hey remain until this night. Come, Senor
Americano; you shall see something of Zoraida's garden which after
Nezahualcoyoti came in due time to be Montezuma's and after him,
Guatamotzin's."

Kendric found himself drawn out of his angry mood of a few minutes
past, charmed out of himself by his environment. Following Zoraida he
passed along a broad walk winding through low shrubs and lined on each
side with uniform stones of various colors that were like jewels.
These boundaries were no doubt of choice fragments of finely polished
chalcedony and jasper and obsidian; they were red and yellow and black
and, at regular intervals, a pale exquisite blue which in the rays of
the lamps were as beautiful as turquoises. They passed about a screen
of dwarf cedars and came upon a tiny lakelet across which a boy might
have hurled a stone; in the center, sprayed by a fountain that shone
like silver, was a life-sized statue in marble representing a slender
graceful maiden.

"The beloved princess," whispered Zoraida.

They went on, skirting the pool in which Kendric saw the stars
mirrored. Now and then there was a splash; he made out a tortoise
scrambling into the water; he caught the glint of a fish. They
disturbed birds that flew from their hidden places in the trees; a
little rabbit, like a tiny ball of fur, shot across their path.

Before them the central walk lay in shadows, under a vine-covered
trellis. A hundred paces they went on, catching enchanting glimpses
through the walls of leaves. Here was a column, gleaming white,
elaborately carved with what were perhaps the triumphs of the golden
king or some later monarch; yonder the walls of a miniature temple,
more guessed than seen among the low trees; on every hand some relic of
the olden time. Suddenly and without warning amidst all of this tender
beauty of flowers and murmurous water and birds and perfumes Kendric
came upon that which lasted on as a true sign to recall the strange
nature of the ancient Aztec, a nation of refinement and culture and
hideous barbarism and cruelty; a nation of epicures who upon great
feast days ate of elaborately-served dishes of human flesh; a people
who, in a garden like this, could find no inconsistency, no clash of
discordancy, in introducing that which bespoke merciless cruelty and
death, a grim token and reminder that a king's palace was a slaughter
house as well; a strange race whose ears were attuned to ravishing
strains of music