like the design? I hope it does not offend your trained taste."

"Indeed, it is wonderful--marvellous! You must yourself have an
extraordinary eye for effect."

"Oh, I have no taste at all; not the slightest. I cannot tell good from
bad. There never was such a complete Philistine. But I had the best
man in London down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed it up
between them."

They had been standing just within the folding doors upon a huge mat of
bison skins. In front of them lay a great square court, paved with
many-coloured marbles laid out in a labyrinth of arabesque design.
In the centre a high fountain of carved jade shot five thin feathers of
spray into the air, four of which curved towards each corner of the
court to descend into broad marble basins, while the fifth mounted
straight up to an immense height, and then tinkled back into the central
reservoir. On either side of the court a tall, graceful palm-tree shot
up its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping green leaves some
fifty feet above their heads. All round were a series of Moorish
arches, in jade and serpentine marble, with heavy curtains of the
deepest purple to cover the doors which lay between them. In front, to
right and to left, a broad staircase of marble, carpeted with rich thick
Smyrna rug work, led upwards to the upper storeys, which were arranged
around the central court. The temperature within was warm and yet
fresh, like the air of an English May.

"It's taken from the Alhambra," said Raffles Haw. "The palm-trees are
pretty. They strike right through the building into the ground beneath,
and their roots are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem to