back of the nearest boy--"Up, and away! ... Fetch rose-water and
sweet perfumes hither! By the gods! ye have let the incense in
yonder burner smoulder!"--and he pointed to a massive brazen
vessel, gorgeously ornamented, from whence rose but the very
faintest blue whiff of fragrant smoke--"Off with ye both, ye
basking blackamoors! bring fresh frankincense,--and palm-leaves
wherewith to stir this heated air--hence and back again like a
lightning-flash! ... or out of my sight forever!"

While he spoke, the little fellows stood trembling and ducking
their woolly heads, as though they half expected to be seized by
their irate master and flung, like black balls, out into the
wilderness of flowers, but glancing timidly up and perceiving that
even in the midst of his petulance he smiled, they took courage,
and as soon as he had ceased they darted off with the swiftness of
flying arrows, each striving to outstrip the other in a race
across the terrace and garden. Sah-luma laughed as he watched them
disappear,--and then stepping back into the interior of the
apartment he turned to Theos and bade him be seated. Theos sank
unresistingly into a low, velvet-cushioned chair richly carved and
inlaid with ivory, and stretching his limbs indolently therein,
surveyed with new and ever-growing admiration the supple, elegant
figure of his host, who, throwing himself full length on a couch
covered with leopard-skins, folded his arms behind his head, and
eyed his guest with a complacent smile of vanity and self-
approval.

"'Tis not an altogether unfitting retreat for a poet's musings"--
he said, assuming an air of indifference, as he glanced round his
luxurious, almost royally appointed room--"I have heard of worse!