Desert Doorway

by Pamela Kent

  "Really, my dear! I don't think Miss Armitage

  "Miss Armitage is new to our ways here. Celestine continued with apparent imperturbability, although her face was cold, and even the lovely scarlet line of her lips seemed touched by the forbidding coldness. "And, for that reason, certainthings must be explained to her." She looked down the table at Jenny. "Because you and Max

  are English, that is no reason why you should foregather, you know." Jenny felt indignation touch her, as it hadtouched her that morning in the presence of Max himself. "But we met by accident�I have already explained," she said, and felt that any further attempt to consume any more of the lunch would choke her altogether.

  "Quite so," the Comtesse murmured, and I am merely pointing out that it must not occur again! "You mean"�Jenny almost gasped�"that if, and whenever, we meet outside this house, I am not even to acknowledge him?" Celestine shrugged her shoulders. "It is always possible to pass the time of day without doing more than that. And, as a matter of fact, I decided as soon as I had dropped you this morning that I should not have left you to wander about the city. You are so new to this part of the world that it was hardly wise, and in future we must arrange your off-duty hours more carefully, and also the manner in which you are goingto take advantage of them. In time you will get used to the fact that this country is not quite like England, or even France."

  "And, for that very reason, if I had known youproposed dropping Miss Armitage all by herself this morning I would' have suggested accompanying her," the Compte interposed. For the first time since Jenny had known him there was a strongnote of displeasure in his voice. His eyes looked displeasure across the table at his wife. "That sort of thing must not be repeated."

  "I have just said it will not be repeated, my dear Raoul," the Comtesse replied drawlingly. "And, in any case, I made arrangements for Miss Armitage to be picked up at one o'clock by the car, but she chose to keep the chauffeur waiting."

  "A thing I'm terribly sorry about," Jenny managed, in a small, frozen voice.

  The Comte looked at her in a concerned way.

  38

  "Don't let it distress you, Miss Armifcage," he said. "You have already apologized several times, and on the whole I think it was a very good thing you ran into Daintry this morning. I hope he showed you a few of the sights? There wasn't much time, but you probably saw something of the suqs, and the medina?

  "We�we talked," Jenny admitted, because it was her nature to be strictly truthful. Celestine's superb eyebrows rose.

  "About England?" she inquired, with a dangerous sweetness. Jenny looked at her, and then lowered her eyeg swiftly. "Yes, about England," she concurred, again with a very great deal of truth.

  "And, in the circumstances, that was, I should say, extremely natural," the Comte murmured, and turned to decline a dish which the servant had been offering him.

  Jenny had the impression�swift, and somehow rather frightening�that his wife, in the moment that his attention was concentrated elsewhere, bestowed her own full attention upon him, looking at him across the table, with its centre piece of exotic flowers, its lace mats and its silver, and

  other evidences of extreme civilization. And in

  the look there was something which reminded her of the look in the eyes of the snake the snakecharmer had been winding about his neck in the Djemaa el Fna that morning. At the time she had thought that the violent dislike of the snake for its charmer as expressed in those venomous bright eyes had been almost actively revolting, and now she was seeing it again in the eyes of a human being�golden-brown eyes, but just as jewel-like and brilliant.

  She was glad to leave the table and upstairs in her own room, while she got ready for the visit to the Mamounia with the children, she felt herself torn for the first time with doubts as to the wisdom of accepting such a position as this she

  39

  now filled, and it was not because Max Daintry had attempted to sow seeds of doubt in her mind. The reason why he wished her to leave seemedobvious, but the fact that Celestine could behave, if she felt like it, like a feminine dictator was much more disturbing. It prevented her from feeling any security in

  They were driven to the Mamouma m the big grey car. The children were very elegantly turneid out, looking like the children of an American film-star who were about to be brought very much into the limelight. Simone was in a smocked frock of primrosesilk, and. had a straw bonnet tied under her-chin with satin ribbons, while Louis had something of the air of Little Lord Fauntleroy.. When they reached the hotel both children insisted on clambering out without the assistance of the chauffeur, and they swarmed into the lift ahead of both thelift-attendant and Jenny, as if they were thoroughly familiar with the routine of such a visit as this, and were anxious to show off. Their grandmother occupied a suit of rooms on the first floor, which Jenny thought must probably cost her a small fortune. And when she saw the inside of the suite, and the flowers with which it was filled, she mentally assessed the weekly bill as even higher.

