There were mirrors in this
room, too, so that Kirby laughed aloud to see how incongruous and
completely out of place he and his adjutant locked. His gruff laugh
came so suddenly that the maid nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Will the sahibs be seated?" she asked almost in a whisper, as if
they had half-frightened the life out of her, and then she ran out of
the room so quickly that they were only aware of the jingling curtain.
So they sat down, Kirby trying the cushions with his foot until he
found some firm enough to allow him to retain his dignity. Cavalry
dress-trousers are not built to sprawl on cushions in; a man should
sit reasonably upright or else stand.
"I'll say this for myself," he grunted, as he settled into place,
"it's the first time in my life I was ever inside a native woman's
premises."
Warrington did not commit himself to speech.
They sat for five minutes looking about them, Warrington beginning
to be bored, but Kirby honestly interested by the splendor of the
hangings and the general atmosphere of Eastern luxury. It was
Warrington who grew uneasy first.
"Feel as if any one was lookin' at you, sir?" he asked out of one
side of his mouth. And then Kirby noticed it, and felt his collar
awkwardly.
In all the world there is nothing so well calculated to sap a man's
prepossession as the feeling that he is secretly observed.
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