Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/384

 "Therefore, Tuan, I sit here musing over the days of long ago, and at times lears gather in my eyes, so that I can barely see the wood to fashion it. In my time, after the way of men, I have loved and been loved by many women; but now that I am old, ever my thoughts and my longings play around the girl whom I held dearer and more desirable than any, she who in an evil hour was lost to me ere yet I had known her for my wife. In truth, Tuan, my lot hath been chěláka, accursed of Fate.

"Be pleased to listen to my story, Tuan, for it is very strange. Moreover, though my affliction was great, men made a mock of me and of my grief, and derided me by reason of the nature of my calamity.

"It was very long ago, when the old Bendahâra reigned in Palang, and he who to-day is Sultan was a fugitive from his wrath; and these things happened far away in the ala-the upper reaches of the river- in those distant places where, the streams being slender, men regard a gallon of water as a deep pool, as the saying goes. I was wandering through the country, trading, for I had incurred guilt owing to a trouble that arose concerning certain love passages between myself and a maiden of the Bendahara's household. For a while, therefore, my father deemed it prudent that I should quit the capital, where the king was very wroth, and hide for a space among the villages on the banks of the shallow, bustling streams, where the folk are peaceful and foolish, and ready to do aught that they are bidden by a man belonging to the Bendahara's court, siner