"
Endeavouring to conceal her great anxiety, Phil allowed herself
to be conducted by the Persian to an apartment which realized her
dreams of that Orient which she had never visited.
Three beautiful silver lanterns depended from a domed ceiling in
which wonderfully woven tapestry was draped. The windows were
partly obscured by carved wooden screens, and the light entered
through little panels of coloured glass. There were cushioned
divans, exquisite pottery, and a playful fountain plashing in a
marble pool.
Ormuz Khan conducted her to a wonderfully carven chair over which
a leopard's skin was draped and there she seated herself. She saw
through a wide doorway before her a long and apparently
unfurnished room dimly lighted. At the farther end she could
vaguely discern violet-coloured draperies. Ormuz Khan gracefully
threw himself upon a divan to the right of this open door.
"This, Miss Abingdon," he said, "is a nearly exact reproduction
of a room of a house which I have in Ispahan. I do not claim that
it is typical, but does its manner appeal to you?"
"Immensely," she replied, looking around her.
She became aware of a heavy perfume of hyacinths, and presently
observed that there were many bowls of those flowers set upon
little tables, and in niches in the wall.
"Yet its atmosphere is not truly of the Orient."
"Are such apartments uncommon, then, in Persia?" asked Phil,
striving valiantly to interest herself in the conversation.
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