The thought of those lives filled her with aversion. The idea
of marriage--even in its highest form, based on mutual consideration
and mutual forbearance--was repugnant to her. She thought of it with a
shiver of absolute repulsion. To Aubrey it was distasteful, but to her
cold, reserved temperament it was a thing of horror and disgust. That
women could submit to the degrading intimacy and fettered existence of
married life filled her with scornful wonder. To be bound irrevocably
to the will and pleasure of a man who would have the right to demand
obedience in all that constituted marriage and the strength to enforce
those claims revolted her. For a Western woman it was bad enough, but
for the women of the East, mere slaves of the passions of the men who
owned them, unconsidered, disregarded, reduced to the level of animals,
the bare idea made her quiver and bring her hand down heavily on her
horse's neck. The nervous creature started sharply and she let him go,
calling to Mustafa Ali as she cantered past him. He had ridden to meet
the caravan and was dismounted, deep in conversation with the chief of
the armed guard. With the thoughts that it had provoked the caravan had
lost all interest for Diana. She wanted to get away from it, to forget
it, and she rode on unmindful of her escort, who, like her guide, had
stopped to speak with the traders. Diana's horse was fleet, and it was
some time before they caught her up. There was a look of annoyance on
Mustafa Ali's face as she turned on hearing them behind her and signed
to him to ride beside her.
"Mademoiselle is not interested in the caravan?" he asked curiously.
"No," she replied shortly, and asked for some details connected with
her own expedition. The man talked easily and well, in fluent French,
and after giving the required information, volunteered anecdotes
relating to various well-known people whom he had guided in the desert.
Diana watched him interestedly. He seemed a man of about middle age,
though it was difficult to guess more than approximately, for the
thick, peaked beard that hid both mouth and chin made him look older
than he really was. His beard had been his only drawback from Diana's
point of view, for she judged men by their mouths. Eyes were
untrustworthy evidences of character in an Oriental, for they usually
wavered under a European's. Mustafa Ali's were wavering now as she
looked at him, and it occurred to her that they had not seemed nearly
so shifty in Biskra when she had engaged him. But she attached no
importance to the thought, and dismissed it as much less interesting
than the great difference displayed in their respective modes of
riding.