IX 
THE LION 
313 
house at Berber, or sitting together in his garden 
on the extreme margin of the Nile, while the desert 
sands upon the east side of the wall showed the 
limit of civilisation and fertility, how any man of 
culture could endure to pass his entire existence 
in such a narrow boundary—the Nile, the fruitful 
source, upon one side, and the desert 200 yards 
beyond; sterile, only because the water could not 
reach its surface. 
He had his books, all the monthly periodicals 
from Europe, and his newspapers; he also had his 
private affairs, his agency, which occupied his time ; 
in addition, he had a wife, an Abyssinian lady of 
great beauty, and of gentle sympathetic disposition. 
To her husband she was as the moon is to the 
traveller upon an otherwise dark night. Her story 
was too romantic and sad to be lightly introduced, 
but her husband had given up his country, and 
his family in France, after having made his fortune 
in the Soudan, entirely upon her account. He 
described her to me as the “gazelle of the desert, 
that was contented and happy in its native sands, 
but would die in the atmosphere of conventional 
civilisation.” 
Monsieur Lafargue held a deservedly high posi¬ 
tion among all classes in the Soudan. He had 
discovered that no legitimate commerce was possible 
with the savages of the White Nile ; he had there¬ 
fore advised his employer to that effect, and he had 
resigned all hope of effecting the original object of 
his expedition. He was therefore carrying on a 
