<p>“I think he has, Fanny, nearly, since we crossed the +river. Oh, dear! oh, dear! this animal does hurt me +so! Every time he moves he flings his head about, and that +gives me such a bump.” And then Fanny commiserated +her mother’s sufferings, and in her commiseration contrived +to elude any further questionings as to Mr. Ingram’s +conversation.</p> +<p>“Majestic piles, are they not?” said Miss Dawkins, +who, having changed her companion, allowed her mind to revert +from Mount Sinai to the Pyramids. They were now riding +through cultivated ground, with the vast extent of the sands of +Libya before them. The two Pyramids were standing on the +margin of the sand, with the head of the recumbent sphynx plainly +visible between them. But no idea can be formed of the size +of this immense figure till it is visited much more +closely. The body is covered with sand, and the head and +neck alone stand above the surface of the ground. They were +still two miles distant, and the sphynx as yet was but an obscure +mount between the two vast Pyramids.</p> +<p>“Immense piles!” said Miss Dawkins, repeating her +own words.</p> +<p>“Yes, they are large,” said Mr. Ingram, who did +not choose to indulge in enthusiasm in the presence of Miss +Dawkins.</p> +<p>“Enormous! What a grand idea!—eh, Mr. +Ingram? The human race does not create such things as those +nowadays!”</p> +<p>“No, indeed,” he answered; “but perhaps we +create better things.”</p> +<p>“Better! You do not mean to say, Mr. Ingram, that +you are an utilitarian. I do, in truth, hope better things +of you than that. Yes! steam mills are better, no doubt, +and mechanics’ institutes and penny newspapers. But +is nothing to be valued but what is useful?” And Miss +Dawkins, in the height of her enthusiasm, switched her donkey +severely over the shoulder.</p> +<p>“I might, perhaps, have said also that we create more +beautiful things,” said Mr. Ingram.</p> +<p>“But we cannot create older things.”</p> +<p>“No, certainly; we cannot do that.”</p> +<p>“Nor can we imbue what we do create with the grand +associations which environ those piles with so intense an +interest. Think of the mighty dead, Mr. Ingram, and of +their great homes when living. Think of the hands which it +took to raise those huge blocks—”</p> +<p>“And of the lives which it cost.”</p> +<p>“Doubtless. The tyranny and invincible power of +the royal architects add to the grandeur of the idea. One +would not wish to have back the kings of Egypt.”</p> +<p>“Well, no; they would be neither useful nor +beautiful.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps not; and I do not wish to be picturesque at the +expense of my fellow-creatures.”</p> +<p>“I doubt, even, whether they would be +picturesque.”</p> +<p>“You know what I mean, Mr. Ingram. But the +associations of such names, and the presence of the stupendous +works with which they are connected, fill the soul with +awe. Such, at least, is the effect with mine.”</p> +<p>“I fear that my tendencies, Miss Dawkins, are more +realistic than your own.”</p> +<p>“You belong to a young country, Mr. Ingram, and are +naturally prone to think of material life. The necessity of +living looms large before you.”</p> +<p>“Very large, indeed, Miss Dawkins.”</p> +<p>“Whereas with us, with some of us at least, the material +aspect has given place to one in which poetry and enthusiasm +prevail. To such among us the associations of past times +are very dear. Cheops, to me, is more than Napoleon +Bonaparte.”</p> +<p>“That is more than most of your countrymen can say, at +any rate, just at present.”</p> +<p>“I am a woman,” continued Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>Mr. Ingram took off his hat in acknowledgment both of the +announcement and of the fact.</p> +<p>“And to us it is not given—not given as +yet—to share in the great deeds of the present. The +envy of your sex has driven us from the paths which lead to +honour. But the deeds of the past are as much ours as +yours.”</p> +<p>“Oh, quite as much.”</p> +<p>“’Tis to your country that we look for +enfranchisement from this thraldom. Yes, Mr. Ingram, the +women of America have that strength of mind which has been +wanting to those of Europe. In the United States woman will +at last learn to exercise her proper mission.”</p> +<p>Mr. Ingram expressed a sincere wish that such might be the +case; and then wondering at the ingenuity with which Miss Dawkins +had travelled round from Cheops and his Pyramid to the rights of +women in America, he contrived to fall back, under the pretence +of asking after the ailments of Mrs. Damer.