She dropped the cigarette from her tapered fingers into a little silver bowl upon a table at her side, then lightly touched the bell which stood there also. Its soft note answered to the bell in the ante-room; a white-robed Chinese servant silently descended the great staircase, his soft red slippers sinking into the rich pile of the carpet; and the little yellow man from the great temple in Pekin followed him back up the stairway and was ushered into the presence of Madame de Medici.
The servant closed the door silently and the little yellow man, fixing his eyes upon the beautiful woman before him, fell upon his knees and bowed his forehead to the carpet.
Madame's lovely lips curved again in the disdainful smile, and she extended one bare ivory arm toward the visitor who knelt as a suppliant at her feet.
'Rise, my friend!' she said, in purest Chinese, which fell from her lips with the music of a crystal spring. 'How may I serve you?'
The yellow man rose and advanced a step nearer to the divan, but the strange beauty of Madame had spoken straight to his Eastern heart, had, awakened his soul to a new life. His glance travelled over the vision before him, from the little Persian slipper that peeped below the drapery of Kashmir silk to the small classic head with its crown of ebon locks; yet he dared not meet the glance of the amber eyes.
'Sit here beside me,' directed Madame, and she slightly changed her position with that languorous and lithe grace suggestive of a creature of the jungle.
Breathing rapidly betwixt the importance of his mission and a new, intoxicating emotion which had come upon him at the moment of entering the perfumed room, the yellow man obeyed, but always with glance averted from the taunting face of Madame. A golden incense-burner stood upon the floor, over between the high, draped windows, and a faint pencil from its dying fires stole grayly upward. Upon the scented smoke the Buddhist priest fixed his eyes, and began, with a rapidity that grew as he proceeded, to pour out his tale. Seated beside him, one round arm resting upon the cushions so as almost to touch him, Madame listened, watching the averted yellow face, and always smiling--smiling.
The tale was done at last; the incense-burner was cold, and breathlessly the Buddhist clutched his knees with lean, clawish fingers and swayed to and fro, striving to conquer the emotions that whirled and fought within him. Selecting another cigarette from the box beside her, and lighting it deliberately, Madame de Medici spoke.
'My friend of old,' she said, and of the language of China she made strange music, 'you come to me from your home in the secret city, because you know that I can serve you. It is enough.'
She touched the bell upon the table, and the white-robed servant reentered, and, bowing low, held open the door. The little yellow man, first kneeling upon the carpet before the divan as before an altar, hurried from the apartment. As the door was reclosed, and Madame found herself alone again, she laughed lightly, as Calypso laughed when Ulysses' ship appeared off the shores of her isle.
God fashions few such women. It is well.
II. The Tiger Lady
'By heavens, Annesley!' whispered Rene Deacon, 'what eyes that woman has!' His companion, following the direction of Deacon's glance, nodded rather grimly.
'The eyes of a Circe, or at times the eyes of a tigress.'
'She is magnificent!' murmured Deacon rapturously. 'I have never seen so beautiful a woman.'
His glance followed the tall figure as it passed into a smaller salon on the left; nor was he alone in his regard. Fashionable society was well represented in the gallery--where a collection of pictures by a celebrated artist was being shown; and prior to the entrance of the lady in the strangely fashioned tiger-skin cloak, the somewhat extraordinary works of art had engaged the interest even of the most fickle, but, from the moment the tiger- lady made her appearance, even the most daring canvases were forgotten.
'She wears tiger-skin shoes!' whispered one.
'She is like a design for a poster!' laughed another.
'I have never seen anything so flashy in my life,' was the acrid comment of a third.
'What a dazzlingly beautiful woman!' remarked another--this one a man. While:
'Who is she?' arose upon all sides.
Judging from the isolation of the barbaric figure, it would seem that society did not know the tiger-lady, but Deacon, seizing his companion by the arm and almost dragging him into the small salon which the lady had entered, turned in the doorway and looked into Annesley's eyes. Annesley palpably sought to evade the glance.
'You know everybody,' whispered Deacon. 'You must be acquainted with her.'
A great number of people were now thronging into the room, not so much because of the pictures it contained, but rather out of curiosity respecting the beautiful unknown. Annesley tried to withdraw; his uneasiness grew momentarily greater.
'I scarcely know her well enough,' he protested, 'to present you. Moreover--'
'But she's smiling at you!' interrupted Deacon eagerly.
His handsome but rather weak face was flushed; he was, as an old clubman had recently said of him, 'so very young.' He lacked the restraint usual in cultured Englishmen, and had the frankly passionate manner which one associates with the South. His uncle, Colonel Deacon, a mordant wit, would say apologetically:
'Reggie' (Deacon's father) 'married a Gascon woman. She was delightfully pretty. Poor Reggie!'
Certainly Rene was impetuous to an embarrassing degree, nor lightly to be thwarted. Boldly meeting the glance of the woman of the amber eyes, he pushed Annesley forward, not troubling to disguise his anxiety to be presented to the tiger-lady. She turned her head languidly, with that wild-animal grace of hers, and unsmiling now, regarded Annesley.
'So you forget me so soon, Mr. Annesley,' she murmured, 'or is it that you play the good shepherd?'
'My dear Madame,' said Annesley, recovering with an effort his wonted sang-froid, 'I was merely endeavouring to calm the rhapsodies of my friend, who seemed disposed to throw himself at your feet in knight- errant fashion.'
'He is a very handsome boy,' murmured Madame; and as the great eyes were turned upon Deacon the carmine lips curved again in the Cleopatrian smile.
She was indeed wonderful, for while she spoke as the woman of the world to the boy, there was nothing maternal in her patronage, and her eyes were twin flambeaux, luring--luring, and her sweet voice was a siren's song.
'May I beg leave to present my friend, Mr. Rene Deacon, Madame de Medici?' said Annesley; and as the two exchanged glances--the boy's a glance of undisguised passionate admiration, the woman's a glance unfathomable--he slightly shrugged his shoulders and stood aside.
There were others in the salon, who, perceiving that the unknown beauty was acquainted with Annesley, began to move from canvas to canvas toward that end of the room where the trio stood. But Madame did not appear anxious to make new acquaintances.
'I have seen quite enough of this very entertaining exhibition,' she said languidly, toying with a great unset emerald which swung by a thin gold chain about her neck. 'Might I entreat you to take pity upon a very lonely woman and return with me to tea?'
Annesley seemed on the point of refusing, when:
'I have acquired a reputed Leonardo,' continued Madame, 'and I wish you to see it.'
There was something so like a command in the words that Deacon stared at his companion in frank surprise. The latter avoided his glance, and:
'Come!' said Madame de Medici.
As of old the great Catherine of her name might have withdrawn with her suite, so now the lady of the tiger skins withdrew from the gallery, the two men following obediently, and one of them at least a happy courtier.
III. Twin Pools Of Amber
THE white-robed Chinese servant entered and placed fresh perfume upon the burning charcoal of the silver incense-burner. As the scented smoke began to rise he withdrew, and a second servant entered, who facially, in dress, in figure and bearing, was a duplicate of the first.
This one carried a large tray upon which was set an exquisite porcelain tea-service. He placed the tray upon a low table beside the divan, and in turn withdrew.
Deacon, seated in a great ebony chair, smoked rapidly and nervously--looking about the strangely appointed room with its huge picture of the Madonna, its jade Buddha surmounting a gilded Burmese cabinet, its Persian
