disposed to disobey the summons of its mistress. She therefore
rose from her throne, and stepping forward with a swift, agile
grace, caught the savage beast by the neck, and dragged it from
its desired prey. Then, with the point of her little, silver-
sandaled foot, she turned the fallen face of the dead man slightly
round, so that she might observe it more attentively, and noting
its livid disfigurement, smiled.

"So much for the beauty and dignity of manhood!" she said with a
contemptuous shrug of her snowy shoulders,--"All perished in the
space of a few brief moments! Look you, ye fair sirs that take
pride in your strength and muscular attainments! ... Ye shall not
find in all Al-Kyris a fairer face or more nobly knit frame than
was possessed by this dead fool, Nir-jalis, and yet, lo!--how the
Silver Nectar doth make havoc on the sinews of adamant, the nerves
of steel, the stalwart limbs! Tried by the touchstone of Death, ye
are, with all your vaunted intelligence, your domineering audacity
and self-love, no better than the slain dogs that serve vultures
for carrion! ...--moreover, ye are less than dogs in honesty, and
vastly shamed by them in fidelity!"

She laughed scornfully as she spoke, still grasping the tigress by
the neck in one slight hand,--and her glorious eyes flashed a
mocking defiance on all the men assembled. Their countenances
exhibited various expressions of uneasiness amounting to fear, . .
some few smiled forcedly, others feigned a careless
indifference, . . Sah-luma flushed an angry red, and Theos, though
he knew not why, felt a sudden pricking sense of shame. She marked
all these signs of disquietude with apparently increasing
amusement, for her lovely face grew warm and radiant with