And Lemonade and Cake—
An Esthetic Banquet—
It Chanced, by Merest Accident, that I was Given a seat opposite The Portiered Archway which led into
The Long Quiet Hall,
With its Wine-Colored Wealth of Turkish-Bath Toweling thrown back.
And as we Sat Beneath the Iridescent Glow Of the Keely-Motor
Electric Lamp, which
Glistened and Shimmered Its Stained-Glass Iridescence on all about it, and gave its hue to The Invigorating Beverage, we heeded not the Elemental war waging upon the Queen Anne Exterior of the Hospitable Mansion of my Friend.
And when we were left to our Coffee and our Pipes, we talked of Daggers, and Epitaphs, and Tombs!
And as he told me in a Mysterious Whisper the Story of the Malay Dagger, "Guiltless of all Guile," the Vitreous Eye of that Quaintly Carved Odalisque—for such my fevered fancy Pictured it—was ever Glaring at me with its Sinister Glare!