1
Barbary Sheep
Robert Hichens
AUTHOR OF
"THE CALL OF THE BLOOD"
"THE GARDEN OF ALLAH"
ETC. ETC.
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMVII
All rights reserved. Published August, 1907.
BARBARY SHEEP
I
SIR CLAUDE WYVERNE was a simple and rather heavy young Englishman, who had married a very frivolous wife, and who adored her. Adoration leads to abnegation, and Sir Claude, as soon as he was a married man, began to give way to Lady Wyverne. She was a very pretty and changeable blonde. Any permanence seemed to her dull; and this trait secretly agitated her husband, who desired to be permanent in her life and not to be thought dull by her. In order to achieve this result, he decided to present himself as often as possible to Lady Wyverne in the seductive guise of change-giver. He was perpetually occupied in devising novelties to keep up her butterfly spirits and in anticipating her every whim.
One spring, just as Sir Claude thought they were going at last to settle down in a pretty country place they had in Leicestershire, Lady Wyverne expressed a sudden wish to "run over" to Algiers.
"Caroline Barchester and her bear have gone there, Crumpet," she said. "Let's go, too. I'll get an introduction to the ex-Queen of Madagascar land the Prince of Annam they're in exile there, you know and we'll have some fun and see something new. I'm tired of ordinary people. Let's start on Tuesday. We'll stay in Paris en route."
Of course Sir Claude assented. They started for Algiers on the Tuesday, and they stayed in Paris en route.