And chuckling audibly, he hobbled down a side passage, while Theos, half angry, half amused, crossed the hall quickly, and arrived at the door of the Laureate’s private sanctum, where, gently drawing aside the silken draperies, he looked in for a moment without being himself perceived.  What a picture he beheld! ...  How perfection every shade of color in every line of detail!  Sah-luma, reclining in a quaintly carved ebony chair, was toying with the fruit and wine set out before him on an ivory and gold stand,—­his dress, simpler than it had been on the previous evening, was of fine white linen gathered loosely about his classic figure,—­he wore neither myrtle-wreath nor jewels,—­the expression of his face was serious, even noble, and his attitude was one of languid grace and unstudied ease that became him infinitely well.  The maidens of his household waited near him,—­ some of them held flowers,—­one, kneeling at a small lyre, seemed just about to strike a few chords, when Sah-luma silenced her by a light gesture: 

“Peace, Zoralin!” he said softly..  “I cannot listen:  thou hast not my Niphrata’s tenderness!”

Zoralin, a beautiful, dark girl, with hair as black as night, and eyes that looked as though they held suppressed yet ever burning fire, let her hands instantly drop from the instrument, and sighing, shrank back a little in abashed silence.  At that moment Theos advanced,—­and the Laureate sprang up delightedly: 

“Ah, at last, my friend!” he cried, enthusiastically clasping him by both hands,—­“Where, in the name of all the gods, hast thou been roaming?  How did we part?—­by my soul I forget!—­but no matter!—­thou art here once more, and as I live, we will not separate again so easily!  My noble Theos!” and he threw one arm affectionately around his neck—­“I have missed thee more than I can tell these past few hours,—­thou dost seem so sympathetically conjoined with me, that verily I think I am but half myself in thine absence!  Come,—­sit thee down and break thy fast! ...  I almost feared thou hadst met with some mischance on thy way hither, and that I should have had to sally forth and rescue thee again even as I did yesternoon!  Say, hast thou occupied thyself with so much friendly consideration on my behalf, as I have on thine?”

He laughed gayly as he spoke,—­and Theos, looking into his bright, beautiful face, was for a moment too deeply moved by his own strange inward emotions, to utter a word in reply.  Why did he love Sah-luma so ardently, he wondered?  Why was it that every smile on that proud mouth, every glance of those flashing eyes, possessed such singular, overwhelming fascination for him?  He could not tell,—­but he readily yielded to the magic influence of his friend’s extraordinary attractiveness, and sitting down beside him in the azure light and soft fragrance of his regal apartment, he experienced a sudden sense of rest, satisfaction, and completeness, such as may be felt by a man at one with himself, and with all the world!