burnous round him with his thin
fingers, dropped his chin, shook his hood down upon his forehead, leaned
back against the wall, and, curling his legs under him, seemed to fall
asleep. But beneath his brown lids and long black lashes his furtive
eyes followed every movement of the girl in the sparkling robe.

She came in slowly and languidly, with a heavy and cross expression upon
her face, which was thin to emaciation and painted white, with scarlet
lips and darkened eyes and eyebrows. Her features were narrow and
pointed. Her bones were tiny, and her body was so slender, her waist
so small, that, with her flat breast and meagre shoulders, she looked
almost like a stick crowned with a human face and hung with brilliant
draperies. Her hair, which was thick and dark brown, was elaborately
braided and covered with a yellow silk handkerchief. Domini thought she
looked consumptive, and was bitterly disappointed in her appearance. For
some unknown reason she had expected the woman who wished to kill
Hadj, and who obviously inspired him with fear, to be a magnificent and
glowing desert beauty. This woman might be violent. She looked weary,
anaemic, and as if she wished to go to bed, and Domini's contempt for
Hadj increased as she looked at her. To be afraid of a thin, tired,
sleepy creature such as that was too pitiful. But Hadj did not seem
to think so. He had pulled his hood still further forward, and was now
merely a bundle concealed in the shade of Suzanne.

Irena stepped on to the platform, pushed the girl who sat at the end of
the bench till she moved up higher, sat down in the vacant place, drank
some water out of the glass nearest to her, and then remained quite
still staring at the floor, utterly indifferent to the Arabs who were
devouring her with their eyes. No doubt the eyes of men had devoured her
ever since she could remember. It was obvious that they meant nothing
to her, that they did not even for an instant disturb the current of her
dreary thoughts.

Another girl was dancing, a stout, Oriental Jewess with a thick hooked
nose, large lips and bulging eyes, that looked as if they had been newly
scoured with emery powder. While she danced she sang, or rather shouted
roughly, an extraordinary melody that suggested battle, murder and
sudden death. Careless of onlookers, she sometimes scratched her head
or rubbed her nose without ceasing her contortions. Domini guessed that
this was the girl whom she had seen from