ut of bed,
tottering a little, and shivering in the chilly air of the room. "If
thanks be any payment for what you have done for me, you have all of
mine. They are all I have to give."

Sada answered nothing. She helped Eldris to dress, combed her hair, and
brought her food. Then Eldris, in a fever to be at her journey's end and
know what was in store for her, said again:

"Pray you tell me where is the wine-shop of Nicodemus"--and thought the
other smiled. But Sada, instead of answering, said only:

"Before you go, our mistress would hold speech with you."

"Your mistress? Are you, then, slaves?" Eldris ventured.

A strange look crossed Sada's face.

"Ay," she answered. "Slaves, who shall die in bondage."

She led Eldris from the room across a small and ill-paved court to
another door.

"You will find her here," she said, and pushed Eldris gently across the
threshold.

The room was lighted by many lamps, some of pottery of the cheapest
sort, others of wrought bronze, and was filled with a strange and subtle
perfume. There was a confusion of furniture, and the walls were hung
with curtains, which gave the place a bizarre and Eastern look. So much
Eldris took in with her first step forward. Then she saw a figure seated
upon a mattress on the floor, a fat and shapeless figure, bunched in
many garments. Atop of the fat figure was a fat face, with thin hair
whose natural gray showed through its ruddy dye, with flabby painted
cheeks, and heavy-lidded eyes darkened beneath with antimony. A Greek
might have called it the face of a Greek, and looked again to make sure;
a Roman might have called it the face of a Roman. In it one seemed to
catch a hint, mysterious and elusive, of all ages and all nations. Once
it had been a fine face; even, in a time long past, it had been touched
with beauty. Now it was at once a relic and a monument. The substance
was the same, but transmuted into coarser mould. Where had been soft
blue tracings were red and angry veins; where had been gracious
roundness was gross fleshiness. Only the brow, God-made, the only
feature which may be neither made nor marred by human means, remained
the same, broad and white, and smooth as marble.

The woman sat perfectly motionless, looking at nothing. On her fat
hands, which rested on her knees, were rings set with blazing stones; on
every finger a ring, and on every ring a slender chain which led back
over the hand to a heavy wristlet of gold in which