Wullahy! I like not this talk of the grain of Shiraz.'

Now, while Noorna spake, the eyes of Kadza became like those of the
starved wild-cat, and she sprang off and along the marble of the Court,
and clawed a passage through the air and past the marble pillars of the
palace toward the first room of reception, Noorna following her. And in
the first room were slaves leaning and lolling like them about the Court,
and in the second room and in the third room, silent all of them and
senseless. So at this sight the spark of suspicion became a mighty flame
in the bosom of Kadza, and horror burst out at all ends of her, and she
shuddered, and cried, 'What for us, and where's our hope if Shagpat be
shorn, and he lopped of the Identical, shamed like the lion of my dream!'

And Noorna clasped her hands, and said, ''Tis that I fear! Seek for him,
O Kadza!'

So Kadza ran to a window and looked forth over the garden of the palace,
and it was a fair garden with the gleam of a fountain and watered plants
and cool arches of shade, thick bowers, fragrant alleys, long sheltered
terraces, and beyond the garden a summer-house of marble fanned by the
broad leaves of a palm. Now, when Kadza had gazed a moment, she
shrieked, 'He's there! Shagpat! giveth he not the light of a jewel to
the house that holdeth him? Awahy! and he's witched there for an ill
purpose.'

Then tore she from that room like a mad wild thing after its stolen cubs,
and sped along corridors of the palace, and down the great flight of
steps into the garden and across the garden, knocking over the ablution-
pots in her haste; and Noorna had just strength to withhold her from
dashing through the doors of the summer-house to come upon Shagpat, she