"Ah, possibly! But then it happens that I do not love you. I love
no one. I have had too much of love; it is a folly I have grown
weary of!"

Gervase fixed his eyes on her with an audacious look which seemed
to hint that he might possibly take advantage of being alone with
her to enforce his ideas of love more eloquently than was in
accordance with the proprieties. She perceived his humor, smiled,
and coldly gave him back glance for glance. Then, rising from the
divan, she drew herself up to her full height and surveyed him
with a kind of indulgent contempt.

"You are an uprincipled man, Armand Gervase," she said; "and do
you know I fear you always will be! A cleansing of your soul
through centuries of fire will be necessary for you in the next
world,--that next world which you do not believe in. But it is
perhaps as well to warn you that I am not without protection in
this place ... See!" and as she spoke she clapped her hands.

A clanging noise as of brazen bells answered her,--and Gervase,
springing up from his seat, saw, to his utter amazement, the
apparently solid walls of the room in which they were, divide
rapidly and form themselves in several square openings which
showed a much larger and vaster apartment beyond, resembling a
great hall. Here were assembled some twenty or thirty gorgeously-
costumed Arab attendants,--men of a dark and sinister type, who
appeared to be fully armed, judging from the unpleasant-looking
daggers and other weapons they carried at their belts. The
Princess clapped her hands again, and the walls closed in the same
rapid fashion as they had opened, while the beautiful mistress of