174 "The Bride of the Nile" [1907 



of a speech for Willy Redmond to make in opposing the Cromer vote, 

 his brother John having suggested it. 



"2.1st June. — A young Indian, a Hindoo, called. He told me that 

 recent events, and especially Morley's violent dealings with Lalla La j pat 

 Rai had sent the moderate reformers into the extremist camp. They 

 had lost all hope now of converting Englishmen of any party to the 

 cause of Indian Home Rule and were preparing for a revolution which 

 alone could free the country from English officialdom. Their plan was 

 to make Government impossible by strikes and boycotts. The example 

 of the Japanese had given them courage and there were great numbers 

 ready to sacrifice even their lives for the freedom of their country. 



" 30th June. — My book seems making its way. Willy Redmond has 



announced that he will oppose the Cromer vote, which is to be for 



£50,000. He has written to tell me this and I have sent him the draft of 



a speech for the occasion. He ' has talked the matter over,' he says, 



with our young men here and there will be strong opposition.' 



" I hear that my book is beginning to be talked about in London 

 as ' very mischievous.' I expect the opposition to the Cromer vote will 

 about finish me in polite society; however, I was prepared for this. 



' 13th July. — My play ' The Bride of the Nile ' has been acted here, 

 at Newbuildings, with great success. Margaret Sackville took the 

 part of Belkis and did it admirably, far better than her part of Fand 

 last year. She had clothed herself in a lovely light garment of white 

 and gold, deepening in the skirts to Orange, with strings of beads and 

 long gossamer sleeves. Her recitation of the song, ' If I forget,' was 

 perfect, given with the guitar accompaniment of one Allen Booth from 

 London, an excellent little man who had composed it for the occasion. 

 But this was surpassed by her dance, a real Oriental one, quite the 

 most beautiful I ever saw. Dorothy, of course, was Jael, in which part 

 she too was perfect. She looked lovely in a black Egyptian woman's 

 shirt with a blue veil. The most popular of them all, however, proved 

 to be little Nellie Hozier, who did Hatib, a pretty joyous child of nine- 

 teen, who having just been condemned by doctors only two days ago 

 as having in her the germs of consumption was determined to enjoy her 

 time to the uttermost before going to a health establishment (Nordrach) 

 in Germany, the only chance for her of cure. I dressed her in my 

 old travelling Arab dress, all in rags as it was, and arranged the kifiyeh 

 and aghal for her pretty head, and she looked, with a spear in her 

 hand, a splendid Bedouin boy, and spoke her lines with admirable 

 spirit, bringing down the house. The final scene, where Hatib espouses 

 the two ladies, was especially delightful, for she put her arms round 

 both their necks by a spontaueous impulse which we had not designed 

 and which was better than all other possible arrangement. Barix was 

 played by Mark Napier and Alexis by his son Claud, both well, though 



