Page:Ayesha, the return of She (IA cu31924013476175).pdf/268

256 Yes, my Leo, now indeed we are clad with splendour for a robe, and now our fate draws near to its accomplishment. Then perchance will come the down-rushing of the night; and she sighed, looked up tenderly and said, See, I am talking to thee in Arabic. Hast thou forgotten it?

No.

Then let it be our tongue, for I love it best of all, who lisped it at my mother's knee. Now leave me here alone awhile; I would think. Also, she added thoughtfully, and speaking with a strange and impressive inflexion of the voice, there are some to whom I must give audience.

So we went, all of us, supposing that Ayesha was about to receive a deputation of the Chiefs of the Mountain Tribes who came to felicitate her upon her betrothal.