_ Heaven forbid! Do not say so for pity's sake, Hajji, for
if such a suspicion were once hinted, the Shah would put his threat into
immediate execution. Where did you ever hear that I loved Zeenab?'

'Many things were reported concerning you at that time,' said I, 'and
all were astonished that a man of your wisdom, the Locman of his time,
the Galenus of Persia, should have embarked in so frail and dangerous a
commodity as a Curdish maid, one of the undoubted progeny of the
devil himself, whose footsteps could not be otherwise than notoriously
unfortunate; who, of herself, was enough to bring ill luck to a whole
empire, much more to a single family like yours.'

'You say true, Hajji,' said Mirza Ahmak, as he shook his head from
side to side, and struck his left hand on the pit of his stomach. 'Ah!
marvellous fool was I ever to have been caught by her black eyes! in
fact, they were not eyes, they were spells:--the devil himself looked
out of them, not she, and if he is not in her now, may I be called
_Gorumsak_ all the rest of my days. But, after all, what shall I do?'

'What can I say?' answered I. 'What will the Shah do with her?'

'Let her go to Jehanum,' answered the doctor; 'let her go to her
father's mansion, and a good journey to her. I am only thinking of my
own skin.'

Upon this, looking up tenderly at me, he said, 'Ah, Hajji! you know how
much I have always loved you: I took you into my house when you were
houseless--I placed you in a good situation, and you have risen in your
profession all through me--allow that there is, or that there ought to
be such a thing in the world as gratitude--you have now an opportunity
of exercising it:' then pausing for a while, and playing with the tip of
my beard, he said, 'Have you guessed what I wished to say?'

'No,' said I, 'it has not yet reached my understanding.'

'Well, then,' said he, 'in two words, own that you are the culprit. A
great loss of consideration would accrue to me, but none to you; you are
young, and can bear such a story to be told of you.'

'Loss of consideration, indeed!' exclaimed I, 'what is that when the
loss of life will ensue? Are you mad, oh Hakim, or do you think me so?
Why should I die? why do you wish to have my blood upon your head? All I
can say, if I am questioned on the subject, is, that I do not think you
guilty, because you were ever too much in fear of the khanum, your wife;
but I will never say that I am guilty.'

Whilst in the