e Queen. And it
seemed to me, as I mused, as if I had died long ago; and everything
appeared to me like something that had happened long ago, to some
other than myself. And day very slowly followed day, and life came
back to me as it were with hesitating steps, as though it knew that it
was coming to one that scarcely cared to bid it welcome. And then at
last there came a day when I looked about with curiosity to see what
might be seen, and lo! there in a corner lay my lute upon the floor.

So, after a while, I said: Lute, canst thou tell me, how it feels to
be discarded? And I went and took it up, and strung it, and began to
play. And as fate would have it, there came over the strings as I
touched them a sadness like my own, that seemed to say: Come, we are
fellow-sufferers, and now let us weep together, since there is
absolutely nothing else to do. And suddenly, the lute fell from my
hands of its own accord, and I fell with it upon the floor. And I
wept, as if my very soul was about to abandon my body, for sheer
despair. And as I wept, I came slowly back to the self I was before;
yet so, that the half of me was left behind, and lost for ever. And I
said to myself: I have been robbed by Tarawali of all that was worth
anything in my soul, and it only remains to consider, what is the next
thing to be done.

And that very evening, I went out of my house for the first time since
I fell down. And avoiding the streets, I wandered along by bypaths,
till I reached the river bank. And I hid myself in the bushes, and lay
watching the sun go down across the river, and thinking of Tarawali
and her pool, till unawares I went to sleep. And how long I slept I
know not, but I woke suddenly in the night, roused by the voices of
two that were talking close beside me, not knowing there was anyone
by, to overhear. And as I listened carelessly without curiosity, all
at once there fell on my ear the name of Narasinha.

And instantly, I crawled, like a panther, little by little, nearer to
those two talkers, until I could easily hear everything they said. And
one was saying to the other: It will be very easy, and the reward is
very large. Then the other said: But why does Narasinha want to have
him slain at all? And the first voice answered: What a question!
Anyone can see that thou art a stranger to this city. Dost thou not
know that he is the lover of the Queen, aye! and so, that she is more
than his life? And yet, for all that, he canno