camels passing. The great beasts, with their disdainful tread and long,
swaying necks, never failed to interest her. It was a large caravan;
the bales on the camels' backs looked heavy, and beside the merchants
on riding camels and a motley crowd of followers--some on lean little
donkeys and others on foot--there was an armed guard of mounted men. It
took some time to pass. One of two of the camels carried huddled
figures, swathed and shapeless with a multitude of coverings, that
Diana knew must be women. The contrast between them and herself was
almost ridiculous. It made her feel stifled even to look at them. She
wondered what their lives were like, if they ever rebelled against the
drudgery and restrictions that were imposed upon them, if they ever
longed for the freedom that she was revelling in, or if custom and
usage were so strong that they had no thoughts beyond the narrow life
they led. The thought of those lives filled her with aversion. The idea
of marriage--even in its highest form, based on mutual consideration
and mutual forbearance--was repugnant to her. She thought of it with a
shiver of absolute repulsion. To Aubrey it was distasteful, but to her
cold, reserved temperament it was a thing of horror and disgust. That
women could submit to the degrading intimacy and fettered existence of
married life filled her with scornful wonder. To be bound irrevocably
to the will and pleasure of a man who would have the right to demand
obedience in all that constituted marriage and the strength to enforce
those claims revolted her. For a Western woman it was bad enough, but
for the women of the East, mere slaves of the passions of the men who
owned them, unconsidered, disregarded, reduced to the level of animals,
the bare idea made her quiver and bring her hand down heavily on her
horse's neck. The nervous creature started sharply and she let him go,
calling to Mustafa Ali as she cantered past him. He had ridden to meet
the caravan and was dismounted, deep in conversation with the chief of
the armed guard. With the thoughts that it had provoked the caravan had