</p> +<p>And now at last they were on the sand, in the absolute desert, +making their way up to the very foot of the most northern of the +two Pyramids. They were by this time surrounded by a crowd +of Arab guides, or Arabs professing to be guides, who had already +ascertained that Mr. Damer was the chief of the party, and were +accordingly driving him almost to madness by the offers of their +services, and their assurance that he could not possibly see the +outside or the inside of either structure, or even remain alive +upon the ground, unless he at once accepted their offers made at +their own prices.</p> +<p>“Get away, will you?” said he. “I +don’t want any of you, and I won’t have you! If +you take hold of me I’ll shoot you!” This was +said to one specially energetic Arab, who, in his efforts to +secure his prey, had caught hold of Mr. Damer by the leg.</p> +<p>“Yes, yes, I say! Englishmen always take +me;—me—me, and then no break him leg. +Yes—yes—yes;—I go. Master, say yes. +Only one leetle ten shillings!”</p> +<p>“Abdallah!” shouted Mr. Damer, “why +don’t you take this man away? Why don’t you +make him understand that if all the Pyramids depended on it, I +would not give him sixpence!”</p> +<p>And then Abdallah, thus invoked, came up, and explained to the +man in Arabic that he would gain his object more surely if he +would behave himself a little more quietly; a hint which the man +took for one minute, and for one minute only.</p> +<p>And then poor Mrs. Damer replied to an application for +backsheish by the gift of a sixpence. Unfortunate +woman! The word backsheish means, I believe, a gift; but it +has come in Egypt to signify money, and is eternally dinned into +the ears of strangers by Arab suppliants. Mrs. Damer ought +to have known better, as, during the last six weeks she had never +shown her face out of Shepheard’s Hotel without being +pestered for backsheish; but she was tired and weak, and +foolishly thought to rid herself of the man who was annoying +her.</p> +<p>No sooner had the coin dropped from her hand into that of the +Arab, than she was surrounded by a cluster of beggars, who loudly +made their petitions as though they would, each of them, +individually be injured if treated with less liberality than that +first comer. They took hold of her donkey, her bridle, her +saddle, her legs, and at last her arms and hands, screaming for +backsheish in voices that were neither sweet nor mild.</p> +<p>In her dismay she did give away sundry small coins—all, +probably, that she had about her; but this only made the matter +worse. Money was going, and each man, by sufficient energy, +might hope to get some of it. They were very energetic, and +so frightened the poor lady that she would certainly have fallen, +had she not been kept on her seat by the pressure around her.</p> +<p>“Oh, dear! oh, dear! get away,” she cried. +“I haven’t got any more; indeed I +haven’t. Go away, I tell you! Mr. Damer! oh, +Mr. Damer!” and then, in the excess of her agony, she +uttered one loud, long, and continuous shriek.</p> +<p>Up came Mr. Damer; up came Abdallah; up came M. Delabordeau; +up came Mr. Ingram, and at last she was rescued. “You +shouldn’t go away and leave me to the mercy of these nasty +people. As to that Abdallah, he is of no use to +anybody.”</p> +<p>“Why you bodder de good lady, you dem blackguard?” +said Abdallah, raising his stick, as though he were going to lay +them all low with a blow. “Now you get noting, you +tief!”</p> +<p>The Arabs for a moment retired to a little distance, like +flies driven from a sugar-bowl; but it was easy to see that, like +the flies, they would return at the first vacant moment.</p> +<p>And now they had reached the very foot of the Pyramids and +proceeded to dismount from their donkeys. Their intention +was first to ascend to the top, then to come down to their +banquet, and after that to penetrate into the interior. And +all this would seem to be easy of performance. The Pyramid +is undoubtedly high, but it is so constructed as to admit of +climbing without difficulty. A lady mounting it would +undoubtedly need some assistance, but any man possessed of +moderate activity would require no aid at all.</p> +<p>But our friends were at once imbued with the tremendous nature +of the task before them. A sheikh of the Arabs came forth, +who communicated with them through Abdallah. The work could +be done, no doubt, he said; but a great many men would be wanted +to assist. Each lady must have four Arabs, and each +gentlemen three; and then, seeing that the work would be +peculiarly severe on this special day, each of these numerous +Arabs must be remunerated by some very large number of +piastres.