Mahmoud was standing alone by the black pool in the light of the stars under the lonely night. But by the light of the stars he saw in his scarred and bleeding hand the strands of the golden rope.
Now Mahmoud trails the Mecca robe through the streets of Luxor, but they say that Fatma wears the golden rope.
THE UNSEEN WORLD
VIII
THE UNSEEN WORLD
The whole world had faded and darkened to a uniform tint, black and dingy. The woman who stood there could hardly say whether this tint were brown or grey, for there was no colour to contrast it with, nothing but her own black dress seen through the same sordid medium. In front of her, rather lighter in tint, she could see a few inches of parapet, on which her hands were lying, and dimly could discern the ground at her feet. If she leant over the parapet she could not see the water, but where she believed it to be, something like the shadow of a ripple moved across the dusk.