  The mother of the Comte, who had contracted a second marriage and was known as Lady Berringer, was a. small, extremely youthful-looking person who, Jenny recognized immediately, could have been bom nowhere but in England. She had fair, beautifully styled hair without a touch of grey, and her eyes were a sparkling forget-me not blue. Her complexion was positively ravishing �and that with very little aid from cosmetics� and made Jenny think of Devonshire cream and strawberries. She was so elegantly dressed that Jenny felt instantly self-conscious about her own

  I- simple linen frock, although by comparison with

  the Comtesse, Lady Berringer's taste was subdued; Her dove-grey afternoon frock with its finely; pleated georgette skirt was a perfect foil for her; flower-like eyes and the pale gold of her hair

  and when she smiled Jenny knew at once that she was by nature friendly and spontaneous, and! possibly very easy to get along with,

  She welcomed the children with obvious pleasure, provided them with the attention they

  demanded, introduced her companion. Miss Esther Hamngay. who was just as unmistakably English as she was herself, and left the latter to entertain the grandchildren while she had what, she described as "a really nice little talk" with the governess.

  "I've already received a glowing account of you from my son," she said, and looked at Jenny with a faint twinkle of amusement in her bright blue eyes as the girl sat facing her on a Chesterfield. "He said that you were not only very differentfrom the two governesses they had before�one from France, and another, I believe, also from England�but that you were so unmistakably a lady it would be a relief to entrust the children to your care!" "Oh!" Jenny exclaimed, and felt an embarrassed pink color start to glow in her cheeks.

  Lady Berringer smiled at her.

  "It's so important, if you're going to teachthem English, to pass on to them a first-class accent at the same time, and you're so young that

  you'll probably have lots of patience with them. Personally I find them a trifle exhausting"�Miss

  Harringay was at that moment being overwhelmed with requests for a game that involved a good deal. of noise and rushing about, and the grandmother broke off to observe her companion giving way under the demands with a faintly 'rueful look-in

  her remarkably beautiful large grey eyes�"but that's because I'm no longer in the least young and very set in my ways."

  Merely to look at her Jenny would have said thatshe couldn't be any older than somewhere in her late forties, and if her ways were "set," they wereso charmingly set that Jenny hoped secretly that hers would be exactly similar when she, too, was a grandmother.

  "You, however, my dear � you're probablyexactly right for them. Or you will be if you exercise a little gentle discipline. I don't believe in crushing, young things."

  "Neither do I," Jenny agreed. As a matter of fact, she and the children were already greatfriends, and so far she hadn't found them in the slightest degree exhausting, although they were admi
ttedly in some ways spoiled�perhaps precocious was a better word. In others, they gavethe impression that they were always rather fearful of retribution falling upon them in no mean fashion if they did anything particularly outrageous, and Jenny wondered whether it wasone of the past governesses who had had methods involving stern discipline which had frightened them enough to be remembered.

  Lady Berringer seemed to find it difficult to remove her eyes from Jenny's attractive, fairskinned face and her graceful figure, and at thesame time there was a faintly puzzled expression on her face.

  "I was surprised that my daughter-in-law did insist on someone as young as you," she admitted at last. "Because both the other governesses were quite old, and moreover they looked like governesses. But you, very definitely, don't!" Jenny was a little embarrassed by this sort of talk, especially in view of what had been said to her at lunch time, and she began to wondertoo, why the .Comtesse de S,t. Alais had insisted on someone "young" to look after her children. The answer could, of course, have been that her experience of the older ones had not been satisfactory.

  Tea was brought in, and the children threatened to make themselves sick on cream cakes, and Jenny did her best to restrain them. Lady Berringer, in her amiable, good-natured way, was inclined to regard greediness as the special prerogative of the young, but the companion, who wasprobably not much more than thirty, although she looked older when she was not smiling, 'did her best to lend support to Jenny, who was anxious not only for the children's well-being but theirflagrantly expensive clothes.

