Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 03.djvu/134

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108 THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE.

of a seller of dates and waited. When the Emperor saw me, he raised his painted eyebrows and stopped. I stood quite still, and made him no obeisance. The people marvelled at my boldness, and counselled me to flee from the city. I paid no heed to them, but went and sat with the sellers of strange gods, who by reason of their craft are abominated. When I told them what I had done, each of them gave me a god and prayed me to leave them. ."That night, as I lay on a cushion in the tea house that is in the Street of Pomegranates, the guards of the Emperor entered and led me to the palace. As I went in they closed each door behind me, and put a chain across it. Inside was a great court with an arcade running all round. The walls were of white alabaster, set here and there with blue and green tiles. The pillars were of green marble, and the pavement of a kind of peach-blossom marble. I had never seen anything like it before. "As I passed across the court two veiled women looked down from a balcony and cursed me. The guards hastened on, and the butts of the lances rang out upon the polished floor. They opened a gate of wrought ivory, and I

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