Page:The Way of a Virgin.djvu/119

Rh stead whence (being himself unseen) he can see all I do with this young lady; and to-morrow he will scold me and cry:

"'How cometh it that thou sayest, I have no mind to marry; and yet thou didst and embrace yonder damsel?'

"So I will withhold myself lest I be ashamed before my sire; and the right and proper thing to do is not to touch her at this present, nor even to look upon her, except to take from her somewhat which shall serve as a token to me and a memorial of her; that some sign endure between me and her."

Then Kamar al-Zaman raised the young lady's hand and took from her littre finger a seal-ring worth an immense amount of money, for that its bezel was a precious jewel...and set it on his own; then, turning his back to her, went to sleep.

Thereupon Maymunah changed herself into a flea and entering into the raiment of Budur, the loved of Dahnash, crept up her calf and came upon her thigh and, reaching a place some four carats below her navel, there bit her. Thereupon she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep, the loveliest of Almighty Allah's creatures, with eyes that put to shame the fairest Houris of Heaven; and a mouth like Solomon's seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more efficacious than a theriack, and lips the colour of coral-stone, and cheeks like blood-red anemone....