Angels and Women (1924)

90 ANGELS AND WOMEN
not be Aloma’s place of rest. Then I forgot
fatigue in the sense of danger, and remained
a long time absorbed in thought.
Upon one side of the chamber a tall screen
of ivory lace-work stood before a broad
arched door, opening upon a balcony. The
air of the chamber had suddenly grown oppressive,
and I went forth into the silent
night.
Beneath was a garden of exceeding
beauty; thickets of trees and parterres of
flowers interspersed lawns where gleamed
alabaster vases, marble images, and jets of
water rising misty and ghost-like as they
were swayed by the night wind. All was secluded
and dusky, save the light from an
extraordinary fountain in the midst of the
garden, where, instead of water, were bubbling
waves of fire. As these occasionally
shot upward in flame, the unnatural light
penetrated to the recesses of the grove, and
by the fitful flash I perceived a stately figure
pacing the dim aisles, whose grand propor-