“One moment,” suggested his hearer, as she arranged an electric cluster in a manner that enabled her to witness every alternation of expression in that mobile countenance—“now.”
Withdrawing his gaze from the sweet face of his auditor with a reluctance sufficiently marked to advance him several leagues further in her good graces, Dennis, directing his attention to the closely-printed dickey, began, with racy Irish emphasis, as follows:
“With a bound the prince swept aside the curtains and reached his room.
“Advancing to the gong, which was suspended by silken cords near the divan, he struck it sharply several times.
“There was no response.
“He repeated his summons with the added vigor of his irritation at the delay.
“Only the sullen echo answered.
“With impatient incredulity the prince was about to hasten to the ante-room in which his faithful Sepoy had always been found, when a strange trembling seized his limbs.
“A confusion obscured his mind; his sight grew dim.