Now as she peeped through the lattice in the screen she could see the Greek haggling with Grantham and a tall gray-haired man whom she supposed to be Sir Horace Tipton.  They were debating the additional fees to be paid if Zahara, the Star of Egypt, was to present the secret and wonderful dance of which all men had heard but which only a true daughter of the ancient tribe of the Ghawazi could perform.

Sometimes Zahara was proud of her descent from a dancing-girl of Kenneh.  This was always at night, when a sort of barbaric excitement possessed her which came from the blood of her mother.  Then, a new light entered her eyes and they seemed to grow long and languid and dark, so that no one would have suspected that in daylight they were blue.

A wild pagan abandon claimed her, and she seemed to hear the wailing of reed instruments and the throb of the ancient drums which were played of old before the kings of Egypt.  Safiyeh was not a true dancing girl, and because she knew none of those fine frenzies, she danced without inspiration, like a brown puppet moved by strings.  But she could play upon an a’ood much better than Zahara, and therefore must not be upset until she had played for the Dance of the Veils.

Seeing that the bargain was all but concluded, Zahara stole back to her room.  Her lightly clad body gleamed like that of some statue become animate.

Her cheeks flushed as she took up the veils, of which she alone knew the symbolic meaning; the white veil, the purple veil:  each had its story to tell her; and the veil of burning scarlet.  In a corner of the big room on a divan near the door she had seen the Spaniard, a handsome, swarthy figure in his well-fitting dress clothes, and now, opening a drawer, she glanced at the little pile of notes which represented her share of the bargain.  There were fifty.  She had told Agapoulos that a distinguished foreigner with an introduction from someone she knew had paid ten pounds to be present.  And because she had given Agapoulos the ten pounds, Agapoulos had agreed to admit the visitor.

She could hear the Greek approaching now, but she was thinking of Grantham whom she had last seen in laughing conversation with the tall, gray-haired man.  His laughter had appeared forced.  Doubtless he grew weary of the woman he had brought to London.

“Dance to-night with all the devil that is in you, my beautiful,” said Agapoulos, hurrying into the room.

Zahara turned aside, toying with the veils.

“They are rich, eh?” she said indifferently.

She was thinking of the fifty pounds which she had earned so easily; and after all (how strangely her mind wandered) perhaps he was really tired of the woman.  The Spaniard had said so.

“Very rich,” murmured Agapoulos complacently.

He brushed his moustache and rattled keys in his pocket.  In his dress clothes he looked like the manager of a prosperous picture palace.  “Safryeh!” he called.