By Far Euphrates A Tale 11

By Far Euphrates A Tale 11

Then arose Boghos, who had been nearly silent hitherto in a sorrow too

great for words or tears. "I too her father, I give her unto thee in the

Name of God," he said solemnly.

 

"I have only, then, to ask her," Jack persisted.

 

"Thou _hast_ asked, and we have given her." It was Hohannes who spoke

now. "What yet remains to do?"

 

Jack pulled himself together, and tried to explain. "But if she--does

not like me--I can't--you know.--Don't you understand?--I must speak to

her, and ask her if she will have me."

 

The men stood silent, looking at each other. Had they spoken their

thoughts, they would have said, "Heard ever any man the like of that?"

Scarcely would they have been more surprised had Jack, wishing to sell

his horse, announced that he could not conclude the bargain without the

creature's express consent.

 

At last Avedis threw out a modest suggestion. "This may be one of the

customs of the English people, which we do not understand. No doubt they

have their customs, as we have ours."

 

Jack turned to him gratefully. "You are right, Avedis. It _is_ the

custom of my country to take the 'yes' or 'no' only from the lady's

lips.

 

"A very strange custom," muttered Boghos.

 

"But if it _is_ the custom, we ought to conform to it, however strange

or unsuitable it may appear to us," Der Garabed advised. "We should do

all things in order; and moreover, should we fail in this, it might

happen that in the English country the marriage would not be recognised.

Therefore this is what I propose: let us send for the young maiden, and

let the Englishman, in our presence, do after the manner of his

country."

 

This was too appalling! Jack tingled all over at the thought of such an

ordeal for Shushan, and for himself. "Oh, I can't! For Heaven's sake,

let me go to her," he said.

 

"If that also is according to the custom, it shall be duly observed,"

said Hohannes, with the air of one who humours a sick person. "Let us

all go."

 

Happily for Jack, some of those present had the sense to reflect that

the women's apartment would not hold them all, and that therefore their

assistance might be dispensed with. Still the grandfather and father of

the maiden, two of her uncles, the priest, and three other persons

thought it behoved them to go and witness the due performance of this

ceremony of the English.

 

Jack was conducted by this solemn group to the room where Shushan sat

with her mother. As with trembling footsteps he approached her, the rest

fell back and stood in a grave half-circle, their ears and eyes intent

upon his every word and motion. "Heaven help me!" thought Jack. "Had

ever man to propose in such a way? What shall I say?" But no words would

come to him; sense and speech seemed both to have departed from him.

 

The silence throbbed in his ears like a pulse of pain--the awful

silence, which he knew he ought to break, which he _must_ break, for his

life, and more than his life--and yet he could not. Not a word could he

utter.

 

Shushan, meanwhile, not knowing what all this might portend, hastily

veiled her face, and clung to her mother. Mariam had a copper dish which

she had been cleaning in her hand, and in her surprise and alarm she let

it go. It slipped slowly down her dress, and fell at last with a slight

sound upon the floor. In the strained silence every one started, and

Shushan dropped her veil with a little frightened cry.

 

Jack saw her sweet face, pale with anguish, her soft, dark eyes, heavy

with unshed tears. Every thought was lost in an unutterable longing to

snatch her from the fate that threatened her. "Will you let me save you,

Shushan?" he pleaded, coming close to her,--and his voice was the voice

of a strong man's infinite tenderness.

 

Shushan stood up, looked around upon her father, her grandfather, and

all the rest, then looked calmly and steadily in the face of the

Englishman. "_Yes_," she said softly.

 

For she knew there was one way of escape for the Christian maiden in a

strait like hers. There had been often in Armenia Christian fathers

strong enough to say, like Virginius,--

 

 

"And now, my own dear little girl, there is no way but this."

 

 

What more likely than that the brave, kind Englishman--whom it would not

hurt so much, as he was not of her own blood--might do for her that

which her kindred would find too hard? There was a strange fascination,

a sort of rapture in the thought of dying by his hand. "I am not

afraid," she said, with a firm sweet look,--"not afraid to die."

 

"_To die!_" Jack cried in horror. "Who talks of dying? No, you shall not

die, but live. You shall live for me, my own true wife, in happy

England. Say 'yes' to that, Shushan."

