Lilith

I asked why her people had such a hatred of strangers. She answered that the presence of a stranger defiled
the city.
"How is that?" I said.
"Because we are more ancient and noble than any other nation.−− Therefore," she added, "we always turn
strangers out before night."
"How, then, can you take me into your house?" I asked.
"I will make an exception of you," she replied.
Lilith
"Is there no place in the city for the taking in of strangers?"
"Such a place would be pulled down, and its owner burned. How is purity to be preserved except by keeping
low people at a proper distance? Dignity is such a delicate thing!"
She told me that their princess had reigned for thousands of years; that she had power over the air and the
water as well as the earth−− and, she believed, over the fire too; that she could do what she pleased, and was
answerable to nobody.
When at length she was willing to risk the attempt, we took our way through lanes and narrow passages, and
reached her door without having met a single live creature. It was in a wider street, between two tall houses,
at the top of a narrow, steep stair, up which she climbed slowly, and I followed. Ere we reached the top,
however, she seemed to take fright, and darted up the rest of the steps: I arrived just in time to have the door
closed in my face, and stood confounded on the landing, where was about length enough, between the
opposite doors of the two houses, for a man to lie down.
Weary, and not scrupling to defile Bulika with my presence, I took advantage of the shelter, poor as it was.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE WHITE LEOPARDESS
At the foot of the stair lay the moonlit street, and I could hear the unwholesome, inhospitable wind blowing
about below. But not a breath of it entered my retreat, and I was composing myself to rest, when suddenly my
eyes opened, and there was the head of the shining creature I had seen following the Shadow, just rising
above the uppermost step! The moment she caught sight of my eyes, she stopped and began to retire, tail
foremost. I sprang up; whereupon, having no room to turn, she threw herself backward, head over tail,
scrambled to her feet, and in a moment was down the stair and gone. I followed her to the bottom, and looked
all up and down the street. Not seeing her, I went back to my hard couch.
There were, then, two evil creatures prowling about the city, one with, and one without spots! I was not
inclined to risk much for man or woman in Bulika, but the life of a child might well be worth such a poor one
as mine, and I resolved to keep watch at that door the rest of the night.
Presently I heard the latch move, slow, slow: I looked up, and seeing the door half−open, rose and slid softly
in. Behind it stood, not the woman I had befriended, but the muffled woman of the desert. Without a word
she led me a few steps to an empty stone−paved chamber, and pointed to a rug on the floor. I wrapped myself
in it, and once more lay down. She shut the door of the room, and I heard the outer door open and close again.
There was no light save what came from the moonlit air.
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