登陆注册
5242100000069

第69章 CHAPTER X(3)

That made her think of Androvsky and his angry resolution. It had not been the resolution of a day. Wearied and stiffened as he had been by the expedition to Sidi-Zerzour, actually injured by his fall--she knew from Batouch that he had been obliged to call in the Beni-Mora doctor to bandage his shoulder--she had been roused at dawn on the day following by his tread on the verandah. She had lain still while it descended the staircase, but then the sharp neighing of a horse had awakened an irresistible curiosity in her. She had got up, wrapped herself in a fur coat and slipped out on to the verandah. The sun was not above the horizon line of the desert, but the darkness of night was melting into a luminous grey. The air was almost cold. The palms looked spectral, even terrible, the empty and silent gardens melancholy and dangerous. It was not an hour for activity, for determination, but for reverie, for apprehension.

Below, a sleepy Arab boy, his hood drawn over his head, held the chestnut horse by the bridle. Androvsky came out from the arcade. He wore a cap pulled down to his eyebrows which changed his appearance, giving him, as seen from above, the look of a groom or stable hand. He stood for a minute and stared at the horse. Then he limped round to the left side and carefully mounted, following out the directions Domini had given him the previous day: to avoid touching the animal with his foot, to have the rein in his fingers before leaving the ground, and to come down in the saddle as lightly as possible. She noted that all her hints were taken with infinite precaution. Once on the horse he tried to sit up straight, but found the effort too great in his weary and bruised condition. He leaned forward over the saddle peak, and rode away in the luminous greyness towards the desert. The horse went quietly, as if affected by the mystery of the still hour.

Horse and rider disappeared. The Arab boy wandered off in the direction of the village. But Domini remained looking after Androvsky.

She saw nothing but the grim palms and the spectral atmosphere in which the desert lay. Yet she did not move till a red spear was thrust up out of the east towards the last waning star.

He had gone to learn his lesson in the desert.

Three days afterwards she rode with him again. She did not let him know of her presence on the verandah, and he said nothing of his departure in the dawn. He spoke very little and seemed much occupied with his horse, and she saw that he was more than determined--that he was apt at acquiring control of a physical exercise new to him. His great strength stood him in good stead. Only a man hard in the body could have so rapidly recovered from the effects of that first day of defeat and struggle. His absolute reticence about his efforts and the iron will that prompted them pleased Domini. She found them worthy of a man.

She rode with him on three occasions, twice in the oasis through the brown villages, once out into the desert on the caravan road that Batouch had told her led at last to Tombouctou. They did not travel far along it, but Domini knew at once that this route held more fascination for her than the route to Sidi-Zerzour. There was far more sand in this region of the desert. The little humps crowned with the scrub the camels feed on were fewer, so that the flatness of the ground was more definite. Here and there large dunes of golden- coloured sand rose, some straight as city walls, some curved like seats in an amphitheatre, others indented, crenellated like battlements, undulating in beastlike shapes. The distant panorama of desert was unbroken by any visible oasis and powerfully suggested Eternity to Domini.

"When I go out into the desert for my long journey I shall go by this road," she said to Androvsky.

"You are going on a journey?" he said, looking at her as if startled.

"Some day."

"All alone?"

"I suppose I must take a caravan, two or three Arabs, some horses, a tent or two. It's easy to manage. Batouch will arrange it for me."

Androvsky still looked startled, and half angry, she thought.

They had pulled up their horses among the sand dunes. It was near sunset, and the breath of evening was in the sir, making its coolness even more ethereal, more thinly pure than in the daytime. The atmosphere was so clear that when they glanced back they could see the flag fluttering upon the white of the great hotel of Beni-Mora, many kilometres away among the palms; so still that they could hear the bark of a Kabyle off near a nomad's tent pitched in the green land by the water-springs of old Beni-Mora. When they looked in front of them they seemed to see thousands of leagues of flatness, stretching on and on till the pale yellowish brown of it grew darker, merged into a strange blueness, like the blue of a hot mist above a southern lake, then into violet, then into--the thing they could not see, the summoning thing whose voice Domini's imagination heard, like a remote and thrilling echo, whenever she was in the desert.

"I did not know you were going on a journey, Madame," Androvsky said.

"Don't you remember?" she rejoined laughingly, "that I told you on the tower I thought peace must dwell out there. Well, some day I shall set out to find it."

"That seems a long time ago, Madame," he muttered.

Sometimes, when speaking to her, he dropped his voice till she could scarcely hear him, and sounded like a man communing with himself.

A red light from the sinking sun fell upon the dunes. As they rode back over them their horses seemed to be wading through a silent sea of blood. The sky in the west looked like an enormous conflagration, in which tortured things were struggling and lifting twisted arms.

