Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/342

 crystalline brilliancy seemed of too hard a glitter. Massed forests of such trees, all ineffably veiled in gauzes of faint gold and lilac, and running down from the sky into a flat amethyst sea, might look like the Arabs' Pink Cheek, he thought; and he admitted to himself that his gaze was spellbound. He wished never to stop looking.

Then, in his mind, addressing an invisible person, he said gratefully, "Thank you!" It was Mme. Momoro he thanked, for having brought him here.

Someone else was spellbound not far from him, for he heard faintly upon the air a little "Ah!" not vocal but just breathed, a sigh of wistfulest delight. He could not see who uttered this slight sound; she was upon the northern side of the gallery, he upon the southern, and the walls of the minaret rose between them to support a small dome overhead; but he knew that this intruder upon the spell that bound him was a girl; and for no intelligible reason in the world, he had the curious impression that she was Olivia Tinker. Nothing could have been stranger; he was not so familiar with Olivia's sighs that he could identify her by the sound of one, especially when it was a sigh of pleasure.

Other sounds, footsteps upon the stairway and