at once to Samir opposite." Samir, I'm so glad you could make this journey with us."
"Yes, and here we are," Elliott said immediately, filling the silence." All having dinner together exactly as I'd planned. Isn't mat marvellous! Seems I got my way after ah1."
"So you did." Julie laughed. She was relieved suddenly that Elliott was there. He would smooth over one awkward moment after another; he did it instinctively. In fact, he probably couldn't stop himself. It was this buoyant charm among other things which kept him perpetually in demand.
She dared not look directly at Henry, but she could see he was hopelessly uneasy. He was already drinking. His glass was half full.
The waiters brought the sherry now, and the soup. Ramses had already reached for the bread. He had torn off a very large piece from the small loaf and eaten it whole.
"And tell me, Mr. Ramsey," Elliott continued," how did you enjoy your stay in London? You weren't with us very long."
Why the hell was Ramses smiling?
"I found it an overwhelming place," he said with immediate enthusiasm." A curious blending of fierce wealth and inexplicable poverty. I do not understand how so many machines can produce so much for so few, and so little for so many..."
"Sir, you're questioning the entire Industrial Revolution," Alex said, laughing nervously, which for him was most certainly a symptom of ill ease." Don't tell me you're a Marxist. It's rather seldom that we encounter radicals in our...our circle."
"What is a Marxist! I am an Egyptian," Ramses said.
"Of course you are, Mr. Ramsey," said Elliott smoothly." And you're no Marxist. How perfectly ridiculous. You knew our Lawrence in Cairo?"
"Our Lawrence. Briefly I knew him." Ramses was staring at Henry. Julie quickly lifted her soup spoon and, giving him a gentle nudge with her elbow, demonstrated how the soup was to be eaten. He didn't so much as glance at her. He picked up his bread, dipped it in the soup and began eating it, glaring at Henry again.
"Lawrence's death came as a shock to me, as I'm sure it did to everyone," he said, dipping another enormous piece of bread." A Marxist is a type of philosopher? I do remember a Karl Marx. I discovered this person in Lawrence's library. A fool."
Henry had not touched his soup. He drank another deep gulp of his Scotch and motioned for the waiter.
"It's unimportant," Julie said quickly.
"Yes, Lawrence's death was a terrible shock," Elliott said soberly." I was sure he had another good ten years. Maybe twenty."
Ramses was dipping yet another enormous piece of the bread into the soup. And Henry was now staring at him with veiled horror, careful to avoid his eyes. Everyone was more or less quietly watching Ramses, who wiped up the very last of the soup now with another chunk of bread, and then downed the sherry, and wiped his lips with the napkin and sat back.
"More food," he whispered." It's coming?"
"Yes, it is, but slow down," Julie whispered.
"You were a true friend of Lawrence?" Ramses said to Elliott.
"Absolutely," said Elliott.
"Yes, well, if he were here, he'd be talking about his beloved mummy," said Alex with that same nervous laugh." As a matter of fact, why are you taking this trip, Julie? Why go back to Egypt when the mummy lies there in London waiting for examination? You know, I don't really understand. ..."
"The collection's opened several avenues of research," Julie said. "We want to go to Alexandria and then perhaps Cairo..."
"Yes, of course," Elliot said. He was clearly watching Ramses' reaction as the waiter set down the fish before him, a small portion in a delicate cream sauce." Cleopatra," he went on," your mysterious Ramses the Second claimed to have loved and lost her. And that happened in Alexandria, did it not?"
Julie had not seen this coming. Neither had Ramses, who had laid down his bread and was staring at the Earl with a blank expression on his face. There came those dancing points of colour beneath the smooth skin of his cheeks.
"Well, yes, there is that aspect of it," Julie struggled." And then we're going to Luxor, and to Abu Simbel. I hope you're all in fine form for an arduous journey. Of course if you don't want to continue ..."
"Abu Simbel," Alex said." Isn't that where the colossal statues are of Ramses the Second?"