同类推荐
  • 平夏录

    平夏录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洞玄灵宝飞仙上品妙经

    洞玄灵宝飞仙上品妙经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 草阁集

    草阁集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 拙政园诗余

    拙政园诗余

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 梅花拳秘谱

    梅花拳秘谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 嫡女毒后

    嫡女毒后

    前世,她是有名的政客,今世,她是从寡妇村逃出来的寡妇。夫君不仅没死,还与姐姐成亲。为了将她赶尽杀绝,两人合计派人暗中刺杀、毁容,坏事做尽,,这仇能不报么?后宫中的步步为营,她得心应手,各种谋害,她必然先行洞悉。太后赐婚庶王为妃,斗正室,斗小妾。嫁入宫中,翻身寡妇成皇后,艳绝天下。(女主绝非善类,与男主遇贱则更贱,遇强则更强。)
  • 法炼仙途

    法炼仙途

    在这个世界上,乾坤无定,仙途渺茫。这里魔物横行,神魔横压万世。妖族强大却也堪有自保之力,人族弱小只能于危世之中在灭亡的边缘苟延残喘。韩广,他本以为自己必然在变异的神劫之下身死道消,没想到却意外重生,迎来了最后的轮回。天空之城的陨落,神与魔的密藏,尘封过去的历史,数万万年的密谋。神魔强大那又怎样,这一次我韩广回来了。错过的,失去的,全都要拿回来。命运,在一开始就已经不同!仙途虽难行,我自有万法炼之!
  • 中华上下五千年

    中华上下五千年

    中华文明源远流长,一脉相承,本书主要讲述了从“盘古开天辟地”、茹毛饮血的远古时代,到秦汉统一、封建文明开始的这段时期,从中我们也了解到中华民族的孕育、产生、逐渐发展与进步的进程。本书能够帮助读者增加知识含量、开阔视野。
  • 杨家将传

    杨家将传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 我在爱你的时光里哭泣

    我在爱你的时光里哭泣

    这世上,最伤的是被深爱的人一再误解,永远解释不清,那是种深入骨髓的绝望。顾颜如觉得,遇到沈秦杰,大概是她这辈子最大的劫。她为了他收敛自己的个性,不管婆家如何刁难,都咬牙忍受。她以为只要她一直这样,他就会回头看她一眼,直到小三带着私生子找上门。“沈秦杰,我们离婚吧!”自这一刻起,她的爱,再也没了力气。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 相思蔻

    相思蔻

    问世间情为何物,只叫生死相许。李素茹有自己目标,在这个小小的世界里,平平安安活下去就好。这是一个架空也不架空的庆安李府,在这里你可以看到《庄子》《大学》《礼记》《老子》甚至阮籍、荀子。用言情小说的目光关照他们,轻松了解中华文学。
  • 帝国的铸就(1861—1871):改革三巨人与他们塑造的世界

    帝国的铸就(1861—1871):改革三巨人与他们塑造的世界

    1861年至1871年,林肯、俾斯麦和亚历山大二世在各自国家开展的改革构成了人类自由编年史上最引人瞩目的篇章,也见证了恐怖和强权新哲学的出现。迈克尔·贝兰敏锐地从历史中提取到这个重要的时间切面。他以扎实的历史知识贯通了三场改革之间的内在联系,以娴熟的文笔展现了三位领袖在内忧外患的情况下,力排众议的艰辛改革历程。美利坚、德意志和俄国的革命都以自由之名进行,方式却迥然不同:林肯要给予美国“自由的新生”,俾斯麦以“铁与血”推行强权,亚历山大二世“自上而下”实施变革。
  • 菜鸟除妖师

    菜鸟除妖师

    孤苦伶仃的除妖师后人尚羽,与各种妖魔鬼怪斗争,经历磨难,不断学习成长,与伙伴们策马江湖,锄奸惩恶,寻找亲人的故事。
  • 洞真太上道君元丹上经

    洞真太上道君元丹上经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 舞勺临街知髫年

    舞勺临街知髫年

    少年时与小伙伴一起玩闹偶然经过她家门前冲撞了刚巧出门的她,彼时端着沉稳实则稚气十足的应答让他眼前一亮,她却并不知晓他。两家的长辈熟识交好,她七岁时跟随父母拜访,见到了一直窝在书房貌似不愿理世事的他——此为互有婚约的两大主角的第一次正式会面。婚聘之书并未写好,一切看似长辈笑谈,此后十年间,两人互称兄妹虽说见面不多相处却很奇妙地融洽。突然有一天,当年的约定又拟新文正式敲定,婚前不能见面的习俗恰巧催化了他们的感情...本文风格轻松,男主为将门之后,年少掌家;女主读书不少智商不长型,锐利又可爱。