"Conduct them here, Matten," he commanded, and took up his station
beside an hundred-branched candlestick made in Curium. There he
stood when, having been led down corridors of ivory and through
shining anterooms, Mrs. Hastings and Olivia and Antoinette appeared
on the threshold of the chamber, followed by Mr. Frothingham. As the
prince hastened forward to meet them with sweepings of his gown
embroidered by a thousand needles and bent above their hands
uttering gracious words, assuredly in all the history of Med and of
the Litany the room of the Crucified Sphinx had never presented a
more peculiar picture.
Into that tranquil atmosphere, dream-pervaded, Mrs. Medora Hastings
swept with all the certainty of an opinion bludgeoning the frail
security of a fact. She had refused to have her belongings sent to
the apartments in the House of the Litany placed that day at her
disposal, preferring to dress for the coronation before she
descended from Mount Khalak. She was therefore in a robe of black
samite, trimmed with the fur of a whole chapter of extinct animals,
and bangles and pendants of jewels bobbed and ticked all about her.
Pages:
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397