Page:Tales of Today.djvu/104

88 again, strained every nerve to make himself agreeable, and as he was young and good looking, had studied poetry and expressed himself in the most elegant language, he thought he could see that he was not displeasing to her eyes and made bold to ask the princess for a rendezvous in a more suitable and more retired place than was afforded by Bedreddin's shop.

"I know," he said, "that at best I am but fit to be the dust beneath your feet, that the swiftest horse in the stable of the prophet, even should he gallop at his highest speed, could not traverse the distance that parts me from you in a thousand years; but love begets audacity, and the worm enamored of the rose may not refrain from telling his passion."

Ayesha listened to it all without the slightest indication of anger, and fixing full upon Mahmoud-Ben-Ahmed her languorous eyes, said to him:

"Be in the mosque of the sultan Hassan, beneath the third lamp, to-morrow at the hour of prayer; you will encounter there a black slave attired in yellow damask. Follow him whither he may lead you." That said, she covered her face with her veil and left the shop.

Our swain, as may well be supposed, did not fail to be punctual at the rendezvous; he stationed himself beneath the third lamp and did not dare to stir from it for fear of not being found by the black slave, who was not yet at his post. It is true that Mahmoud-Ben-Ahmed was there two hours ahead of the appointed time. At last he saw the negro in yellow damask approaching; he came straight to the pillar against which Mahmoud-Ben-Ahmed was leaning. When the slave had observed him closely he made a sign to