</p> +<p>Mr. Damer, who was by no means a close man in his money +dealings, opened his eyes with surprise, and mildly expostulated; +M. Delabordeau, who was rather a close man in his reckonings, +immediately buttoned up his breeches pocket and declared that he +should decline to mount the Pyramid at all at that price; and +then Mr. Ingram descended to the combat.</p> +<p>The protestations of the men were fearful. They +declared, with loud voices, eager actions, and manifold English +oaths, that an attempt was being made to rob them. They had +a right to demand the sums which they were charging, and it was a +shame that English gentlemen should come and take the bread out +of their mouths. And so they screeched, gesticulated, and +swore, and frightened poor Mrs. Damer almost into fits.</p> +<p>But at last it was settled and away they started, the sheikh +declaring that the bargain had been made at so low a rate as to +leave him not one piastre for himself. Each man had an Arab +on each side of him, and Miss Dawkins and Miss Damer had each, in +addition, one behind. Mrs. Damer was so frightened as +altogether to have lost all ambition to ascend. She sat +below on a fragment of stone, with the three dragomans standing +around her as guards; but even with the three dragomans the +attacks on her were so frequent, and as she declared afterwards +she was so bewildered, that she never had time to remember that +she had come there from England to see the Pyramids, and that she +was now immediately under them.</p> +<p>The boys, utterly ignoring their guides, scrambled up quicker +than the Arabs could follow them. Mr. Damer started off at +a pace which soon brought him to the end of his tether, and from +that point was dragged up by the sheer strength of his +assistants; thereby accomplishing the wishes of the men, who +induce their victims to start as rapidly as possible, in order +that they may soon find themselves helpless from want of +wind. Mr. Ingram endeavoured to attach himself to Fanny, +and she would have been nothing loth to have him at her right +hand instead of the hideous brown, shrieking, one-eyed Arab who +took hold of her. But it was soon found that any such +arrangement was impossible. Each guide felt that if he lost +his own peculiar hold he would lose his prey, and held on, +therefore, with invincible tenacity. Miss Dawkins looked, +too, as though she had thought to be attended to by some +Christian cavalier, but no Christian cavalier was +forthcoming. M. Delabordeau was the wisest, for he took the +matter quietly, did as he was bid, and allowed the guides nearly +to carry him to the top of the edifice.</p> +<p>“Ha! so this is the top of the Pyramid, is it?” +said Mr. Damer, bringing out his words one by one, being terribly +out of breath. “Very wonderful, very wonderful, +indeed!”</p> +<p>“It is wonderful,” said Miss Dawkins, whose breath +had not failed her in the least, “very wonderful, +indeed! Only think, Mr. Damer, you might travel on for days +and days, till days became months, through those interminable +sands, and yet you would never come to the end of them. Is +it not quite stupendous?”</p> +<p>“Ah, yes, quite,—puff, puff”—said Mr. +Damer striving to regain his breath.</p> +<p>Mr. Damer was now at her disposal; weak and worn with toil and +travel, out of breath, and with half his manhood gone; if ever +she might prevail over him so as to procure from his mouth an +assent to that Nile proposition, it would be now. And after +all, that Nile proposition was the best one now before her. +She did not quite like the idea of starting off across the Great +Desert without any lady, and was not sure that she was prepared +to be fallen in love with by M. Delabordeau, even if there should +ultimately be any readiness on the part of that gentleman to +perform the rôle of lover. With Mr. Ingram the matter +was different, nor was she so diffident of her own charms as to +think it altogether impossible that she might succeed, in the +teeth of that little chit, Fanny Damer. That Mr. Ingram +would join the party up the Nile she had very little doubt; and +then there would be one place left for her. She would thus, +at any rate, become commingled with a most respectable family, +who might be of material service to her.</p> +<p>Thus actuated she commenced an earnest attack upon Mr. +Damer.