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"It is himself," Iskender whispered, dashing on into the house; while his mother made wild reverence in the Frank's direction, quite oblivious of the fact that the object of her bows and servile gestures could not, from the circumstances of his position, see them. "Make all speed, O beloved!" she implored Iskender. "It is not well that his Highness should remain extended in the hot sun.
I have the story from the maid who carried tea to them. She listened by the door at my request, because I knew how nearly it concerned thee." By way of consolation Asad offered to his friend a length of sugar-cane he had himself sucked three parts dry. It was accepted blindly. Iskender knew not what he did or said.
Once on horseback, his eagerness again became active, and, in a measure, practical. He knew the direction Iskender had proposed to take, and, stopping before the hotel for a minute, he learnt from the sons of Mûsa the name of the first halting-place. Amused by his indignation at the start without him, those old friends mocked him, crying: "They have fled from thee.
He said, "That's all right," and gave his hand to Iskender, who all at once beheld the beauty of the trees and sky, the wealth of crimson flowers above the sakieh. But when the suppliant pressed it to his lips, the Frank seemed angry, cried, "Don't be idiotic!" and glanced round him nervously. "I luf you, sir!" pursued Iskender passionately. "By God, I neffer tell you lies again.
After four days came the priest's reply, to the effect that preparations were being made for the wedding; upon receipt of which Iskender set forth on his journey, mounted upon an ass, and accompanied by two wealthy Christian merchants of El Cuds, new friends of his, who valued his acquaintance. Their escort won him standing in his native town. The bridal was attended with festivities.
With one hand raised as a screen from the declining sun, the mother of Iskender clenched the other, and shook it down the pathway of those ladies so that the bracelets of coloured glass tinkled upon her strong brown arm. "Ha, Carûlîn, most ancient virgin, thy stalk is a crane's! There is neither flesh nor blood in thee, but only gristle and dry skin.
"This afternoon, at the house of Karlsberger; forget not," Elias cried. "We have ordered a fine feast in thy friend's honour." "Fail us not, or it shall be the worse for thee," put in Yuhanna. Iskender swore obedience to their will and hurried on, mentally resolved to hire horses and take his Emîr for a ride until the evening.
Iskender left them at these devotions, passing on into the city. There he lost all purpose and the count of time in rapture with the colours of the motley throng, which budded in the night of long, dark tunnels and blossomed in the open alleys, full of shade.
Iskender, for his footing in the house, helped the servants wherever an extra hand was required, and in that way learnt to wait at table, to polish boots and brush clothes, and acquired some inkling of the art of cooking. The positive need of these attainments for the coming journey made him quick to learn.
My God, it is true, sir; Elias said so too!" "Elias is a liar. . . . Confess now that you never knew the way, and that your father never in his life saw any valley such as that you've so often described to me." But Iskender would not admit that he had lied at all; to do so would have been to justify his patron's cruel scorn.
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