 

She looked at him in wonder. At last the colour mounted to her pale

cheeks, her lips parted softly, and a low murmur came, "If God wills."

 

Hohannes turned gravely to the rest. "No doubt," he said, stroking his

beard, "Yon Effendi has done after the manner of the English, when they

would take their wives. If he is satisfied, we may go our way, thanking

God, who has sent him to the help of our dear child in her peril."

 

Jack's heart beat thickly, as one by one they went, and he was left

alone with Shushan and her mother. Hohannes had looked back to see if he

were following; but no, he stood rooted to the spot. "The custom of his

country," thought the old man, and passed on.

 

Jack stood looking on the ground, not daring to raise his eyes to

Shushan's face. But when the last retreating footstep had died away, he

looked up, and there was that in his face which she had never seen

before. The question of his heart was this: "Does she care for _me_, or

am I only better than a Turk?" It spoke in his eyes, and thrilled her

with a sense of something strangely new and sweet. He had been kind and

good to her for so long a time, but _this_--what was this?

 

Instinctively she turned from him to her mother. Mariam's tears of joy

and thankfulness were falling drop by drop. She could have thrown

herself at the feet of the deliverer of her child. But, true to the

custom of her race when a maiden is in the presence of him who has

chosen her, she drew the veil over her daughter's face.

 

"Ah!" Jack exclaimed involuntarily. But he had seen enough--enough at

least to assure him that he could teach Shushan to love him as he loved

her. "Dear mother," he said, "you have been a mother to me for so long;

now I am going to be your son altogether, and take care of your Lily."

 

Scarcely had the men reached the court when the priest said gravely,

"There is one thing we have left out of our account, which is serious,

and may not be disregarded. An Englishman cannot marry a subject of the

Sultan without a written permission from his own Consul--even if he can

do it except in the Consul's presence. Under the circumstances, I dare

not perform the ceremony; terrible harm might come of it; and moreover

it might not be valid in England."

 

Most of the party knew this already, but in their excitement they had

disregarded or forgotten it. They stood just as they were in the court,

and looked at one another; "all faces gathered blackness."

 

"Call forth Yon Effendi and tell him," said Hohannes.

 

Avedis called him, and he came, his face flushed and glowing with a shy,

half-hidden rapture.

 

Der Garabed explained the difficulty. Jack tossed his head impatiently,

like a young horse restrained unwillingly by bit and bridle. "What a

plague!" he cried in boyish indignation. Then, his face changed and

sobered as the man within him asserted himself; he seemed to grow years

older all at once. "This is what we will do," he said: "Bring Shushan

well disguised to one of the Christian villages near--you know them all,

and which is best to choose--and hide her there for a few days. I will

take horse this very hour and ride to Urfa. You know it is reported the

Consul is there at present. If he is, I can see him; if not, I can go

after him. I daresay he can give me some writing, or document, which

will make everything straight for us. But if he cannot, and the thing

must be done in his presence, I will bring Shushan to him, were he at

the end of the world. For I carry this thing through, or I die for

it--so help me God!"

 

"Good. And before you go, we will betroth her to you," Hohannes

answered.

 

Then he took him privately into the room where his father's things were

hidden. He gave him all the gold that remained; and then, with an air of

mystery, took out another parcel, and having unwound its many wrappings,

displayed to Jack's astonished eyes a small revolver and a belt of

cartridges.

 

"I did not know you had these," he said.

 

"No; I was afraid to tell you while you were but a boy; lest some chance

word to your companions might betray that we had firearms here, and ruin

us all; or else you might have been too eager to get hold of them, and

unwilling to wait. But now you are a man, and have sense and

understanding; and on the way to Urfa, where there are robbers, they may

be of use to you."

 

Jack took the revolver in great delight, and went off to examine it. In

England he had been a good shot for a boy of his age, though only with

an ordinary gun. But he had sometimes cleaned the revolver for his

father, so he knew what to do. He found it in a terrible condition from

rust and damp, and feared it would be quite useless. However, he

managed with great difficulty to clean two barrels out of the six, and

to load them; more it would be useless to attempt.

 

As he was thus engaged some one knocked at the door. Knowing his

occupation to be a very dangerous one, he did not say, "Come in," but

went and opened it cautiously. Gabriel stood there. "Yon Effendi," he

said, "the post is going to-night.""Well?"