The cool and pleasant atmosphere of the town in contrast with the
burning, breathless heat of Mecca had charmed him. He had immediately
purchased a house and furnished it with the luxurious splendor which
suited his rather voluptuous taste.

The apartment in which he sat was in the middle story, the one sacred to
the men in a house of Medina. Rich Persian carpets were on the floor,
rugs of Inde were scattered about and piled with cushions filled with
softest down. Low divans invited repose, and heavy curtains of yellow
silk shut out the too bright glare of day. The ceiling, after the
Persian fashion, was inlaid with mirrors, fitted in in different
patterns, and divided by carved sticks of palm, stained red; and the
sweet odor of richest perfumes of Arabia-Felix spread through the room
as if emanating from the silken hangings of the wall.

The window was open, and the breeze from the east, bearing, as it were,
tales of the Nejd, the land of brave men and beautiful women, swayed
the curtains softly. Outside, in the sloping garden, waved the graceful
branches of the tamarisk, glittering with dew in the early morning sun;
and near the window a jujube tree stretched its dark, shining leaves and
yellow fruit temptingly near. Acacias with sweet-scented yellow
blossoms, oleanders glowing with rosy bloom, and a thicket of
silver-leaved castors separated the little plot from the gardens below,
where grew gourds and cucumbers, lime and fig trees, grape-vines,
water-melons and pomegranates; and beyond that lay a bright patch of
Bursim, or Egyptian clover, like a yellow-green island on a darker sea.

Amzi, comfortably habited in a jubbeh of pink silk, worn over a caftan
of fine white silk flowered with green and confined by a fringed, yellow