My eyes
were to be opened. He appeared to be suffering, and she seemed to unbend
to him more than she ever unbent to me, or any one else on board.
Hungerford, seeing this, said to me one day in his blunt way: "Marmion,
old Ulysses knew what he was about when he tied himself to the mast."
But the routine of the ship went on as before. Fortunately, Mrs.
Falchion's heroism at Aden had taken the place of the sensation attending
Boyd Madras's suicide. Those who tired of thinking of both became mildly
interested in Red Sea history. Chief among these was the bookmaker. As an
historian the bookmaker was original. He cavalierly waved aside all such
confusing things as dates: made Moses and Mahomet contemporaneous,
incidentally referred to King Solomon's visits to Cleopatra, and with sad
irreverence spoke of the Exodus and the destruction of Pharaoh's horses
and chariots as "the big handicap." He did not mean to be irreverent or
unhistorical. He merely wished to enlighten Mrs. Callendar, who said he
was very original, and quite clever at history. His really startling
points, however, were his remarks upon the colours of the mountains of
Egypt and the sunset tints to be seen on the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
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