to strike her teeth).
Commandest thou that I should dance? If not,
Commandest thou some other thing?

MERCHANT.
My wife,
How wild thou speakest with me, and how strangely!

SOBEIDE.
Wild? Hard, perhaps: my fate is none too soft.
Thou speakest as a good man speaks, then be
So good as not to speak with me today.
I am thy chattel, take me as thy chattel,
And let me, like a chattel, keep my thoughts
Unspoken, only uttered to myself!
[She weeps silently with compressed lips, her
face turned toward the darkness.]

MERCHANT.
So many tears and in such silence. This
Is not the shudder that relieves the anguish
Of youth. Here there is deeper pain to quiet
Than inborn rigidness of timid spirits.

SOBEIDE.
Lord, shouldst thou waken in the night and find
Me weeping thus whenas I seem to sleep,
Then wake me, lest I do what thy good right
Forbids me. For in dreams upon thy bed
I shall be seeing then another man
And longing for him; this were not becoming,
And makes me shudder at myself to think it.
Oh promise me that thou wilt then awake me!
[Pause. The MERCHANT is silent; deep feeling
darkens his face.]
No question who it is? Does that not matter?
No? But thy face is gloomy and thou breathest
With effort? Then I will myself confess it:
Thou hast beheld him at our house ere now,
His name is Ganem--son of old Shalnassar,
The carpet-dealer--and 'tis three years now
Since first I knew him. But since yesteryear
I have not seen him more.
This I have said, this last thing I reveal,
Because I will permit no sediment
Of secrecy and lies to lurk within me.
I care not thou shouldst know: I am no vessel
Sold off as pure, but lined with verdigris
To eat its bottom out--and then because
I wanted to be spared his frequent visits
In this abode--for that were hard to bear.

MERCHANT (threateningly, but soon choked by wrath and pain).
Thou! Thou hast ... thou hast ...
[He claps his hands to his