The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-08-22
The Carpet
From Bagdad
Bv Harold MacGrath, Author of
Hearts and Masks, The Man ion the Box etc.
Illustrations by M. G. Kettner
Copyright 1911 by Bobbs-Mernll Company

II am ringing for the hall-maid."
And Fortune resumed her chair,
picked up her Baedeker, and became
apparently absorbed over the map Of
Assuan.
Again wrath mounted to her moth
er's head. She could combat anger,
tears, protestations; but this indiffer-
ence, studied and unfilial, left her
weaponless; and she was too wise to
unbridle her tongue, much as she
an agreeable sensation to one who
counted only her victories.
Fortune, later you will be sorry for
this spirit" she said, when she felt
the tremor of wrath no longer in her
throat.
Fortune turned page, and jotted
down some notes with a pencil. Sad
as she was at heart, tragic as she
knew the result of this outbreak to
be, she could hardly repress a smile
at the thought of her mothers dis
comfture.
And so the chasm widened, and
went on widening till the end of time.
Mrs. Chedsoye was glad that the
hall-maid knocked and came in just
then. 1t at least saved her the ig-
nOminy Of a retreat. She dressed,
however, with the same deliberate
care that she had always used. Moth
ing ever deranged her sense of pro-
portion relative to her toilet, nothing
ever made her forget its Importance.
"Good-by DEAR" she said. 81 shall
be in at dinner" If the maid had
any suspicion that there had been a
quarrel, she should at least be i'm
pressed with the fact that she, Mrs.
Chedsoye, was not to blame for it.
Fortune nibbled the end of her pen.
Gil.
The door closed behind her mother
and the maid. She waited for time
Then she sprang to the window and
stood there. She saw her mother
driven off. She was dressed in pearl
grey, with a Reynolds hat of grey
velour and sweeping plumes: as hand
some and distinguished a woman as
could be found that day in all Cairo.
The watcher threw her Baedeker, her
notebook, and her pencil violently
into corner. 1t had come to her at
last, this thing that she had been
striving for since noon. She did not
care what the risks were; the storm
was too high in her heart to listen
to the voice of caution. She would
do it; for she judged it the one thing,
in justice to her own blood, she must
accomplish. She straightway dressed
for the street; and if she did not give
the same care as her mother to the
vital function, she produced an effect
that merited comparison.
She lOitered before the porter's bu-
reau till she saw him busily engaged
IN answering questions of some WON.
fn tourists. Then, with slight but
Friendly nod, she stepped into the bu-
reau and stopped before the key-rack.
She hung up her key, but took it
down again, as If she had changed
her mind. At least, this was the por-
ter's impression as he bowed to her
In the midst of the verbal lombard
ment. Fortune went upstairs. Ten
or fifteen minutes elapsed, when she
returned, hung up the key, and walked
briskly toward the side-entrance at
the very moment George, in his fruit.
less search of her, pushed through
the revolving doors in front. And all
the time she was wondering how it
was that her knees did not given un
der. 1t was terrible. She balanced
between laughter and tears, hysteri.
cally.
She had gone scarcely a hundred
yards when she was accosted by a
tall Arab whom she indistinctly recol
lected having seen before; where, she
could not definitely imagine. 1t was
the ragged green turban that cleared
away her puzzlement. The Arab was
the supposed beggar over whom Perez.
val chow easily she had fallen into the
habit of calling him that!) had stun.
bled. He stood so tall and straight
that she knew he wasn't going to beg;
so naturally she stopped. Without a
word, without even a look that ex-
pressed anything, he slipped a note
into her hand, bowed with Oriental
gravity, and stepped aside for her to
proceed. She read the note hastily
as she continued her way. Horace
Why should he wish to meet her that
evening, at the southeast corner of
the Shari'a ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, a
step from the British Consulate's
And she mustn't come in a carriage
nor tell any one where she was go
Ing? Why all such childish mystery?
He could see her far more conven.
iently in the lounging-room of the
hotel. She tore the note into scraps
and flung them upon the air. She was
afraid. She was almost certain why
he wished to meet her where neither
her mothers nor her uncle's eye
would be within range. Should she
meet him? Deeper than this, dared
she? Why had she come to Cairo,
when at Mentone she had known