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"My locket with Mamma's hair? Oh, no, no," said Lucy, laughing; "a governess is a lady to teach you." "I don't want to learn any more," said Amina, much disgusted; "I shall tell him I can make a pillau, and dry sweetmeats, and roll rose-leaves. What should I learn for?" "Should you not like to read and write?" "Teaching is only meant for men.
Just such noondays seem to have gone to the making of the Arabian Nights, in Damascus, Bokhara, or Samarkhand, with their desert roadways, files of camels, wandering horsemen, crystal springs, welling up under the shade of feathery date groves; their wilderness of roses, songs of nightingales, wines of Shiraz; their narrow bazaar paths with bright overhanging canopies, the men, in loose robes and multi-coloured turbans, selling dates and nuts and melons; their palaces, fragrant with incense, luxurious with kincob-covered divans and bolsters by the window-side; their Zobedia or Amina or Sufia with gaily decorated jacket, wide trousers, and gold-embroidered slippers, a long narghilah pipe curled up at her feet, with gorgeously liveried eunuchs on guard, and all the possible and impossible tales of human deeds and desires, and the laughter and wailing, of that distant mysterious region.
While they were consulting how to put the question, Zobeide herself, as Amina had recovered from her fainting, approached them, and inquired, "What are you talking of? What is your contest about?"
At these words Amina fetched a lute from a case of yellow satin and gave it to Sadie, who sang several songs to its accompaniment. When she was tired she said to Amina, "My sister, I can do no more; come, I pray you, and take my place."
Is it anything like the little gold case you have round your neck?" "My locket with Mamma's hair? Oh, no, no," said Lucy, laughing; "a governess is a lady to teach you." "I don't want to learn any more," said Amina, much disgusted; "I shall tell him I can make sweetmeats, and roll rose-leaves. What should I learn for?" "Should you not like to read and write?"
Let me remain here till morning, and when I have recovered my senses I will go when you like." "Let him stay," said Amina, who had before proved herself his friend. "It is only just, as he has given us so much amusement." "If you wish it, my sister," replied Zobeida; "but if he does, I must make a new condition.
"Amina will never forget the young white man who has lived in her tents," she said. "He is brave in war, and is a wise counsellor; he will be a great man among his own people." "And I shall never forget you," Edgar replied, "and your kindness to the white slave. When the sheik returns from Massowah he shall bring with him tokens of my remembrance."
Amina, who is subject to fits of somnambulism, has been mistaken for a ghost by the peasants, and they warn Rodolfo that the village is haunted. The information, however, does not disturb him, and he quietly retires to his chamber. The officious Lisa also enters, and a playful scene of flirtation ensues, during which Amina enters the room, walking in her sleep. Lisa seeks shelter in a closet.
Kunigunda, ever willing to aid those in distress, extended a hearty welcome to the damsel, and Amina was henceforth an inmate of the schloss. Now, though Amina was fully as lovely in face and form as her young hostess, she yet lacked the moral beauty of Kunigunda.
To these were added a brace of revolvers each, being the two Rupert had carried and two they had purchased in Suakim, together with ten boxes of ammunition. Edgar also gave to El Bakhat a set of jewellery and several silk scarves for Amina. "Now, sheik," he said, "I should like to purchase the freedom of Yussuf. What do you value him at?" "I will give him to you," the sheik said.
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