"So, little flower, you would still try to escape from me," he said in a fierce, fond manner. "But I don't let love go so lightly."
He ignored her struggles as he talked to and encouraged the old horse that hobbled along by their side, with stiff, painful steps.
As the slow journey went on, Pansy fell asleep against the strength that held her.
The Sultan was quick to note this, and he smiled at the small tired face on his shoulder. He knew the nature of the girl he held. It would be impossible for her to go to sleep in any man's arms except those of the man she loved. She was very foolish to fight against him, but fight she would until he used his strength and ended the battle. An uneven contest the last round would be, with no doubt as to who would be the victor.
CHAPTER XXX
On a wide ottoman in her room Pansy lay. The golden lamps were burning low, casting black shadows on the gilded walls of her cage. Through the open arches the moonlight streamed, pouring in from a misty, mystic world where trees sighed vaguely in a silvered air.
Early that morning the Sultan had brought Pansy back to the palace. Since then she had seen nothing of him.
She brooded on her attempt to escape, which had only ended in her being more of a prisoner than ever. The guards about the entrance of her quarters had been doubled. The door leading into the harem was locked. Alice had been removed, her place taken by an Arab woman who would not or could not understand a word Pansy said to her.
Sleepless she lay among the silken cushions, brooding on the life that had once been hers; a life so remote from her present one that it might never have been.