Madame.
When we landed at Alexandria and I saw that blue sky and that coloured, gesticulating crowd, my heart leapt. I knew I was going to be happy. And every day I've loved Egypt more. I love its antiquities, I love the desert and the streets of Cairo and those dear little villages by the Nile. I never knew there was such beauty in the world. I thought you only read of romance in books; I didn't know there was a country where it sat by the side of a well under the palm-trees, as though it were at home.
Vous êtes charmante, madame. C'est un bien beau pays. Il n'a besoin que d'une chose pour qu'on puisse y vivre.
[Translating.] It's a beautiful country. It only wants one thing to make it livable. And what is that, your Excellency?
La liberté.
Liberty?
[Arthur has come in when first Violet begins to speak of Egypt and he listens to her enthusiasm with an indulgent smile. At the Pasha's remark he comes forward. Arthur Little is a man of forty-five, alert, young in manner, very intelligent, with the urbanity, self-assurance, tact, and resourcefulness of the experienced diplomatist. Nothing escapes him, but he does not often show how much he notices.]
Egypt has the liberty to do well, your Excellency. Does it need the liberty to do ill before it loses the inclination to do it?
[To Mrs. Appleby.] I hope you don't mind Turkish coffee?
Oh, no, I like it.
I'm so glad. I think it perfectly delicious.
You have in my wife an enthusiastic admirer of this country, Pasha.
J'en suis ravi.
I've told Ronny to come in and have a cup of coffee. [To Anne.] I thought you'd like to say how d'you do to him.
Are you very busy to-day?
We're always busy. Isn't that so, Excellency?
En effet, et je vous demanderai permission de me retirer. Mon bureau m'appelle.
[He gets up and shakes hands with Violet.]
It was charming of you to come.
Mon Dieu, madame, c'est moi qui vous remercie de m'avoir donné l'occasion de saluer votre grâce et votre beauté.
[He bows to the rest of the company. Arthur leads him towards the door and he goes out.]
You take all these compliments without turning a hair, Violet.
[Coming back.] You know, that's a wonderful old man. He's so well-bred, he has such exquisite manners, it's hard to realise that if it were possible he would have us all massacred to-morrow.
I remember there was a certain uneasiness in England when you recommended that he should be made Minister of Education.
They don't always understand local conditions in England. Osman is a Moslem of the old school. He has a bitter hatred of the English. In course of years he has come to accept the inevitable, but he's not resigned to it. He never loses sight of his aim.
And that is?
Why, bless you, to drive the English into the sea. But he's a clever old rascal, and he sees that one of the first things that must be done is to educate the Egyptians. Well, we want to educate them too. I had all sorts of reforms in mind which I would never have got the strict Mohammedans to accept if they hadn't been brought forward by a man whose patriotism they believe in and whose orthodoxy is beyond suspicion.
Don't you find it embarrassing to work with a man you distrust?
I don't distrust him. I have a certain admiration for him, and I bear him no grudge at all because at the bottom of his heart he simply loathes me.
I don't see why he should do that.
I was in Egypt for three years when I was quite a young man. I was very small fry then, but I came into collision with Osman and he tried to poison me. I was very ill for two months, and he's never forgiven me because I recovered.
What a scoundrel!
He would be a little out of place in a Nonconformist community. In the good old days of Ismael he had one of his wives beaten to death and thrown into the Nile.
But is it right to give high office to a man of that character?
They were the manners and customs of the times.
But he tried to kill you. Don't you bear him any ill will?
I don't think it was very friendly, you know, but after all no statesman can afford to pay attention to his private feelings. His duty is to find the round peg for the round hole and put him in.
Why does he come here?
He has a very great and respectful admiration for Violet. She chaffs him, if you please, and the old man adores her. I think she's done more to reconcile him to the British occupation than all our diplomacy.
It must be wonderful to have power in a country like this.
Power? Oh, I haven't that. But it makes me so proud to think I can be of any use at all. I only wish I had the chance to do more. Since I've been here I've grown very patriotic.
[Ronald Parry comes in. He is a young man, very good-looking, fresh and pleasant, with a peculiar charm of manner.]
Ah, here is Ronny.
Am I too late for my cup of coffee?
No, it will be brought to you at once.
[Shaking hands with Violet.] Good morning.
This is Mr. Parry. Mr. and Mrs. Appleby.
How d'you do?
Now, Ronny, don't put on your Foreign Office manner. Mr. and Mrs. Appleby are very nice people.
I'm glad you think that, Sir Arthur.
Well, when you left your cards with a soup ticket from the F.O. my heart sank.
There, my dear, I told you he wouldn't want to be bothered with us.
