OCR Text |
Show leaning on the parapet and looking over at Achmed and the mules. "Do go to bed, Kitty," he said. "What's the good if I can't sleep?" "But you generally sleep stun-nin'ly." "I know." "Don't this place suit you?" He looked at her with a sudden anxiety, but she felt sure the anxiety was for himself. "Perhaps not," she answered. "D' you want to get away?" He gazed at her almost fearfully. "Barbary sheep," she thought, and she laughed bitterly. She read Crum- ·pet's mind with such horrible ease. She saw into him with such precision. And what was there to see? A whole ' flock of Barbary sheep waiting to be killed. "Oh, go along, Crumpet!" she said, almost roughly. "Don't stand here ' asking me questions when you might ,s be killing things. Just think of it, Crumpet! Killing poor, innocent, happy things!" And she laughed again with an irony that startled him. "You ain't well, Kitty," he said. "You ain't yourself." "As if you knew what myself is!" She threw the words at him savagely. At that moment she was like a little tigress. He stared, then, as she turned away, he went off muttering to himself: "What the devil's up? What's come to Kitty?" It struck him that she must be getting bored, and he resolved not to stay for a week as he had intended, not to go after gazelle. He even hesitated for a moment when he was in the court-yard, and thought of giving up his expedition, of returning to his wife, of leaving with her that day for Beni-Mora. But Achmed held the mule for him, 59 |