Read Online The Visitors by Sally Beauman - Free Book Online Page A

possibly envious. ‘At least, I think it was Jarvis. But someone said it might have been that swine Carew.’
    Evelyn seemed disconcerted by this news, but, covering up for her friend, she said lightly: ‘Of course – I remember now. She mentioned that to me. And please be kind about that swine, Carew. He’s the sweetest man, a very old friend of Poppy’s – and he’s a second cousin of mine, you know. Now, there’s Indian tea and China – and, oh how divine, they’ve made us one of those Gezira ginger cakes… ’
    Frances and I were pressed into service, handing plates around. The moment passed, but I noted how gracefully Evelyn had handled it, and how effective her gentle reproof had been. I returned to my chair at the edge of the group and listened distantly to the ex-pat gossip with which I was becoming familiar: the horse races, the duck shooting, the latest doings at the Residency… The young officers moved on to discuss the rise of the nationalist Wafd Party, the current political unrest and the need to ‘nip it in the bud fast’ before ‘things got out of hand’.
    ‘The thing is, Lady E, one can’t trust Egyptians an inch – they’re devious,’ said the most voluble of them, an earnest, fresh-faced young lieutenant by the name of Ronnie Urquhart. He fixed Evelyn with his frank blue gaze: ‘The sooner we abandon all this defeatist talk of “independence” the better. Give up the Suez Canal – when it’s our passage to India? The very idea! No: what works in Delhi will work in Cairo – we need to crack down hard. Did you hear about the demonstration last week? Right outside the Residency, a bunch of nationalist ruffians, waving flags and shouting slogans. On Lord Allenby’s doorstep! Infernal cheek. We put a stop to that little game pretty fast. What we need to do now is pull in the agitators, get them off the streets and… ’
    I think Helen Winlock was bored and disagreed with the views being expressed, though she said little. Miss Mack took on these young men once or twice, and challenged them in a sprightly way: she was listened to with grave courtesy, and then ignored. I was imagining the vitriol the officer’s remarks would have provoked in my father – not a man who tolerated fools. I was glad when Miss Mack cut short this tirade, which had now moved on to ‘Gyppo troublemakers’, and rose to her feet.
    ‘When Egypt gains independence, Lieutenant Urquhart,’ she said, fixing him with her keen republican eye, ‘which it will very soon, that much is obvious, then many of your so-called agitators will be elected members of a democratic Egyptian parliament. Are they to be deprived of freedom of speech then as they are now? No, don’t answer me, Lieutenant, I must go.’
    We left the clubhouse, with its leather armchairs, its faint cooking smells of roast beef and over-boiled cabbage, its atmosphere that was part gentlemen’s club, part English prep school. We passed through the gardens and came out into the street; two armed sentries smartly saluted at the gates, and beyond them the clamour of Cairo reclaimed us. Frances seemed used to such contrasts, but my head was aching, my hat itched and I felt that familiar smoky dislocation as we set off along the dusty road. We threaded our way past Arabs riding side-saddle, past a pungent camel train; we negotiated a route through the crush of hawkers and beggars. It was time for evening prayers: the cries of the muezzin came from the minarets of the mosques, rising like discordant music above the din of the streets. At last we reached the corner where the loyal Hassan was waiting for us; climbing into the carriage, I touched his Eye of Horus amulet.
    ‘What a collection of young hotheads,’ Helen said, glancing back at the club. ‘Aren’t they insufferable, Myrtle?’
    ‘Well, my dear, I do try to make allowances. Most of them are so very young, and they’ve been taught those opinions from the cradle. But the days of their precious