profoundly he added, addressing both Sah-luma and Theos.. "Noble
sirs, to-night out of all men in Al-Kyris shall you be the most
envied! Farewell!"--and once more making that curious salutation
which had in it so much imperiousness and so little obeisance, he
walked backward a few paces in the full lustre of the set sun's
after-glow, which intensified the vivid red of his costume and lit
up all the ornaments of clear-cut amber that glittered against his
swarthy skin,--then turning, he descended the hillock so swiftly
that he seemed to have melted out of sight as utterly as a dark
mist dissolving in air.

"By my word, a most sooty and repellent bearer of a lady's
greeting!" laughed Theos lightly, as he sauntered arm in arm with
his host on the downward path leading to the garden and palace--
"And I have yet to learn the true meaning of his message!"

"'Tis plain enough!" replied Sah-luma somewhat sulkily, with the
deep flush still coming and going on his face--"It means that we
are summoned, . . thou as well as I, . . to one of Lysia's midnight
banquets,--an honor that falls to few,--a mandate none dare
disobey! She must have spied thee out this morning--the only
unkneeling soul in all the abject multitude-hence, perhaps, her
present desire for thy company."

There was a touch of vexation in his voice, but Theos heeded it
not. His heart gave a great bound against his ribs as though
pricked by a fire-tipped arrow,--something swift and ardent
stirred in his blood like the flowing of quicksilver, . . the picture
of the dusky-eyed, witchingly beautiful woman he had seen that
morning in her gold-adorned ship, seemed to float between him and