  "Like dolls, aren't they?" the grandmother murmured, with an amused look, to Jenny. "Celestine has the true French flair for dressing up not only herself, but her offspring." And in support of her employer Jenny felt

  forced to observe; "But she's very, very beautiful!" "Yes, I suppose she is," Lady Berringer agreed, but her tone was devoid of enthusiasm.

  Later she had another talk with Jenny, while the children were taken round the garden by Miss Harringay, and she asked her whether she had so far met any of her employers' friends, or made any social contacts.

  "You're too young to be shut up with the children all the time," she said. "It simply wouldn'tbe fair to you, and my son wouldn't allow it I know. Celestine will have to take you about and introduce you. You can have quite a good time out here, you know, if you wish�and, being young, you naturally couldn't wish for anything else!"

  "Oh, but I'm only the governess�and I'm not in the least likely to forget that!" Jenny saidquickly, and Lady Berringer smiled.

  "Nonsense. You're frightfully pretty, and you're also very charming. Celestine couldn't possiblykeep you hidden from her friends. But, so far, you say you've met none of them?" "Only�Mr. Daintry," Jenny said, and wondered why she had to pause before she broughtout his name.

  "Max Daintry?" The eyes of the Comte's motherwidened and her slender eyebrows lifted. "How and where did you meet him?" Jenny explained that she had met him when he visited the house�but she did not add that there had been no one there at the time to introduce them�and Lady Berringer stared thoughtfully out of the wide-open window. "He's an Englishman, of course�and, in a country like this, we English are apt to cling together. He's also quite a personality."

  Jenny said nothing.

  Lady Berringer remarked, just before the others returned: "So you met Max before you met anyone else

  out here! Well��!" She looked at Jenny curiously, and then smiled. "But you'll meet lots and lots of young men before long. My daughter-in law is going to be very popular with you in her house. It will be almost like having a young sister to launch socially, especially as you're really extraordinarily like her!"

  CHAPTEE SIX

  JENNY thought of those words that night when Celestine tapped on the door of her room just before she started to dress'for dinner, and asked permission to come inside.

  Her manner was greatly changed since lunch time�far more friendly, in fact, than it had been hitherto. She saw that Jenny had just emerged from the bathroom, for she was wrapped in a white candlewick dressing-gown, and the ends of her hair were wet and clinging to her wide brow and the back of her slender neck.

  "We're going out to dinner tonight," Celestine said, "and I thought you might like to come with us. As a matter of fact, as the invitation included you, I accepted on your behalf. I hope that's all right?"

  "Oh�oh, yes!" Jenny answered, feeling considerably surprised. The Comtesse had absented herself every evening since her arrival, and the Comte sometimes accompanied her, but Jenny had considered this quite natural; she had not expected to be treated by them on "terms of such equality that they wbuld wish to present her in the homes of their friends. And Lady Berringer's remarks of the afternoon had struck her as unlikely to coincide with any of Celestine's own plans and intentions, at least where she herself was concerned. But the Comtesse walked to her wardrobe and flung open the door. "What are you going to wear?" she asked. She ran her eye along the row of dresses, and lifted out a very pretty white net with the bodice lightly patterned with green rhinestones.

  "This is quite suitable," she said, "and yo� should look quite nice in it. Have you a stole, or a bolero, to go with it?" "I have a green velvet bolero," Jenny answered.

  45

  "Then wear it. I have explained to you that , the nights are chill. And I can lend you a fur wrap to wear in the car�unless, of course, you have one of your own?" with a slightly dry note in her voice. Jenny admitted that she had nothing of the kind, and the Comtesse departed to allow her to get on with her dressing, and to wonder how she felt about the idea of wearing anything so personal as a wrap belonging to her employer, especially when the offer to wear it was made m such a cool and detached manner. But when she went down into the hall and saw Celestine holding out to her a cloak of soft white ermine, she realized that she ought to feel grateful Celestine herself was swathed in mink over a gown of silver lame, and she looked absolutely striking. Beneath the flood of amber brilliance which the great swinging lantern in the hall cast unpon them, as they stood congregated m the middle of a glorious Bokhara carpet, Jenny had no idea that she herself, in the filmy white dress that made her look very young indeed, and the

  green bolero that did such attractive things to her hair with its autumn gold coloring, made a picture calculated to attract any eye that was not deliberately fastened to somethings else.

