“The young lady in the white clothes. She is lovely.”
“Hold your tongue, you donkey!” I answered. “Is this a time to talk of female looks?”
Then I went away behind the wall and literally wept for joy. It was one of the happiest moments of my life, for how seldom things happen as they should!
Also I wanted to put up a little prayer of my own, a prayer of thankfulness and for strength and wit to overcome the many dangers that yet awaited us.
CHAPTER XVII
THE HOME OF THE HOLY FLOWER
Half an hour or so passed, during which I was engaged alternately in thinking over our position and in listening to Stephen’s rhapsodies. First he dilated on the loveliness of the Holy Flower that he had caught a glimpse of when he climbed the wall, and secondly, on the beauty of the eyes of the young lady in white. Only by telling him that he might offend her did I persuade him not to attempt to break into the sacred enclosure where the orchid grew. As we were discussing the point, the gate opened and she appeared.
“Sirs,” she said, with a reverential bow, speaking slowly and in the drollest halting English, “the mother and the father—yes, the father—ask, will you feed?”
We intimated that we would “feed” with much pleasure, and she led the way to the house, saying:
“Be not astonished at them, for they are very happy too, and please forgive our unleavened bread.”