Note return — Chapter X · THE YELLOW PENCIL

“Kyle entered the picture four years before Meryt’s birth,” he went on. “He came to Egypt in 1896 as a representative of a group of New York bankers who had become financially interested in the proposed Nile irrigation system.[15] He met Abercrombie—then Grébaut’s assistant—and their acquaintance developed into a close friendship. Kyle returned to Egypt nearly every year during the process of the dam’s construction—that is, until 1902. He naturally met the Coptic lady whom Abercrombie subsequently married, and, I have every reason to believe, was much smitten with her. But being Abercrombie’s friend and a gentleman, he refrained from any trespassing. However, when the lady died, at Meryt’s birth, he quite openly transferred his affections from the mother to the daughter. He became Meryt’s godfather and, in a big-hearted way, looked out for her as though she had been his own child.… Kyle wasn’t a bad scout.”