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"It is agreed," said Fakrash, "for I am confident that Bedeea will accept thee joyfully." "We shall see," said Horace. "But it might be as well if you went and prepared her a little. I suppose you know where to find her and you've only twenty-four hours, you know." "More than is needed," answered the Jinnee, with such childlike confidence, that Horace felt almost ashamed of so easy a victory.
Seyf, the son of the King of Egypt, afterwards fell desperately in love with Bedeea, but she and her grandmother both declared that between mankind and the Jann there could be no agreement. "And Seyf was a King's son!" commented Horace. "I needn't alarm myself. She wouldn't be likely to have anything to say to me. It's just as I told Fakrash."
And I am persuaded that thou wilt turn out to be that mortal, since thou art both strong and fearless, and, moreover, it is also predestined that Bedeea shall wed one of the sons of men." "Then," said Horace, feeling that this line of defence must be abandoned, "I fall back on objection number one.
To his relief, however, the conclusion ran thus; "Seyf-el-Mulook lived with Bedeea-el-Jemal a most pleasant and agreeable life ... until they were visited by the terminator of delights and the separator of companions." "If that means anything at all," he reasoned, "it means that Seyf and Bedeea are both deceased. Even Jinneeyeh seem to be mortal.
His heart grew lighter still as he came to the end, for he learnt that, after many adventures which need not be mentioned here, the devoted Seyf did actually succeed in gaining the proud Bedeea as his wife. "Even Fakrash could not propose to marry me to some one who has a husband already," he thought. "Still, she may be a widow!"
Bedeea, it appeared, was the lovely daughter of Shahyal, one of the Kings of the Believing Jann; her father not Fakrash himself, as the Jinnee had incorrectly represented had offered her in marriage to no less a personage than King Solomon himself, who, however, had preferred the Queen of Sheba.
"Dismiss bashfulness from thee, since all this is designed to render thee more acceptable in the eyes of the Princess Bedeea," said the Jinnee. Horace said no more, though he could not but think that this parade would be thrown away. But as they turned into Victoria Street and seemed to be heading straight for the Abbey, a horrible thought occurred to him.
That makes two of them." "Surely I have spoken of him to thee as my deadliest foe? It is true that he is a powerful and vindictive Efreet, who hath long persecuted the beauteous Bedeea with hateful attentions. Yet it may be possible, by good fortune, to overthrow him." "Then I gather that any suitor for Bedeea's hand would be looked upon as a rival by the amiable Jarjarees?"
After all, his only authority for the marriage and decease of Bedeea was the "Arabian Nights," which was not unimpeachable evidence. What if she were alive and waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom? No one but Fakrash would have conceived such an idea as marrying him to a Jinneeyeh in Westminster Abbey; but he was capable of any extravagance, and there were apparently no limits to his power.
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