he love and respect of all
those who live within the bounty of his great heart, yea! behold has he
deigned to look upon Amanreh, the thirteen year old daughter of Sheikh
el Hoatassin, second only in wealth and prowess to our own master.
Fair is she and young, in very truth meet to wed with him who rules us
with a hand of iron, bound in thongs of softest velvet.

"Beautiful, yes! beautiful as the day at dawn, and straight as yon
marble pillar, and as delicately tinted, rounded as the bursting lotus
bud, and fit to carry the honour of bearing her master's children! In
a few moons it------!"

"Begone!"

The word cracked like a whip through the scented room, but as the
little hunchback crept swiftly through the curtains, the smile passed
from the eyes to the mouth, as softly she whispered to herself:

"It is well done!"

CHAPTER XXIX

Out on to the balcony and back, this way, that way, to and fro, paced
Jill in her black room. Black skins lay upon the black marble floor,
black satin cushions upon the skins. Curtains of scented leather, as
soft and supple as satin, hung before the doors let into the walls of
black carved wood.

A long couch of ebony, untouched by silver or by gold, stood under one
of the gigantic black marble statues, which represented an Ethiopian
slave or some wild beast, holding in hand or mouth a lamp with shade of
flaming orange, the one touch of colour in the whole room.

There was no sound save for the occasional crackle of resinous log
burning in a brazier placed in a far corner, before which Jill suddenly
crouched, shivering, though the night was warm. Weary was she from
want of sleep, weary was her heart from loneliness, weary her mouth,
laden with unuttered words of the great love, which, day by day, hour
by hour, yea! even from the moment she had turned to find her fate
behind her, had been growing and expanding until naught was left of her
but love and fear. For fear had been her companion in the hours of the
night, which she had passed in restless pacing upon the balcony.

For two of these restless hours she had put on and discarded the
garments within her cupboards, until she had found that which she
desired. And an hour she had spent likewise in the adorning of her
beauty, before she stood satisfied in front of her mirror. The
voluminous trousers of softest black fabric, hardly revealing the
exquisite whiteness of her perfect limbs, were caught by heavy golden
anklets