Touched by her light the crowd below became sonorous as a musical glass touched by the finger; the murmur of voices, the ripple of laughter, the sigh of moving silk and the flutter of a thousand fans intensified, rose blended and mixed, and dwelt in the air a nimbus of sound. The native city beyond grew more distinct, yet more unreal in the moonlight, which strengthened the black shadows of the wooded cliffs and converted the harbor into a trembling mirror.
“We shall never see anything again so beautiful as that,” said Jane, “so mysterious, so strange.”
He did not reply. A small hand had stolen into his; it was Campanula’s. She, too, was gazing at the scene around and below them, filled with who knows what thoughts.
They were not alone here on the utmost heights; women, gayly dressed, were passing into the temple behind them to pray and clap their hands before their gods. Women surrounded them, laughing, chattering, dispelling quaint perfumes on the air from large incessantly-waving fans. From the tea houses behind the temple came the thready music of chamécens and sounds of unseen festivity; and from the great park beyond, through the hot night, the perfume of azaleas and the odor of the dew-wet cryptomeria trees.
“Come,” said Jane, “let us go and take the picture with us before it gets dulled. I will never forget this night—there is something in the air of this place I have never felt before. No, thanks, I don’t want to see the tea houses, I am quite content with this; let us go down right through it, and home.”
They descended the broad flights of steps through the murmuring, laughing, and perfumed crowd. There was something in the air indeed, something as intoxicating as wine, yet far more subtle, subtle as a poison or a love philter.
They found rikshas to take them back, and the whole party returned to the hotel, where they left Jane.
“To-morrow at noon,” she said to Leslie, as she turned to enter.
“Yes, or even a little later; the train doesn’t start till after one.”
“Good-night!” She waved her hand in the lamplit portico and vanished.