The sun which relieved the bay of Therapia from the thraldom1 of night did the same service for the Golden Horn; only, with a more potential voice, it seemed to say to the cities which were the pride of the latter, Awake! Arise! And presently they were astir indoor and out.
Of all the souls who, obedient to the early summons, poured into the street, and by the south window of the study of the Prince of India, some going this direction, some that, yet each intent upon a particular purpose, not one gave a thought to the Prince, or so much as wondered if he were awake. And the indifference2 of the many was well for him; it gave him immunity3 to pursue his specialty4. But as we, the writer and the reader, are not of the many, and have an interest in the man from knowing more about him than they, what would have been intrusion in them may be excused in us.
Exactly at midnight the Prince, aroused by Syama, had gone to the roof, where there was a table, with a lamp upon it which he could shade at pleasure, an hour-glass, and writing materials. An easy chair was also set for him.
The view of the city offered for his inspection5 was circumscribed6 by the night. The famous places conspicuous7 in daytime might as well have been folded up and put away in a closet; he could not see so much as a glimmer8 of light from any of them. Pleased thereby9, and arguing that even the wicked are good when asleep, he swept the heavens with a glance so long and searching there could be no doubt of the purpose which had brought him forth10.
Next, according to the habit of astrologers, he proceeded to divide the firmament11 into Angles and Houses, and taking seat by the table, arranged the lamp to suit him, started the hour-glass running, and drew a diagram familiar to every adept12 in divinatory13 science--a diagram of the heavens with the Houses numbered from one to twelve inclusive.
In the Houses he then set the mystic symbols of the visible planets as they were at the moment in position, mindful not merely of the parallels, but of the degrees as well. Verifying the correctness of the diagram by a second survey of the mighty14 overarch more careful even than the first, he settled himself in the chair, saying complacently15:
"Now, O Saturn16, thou, the coldest and highest! Thy Houses are ready--come, and at least behold17 them. I wait the configurations18."
Thereupon, perfectly19 at ease, he watched the stellar hosts while, to their own music, they marched past the Thrones of the Most High Planets unchallenged except by him.
Occasionally he sat up to reverse the hour-glass, though more frequently he made new diagrams, showing the changes in position of the several influential20 bodies relatively21 to each other and to the benefic or malific signs upon which so much of result depended; nor did his eyes once weary or his zeal22 flag.
Finally when the sun, yet under the horizon behind the heights of Scutari, began to flood the sky with a brilliance23 exceeding that of the bravest of the stars, he collected the drawings, extinguished the lamp, and descended24 to his study, but not to rest.
Immediately that the daylight was sufficient, he addressed himself to mathematical calculations which appeared exhaustive of every rule and branch of the disciplinary science. Hours flew by, and still he worked. He received Syama's call to breakfast; returning from the meal, always the simplest of the day with him, he resumed the problem. Either he was prodigiously25 intent on a scheme in mind, or he was occupying himself diligently26 in order to forget himself.
About noon he was interrupted.
"My father."
Recognizing the voice, he pushed the proofs of labor27 from him almost to the other side of the table, turned in his seat, and replied, his face suffused28 with pleasure:
"Thou enemy to labor! Did not some one tell thee of what I have on hand, and how I am working to finish it in time to take the water with thee this afternoon? Answer, O my Gul-Bahar, more beautiful growing as the days multiply!"
The Lael of the son of Jahdai, the Gul-Bahar of the mysterious Prince, was much grown, and otherwise greatly changed since we saw her last. Each intervening year had in passing left her a benediction29. She was now about sixteen, slight, and Jewish in eyes, hair, and complexion30. The blood enriched her olive cheeks; the lips took a double freshness from health; the smile resting habitually31 on the oval face had a tale it was always telling of a nature confiding32, happy, satisfied with its conditions, hopeful of the future, and unaware33 from any sad experience that life ever admitted of changes. Her beauty bore the marks of intelligence; her manner was not enough self-contained to be called courtly; yet it was easy, and carried its own certificate of culture; it yielded too much to natural affection to deserve the term dignified34. One listening to her, and noticing the variableness of her mood, which in almost the same instant could pass from gay to serious without ever reaching an extreme, would pronounce her too timid for achievement outside the purely35 domestic; at the same time he would think she appeared lovable to the last degree, and might be capable of loving in equal measure.
