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Hichens, Robert Smythe, 1864-1950

"The Garden of Allah"

She put her hands against his temples.
"I am listening," she said. "I must hear it."
He looked up, rose to his feet, put his hands behind her shoulders, held
her, and set his lips on hers, pressing his whole body against hers.
"Hear it!" he said, muttering against her lips. "Hear it. I love you--I
love you."
The two birds they had seen flew back beneath the trees, turned in an
airy circle, rose above the trees into the blue sky, and, side by side,
winged their way out of the garden to the desert.


BOOK IV. THE JOURNEY

CHAPTER XVI
In the evening before the day of Domini's marriage with Androvsky there
was a strange sunset, which attracted even the attention and roused the
comment of the Arabs. The day had been calm and beautiful, one of the
most lovely days of the North African spring, and Batouch, resting from
the triumphant labour of superintending the final preparations for a
long desert journey, augured a morning of Paradise for the departure
along the straight road that led at last to Tombouctou. But as the
radiant afternoon drew to its end there came into the blue sky a
whiteness that suggested a heaven turning pale in the contemplation of
some act that was piteous and terrible.


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