Page:O Genteel Lady! (1926).pdf/110

 He stared at her face, and she turned it towards him, the light catching in her lacquered black eyes.

'It must be really very late, I fear. May I not send you these garments to-morrow?'

He started to reply, but his eye fell upon her earrings. They were filigree pitchers and struck him as ugly, inappropriate, and quite inadequate for her voluptuous clothing. He said, 'I know what is wrong, it is those earrings.'

Calling his servant he addressed him again in jargon.

'Indeed, I must go.'

'No, no, not yet.'

He smiled delicately.

'I will not call you "Lanice" again. I only did it to see if I could either anger or embarrass you, but you merely retreated and left me. Ah, here we are. Please remove those golden gewgaws in your ears.'

The salaaming servant laid a crystal and silver box upon his master's knees. Anthony opened it and took out, wrapped in crimson cloth scrawled in gold mottoes, a pair of earrings, the jewelled fringes of which would hang down upon the wearer's breast. They were of a massive, savage beauty set with rubies and turquoises. The man caressed them lovingly. He knew that they were old enough and fine enough to have once hung in the ears of Scheherazade herself.

'Put them on, Miss Bardeen.'

'Oh, I couldn't. You see, the hooks are much too large for my ears. In civilized countries the ear is