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Never once did he look in the direction of the houri peering through the sliding panel. The clatter of a horse's hoofs now resounded through the still air. A mounted officer was approaching. Joe looked up, turned a light pea-green, backed his body into the gate with the movement of an eel, put his cheek close to the sliding panel, and whispered some words in Turkish.
As only six camels could be obtained we went by boat ourselves, leaving the camels for the baggage. For this purpose we deserted the Taisir and hired a smaller kattira, and having gone as near as we could to land, and been in considerable danger from coral reefs, on which we ran suddenly, nearly capsizing, we took to the houri that we had towed astern.
And now came the all-important week. On the Saturday the three young men went down to Hampton. Charley had lately been leading a very mixed sort of life. One week he would consort mainly with the houri of the Norfolk Street beer-shop, and the next he would be on his good behaviour, and live as respectably as circumstances permitted him to do. His scope in this respect was not large.
His number one wife still lives at the family seat in Changsha; another secondary wife is dead; his present number two wife lives with him in Yunnan. This is his favourite wife, and her story is worth a passing note. She was not a "funded houri," but a poor yatow, a "forked head" or slave girl, whom he purchased on a lucky day, and, smitten with her charms, made her his wife.
The minister replied, 'I hear and obey, and forthright did his bidding and said to them, 'Take this in turn for the good tidings ye bring, whether ye lie or say sooth. They replied, 'Indeed we lie not, for but now we sat with him and saluted him and kissed his hands and he bade us fetch him tents, for that he would sojourn in the meadow seven days, till such time as the Wazirs and Emirs and Grandees should come out to meet him. Quoth the King, 'How is it with my son? and quoth they, 'He hath with him a Houri, as he had brought her out of Paradise. At this, King Teghmus bade beat the kettledrums and sound the trumpets for gladness, and despatched messengers to announce the good news to Janshah's mother and to the wives of the Emirs and Wazirs and Lords of the realm: so the criers spread themselves about the city and acquainted the people with the coming of Prince Janshah.
Then came the great scene of the third act always the place for it, so dramatists say. The dark-skinned houri sprang up, rose to her full height, her eyes blazing, and facing her tormentor, cried: "You blackguard" a true statement "do you know who I am?" "Yes, perfectly; you are Yuleima, the daughter of the Bagdad merchant."
His beautiful companion did not seem to want him to talk and certainly showed no desire to talk herself; so he gave himself up to thinking of Ida and wishing that it was she who was sitting opposite him there, instead of this girl with the face of a Grecian goddess, with the lustrous hair of an houri.
"Besides, she might be a houri from heaven," said Lancelot; "but a houri in a patched print-frock " He shuddered, and struck a match. "I don't know exactly what houris from heaven are, but I have a kind of feeling any sort of frock would be out of harmony !" Lancelot lit his pipe. "If you begin to say that sort of thing, we must smoke," he said, laughing between the puffs.
They sit chatting with little bundles of sweets and narghilehs before them. An average Englishwoman would look like an houri amongst them; and their customs were beastly, to use the mildest term. The Hammam was entered by a large hall, lit by a skylight, with a huge marble tank in the centre and four little fountains, and all around raised divans covered with cushions.
Yonder royalty of England, who for her superior loveliness deserves to be Queen of the universe what tenderness in her blue eye, what lustre in her tresses of dishevelled gold! By the tomb of the Prophet, I scarce think that the houri who shall present to me the diamond cup of immortality will deserve so warm a caress!"
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