The change from the Saadee's atmosphere of savage fanaticism to this mild and tinkling insipidity threw Mrs. Armine's nerves off their balance.
Her lips began to tremble. She turned away her head. The effort not to betray her almost hysterical amusement, which was combined with an intense desire to pet this great, robust child, almost suffocated her. There was a click. The music stopped.
And his voice sounded grave, like an intensely appreciative child's.
Mrs. Armine governed herself, drew breath, and once more turned towards Baroudi. On his strong, bold face there was the delighted expression of a boy. She looked, looked at him, and all her half-tender amusement died away, and again, as in the Villa Androud, she was encompassed by fear. The immense contrasts in this man, combined with his superb physique, made him to her irresistibly fascinating. In him there was a complete novelty to appeal to her jaded appetites, rendered capricious and uneasy by years of so-called pleasure. A few minutes ago, when he had spoken of death, he had been a mysterious and cruel fatalist. Now he was a deliciously absurd child, but a child with the frame of a splendid man.
He lifted the box in his strong brown hands, and held it nearer to her. Nothing in his face betrayed any suspicion that she could be amused in an ironical sense. It was obvious that he supposed her to be as happily impressed as he was.
"Hold it close to my ear," she said, in a whisper, keeping her eyes upon him.
He obeyed. Once his hand touched her ear, and she felt its warm dryness, and she sighed.
And she said, "Another!" and "Another!" until the box's repertoire was finished, and then she made him turn on once more, "Come o'er the Moonlit Sea!"
Her gloves lay on the divan beside her, and she did not draw them on again. She did not even pick them up till the heat of the sun's rays was declining, and the musical box had long been silent.
She put her hands up to her disordered hair.
Ibrahim's smiling face was seen at the window.
"The donkey, Ibrahim! I want the donkey at once!"
He nodded his head, as if agreeing passively with himself, and looked on the ground.
"Hamza he ready. Hamza very good donkey-boy."
Ibrahim saluted, still smiling, and disappeared. Mrs. Armine walked to the window and looked out.