It is at any rate suggestive of some scientific
knowledge that these long-dead worshippers of Truth had recognised the
fact that the globe is round.
XXIV
WALKING THE PLANK
Next day the mutes woke us before the dawn; and by the time that we had
got the sleep out of our eyes, and gone through a perfunctory wash at a
spring which still welled up into the remains of a marble basin in the
centre of the North quadrangle of the vast outer court, we found _She_
standing by the litter ready to start, while old Billali and the two
bearer mutes were busy collecting the baggage. As usual, Ayesha was
veiled like the marble Truth (by the way, I wonder if she originally
got the idea of covering up her beauty from that statue?). I noticed,
however, that she seemed very depressed, and had none of that proud and
buoyant bearing which would have betrayed her among a thousand women of
the same stature, even if they had been veiled like herself. She looked
up as we came--for her head was bowed--and greeted us.
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