But methought that they needed no guards or gold to proclaim
their power and bind the loyalty of wayward men. A glance from
those bright eyes or a smile from those sweet lips, and while
the red blood runs in the veins of youth women such as these
will never lack subjects ready to do their biddings to the death.
But after all they were women first and queens afterwards, and
therefore not devoid of curiosity. As they passed to their seats
I saw both of them glance swiftly in our direction. I saw, too,
that their eyes passed by me, seeing nothing to charm them in
the person of an insignificant and grizzled old man. Then they
looked with evident astonishment on the grim form of old Umslopogaas,
who raised his axe in salutation. Attracted next by the splendour
of Good's apparel, for a second their glance rested on him like
a humming moth upon a flower, then off it darted to where Sir
Henry Curtis stood, the sunlight from a window playing upon his
yellow hair and peaked beard, and marking the outlines of his
massive frame against the twilight of the somewhat gloomy hall.
He raised his eyes, and they met the fair Nyleptha's full, and
thus for the first time the goodliest man and woman that it has
ever been my lot to see looked one upon another.
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