If he
was conscious of anything peculiar in the behavior of his companions
toward him, he betrayed no indication of it. Such he was who stood
listening, with an appearance of interest unusual in him, to our
otherwise inconsequent chat.
"You are bidding a very silent adieu to the Genius of the East," I said.
"Yes," Fred answered, "it's her first actual revelation to me, but it's
a glorious one."
"Let those who love to decipher illegible inscriptions, to contemplate
a throttled centaur on a dilapidated frieze, or a carved acanthus on
a fallen capital, grope over the Acropolis and invoke Athenian Pallas,"
said Mike; "but for me these painted seraglios and terraced,
bower-canopied gardens, vocal with nightingales and seeming to
impregnate the very air with the pleasures of desire, justify the
decision of Paris. Hurrah for Asiatic Venus!"
"You are no true Christian knight," I said. "Your Rinaldos and Sir
Guyons always waste your gardens of voluptuous delight, and wipe out
their abominations.
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