A woman's voice telling stories behind shadow pictures, and the capricious play of the black puppets on her lighted screen, had the effect of incantation.

Before the booth of a dentist, the long strings of black teeth swayed in the lantern-glow, rattling, like horrid necklaces of cannibals.

And from a squat den--where on a translucent placard in the dull window flickered the words "Foreign Earth," and the guttering door-lantern hinted "As You Like It"-- there came a sweet, insidious, potent smell that seemed more poisonous than mere opium.
"Let's go faster," said the girl.

"Somehow, the dark makes me uneasy to-night." Skirting the town, they struck at last the open road beyond, and saw against a fading sky the low black bulk of the nunnery, pierced with orange squares.

Past its landward wall, lanterns moved slowly, clustered here and there by twos and threes, and dispersed.