"
"Thou hast the right spirit, and I thank thee for thy good faith. But it
may be well not to send that message. Thy friends might think it
strange, and suspect thee of hiding something. It is better to give no
cause for questionings. Go then, to their house, but say nothing of
having met me, or of any new hope in thine heart. Yet let the hope
remain, and be to thee like the young moon that riseth over the desert,
to show the weary traveller a rill of sweet water in an oasis of date
palms. And now I will bid thee farewell, with a night of dreams in which
thy dearest desires shall be fulfilled before thine eyes. I go to my
cousin, on thy business."
"Good night, Sidi. Henceforth my hope is in thee." Victoria held out her
hand, and Si Maieddine clasped it, bowing with the courtesy of his race.
He was nearer to her than he had been before, and she noticed a perfume
which hung about his clothing, a perfume that seemed to her like the
East, heavy and rich, suggestive of mystery and secret things. It
brought to her mind what she had read about harems, and beautiful,
languid women, yet it suited Si Maieddine's personality, and somehow did
not make him seem effeminate.
"See," he said, in the poetic language which became him as his
embroidered clothes and the haunting perfume became him; "see, how thine
hand lies in mine like a pearl that has dropped into the hollow of an
autumn leaf. But praise be to Allah, autumn and I are yet far apart.
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