Evening star., 1938-03-20
THIS WEEK

If we just jolly him bit it will be good for
him, bring him OUT
And SO jolly him they did, especially when
they were all together at meal times. Egbert
was so comic at meals; he would eat little
and then forget entirely where he was and
sit with fork raised in mid air, staring out
across the table through the window at the
translucent light, the palm trees and the little
moving friezes of donkeys and goats and
camels that bit sharply into the blue behind
them. They lived richly on the boat. there
were many courses and the polite and smiling
servants whisked your plate away before you
knew where you were. Look out; Egbert. it's
goingr was the cry, and then he would jump
in his chair, come back to the present scene,
and blushing and confused, hasten with his
food.
Mabel was especially funny with Egbert -
she laughed at him all the time, jollying him,
as Andrew called it, to such an extent that
she got quite fond of him in the way that you
always get fond of anybody who assists
publicly your own bgilliance.
Connie, who hated to see anyone wounded
or hurt, might have noticed what was going
on more clearly were it not that she was
absorbed by quite another matter. Was she
in love with Andrew as she had foreseen?
Was he beginning to be in love with her?
She asked herself no direct question; she
only knew that she was living in state of
almost intolerable happiness. He liked her,
she liked him and around them both was
wonderful atmosphere of clear cool sun, of
the sort of magic that suffered no analysis
but was only the lovelier for that. With every
hour that passed she and Andrew seemed to
grow closer to one another.
And what fine creature he was not
brilliant, perhaps, but always laughing, al
ways ready to do anything for anybody. A
little naive in his honesty and directness
but always so certain that what he said
would be liked that you could not possibly
take offense. He confessed from the very
beginning that he liked to be liked, he loved
to be popular, he made friends wherever he
went, and sometimes he confessed, people
cared more for him than he really wanted
them too.
Itwasafter leaving Luxor that Connie began
to feel as though she were really in dream.
Suddenly she became new Connie Prender-
gast, seeing things she had never seen before,
shifting all her standards, throwing recklessly
to the winds any thought of the past, present
or future. Time vanished for her and she
seemed to be on the verge of some extra
ordinary discovery.
That same evening after dinner she leaned
over the boat rail with Andrew, saw the
moons path shake and quiver like banner.
1t was not to be doubted there was an ex-
citenent in the air that had not been before
Luxor. Tomorrow morning they would be in
Assouan and it was as though that place were
a gate whose dock she would turn and then
what would she see?
He stood very close to her; she could feel
his strength and vitality join hers, the bend
of his hand touched hers. She did not move;
had he proposed to her then she would have
accepted him, but she was not thinking about
his proposal; she seemed to be launched out
into the swinging pennant of that moonlight,
it was easiest for her to conclude that it was
love that was bewildering her. Someone
interrupted them and no words were said.
In her cabin that night she wondered why
it was that in her heart there was tiny
whisper of relief that he had not proposed to
her. Was it that she had noticed some things
in him which removed him tiny space out
of the dream in which she was living?
Next morning at breakfast horrible thing