  And the eye of the Comte de St. Alais rested upon her with unconcealed admiration when she arrived at the foot of the stairs. His wife, as if she was approving some goods

  she had just ordered to be sent home, said. "You look exteremly nice. You have good taste. And then they were outside in the car, and the Comte himself was at the wheel, while Jenny� although she was not quite certain how the arrangement came about�was seated beside him, and Celestine sat enthroned on the back seat in a llnnri of solitary grandeur. The night was very dark, but there were brilliant stars away up in the deep night sky.Jenny had not thought it the correct thing to display

  46

  sufficient curiosity to ask where they were going to? And who were the people she was likely to meet that night, but once they had crossed the Djemaa el Fna, where kerosene lamps lighted the various stalls and the open-sided tents, and there appeared to be as much excitement and movement as there was in the daytime, they turned in the direction Of the French town at the end of a long avenue of palm trees. The avenue was also bordered by orange trees �the golden badge of Marrakesh� but Jenny was unable to recognize these underthe purple canopy of night. When they arrived at their destination there were already several cars drawn up in the short drive which led to the large white modern house with lights flaming from every window. In the blaze of light Jenny caught a glimpse of the inevitable fountain, and a solid wall of crimson and purple bougainvillea, as well as some bushes of red camellias, and trails of nurnie convolvulus. ^ Inside the house the furnishings were luxurious m the extreme,-and the shaded lights cast over everything a romantic shim
mer. Her host and hostess proved to be a Captain Benott and his wife. there were so many guests that although Madame Benoit singled out Jenny for who they where ,she forgot almost at once who the where.

  a little smiling conversation before drinks were handed round, she had to leave her very quickly and pay similar attention to others, and Jenny was left with an excellent opportunity to take stock of her attractive surroundings. But just before they went in to dinner Celestine herself brought a young man up to introduce toher, and although his eyes were mysteriously dark, his hair was so strikingly golden that she received quite a shock of surprise when the Comtesse Presented him as Si Mohammed'Menebhi. He had beautiful manners, and his French was quite effortless, but his English was much more limited. his eyelashes were the longest

  she had ever seen in her life, and lent to his lust rous eyes a touch of something vaguely disturbing. At dinner Si Mohammed sat at her right hand, and Jenny found his conversation so interesting, although it had to be carried on chiefly in French, that it was not until several courses had been served that she found herself looking down thelength of the table and straight into the eyes of Max Daintry, There was a mocking, amused look in thoseeyes, but the set of his mouth and jaw was a little grim, she thought, especially when his glance shifted for an instant to Si Mohammed. The latter acknowledged him with a faintly arrogant inclination of the head, and then continued his conversation with Jenny, as if he was not aware that for one moment, at least, she had been quite noticeably and considerably taken aback by the

  suddenly discovered presence of the other man.

  "Tell me," said the golden-headed Moor, "howlong you are thinking of staying in Marrakesh, Miss Armitage?" His ardent eyes said that he hoped the stay was likely to be a protracted one. "And tell me also how you like it here."

  "Oh, I like it very much." she admitted, quite truthfully�although there were certain aspects of the Morocco she had seen so far which repelled her. The poverty that dwelt side by side with the brightness of the color and the golden warmth of the sun. The barbarism which lurked so near the surface, and which had frightened her in the market-place, when she had watched the snake-charmer and the medicine-men. But the beauty of the High Atlas, the green beauty of the carefully irrigated oasis outside the rose-red walls of the city, which even in the burning desert summers was fresh and green�or so she had been given to understand�and the noble, twelfthcentury beauty of the Koutoubiya minaret, in its garden of cypresses, which the Comtesse had