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pass away? For this is what none ever attained unto.’ Quoth he, ‘Well said, O Tuhfeh. Know that thy rank in my esteem is mighty and for that which wondered me of what I saw of thee, I offered to do this, but I will not return unto the like thereof; so be of good heart and cheerful eye, for I have no desire for other than thyself and will not die but in the love of thee, and thou to me art queen and mistress, to the exclusion of all humankind.’ Therewith she fell to kissing his feet; and this her fashion pleased him, so that his love for her redoubled and he became unable to brook an hour’s severance from her.
One day he went forth to the chase and left Tuhfeh in her pavilion. As she sat looking upon a book, with a candlestick of gold before her, wherein was a perfumed candle, behold, a musk-apple fell down before her from the top of the saloon.[1] So she looked up and beheld the Lady Zubeideh bint el Casim,[2] who saluted her and acquainted her with herself, whereupon Tuhfeh rose to her feet and said, ‘O my lady, were I not of the number of the upstarts, I had daily sought thy service; so do not thou bereave me of thine august visits.’[3] The Lady
- ↑ i.e. from the opening made in the ceiling for ventilation. Or the saloon in which she sat may have been open to the sky, as is not uncommon in the East.
- ↑ Zubeideh was the daughter of Jaafer, son of El Mensour, second Khalif of the house of Abbas, and was therefore Er Reshid’s first cousin. It does not appear why she is called daughter (bint) of El Casim.
- ↑ Lit. “of those noble steps.”
