Read "For Love of the King" by Oscar Wilde online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
_The same night_.
_The home of the Chinese Wizard_, HIP LOONG, _by the river_ -- _a place fitted with Chinese things_: _Dragons of gold with eyes of jade gleaming from out dim corners_, _Buddhas of gigantic size fashioned of priceless metals with heads that move_, _swinging banners with fringes of many-coloured stones_, _lanterns with glass slides on which are painted grotesque figures_. _The air is full of the scent of joss sticks_. _The Wizard reclines on a divan_, _inhaling opium slowly_, _clothed with the subdued gorgeousness of China_ -- _blue and tomato-red predominate_. _He has the appearance of a wrinkled walnut_. _His forehead is a lattice- work of wrinkles_. _His pigtail_, _braided with red_, _is twisted round his head_. _His hands are as claws_. _The effect is weird_, _unearthly_.