ut how do you
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
thrive very well."

"What beautifully delicate brass-work!" cried Robert, looking up with
admiring eyes at the bright and infinitely fragile metal trellis screens
which adorned the spaces between the Moorish arches.

"It is rather neat. But it is not brass-work. Brass is not tough enough
to allow them to work it to that degree of fineness. It is gold. But
just come this way with me. You won't mind waiting while I remove this
smoke?"

He led the way to a door upon the left side of the court, which, to
Robert's surprise, swung slowly open as they approached it. "That is
a little improvement which I have adopted," remarked the master of the
house. "As you go up to a door your weight upon the planks releases a
spring which causes the hinges to revolve. Pr