he woman of my heart, but in such wise am I built. I will have
all the fruit at the plucking or none, for where is the delight of the
sweetest peach if the stem, the leaves, the bloom have been bruised by
much handling.

"One day, nay in the stillness of one night shall I hear you call
me--then, ah! Allah!"

The voice stopped suddenly, though the man made no other sign, when the
girl before him, beside herself with anger which springs from love
denied, suddenly struck him full upon the mouth, and then shaking from
head to foot, with rage, and love, and fear, broke the deadly silence.

"Nay, man! In that you are mistaken, for you shall never hear my voice
calling you in love. That may become the woman of your land, but not
the woman from the West. I will marry you, for I will not bring
derision upon a man who has treated me with such courtesy and
gentleness. But love! Nay! better far buy some beautiful Circassian
upon our wedding-trip, for surely you shall never hear my voice
upraised in love!"

And gathering her swirling draperies about her, she made to depart,
knowing that she had spoken hastily, making vows she could not keep for
the very love she denied. Her hand was upon the silken hangings of her
door when she was swung round by the shoulder to face the very essence
of cold rage.

"So, woman, you are one of those who have ever hidden an inner chamber
of perversity, for surely had I thought to have come to the end of your
store of moods and whims. Listen! By striking me across the face you
have but made my love the greater, but as Allah is above me, I will
make you pay, as you say in your far cold country. You will come to me
one day, because such love as ours is not to be denied, and when you
come, for that blow I will bruise your lips until the red blood starts
from them, and I will bruise your body until marks of black show upon
its startling fairness, but above all will I bruise your soul with
unsatisfied longings, and unrequited desires, until you lie half dead
at my feet; then only will I take you in my arms and carry you to the
secret chamber, which Fate has prepared somewhere for the fulfilment of
my love."

And as the love-song died on the night, Jill passed slowly into the
inner chamber, failing to see the man kneel to kiss the rug impressed
by the passage of her little feet.

PART II

THE FLOWER

CHAPTER XXXII

The Rolls Royce containing representatives of the Savoy an