Read "The Cream of the Jest" by James Branch Cabell online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
It was deep silent night when Horvendile came into the room where Ettarre slept. "Out, out! " cried Horvendile. "Let us have more light here, so that men may see the beauty men die for! " He went with a torch from lamp to lamp, kindling them all.
Ettarre stood between the bed-curtains, which were green hangings worked with birds and beasts of the field, each in his proper colors. The girl was robed in white; and upon her breast gleamed the broken sigil of Scoteia, that famed talisman which never left her person. She wore a scarlet girdle about her middle, and her loosened yellow hair fell heavy about her. Her fine proud face questioned the clerk in silence, without any trace of fear.