Page:Frank Owen - The Wind That Tramps the World (1929).djvu/78

 summer day when I found her and her golden hair is like the gold of the sun. Who knows but what she is a lovely spirit, a spirit of a full-blossomed rose?"

Slowly she came toward them. Yuan Shi Kai introduced her to Ras Orla. She put out a small, shell-like hand and as Ras Orla grasped it his senses tingled. It was like drinking again of the floral-wine. Her beauty was devastating. It made him forget all else on earth.

"Her playmates have always been flowers," continued Yuan Shi Kai. "She understands the language of wistaria and peach-blossoms. The loveliest singer in the flower kingdom is the rose. Its music is reflected in its fragrance. The most passionate is the orchid, though blue-poppies, too, are extreme in their desires. Lilies are sad. They are tender flowers who sacrifice themselves for the happiness of others."

That night Ras Orla remained in the house of Yuan Shi Kai. His host did not wish him to leave, nor was he able to drag himself away. The even balance of his life had been ruined. Memory of the beauty and grace of the slender Liane would forever intrude itself upon his consciousness. Without her he could not go on. Ordinarily he was the most logical of individuals. He had traveled much, he had seen strange sights and he had schooled himself not to be affected by them. But this strange inverted house that grew into the ground like the roots of a great oak tree was more than any force of will could combat. In the privacy of the chamber on the floor above the ground which had been