The Shaving of Shagpat - George Meredith (bookreader TXT) 📗

renounced my trade,
Half-ruined; “Ah!” said they, “return and win!
To even scales ourselves we will throw in!” ’

“How so? But let discreetness reign and security flourisheth!”

Ukleet nodded at him, and repeated the distich:

“Men of worth and men of wits
Shoot with two arrows, and make two hits.”

So he arranged with Boolp the same appointment as with the Vizier, and returned to Queen Bhanavar.

Now, in the dark of night Aswarak stood within the gate of the palace-garden of Mashalleed that was ajar, and a hand from a veiled figure reached to him, and he caught it, in the fullness of his delusion, crying, “Thou, my Queen?” But the hand signified silence, and drew him past the tank of the garden and through a court of the palace into a passage lit with lamps, and on into a close-curtained chamber, and beyond a heavy curtain into another, a circular passage descending between black hangings, and at the bottom a square vault draped with black, and in it precious woods burning, oils in censers, and the odour of ambergris and myrrh and musk floating in clouds, and the sight of the Vizier was for a time obscured by the thickness of the incenses floating. As he became familiar with the place, he saw marked therein a board spread at one end with viands and wines, and the nosegay in a water-vase, and cups of gold and a service of gold⁠—every preparation for feasting mightily. So the soul of Aswarak leapt, and he cried, “Now unveil thyself, O moon of our meeting, my mistress!”

The voice of Bhanavar answered him, “Not till we have feasted and drunken, and it seemeth little in our eyes. Surely the chamber is secure: could I have chosen one better for our meeting, O Aswarak?”

Upon that he entreated her to sit with him to the feast, but she cried, “Nay! delay till the other is come.”

Cried he, “Another?”

But she exclaimed, “Hush!” and saying thus went forward to the foot of the passage, and Boolp was there, following Ukleet, both of them under a weight of bags and boxes. So she welcomed the broker, and led him to the feast, he coughing and wheezing and blinking, unwitting the vexation of the Vizier, nor that one other than himself was there. When Boolp heard the voice of the Vizier, in astonishment, addressing him, he started back and fell upon his bags, and the task of coaxing him to the board was as that of haling a distempered beast to the water. Then they sat and feasted together, and Ukleet with them; and if Aswarak or Boolp waxed impatient of each other’s presence, he whispered to them, “Only wait! see what she reserveth for you.” And Bhanavar mused with herself, “Truly that reserved shall be not long coming!” So they drank, and wine got the mastery of Aswarak, so that he made no secret of his passion, and began to lean to her and verse extemporaneously in her ear; and she stinted not in her replies, answering to his urgency in girlish guise, sighing behind the veil, as if under love’s influence. And the Vizier pressed close, and sang:

“ ’Tis said that love brings beauty to the cheeks
Of them that love and meet, but mine are pale;
For merciless disdain on me she wreaks,
And hides her visage from my passionate tale:
I have her only, only when she speaks.
Bhanavar, unveil!

I have thee, and I have thee not! Like one
Lifted by spirits to a shining dale
In Paradise, who seeks to leap and run
And clasp the beauty, but his foot doth fail,
For he is blind: ah! then more woeful none!
Bhanavar, unveil!”

He thrust the wine-cup to her, and she lifted it under her veil, and then sang, in answer to him:

“My beauty! for thy worth
Thank the Vizier!

He gives thee second birth:
Thank the Vizier!

His blooming form without a fault:
Thank the Vizier!

Is at thy foot in this blest vault:
Thank the Vizier!

He knoweth not he telleth such a truth,
Thank the Vizier!

That thou, thro’ him, spring’st fresh in blushing youth:
Thank the Vizier!

He knoweth little now, but he shall soon be wise:
Thank the Vizier!

This meeting bringeth bloom to cheeks and lips and eyes:
Thank the Vizier!

O my beloved in this blest vault, if I love thee for aye,
Thank the Vizier!

Thine am I, thine! and learns his soul what it has taught⁠—to die,
Thank the Vizier!”

Now, Aswarak divined not her meaning, and was enraptured with her, and cried, “Wullahy! so and such thy love! Thine am I, thine! And what a music is thy voice, O my mistress! ’Twere a bliss to Eblis in his torment could he hear it. Life of my head! and is thy beauty increased by me? Nay, thou flatterer!” Then he said to her, “Away with these importunate dogs! ’tis the very hour of tenderness! Wullahy! they offend my nostril: stung am I at the sight of them.”

She rejoined⁠—

“O Aswarak! star of the morn!
Thou that wakenest my beauty from night and scorn,
Thy time is near, and when ’tis come,
Long will a jackal howl that this thy request had been dumb.
O Aswarak! star of the morn!”

So the Vizier imaged in his mind the neglect of Mashalleed from these words, and said, “Leave the King to my care, O Queen of Serpents, and expend no portion of thy power on him; but hasten now the going of these fellows; my heart is straitened by them, and I, wullahy! would gladly see a serpent round the necks of either.”

She continued⁠—

“O Aswarak! star of the morn!
Lo! the star must die when splendider light is born;
In stronger floods the beam will drown:
Shrink, thou puny orb, and dread to bring me my crown,
O Aswarak! star of the morn!”

Then said she, “Hark awhile at those two! There’s a disputation between them.”

So they hearkened, and Ukleet was pledging Boolp, and passing the cup to him; but a sullenness had seized