evening. Yet I suspected that something more than extravagance lay at
the back of that seemingly wasteful act of tossing sapphires into an
abyss, for thee were in the depths of it those two dragons of gold of
whom nothing seemed to be known. And I thought, and I think so still,
that Singanee, terrific though he was in war with the elephants, from
whose tusks he had built his palace, well knew and even feared those
dragons in the abyss, and perhaps valued those priceless jewels less
than he valued his queens, and that he to whom so many lands paid
beautiful tribute out of their dread of his spear, himself paid
tribute to the golden dragons. Whether those dragons had wings I could
not see; nor, if they had, could I tell if they could bear that weight
of solid gold from the abyss; nor by what paths they could crawl from
it did I know. And I know not what use to a golden dragon should
sapphires be or a queen. Only it seemed strange to me that so much
wealth of jewels should be thrown by command of a man who had nothing
to fear--to fall flashing and changing their colours at dawn into an
abyss.

I do not know how long we lingered there watching the sunrise on those
miles of amethyst. And it is strange that that great and famous
wonder did not move me more than it did, but my mind was dazzled by
the fame of it and my eyes were actually dazzled by the blaze, and as
often happens I thought more of little things and remember watching
the daylight in the solitary sapphire that Saranoora had and that she
wore upon her finger in a ring. Then, the dawn wind being all about
her, she said that she was cold and turned back into the ivory palace.
And I feared that we might never meet again, for time moves
differently over the Lands of Dream than over the fields we know; like
ocean-currents going different ways and bearing drifting ships. And
at the doorway of the ivory palace I turned to say farewell and yet I