d ignoring its inestimable worth? There are
other and better judges, who would give their very lives, only to be
allowed to pick it up.

And she looked at me with a smile, and she leaned towards me, and she
said, with gentle mischief in her eyes: Shall I tell thee thy very
thoughts, and it may be, tumble down for thee the unsubstantial
castles thou art even already building in the air? Thou art marvelling
at the King, for giving me so carelessly away: and thou art wondering,
why I am telling thee about it: and last of all, it may be, thou art
counting on my independence. Is it not so? And I hung my head in
silence, ashamed at being so accurately detected by the subtle
penetration of this extraordinary Queen. And presently she said, as
if to console me for my confusion, with unutterable sweetness in her
voice: Come, do not allow delusive imagination to run away with thee,
but curb him, and rein him up, and stop him, and be wise. For I
belong, body and soul, to Narasinha. And yet, for all that, I am my
own mistress, and act exactly as I choose. And I see anyone I please,
and at my own time, and go, like a wild elephant, wherever inclination
leads me. And music is my passion, and I heard of thee, and sent for
thee, and now that I have seen thee, I like thee. And now, shall we be
friends?

And as she ended, she put out towards me both her hands, leaning
towards me, and looking at me with a smile, and eyes full of an
invitation so irresistibly caressing that it swept away my
self-control, consuming it like a blade of grass in a forest fire. And
I started to my feet, and instantly she rose herself. And I seized her
right hand in my own, with a grip that made it an unwilling prisoner
beyond all hope of escape. And I exclaimed with agitation: Friends!
only friends! Alas! O Tarawali, hast thou given thyself, body and
soul, so absolutely to Narasinha, as not to have left even the very
smallest atom over, for me, now that I have discovered thee at last? O
I have dreamed of thee, and thy sweetness, and thy eyes, so long, so
long.

And as I gazed at her, forgetting everything in the world, but my
incontrollable thirst for herself, she sighed, and she said with
compassion: Poor boy! I did ill, to summon thee at all. Thou art only
drinking poison, and yet I know not any antidote, save only to bid
thee go away.

And I stood, bereft of my senses, and without knowing what I did,
pulling her by the hand, that lay reluctantly in mine