He dreamed that he heard
some noise and opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone in
the room. The oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them were
out, but by the light of those that remained he saw a tall figure which
seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a woman's
figure. It walked forward to the altar-like stone upon which lay the tin
box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather awkward attempts,
succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his dream,
finally awoke Alan. For a while the figure gazed at the fetish. Then it
shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him.
Out of the corners of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the
while to be fast asleep.
It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like
garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin
plates of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the
extraordinary elegance of her lithe form. The low lamp-light shone upon
her face and the coronet of gold set upon her dark hair. What a face it
was! Never in all his days had he seen its like for evil loveliness.
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