</p> +<p>“Stupendous!” she said again, for she was fond of +repeating favourite words. “What a wondrous race must +have been those Egyptian kings of old!”</p> +<p>“I dare say they were,” said Mr. Damer, wiping his +brow as he sat upon a large loose stone, a fragment lying on the +flat top of the Pyramid, one of those stones with which the +complete apex was once made, or was once about to be made.</p> +<p>“A magnificent race! so gigantic in their +conceptions! Their ideas altogether overwhelm us poor, +insignificant, latter-day mortals. They built these vast +Pyramids; but for us, it is task enough to climb to their +top.”</p> +<p>“Quite enough,” ejaculated Mr. Damer.</p> +<p>But Mr. Damer would not always remain weak and out of breath, +and it was absolutely necessary for Miss Dawkins to hurry away +from Cheops and his tomb, to Thebes and Karnac.</p> +<p>“After seeing this it is impossible for any one with a +spark of imagination to leave Egypt without going farther +a-field.”</p> +<p>Mr. Damer merely wiped his brow and grunted. This Miss +Dawkins took as a signal of weakness, and went on with her task +perseveringly.</p> +<p>“For myself, I have resolved to go up, at any rate, as +far as Asouan and the first cataract. I had thought of +acceding to the wishes of a party who are going across the Great +Desert by Mount Sinai to Jerusalem; but the kindness of yourself +and Mrs. Damer is so great, and the prospect of joining in your +boat is so pleasurable, that I have made up my mind to accept +your very kind offer.”</p> +<p>This, it will be acknowledged, was bold on the part of Miss +Dawkins; but what will not audacity effect? To use the +slang of modern language, cheek carries everything +nowadays. And whatever may have been Miss Dawkins’s +deficiencies, in this virtue she was not deficient.</p> +<p>“I have made up my mind to accept your very kind +offer,” she said, shining on Mr. Damer with her blandest +smile.</p> +<p>What was a stout, breathless, perspiring, middle-aged +gentleman to do under such circumstances? Mr. Damer was a +man who, in most matters, had his own way. That his wife +should have given such an invitation without consulting him, was, +he knew, quite impossible. She would as soon have thought +of asking all those Arab guides to accompany them. Nor was +it to be thought of that he should allow himself to be kidnapped +into such an arrangement by the impudence of any Miss +Dawkins. But there was, he felt, a difficulty in answering +such a proposition from a young lady with a direct negative, +especially while he was so scant of breath. So he wiped his +brow again, and looked at her.</p> +<p>“But I can only agree to this on one +understanding,” continued Miss Dawkins, “and that is, +that I am allowed to defray my own full share of the expense of +the journey.”</p> +<p>Upon hearing this Mr. Damer thought that he saw his way out of +the wood. “Wherever I go, Miss Dawkins, I am always +the paymaster myself,” and this he contrived to say with +some sternness, palpitating though he still was; and the +sternness which was deficient in his voice he endeavoured to put +into his countenance.</p> +<p>But he did not know Miss Dawkins. “Oh, Mr. +Damer,” she said, and as she spoke her smile became almost +blander than it was before; “oh, Mr. Damer, I could not +think of suffering you to be so liberal; I could not, +indeed. But I shall be quite content that you should pay +everything, and let me settle with you in one sum +afterwards.”</p> +<p>Mr. Damer’s breath was now rather more under his own +command. “I am afraid, Miss Dawkins,” he said, +“that Mrs. Damer’s weak state of health will not +admit of such an arrangement.”</p> +<p>“What, about the paying?”</p> +<p>“Not only as to that, but we are a family party, Miss +Dawkins; and great as would be the benefit of your society to all +of us, in Mrs. Damer’s present state of health, I am +afraid—in short, you would not find it agreeable.—And +therefore—” this he added, seeing that she was still +about to persevere—“I fear that we must forego the +advantage you offer.”</p> +<p>And then, looking into his face, Miss Dawkins did perceive +that even her audacity would not prevail.</p> +<p>“Oh, very well,” she said, and moving from the +stone on which she had been sitting, she walked off, carrying her +head very high, to a corner of the Pyramid from which she could +look forth alone towards the sands of Libya.