CHAPTER XIV
THE FLOWER TEMPLE
It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning
following our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly
twelve hours, and I must say that I did indeed feel better.
Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep! and what a difference twelve
hours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil and
danger. It is like going to bed one man and getting up another.
I sat up upon my silken couch -- never had I slept upon such
a bed before -- and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass
fixed on me from the recesses of his silken couch. There was
nothing else of him to be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew
from the look of it that he was awake, and waiting till I woke
up to begin.
'I say, Quatermain,' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observe
her skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.'
'Now look here, Good,' I remonstrated, when there came a sound
at the curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary,
who signified by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath.
We gladly consented, and were conducted to a delightful marble
chamber, with a pool of running crystal water in the centre of
it, into which we gaily plunged.
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