Part 11 (2/2)
Astara almost gasped out that she wished she could tell her father about it. Then she questioned: And you have painted a picture of it?” ”Yes, but it does not really do it credit. The mysteries, the secrecy and the faith that vibrate around the Ka'ba, the sacred black shrine, are indescribable !”
Astara gave a little sigh.
”I wish I could see it!”
”That is definitely something you will never do, ” Vulcan smiled, ”and as a matter of fact I have almost decided not to include that mystery in my book or exhibit the picture.”
”Why not a”
”Because I might want to go back I hope to visit many Moslem countries, and if it was known that I had deceived them not only should I be restricted but my life would be forfeit. ”
Mara knew that restriction was a word that mattered to him.
”It seems a pity to waste the experience,” she said. ”At the same time I think I understand.”
”That I do not wish to be restricted?
”Yes?”
”I doubt it, ” he said. ”Women never understand such things. They want to tie a man down, fetter him, and keep him in a cage.”
”Not all women,” Astara said, thinking of her mother.
”All women!” Vulcan said firmly. ”And if a prodigy exists who does not feel like that, I have not met her.”
He looked at Astara as he spoke. Then with a note of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice he said: ”Of course, if she was a G.o.ddess like Aphrodite she might be different.”
Astara did not know why, but his words depressed her.
She could almost feel him moving away from her, disappearing into the desert disguised as a Moslem, wearing the green turban to which he was ent.i.tled, and she would never see him again.
”What are you thinking?” Vulcan asked suddenly.
”Of you crossing the desert,” Astara answered truthfully, ”under a sky terrible in its stainless beauty and the splendours of a pitiless blinding glare.”
”So they have a Library on Olympus!” Vulcan remarked. He painted for some minutes in silence. Then Astara asked: ”What other mysteries are there in your book?”
”The dance of the Dervishes.”
”You ... have seen ... that?”
”It was fantastic, horrible, and yet mesmeric.”
”I wish I could have been with you.”
”It was not a sight for a woman or for anyone with a queazy stomach.”
”May I see the picture?”
”Perhaps. You are making me nervous with your pose of understanding. I do not like being understood.”
”I am sorry. I will look vacant and idiotic. Perhaps that will please you.”
Astara spoke scathingly and now he put down his brush and turned round to look at her.
”d.a.m.n you!” he said. ”I lay awake last night thinking about you. You are disturbing as well as intriguing me, and I do not like it!”
”The solution is quite simple.”
”If you are going to say that you will stay away and not return, I think I shall strike you !”
”Because I want you here. You know I want you here! But you are too much for one man's peace of mind!”
Astara could hear her heart beating and she knew that what he was saying and the tone in which he said it made her feel breathless.
”You are very difficult to please, Mr Worfield,” she said at length.
”Not really,” he answered. ”It is only that I am unused to perfection and I am finding it hard to adjust myself to it.”
He was still looking at her as he said as if to himself: ”There must be a flaw somewhere !”
His eyes swept over her from the top of her head to her feet. Then he turned back to his easel.
”Doubtless,” he said in a mocking voice, ”the answer is that you have a husband and six children hidden away somewhere.”
”And I can still manage to look like Persephone?” He laughed.
”I will concede you that point. But do not forget she must have had some erotic experiences with Pluto in Hades.”
”I believe that she was clever enough to keep him at arms length,” Astara answered, ”and to tell him she would consider what he suggested next winter ... then the next, then the next... ”
”Is that what you would do?”
It was, Astara thought with amus.e.m.e.nt, exactly what she was doing - keeping William and Lionel at arms' length.
”You will have to marry sooner or later,” Vulcan said and the statement made her start.
”Why should you say that?”
”Because I feel that is what you are considering. Women have to marry. There is no other way open for them.”
”You did not think so where ... Moll was concerned.”
”You are rather different from Moll, and I cannot imagine that the young man who is asking you to marry him is a traveller in fancy goods!”
”No ... he is not ... that.”
<script>