</p> +<p>In the mean time another little overture was being made on the +top of the same Pyramid,—an overture which was not received +quite in the same spirit. While Mr. Damer was recovering +his breath for the sake of answering Miss Dawkins, Miss Damer had +walked to the further corner of the square platform on which they +were placed, and there sat herself down with her face turned +towards Cairo. Perhaps it was not singular that Mr. Ingram +should have followed her.</p> +<p>This would have been very well if a dozen Arabs had not also +followed them. But as this was the case, Mr. Ingram had to +play his game under some difficulty. He had no sooner +seated himself beside her than they came and stood directly in +front of the seat, shutting out the view, and by no means +improving the fragrance of the air around them.</p> +<p>“And this, then, Miss Damer, will be our last excursion +together,” he said, in his tenderest, softest tone.</p> +<p>“De good Englishman will gib de poor Arab one little +backsheish,” said an Arab, putting out his hand and shaking +Mr. Ingram’s shoulder.</p> +<p>“Yes, yes, yes; him gib backsheish,” said +another.</p> +<p>“Him berry good man,” said a third, putting up his +filthy hand, and touching Mr. Ingram’s face.</p> +<p>“And young lady berry good, too; she give backsheish to +poor Arab.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said a fourth, preparing to take a similar +liberty with Miss Damer.</p> +<p>This was too much for Mr. Ingram. He had already used +very positive language in his endeavour to assure his tormentors +that they would not get a piastre from him. But this only +changed their soft persuasions into threats. Upon hearing +which, and upon seeing what the man attempted to do in his +endeavour to get money from Miss Damer, he raised his stick, and +struck first one and then the other as violently as he could upon +their heads.</p> +<p>Any ordinary civilised men would have been stunned by such +blows, for they fell on the bare foreheads of the Arabs; but the +objects of the American’s wrath merely skulked away; and +the others, convinced by the only arguments which they +understood, followed in pursuit of victims who might be less +pugnacious.</p> +<p>It is hard for a man to be at once tender and +pugnacious—to be sentimental, while he is putting forth his +physical strength with all the violence in his power. It is +difficult, also, for him to be gentle instantly after having been +in a rage. So he changed his tactics at the moment, and +came to the point at once in a manner befitting his present state +of mind.</p> +<p>“Those vile wretches have put me in such a heat,” +he said, “that I hardly know what I am saying. But +the fact is this, Miss Damer, I cannot leave Cairo without +knowing—. You understand what I mean, Miss +Damer.”</p> +<p>“Indeed I do not, Mr. Ingram; except that I am afraid +you mean nonsense.”</p> +<p>“Yes, you do; you know that I love you. I am sure +you must know it. At any rate you know it now.”</p> +<p>“Mr. Ingram, you should not talk in such a +way.”</p> +<p>“Why should I not? But the truth is, Fanny, I can +talk in no other way. I do love you dearly. Can you +love me well enough to go and be my wife in a country far away +from your own?”</p> +<p>Before she left the top of the Pyramid Fanny Damer had said +that she would try.</p> +<p>Mr. Ingram was now a proud and happy man, and seemed to think +the steps of the Pyramid too small for his elastic energy. +But Fanny feared that her troubles were to come. There was +papa—that terrible bugbear on all such occasions. +What would papa say? She was sure her papa would not allow +her to marry and go so far away from her own family and +country. For herself, she liked the Americans—always +had liked them; so she said;—would desire nothing better +than to live among them. But papa! And Fanny sighed +as she felt that all the recognised miseries of a young lady in +love were about to fall upon her.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, at her lover’s instance, she promised, and +declared, in twenty different loving phrases, that nothing on +earth should ever make her false to her love or to her lover.</p> +<p>“Fanny, where are you? Why are you not ready to +come down?” shouted Mr. Damer, not in the best of +tempers. He felt that he had almost been unkind to an +unprotected female, and his heart misgave him. And yet it +would have misgiven him more had he allowed himself to be +entrapped by Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>“I am quite ready, papa,” said Fanny, running up +to him—for it may be understood that there is quite room +enough for a young lady to run on the top of the Pyramid.</p> +<p>“I am sure I don’t know where you have been all +the time,” said Mr. Damer; “and where are those two +boys?”