Meseems I wear a robe to which the pest
And horrid traces of wild drunkenness
And wilder nights are clinging, and I cannot
Put off the robe, but all my flesh goes too.
Now I must die, and all will then be well.
But speedily, before this shadow-thinking
About my father gathers blood again:
Else 'twill grow stronger, drag me back to life,
And I must travel onward in this body.

GANEM (slowly leads the old slave forward).
Give heed. This is rich Chorab's wife, the merchant.
Hast understood?

OLD SLAVE (nods).
The rich one.

GANEM.
Aye, thou shalt
Escort her.

OLD SLAVE.
What?

GANEM.
I say, thou art to lead her
Back to her house.

(OLD SLAVE nods.)

SOBEIDE.
Just to the garden wall.
From there I only know how I must go.
Will he do that? I thank thee. That is good,
Most good. Come, aged man, I go with thee.

GANEM.
Go out this door, the old man knows the path.

SOBEIDE.
He knows it, that is good, most good. We go.

[They go out through the door at the right.
GANEM turns to mount the stairs.]

SCENE III

The garden of the rich merchant. The high wall runs from the right
foreground backward toward the left. Steps lead to a small latticed
gate in the wall. To the left a winding path is lost among the trees.
It is early morning. The shrubs are laden with blossoms, and the
meadows are full of flowers. In the foreground the gardener and his
wife are engaged in taking delicate blooming shrubs from an open barrow
and setting them in prepared holes.

GARDENER.
The rest are coming now. But no, that is
A single man ... The master!

WIFE.
What? He's up
Ere dawn, and yesterday his wedding-day?
Alone he walks the garden--that's no man
Like other men.

GARDENER.
Be still, he's coming hither.

MERCHANT (walks up slowly from the left).
The hour of morn, before the sun is up,
When all the branches in the lifeless light
Hang dead and dull, is terrible. I feel
As if I sa