than all once natural and familiar things.




CHAPTER XIII.

A POET'S PALACE.


Gliding along with that graceful, almost phantom-like swiftness of
movement that was so much a part of his manner, Sah-luma escorted
his visitor to the further end of the great hall. There,--throwing
aside a curtain of rich azure silk which partially draped two
large folding-doors,--he ushered him into a magnificent apartment
opening out upon the terrace and garden beyond,--a garden filled
with such a marvellous profusion of foliage and flowers, that
looking at it from between the glistening marble columns
surrounding the palace, it seemed as though the very sky above
rested edge-wise on towering pyramids of red and white bloom.
Awnings of pale blue stretched from the windows across the entire
width of the spacious outer colonnade, and here two small boys,
half nude, and black as polished ebony, were huddled together on
the mosaic pavement, watching the arrogant deportment of a superb
peacock that strutted majestically to and fro with boastfully
spreading tail and glittering crest as brilliant as the gleam of
the hot sun on the silver fringe of the azure canopies.

"Up, lazy rascals!" cried Sah-luma imperiously, as with the
extreme point of his sandaled foot he touched the dimpled, shiny