</p> +<p>Fanny pointed to the top of the other Pyramid, and there they +were, conspicuous with their red caps.</p> +<p>“And M. Delabordeau?”</p> +<p>“Oh! he has gone down, I think;—no, he is there +with Miss Dawkins.” And in truth Miss Dawkins was +leaning on his arm most affectionately, as she stooped over and +looked down upon the ruins below her.</p> +<p>“And where is that fellow, Ingram?” said Mr. +Damer, looking about him. “He is always out of the +way when he’s wanted.”</p> +<p>To this Fanny said nothing. Why should she? She +was not Mr. Ingram’s keeper.</p> +<p>And then they all descended, each again with his proper number +of Arabs to hurry and embarrass him; and they found Mr. Damer at +the bottom, like a piece of sugar covered with flies. She +was heard to declare afterwards that she would not go to the +Pyramids again, not if they were to be given to her for herself, +as ornaments for her garden.</p> +<p>The picnic lunch among the big stones at the foot of the +Pyramid was not a very gay affair. Miss Dawkins talked more +than any one else, being determined to show that she bore her +defeat gallantly. Her conversation, however, was chiefly +addressed to M. Delabordeau, and he seemed to think more of his +cold chicken and ham than he did of her wit and attention.</p> +<p>Fanny hardly spoke a word. There was her father before +her and she could not eat, much less talk, as she thought of all +that she would have to go through. What would he say to the +idea of having an American for a son-in-law?</p> +<p>Nor was Mr. Ingram very lively. A young man when he has +been just accepted, never is so. His happiness under the +present circumstances was, no doubt, intense, but it was of a +silent nature.</p> +<p>And then the interior of the building had to be visited. +To tell the truth none of the party would have cared to perform +this feat had it not been for the honour of the thing. To +have come from Paris, New York, or London, to the Pyramids, and +then not to have visited the very tomb of Cheops, would have +shown on the part of all of them an indifference to subjects of +interest which would have been altogether fatal to their +character as travellers. And so a party for the interior +was made up.</p> +<p>Miss Damer when she saw the aperture through which it was +expected that she should descend, at once declared for staying +with her mother. Miss Dawkins, however, was enthusiastic +for the journey. “Persons with so very little command +over their nerves might really as well stay at home,” she +said to Mr. Ingram, who glowered at her dreadfully for expressing +such an opinion about his Fanny.</p> +<p>This entrance into the Pyramids is a terrible task, which +should be undertaken by no lady. Those who perform it have +to creep down, and then to be dragged up, through infinite dirt, +foul smells, and bad air; and when they have done it, they see +nothing. But they do earn the gratification of saying that +they have been inside a Pyramid.</p> +<p>“Well, I’ve done that once,” said Mr. Damer, +coming out, “and I do not think that any one will catch me +doing it again. I never was in such a filthy place in my +life.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Fanny! I am so glad you did not go; I am sure it is +not fit for ladies,” said poor Mrs. Damer, forgetful of her +friend Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>“I should have been ashamed of myself,” said Miss +Dawkins, bristling up, and throwing back her head as she stood, +“if I had allowed any consideration to have prevented my +visiting such a spot. If it be not improper for men to go +there, how can it be improper for women?”</p> +<p>“I did not say improper, my dear,” said Mrs. +Damer, apologetically.</p> +<p>“And as for the fatigue, what can a woman be worth who +is afraid to encounter as much as I have now gone through for the +sake of visiting the last resting-place of such a king as +Cheops?” And Miss Dawkins, as she pronounced the last +words, looked round her with disdain upon poor Fanny Damer.</p> +<p>“But I meant the dirt,” said Mrs. Damer.</p> +<p>“Dirt!” ejaculated Miss Dawkins, and then walked +away. Why should she now submit her high tone of feeling to +the Damers, or why care longer for their good opinion? +Therefore she scattered contempt around her as she ejaculated the +last word, “dirt.”</p> +<p>And then the return home! “I know I shall never +get there,” said Mrs. Damer, looking piteously up into her +husband’s face.