h which for an instant her figure, as
immaculate and perfect as a marble statue, showed distinctly--then the
light went out and she vanished!

The whole assembly burst into a rapturous cry. Even the common Arab
attendants who were peeping in at the doors raised their melodious
native cry, "Alloe, Fullah! Aloe, Fullah!" again and again.

A shocked silence followed. Then the voice of Sir Midas Pyle was heard
addressing Dr. Haustus Pilgrim:

"May we not presume, sir, that what we have just seen is not unlike
that remarkable exhibition when I was pained to meet you one evening at
the Alhambra?"

The doctor coughed slightly. "The Alhambra--ah, yes!--you--er--refer,
I presume, to Granada and the Land of the Moor, where we last met. The
music and dance are both distinctly Moorish--which, after all, is akin
to the Egyptian. I am gratified indeed that your memory should be so
retentive and your archaeological comparison so accurate. But see! the
ladies are retiring. Let us follow."

IV

The intoxication produced by the performance of the Princess naturally
had its reaction. The British moral soul, startled out of its
hypocrisy the night before, demanded the bitter beer of
self-consciousness and remorse the next morning. The ladies were now
openly shocked at what they had secretly envied. Lady Pyle was,
however, propitiated by the doctor's assurance that the Princess was a
friend of Lady Fitz-Fulke, who had promised to lend her youthful age
and aristocratic prestige to the return ball which the Princess had
determined to give at her own home. "Still, I think the Princess open
to criticism," said Sir Midas oracularly.

"Damn all criticism and critics!" burst out McFeckless, with the noble
frankness of a passionate and yet unfettered soul. Sir Midas, who
employed critics in his business, as he did other base and ignoble
slaves, drew up himself and his paunch and walked away.

The Chevalier cast a superb look at McFeckless. "Voila! Regard me
well! I shall seek out this Princess when she is with herself! Alone,
comprenez? I shall seek her at her hotel in the Egyptian Hall! Ha!
ha! I shall seek Zut-Ski! Zut!" And he made that rapid yet graceful
motion of his palm against his thigh known only to the true Parisian.

"It's a rum hole where she lives, and nobody gets a sight of her," said
Flossy. "It's like a beastly family vault, don't you know, outside,
and there's a kind of nigger doorkeeper that vise