undertaking, and I doubt not thou art he
that will finish with that tadpole Shagpat, and sit in the high seat, thy
name an odour in distant lands, a joy to the historian, the Compiler of
Events, thou Master of the Event, the greatest which time will witness
for ages to come.'

When she had spoken Shibli Bagarag considered her words, and the
knowledge that he was selected by destiny as Master of the Event inflated
him; and he was a hawk in eagerness, a peacock in pride, an ostrich in
fulness of chest, crying, 'O Noorna bin Noorka! is't really so? Truly it
must be, for the readers of planets were also busy with me at the time of
my birth, interpreting of me in excessive agitation; and the thing they
foretold is as thou foretellest. I am, wullahy! marked: I walk manifest
in the eye of Providence.'

Thereupon he exulted, and his mind strutted through the future of his
days, and down the ladder of all time, exacting homage from men, his
brethren; and 'twas beyond the art of Noorna to fix him to the present
duties of the enterprise: he was as feathered seed before the breath of
vanity.

Now, while the twain discoursed, she of the preparations for shaving
Shagpat, he of his completion of the deed, and the honours due to him as
Master of the Event, Feshnavat the Vizier returned to them from his
entertainment of the Cadi; and he had bribed him to silence with a mighty
bribe. So he called to them--

'Ho! be ye ready to commence the work? and have ye advised together as to
the beginning? True is that triplet:

"Whatever enterprize man hath,
For waking love or curbing wrath,
'Tis the first step that makes a path."

And how have ye determined as to that first step?'

Noorna replied, 'O my father! we have not decided, and there hath been
yet no deliberation between us as to that.'

Then he said, 'All this while have ye talked, and no deliberation as to
that! Lo, I have drawn the Cadi to our plot, and bribed him with a mighty
bribe; and I have prepared possible disguises for this nephew of the
barber; and I have had the witnesses of thy betrothal despatched to
foreign parts, far kingdoms in the land of Roum, to prevent tattling and
gabbling; and ye that were left alone for debating as to the great deed,
ye have not yet deliberated as to that! Is't known to ye, O gabblers,
aught of the punishment inflicted by Shahpesh, the Persian, on Khipil,
the Builder?--a punishment that, by Allah!'

Shibli Bagarag said,