the light,--her face shone out like a growing glory-flower in the
tangled wilderness of his thoughts, and his lips trembled a little
as he replied:

"She must be gracious and forgiving then, even as she is fair! For
in my neglect of reverence due, I merited her scorn, . . not her
courtesy. But tell me, Sah-luma, how could she know I was a guest
of thine?"

Sah-luma glanced at him half-pityingly, half disdainfully.

"How could she know? Easily!--inasmuch as she knows all things.
'Twould have been strange indeed had she NOT known!" and he caught
at a down-drooping rose and crushed its fragrant head in his hand
with a sort of wanton petulance--"The King himself is less
acquainted with his people's doings than the wearer of the All-
Reflecting Eye! Thou hast not yet seen that weird mirror and
potent dazzler of human sight, . . no,--but thou WILT see it ere
long,--the glittering Fiend-guarding of the whitest breast that
ever shut in passion!" His voice shook, and he paused,--then with
some effort continued--"Yes,--Lysia has her secret commissioners
everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the city, who
report to her each circumstance that happens, no matter how
trifling,--and doubtless we were followed home,--tracked step by
step as we walked together, by one of her stealthy-footed
servitors,--in this there would be naught unusual."

"Then there is no freedom in Al-Kyris,--" said Theos wonderingly--
"if the whole city thus lies under the circumspection of a woman?"