and the
marble columns which supported a projecting balcony were wreathed with
red roses and honeysuckle.

On each of the four sides of the quadrangle, paved with black and white
marble, there were little windows, and large glass doors draped on the
inside with curtains thin enough to show faint pink and golden lights.

"O my mistress, Lella M'Barka, I have brought thy guest!" cried Hsina,
in a loud, sing-song voice, as if she were chanting; whereupon one of
the glass doors opened, letting out a rosy radiance, and a Bedouin
woman-servant dressed in a striped foutah appeared on the threshold. She
was old, with crinkled grey hair under a scarlet handkerchief, and a
blue cross was tattooed between her eyes.

"In the name of Lella M'Barka be thou welcome," she said. "My mistress
has been suffering all day, and fears to rise, lest her strength fail
for to-morrow's journey, or she would come forth to meet thee, O Flower
of the West! As it is, she begs that thou wilt come to her. But first
suffer me to remove thy haick, that the eyes of Lella M'Barka may be
refreshed by thy beauty."

She would have unfastened the long drapery, but Hsina put down
Victoria's luggage, and pushing away the two brown hands, tattooed with
blue mittens, she herself unfastened the veil. "No, this is _my_ lady,
and my work, Fafann," she objected.

"But it is my duty to take her in," replied the Bedouin woman,
jealously. "It is the wish of Lella M'Barka. Go thou and make ready the
room of the guest."

Hsina flounced away across the court, and Fafann held open both the door
and the curtains. Victoria obeyed her gesture and went into the room
beyond. It was long and narrow, with a ceiling of carved wood painted in
colours which had once been violent, but were now faded. The walls were
partly covered with hangings like the curtains that shaded the glass
door; but, on one side, between gold-embroidered crimson draperies, were
windows, and in the white stucco above, showed lace-like openings,
patterned to represent peacocks, the tails jewelled with glass of
different colours. On the opposite side opened doors of dark wood inlaid
with mother-o'-pearl; and these stood ajar, revealing rows of shelves
littered with little gilded bottles, or piled with beautiful brocades
that were shot with gold in the pink light of an Arab lamp.

There was little furniture; only a few low, round tables, or maidas,
completely overlaid with the snow of mother-o'-pearl; tw