The Mating of the Blades/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
The wisdom of the old—which is, of course, the End.
Not many days later—the day following the departure of Mr. Ezra Warburton and Mr. Preserved Higgins who, enemies to the last, had interviewed Hector individually and separately on the question of the “concessions,” to be met with the reply: “I'll grant no concessions to anybody. Tamerlanistan will be developed. But not with foreign money, nor for foreign profit. Through our own work—for our own profit!” … not many days later, the princess, turning to Hector at the end of the daily durbar, said that she was a little depressed.
“About what?” asked Hector.
“About Hajji Akhbar Khan, Itizad el-Dowleh. He sent thee here—and thus, indirectly, thy brother! His hand was the hand of benevolence and wisdom from the beginning. Yet has he never returned from the far places—has he never explained why he sent thee as he did send thee—without telling thee word of the ancient prophecy—why he let thee go blindfolded, to battle against Fate!”
And the answer came, a week or two afterwards, in a letter delivered by a messenger who came mysteriously and disappeared mysteriously.
It bore neither date nor place, and read as follows:
“By the will of Allah, the One, the King of Men, the King of the Day of Judgment, may this letter be safely delivered into the hands of Aziza Nurmahal, Gengizkhani.
“A prophecy is a prophecy. But a human heart is a human heart, a human soul is a human soul, and it is only the dust and the grime and the sufferings which purify the truly great. Thus, when Al Nakia came to me, I gave him but little help. Nor did I tell him of the prophecy. For Tamerlanistan needed a man who could follow his own mind, unhampered, unclogged, by prophecies and traditions.
“If, thus, Al Nakia proved himself to be a good and strong man, the prophecy proved true; if he proved himself bad and weak, the prophecy proved untrue.
“And it DID prove true!
“I am old. Thus wise. Thus, too, stubborn. I shall never, therefore, return to Tamerlanistan. For, while my stewardship was good in its time and generation, time changes, and customs, and conditions. And, being old and stubborn, I would doubtless disapprove of many innovations of which Al Nakia and his brother would approve. Thence would come unhappiness and bitterness. Therefore I shall never return.
“Gossip travels swiftly on wings. It travels East and West, North and South, even to the place where I shall live out my days.
“Thus do I know of the double wedding, the double fulfillment, and my old heart is happy at the double happiness, and just a little sad with envy—the envy of an old and useless man who, years, years ago, filled the caverns of his dreams and his life with words and deeds of love.
“May thou, Aziza Nurmahal, and the foreign woman bear as many man-children as there are hairs in my beard!
THE END.