</p> +<p>“Nonsense, my dear; nonsense; you must get +there.” Mrs. Damer groaned, and acknowledged in her +heart that she must,—either dead or alive.</p> +<p>“And, Jefferson,” said Fanny, whispering—for +there had been a moment since their descent in which she had been +instructed to call him by his Christian name—“never +mind talking to me going home. I will ride by mamma. +Do you go with papa and put him in good humour; and it he says +anything about the lords and the bishops, don’t you +contradict him, you know.”</p> +<p>What will not a man do for love? Mr. Ingram +promised.</p> +<p>And in this way they started; the two boys led the van; then +came Mr. Damer and Mr. Ingram, unusually and unpatriotically +acquiescent as to England’s aristocratic propensities; then +Miss Dawkins riding, alas! alone; after her, M. Delabordeau, also +alone,—the ungallant Frenchman! And the rear was +brought up by Mrs. Damer and her daughter, flanked on each side +by a dragoman, with a third dragoman behind them.</p> +<p>And in this order they went back to Cairo, riding their +donkeys, and crossing the ferry solemnly, and, for the most part, +silently. Mr. Ingram did talk, as he had an important +object in view,—that of putting Mr. Damer into a good +humour.</p> +<p>In this he succeeded so well that by the time they had +remounted, after crossing the Nile, Mr. Damer opened his heart to +his companion on the subject that was troubling him, and told him +all about Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>“I don’t see why we should have a companion that +we don’t like for eight or ten weeks, merely because it +seems rude to refuse a lady.”</p> +<p>“Indeed, I agree with you,” said Mr. Ingram; +“I should call it weak-minded to give way in such a +case.”</p> +<p>“My daughter does not like her at all,” continued +Mr. Damer.</p> +<p>“Nor would she be a nice companion for Miss Damer; not +according to my way of thinking,” said Mr. Ingram.</p> +<p>“And as to my having asked her, or Mrs. Damer having +asked her! Why, God bless my soul, it is pure invention on +the woman’s part!”</p> +<p>“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed Mr. Ingram; “I must +say she plays her game well; but then she is an old soldier, and +has the benefit of experience.” What would Miss +Dawkins have said had she known that Mr. Ingram called her an old +soldier?</p> +<p>“I don’t like the kind of thing at all,” +said Mr. Damer, who was very serious upon the subject. +“You see the position in which I am placed. I am +forced to be very rude, or—”</p> +<p>“I don’t call it rude at all.”</p> +<p>“Disobliging, then; or else I must have all my comfort +invaded and pleasure destroyed by, by, by—” And +Mr. Damer paused, being at a loss for an appropriate name for +Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>“By an unprotected female,” suggested Mr. +Ingram.</p> +<p>“Yes, just so. I am as fond of pleasant company as +anybody; but then I like to choose it myself.”</p> +<p>“So do I,” said Mr. Ingram, thinking of his own +choice.</p> +<p>“Now, Ingram, if you would join us, we should be +delighted.”</p> +<p>“Upon my word, sir, the offer is too flattering,” +said Ingram, hesitatingly; for he felt that he could not +undertake such a journey until Mr. Damer knew on what terms he +stood with Fanny.</p> +<p>“You are a terrible democrat,” said Mr. Damer, +laughing; “but then, on that matter, you know, we could +agree to differ.”</p> +<p>“Exactly so,” said Mr. Ingram, who had not +collected his thoughts or made up his mind as to what he had +better say and do, on the spur of the moment.</p> +<p>“Well, what do you say to it?” said Mr. Damer, +encouragingly. But Ingram paused before he answered.</p> +<p>“For Heaven’s sake, my dear fellow, don’t +have the slightest hesitation in refusing, if you don’t +like the plan.”</p> +<p>“The fact is, Mr. Damer, I should like it too +well.”</p> +<p>“Like it too well?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir, and I may as well tell you now as +later. I had intended this evening to have asked for your +permission to address your daughter.”</p> +<p>“God bless my soul!” said Mr. Damer, looking as +though a totally new idea had now been opened to him.</p> +<p>“And under these circumstances, I will now wait and see +whether or no you will renew your offer.”</p> +<p>“God bless my soul!” said Mr. Damer, again. +It often does strike an old gentleman as very odd that any man +should fall in love with his daughter, whom he has not ceased to +look upon as a child. The case is generally quite different +with mothers. They seem to think that every young man must +fall in love with their girls.