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Page 16
The tea was most disappointingly ordinary, for the pat of butter
bore the rose stamp of the English dairy and the bread was English
bake, but the sweetmeats were deliciously novel, resembling nothing
Arlee had seen in the shops, and new, too, was the sip of syrup
which completed the refreshment.
Her hostess had said but little during the repast, remaining silent,
with an air of polite attention, her eyes fixed upon her caller with
a gaze the girl found bafflingly inscrutable. Now as the girl rose
to go, the Turkish woman suddenly revived her manners of hostess and
suggested a glimpse of some of the other rooms of the palace. "Our
seclusion interests you--yes?" she said, with a half-sad,
half-bitter smile on her scarlet lips, and Arlee was conscious of a
sense of apologetic intrusion battling with her lively curiosity as
she followed her down the long chamber and through a curtained
doorway to the right of the throne-like chair, into a large and
empty anteroom, where the sunlight streaming through the lightly
screened window on the wall at the right reminded Arlee that it was
yet glowing afternoon.
She lingered by the window an instant, looking down into the court
which she had glimpsed from the vestibule. Across the court she saw
a row of windows which, being unbarred, she guessed to be on the
men's side of the house, and to the left the court was ended by a
sort of roofed colonnade.
Her hostess passed under an elaborate archway, and Arlee followed
slowly, passing through one stately, high-ceiled, dusty room into
another, plunged again into the twilight of densely screening
_mashrubiyeh_. There were views of fine carving, painted ceilings,
inlaid door paneling, and rich and rusty embroideries where the name
of Allah could frequently be traced, but Arlee was ignorant of the
rare worth of all she saw; she stared about with no more than a
girl's romantic sense of the old-time grandeur and the Oriental
strangeness, mingled with a disappointment that it was all so empty
and devoid of life.
This part of the palace was very old, her hostess said
uninterestedly; these were the rooms of the dead and gone ladies of
the dead and gone years. One of the Mamelukes had first built this
wing for his favorite wife--she had been poisoned by her rival and
died, here, on that divan, the narrator indicated, with a negligent
gesture.
Wide-eyed, Arlee stared about the empty, darkened rooms and felt
dimly oppressed by them. They were so old, so melancholy, these
rooms of dead and gone ladies. How much of life had been lived here,
how much of hope had been smothered with these walls! What aching
love and fiery hate had vibrated here, only to smolder into helpless
ennui under the endless weight of tedious days.... She shivered
slightly, oppressed by the dreams of these ancient rooms, dreams
that were heavy with realities.
Slowly she moved back after her hostess, who had pushed back a
panel in one wall, and Arlee stepped beside her within the tiny,
balcony-like enclosure the panel had revealed, one side of which was
a wooden lace-work of fine screening, permitting one to see but not
be seen. Pressing her face against the grill, Arlee found she was
looking down into a long and spacious hall, lined with delicate
columns bearing beautiful, pointed arches, and brilliant with old
gilding and inlay.
This was the colonnade which she had seen forming one side of the
court; it was the hall of banquets, she was told, and connected this
wing of the palace, the _haremlik_, with the _selamlik_, the men's
wing, across the way. Here in old times the lord of the palace gave
his feasts, and this nook had been built for some favorite to view
the revels.
Arlee stared down into the great empty hall with an involuntary
quickening of the breath. How desolate it was, but how beautiful in
its desolation! What strange revels had taken place there to the
notes of wild music, what girls had danced, what voices had shouted,
what moods had been indulged! She thought of the men who had made
merry there ... and then she thought of the women, generations of
women, who had stood where she was standing, pressing their young
faces against the grill, their bright eyes peering, peering down.
She felt their soft little silken ghosts all about her, their
bangles clinking, their perfumes enveloping her sense--lovely little
painted dolls, their mimic passions helpless in their hearts....
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