The strangers led him.held tightly by both hands. along a narrow street and down a flight of shallow stairs and then up another to a wide doorway in a white wall with two tall， dark cypress trees， one on each side of it. Once through the arch， Shasta found himself in a courtyard which was also a garden. A marble basin of clear water in the centre was kept continually rippling by the fountain that fell into it. Orange trees grew round it out of smooth grass， and the four white walls which surrounded the lawn were covered with climbing roses. The noise and dust and crowding of the streets seemed suddenly far away. He was led rapidly across the garden and then into a dark doorway.
