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9 January 1912 — Cairo | |
Tuesday. 9th [January 1912]. Eda & I went in the morning with Sir George Arthur under the guidance of Hertz Pasha to the Mosques and had a most interesting morning. He took us first Kalaam & explained all the architecture & the repairs he is having carried out—then to El Hassan & Hawri & took us into two charming arabic houses—one in good repair & one a kind of hall wh is being saved from utter decay– Herz Bey explained it all in such a delightful manner that the time passed all too soon & we were surprised when we found it was near lunch time & we had to return to the Agency. Count d’Aremberg & his secretaries came to lunch. Princess Nazli came to tea at 5 & was very amusing chatting & smoking the whole time. She sat by me in the settee with one leg tucked under her thoroughly enjoying herself. Lord Kitchener, Sir George Arthur & Capt. FitzGerald joined us & were very much amused by her. She said she had been at last night’s party behind the lattice & had remained there till 2 in the morning. She said there had been a tremendous quarrel between the Prime Minister & the Egyptian Prince who complained that proper places had not been reserved specially for them or had been all taken up by the corps diplomatique & the native portion of the guests had complained that nothing had been done for their amusement no Arab music &c &c. She ran on smoking all the time & interlarding her speech with “I give you my word of honor” or “I tell you honestly.” She told Lord Kitchener that she would get his fortune told him by a clever woman she knew, at wh he said he had just had a letter from a man who foretold him he should marry a very rich woman who would die within the year, a prophesy wh had already upset all his household & staff—& so the fun ran on till she asked for her carriage & put on her yashmak & drove off. After dinner it was proposed that we should go to the opera where Lord K. has a box but one & all preferred not to go out. So we sat & talked. Eda propounded a theory as to the reality of things being unproveable wh amused us all. She declared that we could not prove the existence of anything when they were out of our sight. From that we went on to dreams wh were said to pass in a moment—this Lord K. said could not be so as one could see a person was dreaming by their movements or a dog dreaming of a hunt & barking at it. We went on to presentiments—& Lord K. said he had once or twice had presentiments wh had been realized– As to luck it was a doubtful thing, tho’ he could not pretend that he himself had not been lucky in his life—so we passed a pleasant evening till 11 o’cl when we went to bed. | |
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