Raising their arms as high as their heads they made two white
walls of their long cloaks between which Victoria could pass, as if
enclosed in a narrow aisle. Hsina came close upon her heels; and as they
reached the threshold of the house the white-robed black servants
dropped their arms, followed the two women, and shut the nailed door.
Then, despite the dimness of the place, they bowed their heads turning
aside as if humbly to make it evident that their unworthy eyes did not
venture to rest upon the veiled form of their mistress's guest. As for
Hsina, she, too, was veiled, though her age and ugliness would have
permitted her face to be revealed without offence to Mussulman ideas of
propriety. It was mere vanity on her part to preserve the mystery as
dear to the heart of the Moslem woman as to the jealous prejudice of the
man.
A faint glittering of the walls told Victoria that the corridor she had
entered was lined with tiles; and she could dimly see seats let in like
low shelves along its length, on either side. It was but a short
passage, with a turn into a second still shorter. At the end of this
hung a dark curtain, which Hsina lifted for Victoria to pass on, round
another turn into a wider hall, lit by an Arab lamp with glass panes
framed in delicately carved copper. The chain which suspended it from
cedar beams swayed slightly, causing the light to move from colour to
colour of the old tiles, and to strike out gleams from the marble floor
and ivory-like pillars set into the walls.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231