ly, in the evening, he betakes
himself to the quarter of the city where Veenah's father lives; and,
walking to and fro before the house, soon discovers that he is
recognised. By a cord, let down from the window, he conveys a letter
to her, which, the following evening, she answers; and thus a regular
correspondence was kept up, which, by the exercise it afforded to
their imaginations, and the difficulties attendant upon it, inflamed
their passion to the highest pitch. He had, however, soon the
misfortune to be discovered by Balty Mahu, and, in consequence, Veenah
is debarred from pen and ink, but contrives to acquaint her lover that
their intercourse has been discovered, by a short note, written with a
burnt stick. Gurameer now goes in despair to Veenah's father, from
whom he experiences a haughty repulse, and who, in the following
night, secretly leaves the city, with his daughter, embarking on the
Ganges, and taking measures to prevent the discovery of the place of
his retreat. At the expiration of two or three months, an end is put
to Gurameer's doubts and apprehensions, by his return, with his
daughter and son-in-law--a rich Omrah, four times her age. After the
first ebullitions of rage have subsided, his love returns; but he is
never able to succeed in obtaining an interview with Veenah. By his
cousin Fatima, he learns the circumstances of Veenah's marriage, and
the deceptions which had been practised on her, aided by the unbounded
authority which parents exercise in eastern countries. The unhappy
Veenah, as firm in her principles as she was gentle in disposition,
refuses to see him. "Tell him," said she, "that Heaven has forbidden
it, and to its decrees we are bound to submit I am now the wife of
another, and it is our duty to forget all that is past. But if this be
possible, my heart tells me it can be only by our never meeting!"

Gurameer now fell into a state of settled melancholy, and consented to
travel, more for the purpose of pleasing his parents, than from any
concern for his own health; but travelling had little effect--"he
carried a barbed arrow in his heart; and the greater the efforts to
extract it, the more they rankled the wound." When so much emaciated
that he was not expected to live a month, he took a voyage, coastwise,
to Madras; and, on his arrival there, learned that Balty Mahu had
recently left that place. This intelligence operated like a charm; the
desire of revenge roused all his energies a