</p> +<p>“And have you said anything to Fanny about this?” +asked Mr. Damer.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir, I have her permission to speak to +you.”</p> +<p>“God bless my soul!” said Mr. Damer; and by this +time they had arrived at Shepheard’s Hotel.</p> +<p>“Oh, mamma,” said Fanny, as soon as she found +herself alone with her mother that evening, “I have +something that I must tell you.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Fanny, don’t tell me anything to-night, for I +am a great deal too tired to listen.”</p> +<p>“But oh, mamma, pray;—you must listen to this; +indeed you must.” And Fanny knelt down at her +mother’s knee, and looked beseechingly up into her +face.</p> +<p>“What is it, Fanny? You know that all my bones are +sore, and I am so tired that I am almost dead.”</p> +<p>“Mamma, Mr. Ingram has—”</p> +<p>“Has what, my dear? has he done anything +wrong?”</p> +<p>“No, mamma: but he has;—he has proposed to +me.” And Fanny, bursting into tears, hid her face in +her mother’s lap.</p> +<p>And thus the story was told on both sides of the house. +On the next day, as a matter of course, all the difficulties and +dangers of such a marriage as that which was now projected were +insisted on by both father and mother. It was improper; it +would cause a severing of the family not to be thought of; it +would be an alliance of a dangerous nature, and not at all +calculated to insure happiness; and, in short, it was +impossible. On that day, therefore, they all went to bed +very unhappy. But on the next day, as was also a matter of +course, seeing that there were no pecuniary difficulties, the +mother and father were talked over, and Mr. Ingram was accepted +as a son-in-law. It need hardly be said that the offer of a +place in Mr. Damer’s boat was again made, and that on this +occasion it was accepted without hesitation.</p> +<p>There was an American Protestant clergyman resident in Cairo, +with whom, among other persons, Miss Dawkins had become +acquainted. Upon this gentleman or upon his wife Miss +Dawkins called a few days after the journey to the Pyramid, and +finding him in his study, thus performed her duty to her +neighbour,—</p> +<p>“You know your countryman Mr. Ingram, I think?” +said she.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; very intimately.”</p> +<p>“If you have any regard for him, Mr. Burton,” such +was the gentleman’s name, “I think you should put him +on his guard.”</p> +<p>“On his guard against what?” said Mr. Burton with +a serious air, for there was something serious in the threat of +impending misfortune as conveyed by Miss Dawkins.</p> +<p>“Why,” said she, “those Damers, I fear, are +dangerous people.”</p> +<p>“Do you mean that they will borrow money of +him?”</p> +<p>“Oh, no; not that, exactly; but they are clearly setting +their cap at him.”</p> +<p>“Setting their cap at him?”</p> +<p>“Yes; there is a daughter, you know; a little chit of a +thing; and I fear Mr. Ingram may be caught before he knows where +he is. It would be such a pity, you know. He is going +up the river with them, I hear. That, in his place, is very +foolish. They asked me, but I positively +refused.”</p> +<p>Mr. Burton remarked that “In such a matter as that Mr. +Ingram would be perfectly able to take care of +himself.”</p> +<p>“Well, perhaps so; but seeing what was going on, I +thought it my duty to tell you.” And so Miss Dawkins +took her leave.</p> +<p>Mr. Ingram did go up the Nile with the Damers, as did an old +friend of the Damers who arrived from England. And a very +pleasant trip they had of it. And, as far as the present +historian knows, the two lovers were shortly afterwards married +in England.</p> +<p>Poor Miss Dawkins was left in Cairo for some time on her beam +ends. But she was one of those who are not easily +vanquished. After an interval of ten days she made +acquaintance with an Irish family—having utterly failed in +moving the hard heart of M. Delabordeau—and with these she +proceeded to Constantinople. They consisted of two brothers +and a sister, and were, therefore, very convenient for +matrimonial purposes. But nevertheless, when I last heard +of Miss Dawkins, she was still an unprotected female.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE AT THE +PYRAMIDS***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 3710-h.htm or 3710-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/1/3710 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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