CHAPTER XVI.

"At Valence, about 7 a.m., at the announcement by the porters that the train would stop for four minutes, the whole carriage full yawned, stretched themselves, passed their hands over their eyes, hair, and moustaches, made a kind of cursory toilet, and at last woke up completely. The windows were let down, and a miniature southern sun, the timid precursor of the burning rays of Africa, infused a little warmth into us.

"It was only after having had a good look at, and recognized each other, and said good-morning, that we began to chat. On the previous evening, weariness and want of spirits had prevented our being very communicative, but, now, as soon as the power of speech had come back to us, I asked MM. de Morin and Delange for some information as to their game at écarté. They had no idea that I was fully aware of all their doings and sayings, and they laughingly told me that the result of the play was in favour of the doctor.

"'A thousand francs?' said I. 'And did you leave off at midnight?'

"'Yes, but how—'

"'In my corner I heard all that passed, but when you spoke of a contract which you were bound to fulfil I allow that I did not understand you.'

"'We will soon unravel that mystery,' said M. de Morin, 'and the more so because this is not the last time we shall play. We shall do it every day, and it would be too bad to puzzle you any longer.'

"And with a grace of manner which is quite natural to him, the young painter gave me a detailed account of his agreement with M. Delange. I saw at once that the latter is a gambler at heart, and, as I do not like that, he has fallen in my esteem. It is not that I am very particular, for, as you know full well, my dear Emily, I have seen so much of the world and its lights and shades, and so many crimes have been perpetrated under my very eyes in this dear Africa, whither I am returning entirely of my own free will, that I am naturally inclined to err on the side of indulgence, and to place a love of play in the category of minor offences. But, as a woman, I have a grudge against M. Delange, seeing that he might very well dispense with his gambling whilst in our society. Madame de Guéran and I are sufficiently engaging, and we have attractions enough, both intellectual and physical, to make it easy for him to sacrifice his love for cards. By-and-bye I may forgive him, but at this present moment both his friends occupy a higher place than he does in my esteem.

"I really have not anything to say about our stay in Marseilles, because nothing of importance happened there. We only spent one whole day in the place, Saturday, and on Sunday, at 9 a.m., we embarked on board one of the magnificent steamers belonging to the _Messageries Maritime_, which plies to India and China.

"Neither have I anything to tell you of our trip across. Amongst the passengers were a number of our fellow-countrymen, on their way to Calcutta and Singapore, some Dutch going to Java, and a great many French, principally from Marseilles, with whom Mohammed-Abd-el-Gazal got on famously.

"We reached Naples in about forty hours, and three days afterwards landed in Egypt. The weather throughout was magnificent, and the Mediterranean as calm as the Thames. We, all of us, were wonderfully well except the faithful Joseph, who, as he did not deny himself anything, fell a victim to sea-sickness. How did he contrive to be ill, if the sea was so calm? you will ask. I really do not know; his ways are not our ways. If only he would have conducted his sickness in a discreet and poetical manner, as I have myself often done, and wholesale, too! But no—his sickness was of the most intrusive and prosaic character. My dear Emily, these common people cannot do anything gracefully, whereas an English girl who has been well brought up, on the contrary, elevates even the most trivial things.

"The trip to me, indeed, was simply enchanting. I gazed once more on the clear, blue sky, without which I can no longer exist. Africa knew me again, and overflowing with loving care, wafted me her sweetest odours. At length T was no longer shut up in a box, as I had been in Paris and Marseilles; I could tread the deck from stem to stern. My feet were carried away with delight, and walked—oh! how they walked! According to the calculations of M. Périères, who made a regular study of me, and, every now and then, without my knowing it, fastened a pedometer to my back, I walked about forty miles a day, from end to end of the ship.

"Very often, even at night, when the heavens were studded with twinkling stars, I resumed my walk after supper. The passengers who had betaken themselves to their cabins and wished to sleep, complained more than a little of the noise I made over their heads. But that did not affect me in the least; I am above all those petty considerations, and the deck is open to all the world. One evening, however, as I was walking, from choice, on the poop, I heard, just as I was over one of the starboard cabins, a voice immediately beneath me. 'Oho!' thought I to myself, 'here we have a fractious kind of sleeper. Wait a bit, my friend, and I'll teach you to knock like that and try to impose silence on a British female!' And with that, instead of going farther away, I began to stamp above that ill-advised cabin.

"'What are you doing, Miss Beatrice?' said M. Périères, as he joined me. 'You are right on the top of Madame de Guéran's cabin. She recognized you by the airy lightness of your step, and knocked to ask you to go down and speak to her.'

"I was rather taken aback, but I put an end to my promenade, went down to the Baroness, and had a conversation with her which gave me food for much reflection.

"'I beg your pardon. Miss Poles,' said Madame de Guéran, 'for having interrupted your nocturnal walk, but I thought you would not mind giving me a few moments of your time.'

"'Certainly, madame. I am entirely at your orders,' I hastened to reply. 'It was you, then, whose sleep I was disturbing?'

"'You would most assuredly have disturbed it,' said the Baroness, laughing, 'if I had had the slightest inclination that way; but I am very much preoccupied, and that has kept me awake. Tell me,' she continued brusquely, 'you, who, like myself, have been brought into contact with so many travellers, have you not noticed how very easily all sorts of rumours gain credence about them in Europe? Amongst other things, do you remember what was said about Edward Vogel?'

"'No,' I replied, 'for once my really marvellous memory is at fault.'

"'Well,' continued the Baroness, 'I have collected, on purpose to show them to you, a series of papers relating to that celebrated traveller, who was one of my father's firmest friends. I can only now, as you may imagine, give you the gist of them. On the 14th December, 1857, the English Vice-Consul at Khartoum, Mr. Green, gave his Government the following information.* Dr. Vögel, after reaching the Waday territory, was at first very well received by the Sultan. But in the outskirts of Warra there is a holy mountain, the ascent of which is forbidden to the whole world. This mountain Vögel attempted to ascend, and he was at once arrested and put to death.'

* Vögel, on arriving at Bomon, was anxious to secure the protection of somebody of influence, and he was recommended to apply to the Vizier Germa, a cousin of the Sultan. Scarcely had he been presented to this individual than the latter requested the gift of Vögel's horse, a very valuable animal. Vögel refused, and his death was at once resolved upon. He was accused of having entered the country for the purpose of bewitching it, and of writing with a pen without ink (a pencil, in reality), and on the fifth day after his arrival Germa made an appearance before his house, accompanied by an armed escort, Vögel was summoned to come out, under the pretext that the Sultan had asked for him, and he fell under the blows of these murderers.

"'You see,' said the Baroness, handing me an English newspaper, 'that the news is quite official, and Lord Clarendon informed his Queen of it. But, on the 29th of June, 1860, another account, equally official, was sent to the Humboldt Institution.'

"'What do you say to these two versions?' asked Madame le Guéran.

"'If they do not exactly coincide,' I replied, 'in all their details, they at all events both end after the same fashion.'

"'But there is still a third version, to which in England great importance has been attached for some considerable time, and according to it Vögel is simply a prisoner in Bomon. An expedition has even set out in search of him.'

"'All the same, his death is very plainly proved.'

"'I agree with you, but you must remember that the existence of Livingstone has just been established, and for him we have already worn mourning two or three times, and each time in consequence of reports worthy of all credence.'

"'To what does all this tend?' asked I.

"She looked at me, did not answer a single word, and, a few moments afterwards, without deigning to explain herself more fully, allowed me to retire.

"I resumed my walk on deck, so that I might reflect on the singular interview in which I had just borne a part."