JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN
Mehtu. Wakara! What is it?
Anset. I am half clad!
Arilennu. I am half-awake!
Taherer. I am afeared!
Nesta. What ails thee?
Tamai. Why are we summoned?
Zuleika. [Dazed] You!—Did I summon you?—Ay! Wait! [To Wakara] Thou, seek him again. Say I command him hither by his troth to Potiphar. Say I know of the plot against the Pharaoh. [Struck by a new idea] Say Potiphar's life is in danger! Say that! Say that! Be-gone!
[Exit Wakara, R.]
Zuleika. [To the maids] The mirror!
[Nesta takes the mirror from a table]
Mehtu. The mirror, so late!
Zuleika. Is the night so old?
Arilennu. 'Tis but an hour ere the dawn.
Zuleika. Sayest thou so? Swiftly, then!
[Nesta gives her the mirror]
Taherer. But wherefore? Wherefore?
Zuleika. Is not my lord coming at sunrise?
Anset. Oh! That is glad news!
Zuleika [To Tamai, whose left hand is bandaged] Loosen my hair. Why, what is thy wound?
[All the girls laugh]
Tamai. [Trying to hide her hand] 'Tis nought. This morning I was cutting a melon, and the knife slipped.
[All laugh again]
Zuleika. Why do you laugh at her hurt?
73
