Argosy, Vol. 111, No. 1 — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 as if the purloining of her own clothes had stolen some virtue from her. And yet the well-being resulting from the long-desired bath and the flow of health and hunger nerved her, and in some measure gave her sweeter optimism. Only partially conscious of the conflict- ing emotions, she snatched angrily at the unaccustomed clothes, almost annoyed with herself for the squeezing out of a grudging delight in the wonderful colors. Shoes there were of the softest leather, vermilion, decorated with gold needlework; various strange undergarments like night- dresses, yet beautifully embroidered. As she crouched, examining them, a giggle startled her. She glanced around. The young slave stood there with a mis- chievous grin on her pale brown features. Hurriedly Eileen scrambled into the green trougers, turned, and indignantly demanded her own clothes. The girl expostulated volubly and picked up the Moorish clothes as if to vaunt their beauty. Half angrily, yet half amused, Eileen permitted the slave to dress her, reluctantly admiring the cool comfort. duced a comb of ivory and persisted in arranging her hair, and afterward intimated by gestures that breakfast awaited her. Thus it was that Eileen came to be loung- ing upon a Moorish divan, eased in body and logically in mind by the physical relief and the ignorance of the meaning of the preparations; for she was inclined to argue that captors who were so considerate could not mean any serious harm; even change of treatment from the dirty “tent was not fraught with the ominous portents for her that it should have been. Physical comfort and relief tend to optimism for a time, at all events. Later the impossibility of dis- covering anything definite, of even gaining a hint of what her captor’s intentions were and of the fate of her father and Morden, began to have an exasperating effect. ' Some time in the afternoon, she guessed, for her watch had disappeared with her clothes, the young slave reappeared and beckoned her to follow. Eileen obeyed; this time without demur, not so much because she wished, but merely because action of any sort was better than anxious idling. The slave pro- . THE ARGOSY. Walking across the sun-bathed courtyard, her eyes were so blinded by the glare that when she entered another room she was only aware of movement and chatter. Then out of the mists resolved a group of women around her chattering as excitedly as a cage of monkeys. There were seven women; each and every one in the brilliant plumage of the harem; five of them were dark and swarthy, but the other two, to Eileen’s astonishment, were as blond as she was, one with Saxon hair of flax and the other a real Titian red. Bewildered by the unintelligible questions which were flailed at her Eileen backed against the young slave, who stood most resolutely in the doorway. Her person seemed the object of the incredible exCcite- ment. Each and every one of the women smiled or laughed in what was obviously the most friendly and reassuring fashion, and at the same time those who had succeeded in crowding the nearest to her did not hesi- tate to finger her robes with itching fingers; even poking the flesh of her neck and face, twitching at the strands of her long hair amid a hurricane of swift remarks. ‘Good Heavens!” exclaimed Eileen at last, exasperated by these extraordinary at- tentions; ‘‘ for mercy’s sake, what is the matter with them?” The outburst provoked was unmistakably a gale of applause. The women laughed and giggled and chattered more furiously than ever. The eldest, a swarthy woman apparently, as far as Eileen could judge, of about forty years old, spoke very slowly and impressively and gestured toward the inte- rior of the room, evidently inviting her solemnly to the party. Eileen glanced in the direction indicated. She saw that the affair was indeed a tea party, for upon the floor, deserted in the excitement by all the ladies, was a great silver-tray loaded with tiny glasses of lac- quered gilt around an enormous silver tea- pot, a great silver cube of white sugar and a bundle of green mint. After the first astonishment Eileen per- ceived that she was being invited to take tea with the ladies of the harem, the wives of goodness knows how few men! Wonder- ing still more at the extraordinary treat- CoOMmiic|ooo SS (CO