I felt that perhaps she didnt know how stupid and unreasoning and violent jealousy and hate can be and how little it takes to set them smouldering.
And then I said to myself, Amy Leatheran, youre a fool.
Mrs Leidners no chicken.
Shes close on forty if shes a day, and she must know all about life there is to know.
But I felt that all the same perhaps she didnt.
She had such a queer untouched look.
I began to wonder what her life had been.
I knew shed only married Dr Leidner two years ago.
And according to Mrs Mercado her first husband had died about fifteen years ago.
I came and sat down near her with a book, and presently I went and washed my hands for supper.
It was a good meal some really excellent curry.
They all went to bed early and I was glad, for I was tired.
Dr Leidner came with me to my room to see I had all I wanted.
He gave me a warm handclasp and said eagerly:
She likes you, nurse.
Shes taken to you at once.
Im so glad.
I feel everythings going to be all right now.
His eagerness was almost boyish.
I felt, too, that Mrs Leidner had taken a liking to me, and I was pleased it should be so.
But I didnt quite share his confidence.
I felt, somehow, that there was more to it all than he himself might know.
There was something something I couldnt get at. But I felt it in the air.
My bed was comfortable, but I didnt sleep well for all that.
I dreamt too much.
The words of a poem by Keats, that Id had to learn as a child, kept running through my head.
I kept getting them wrong and it worried me.
It was a poem Id always hated I suppose because Id had to learn it whether I wanted to or not.
But somehow when I woke up in the dark I saw a sort of beauty in it for the first time.
Oh say what ails thee, knight at arms, alone and(what was it?) palely loitering? I saw the knights face in my mind for the first time it was Mr Careys face a grim, tense, bronzed face like some of those poor young men I remembered as a girl during the warand I felt sorry for him and then I fell off to sleep again and I saw that the Belle Dame sans Merci was Mrs Leidner and she was leaning sideways on a horse with an embroidery of flowers in her hands and then the horse stumbled and everywhere there were bones coated in wax, and I woke up all goose-flesh and shivering, and told myself that curry never had agreed with me at night.
Chapter 7.
The Man at the Window
I think Id better make it clear right away that there isnt going to be any local colour in this story.
I dont know anything about archaeology and I dont know that I very much want to.
Messing about with people and places that are buried and done with doesnt make sense to me.
Mr Carey used to tell me that I hadnt got the archaeological temperament and Ive no doubt he was quite right.
The very first morning after my arrival Mr Carey asked if Id like to come and see the palace he was planning I think he called it.
Though how you can plan for a thing thats happened long ago Im sure I dont know!
Well, I said Id like to, and to tell the truth, I was a bit excited about it. Nearly three thousand years old that palace was, it appeared.
I wondered what sort of palaces they had in those days, and if it would be like the pictures Id seen of Tutankahmens tomb furniture.
But would you believe it, there was nothing to see but mud! Dirty mud walls about two feet high and thats all there was to it.
Mr Carey took me here and there telling me things how this was the great court, and there were some chambers here and an upper storey and various other rooms that opened off the central court.
And all I thought was, But how does he know? though, of course, I was too polite to say so.
I can tell you it was a disappointment!
The whole excavation looked like nothing but mud to me no marble or gold or anything handsome my aunts house in Cricklewood would have made a much more imposing ruin!
And those old Assyrians, or whatever they were, called themselves kings.
When Mr Carey had shown me his old palaces, he handed me over to Father Lavigny, who showed me the rest of the mound.
I was a little afraid of Father Lavigny, being a monk and a foreigner and having such a deep voice and all that, but he was very kind though rather vague.
Sometimes I felt it wasnt much more real to him than it was to me.
Mrs Leidner explained that later.