At that moment they entered the Red Saloon, a stately apartment,
which was entirely modelled after the most ancient forms of
Egyptian architecture. The centre of the vast room was quite clear
of furniture, so that the Princess Ziska's guests went wandering
up and down, to and fro, entirely at their ease, without crush or
inconvenience, and congregated in corners for conversation; though
if they chose they could recline on low divans and gorgeously-
cushioned benches ranged against the walls and sheltered by tall
palms and flowering exotics. The music was heard to better
advantage here than in the hall where the company had first been
received; and as the Princess moved to a seat under the pale green
frondage of a huge tropical fern and bade her two companions sit
beside her, sounds of the wildest, most melancholy and haunting
character began to palpitate upon the air in the mournful,
throbbing fashion in which a nightingale sings when its soul is
burdened with love. The passionate tremor that shakes the bird's
throat at mating-time seemed to shake the unseen instruments that
now discoursed strange melody, and Gervase, listening dreamily,
felt a curious contraction and aching at his heart and a sense of
suffocation in his throat, combined with an insatiate desire to
seize in his arms the mysterious Ziska, with her dark fathomless
eyes and slight, yet voluptuous, form,--to drag her to his breast
and crush her there, whispering:

"Mine!--mine! By all the gods of the past and present--mine! Who
shall tear her from me,--who dispute my right to love her--ruin
her--murder her, if I choose? She is mine!"

"The bas-relief I told you of is just above us," said the Princess
then, addressing herself to the Doctor; "would you like to examine