nd threw myself upon the
floor.

Through half-shut eyes, I saw the door open and obtained a glimpse of
a desolate, empty passage beyond. On the threshold stood Karamaneh.
She held in her hand a common tin oil lamp which smoked and flickered
with every movement, filling the already none too cleanly air with an
odour of burning paraffin.

She personified the _outre_; nothing so incongruous as her presence in
that place could well be imagined. She was dressed as I remembered
once to have seen her two years before, in the gauzy silks of the
harem. There were pearls glittering like great tears amid the cloud of
her wonderful hair. She wore broad gold bangles upon her bare arms,
and her fingers were laden with jewellery. A heavy girdle swung from
her hips, defining the lines of her slim shape, and about one white
ankle was a gold band.

As she appeared in the doorway I almost entirely closed my eyes, but
my gaze rested fascinatedly upon the little red slippers which she
wore.

Again I detected the exquisite, elusive perfume which, like a breath
of musk, spoke of the Orient; and, as always, it played havoc with my
reason, seeming to intoxicate me as though it were the very essence of
her loveliness.

But I had a part to play, and throwing out one clenched hand so that
my fist struck upon the floor, I uttered a loud groan, and made as if
to rise upon my knees.

One quick glimpse I had of her wonderful eyes, widely opened and
turned upon me with such an enigmatical expression as set my heart
leaping wildly--then, stepping back, Karamaneh placed the lamp upon
the boards of the passage and clapped her hands.

As I sank upon the floor in assumed exhaustion, a Chinaman with a
perfectly impassive face, and a Burman whose pock-marked, evil
countenance was set in an apparently habitual leer, came running into
the room past the girl.

With a hand which trembled violently, she held the lamp whilst the two
yellow ruffians tied me. I groaned and struggled feebly, fixing my
gaze upon the lamp bearer in a silent reproach which was by no means
without its effect.

She lowered her eyes and I could see her biting her lip, whilst the
colour gradually faded from her cheeks. Then, glancing up again
quickly, and still meeting that reproachful stare, she turned her head
aside altogether, and rested one hand upon the wall, swaying slightly
as she did so.

It was a singular ordeal for more than one of that incongruous group;
but in ord