He dreamed that he heard some noise and opened his eyes, to see that they were no longer alone in the room.

The oil lamps had burned quite low, indeed some of them were out, but by the light of those that remained he saw a tall figure which seemed to appear at the edge of the surrounding blackness, a woman's figure.

It walked forward to the altar-like stone upon which lay the tin box containing Little Bonsa, and after several rather awkward attempts, succeeded in opening it, thereby making a noise which, in his dream, finally awoke Alan.

For a while the figure gazed at the fetish.

Then it shut the box, glided to his bed and bent down as though to study him.
Out of the corners of his eyes he peered up at it, pretending all the while to be fast asleep.
It was that of a woman wonderfully clad in gold-spangled, veil-like garments with round bosses shaped to the breast, covered with thin plates of gold fashioned like the scales of a fish which showed off the extraordinary elegance of her lithe form.