above the little feet, with henna-tipped toes and reddened heel.

Her bare waist shone like a strip of creamy satin above the belt and
stomacher of black leather encrusted in black pearls, her arms were
bare, also the supple back and glistening shoulders, but the rounded
glory of her breasts was hidden by a covering of soft interlaced
ribbon, sewn with pearls. Her hair wound round and round her head,
and, fastened by great combs, shone like a golden globe, and over it
she had thrown a flimsy veil, and around her a swinging cloak.

There was no touch of paint upon her face, nor did she, with the
exception of her anklets, wear loose jewels, or the ornaments which
cause that nerve-breaking clatter so beloved by the Eastern woman, and
so superlatively irritating to the Western ear. In fact she was the
most ravishing picture of delight imaginable, her first shyness and
awkwardness of her unaccustomed attire having long since vanished,
though, be it confessed, that until this night she had never intended
that human eye should rest upon her loveliness.

But the earth of discontent and the waters of loneliness make fertile
soil for the seeds of fear, even if those seeds be planted by the hand
of a misshapen slave; but a little smile and a sigh of satisfaction had
been the outcome of a prolonged scrutiny in a mirror, before which she
had stood whilst quoting certain words which ran thusly:

"Beautiful as the dawn, rounded as the bursting lotus bud." And then
she had shrugged her glistening shoulders and frowned, and smiled
again, before stretching her long arms towards the silken curtains
which, though she knew it not, gently blew against the figure of a man,
who, prone upon his face, clenched his fingers in the soft stuff,
striving to quieten the mad beating of his heart at the sound of the
footsteps or the rustle of the raiment of the woman he loved, yea, and
desired.

"Hahmed! Oh, Hahmed!"

As faint as the rose of the breaking dawn, as tender as the notes of a
cooing dove calling gently to its mate, as soft as the touch of a
flower-petal the words drifted through the curtain. With a whispered
cry to Allah, his God, the man was upon his feet. With the strength of
the oriental, which has its root in patience and its flower in
achievement in all that appertains to love, he had uncomplainingly
waited through month succeeding month, making no effort to further his
cause by either word or movement, content to leave the