Page:The venture; an annual of art and literature.djvu/209

 So presently the counsel of the chief chamberlain took effect, and the Favourite's mouth became as a dove's for quietness. But now the Sultan found that his love for her was altogether flown; her beauty seemed to him flavourless and insipid; and all desire for her favours grew drowsy for lack of the naggings wherewith she had been wont so constantly to assail him.

Then he saw that her way with him had been one of pure reason and beneficence. Seeing that Kings, having through their high estate to be left uncorrected in other matters, have need to be corrected to their appetites, by goadings and thwartings which are not necessary for the less spoiled children of fortune.

And because of his deep grief, the Sultan sacked the chief chamberlain, and sought through all his dominions till he found another woman less fair, but gifted in like measure with a shrewishness of tongue to take the place of his lost Favourite.

6. THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SOUL.

A certain traveller, passing through the slums of a great city, came there upon a man whose countenance indicated a grief which he could not fathom. The traveller, being a curious student of the human heart, stopped him and said:

"Sir, what is this grief which you carry before the eyes of all men, so grievous that it cannot be hidden, yet so deep that it