the proceedings. She was followed by Lady Fulkeward, innocently
clad in white and wearing a knot of lilies on her prettily-
enamelled left shoulder, Lord Fulkeward, Denzil Murray and his
sister. Helen also wore white, but though she was in the twenties
and Lady Fulkeward was in the sixties, the girl had so much
sadness in her face and so much tragedy in her soft eyes that she
looked, if anything, older than the old woman. Gervase and Dr.
Dean arrived together, and found themselves in a brilliant,
crushing crowd of people, all of different nationalities and all
manifesting a good deal of impatience because they were delayed a
few minutes in an open court, where a couple of stone lions with
wings were the only spectators of their costumes.

"Most singular behavior!" said Lady Chetwynd Lyle, snorting and
sniffing, "to keep us waiting outside like this! The Princess has
no idea of European manners!"

As she spoke, a sudden blaze of light flamed on the scene, and
twenty tall Egyptian servants in white, with red turbans, carrying
lighted torches and marching two by two crossed the court, and by
mute yet stately gestures invited the company to follow. And the
company did follow in haste, with scramble and rudeness, as is the
way of "European manners" nowadays; and presently, having been
relieved of their cloaks and wrappings, stood startled and
confounded in a huge hall richly adorned with silk and cloth of
gold hangings, where, between two bronze sphinxes, the Princess
Ziska, attired wonderfully in a dim, pale rose color, with flecks
of jewels flashing from her draperies here and there, waited to
receive her guests. Like a queen she stood,--behind her towered a
giant palm, and at her feet were strewn roses and lotus-lilies. On