She was dressed in Byzantine fashion. In crossing the street from her father's house, she had thrown a veil over her head, but it was now lying carelessly about her neck. The wooden sandals with blocks under them, like those yet worn by women in Levantine countries to raise them out of the dust and mud when abroad, had been shaken lightly from her feet at the top of the stairs. Perfectly at home, she advanced to the table, and put one of her bare arms around the old man's neck, regardless of the white locks it crushed close down, and replied:
"Thou flatterer! Do I not know beauty is altogether in the eye of the beholder36, and that all persons do not see alike? Tell me why, knowing the work was to be done, you did not send for me to help you? Was it for nothing you made me acquainted with figures until--I have your authority for the saying--I might have stood for professor of mathematics in the best of the Alexandrian schools? Do not shake your head at me--or"--
With the new idea all alight in her face, she ran around the table, and caught up one of the diagrams.
"Ah, it is as I thought, father! The work I love best, and can do best! Whose is the nativity? Not mine, I know; for I was born in the glad time when Venus ruled the year. Anael, her angel, held his wings over me against this very wry-faced, snow-chilled Saturn, whom I am so glad to see in the Seventh House, which is the House of Woe37. Whose the nativity, I say?"
"Nay38, child--pretty child, and wilful--you have a trick of getting my secrets from me. I sometimes think I am in thy hands no more than tawdry lace just washed and being wrung39 preparatory to hanging in the air from thy lattice. It is well for you to know there are some things out of your reach--for the time at least."
"That is saying you will tell me."
"Yes--some day."
"Then I will be patient."
Seeing him become thoughtful, and look abstractedly out of the window, she laid the diagram down, went back, and again put her arm around his neck.
"I did not come to interrupt you, father, but to learn two things, and run away."
"You begin like a rhetorician. What subdivisions lie under those two things? Speak!"
"Thank you," she replied, quickly. "First, Syama told me you were at some particular task, and I wanted to know if I could help you."
"Dear heart!" he said, tenderly.
"Next--and this is all--I did not want you to forget we are to go up the Bosphorus this afternoon--up to Therapia, and possibly to the sea."
"You wish to go?" he asked.
"I dreamt of it all night."
"Then we will; and to prove I did not forget, the boatmen have their orders already. We go to the landing directly after noon."
"Not too soon," she answered, laughing. "I have to dress, and make myself gorgeous as an empress. The day is soft and kind, and there will he many people on the water, where I am already known quite as well as here in the city as the daughter of the Prince of India."
He replied with an air of pride:
"Thou art good enough for an emperor."
"Then I may go and get ready."
She withdrew her arm, kissed him, and started to the door, but returned, with a troubled look.
"One thing more, father."
He was recovering his work, but stopped, and gave her ear.
"What is it?"
"You have said, good father, that as my studies were too confining, it would be well if I took the air every day in my sedan. So, sometimes with Syama, sometimes with Nilo, I had the men carry me along the wall in front of the Bucoleon. The view over the sea toward Mt. Ida is there very beautiful; and if I look to the landward side, right at my feet are the terraced gardens of the palace. Nowhere do the winds seem sweeter to me. For their more perfect enjoyment40 I have at moments alighted from the chair, and walked; always avoiding acquaintances new and old. The people appear to understand my preference, and respect it. Of late, however, one person--hardly a man--has followed me, and stopped near by when I stopped; he has even persisted in attempts to speak to me. To avoid him, I went to the Hippodrome yesterday, and taking seat in front of the small obelisks41 in that quarter, was delighted with the exhibition of the horsemen. Just when the entertainment was at its height, and most interesting, the person of whom I am speaking came and sat on the same bench with me. I arose at once. It is very annoying, father. What shall I do?"
The Prince did not answer immediately, and when he did, it was to ask, suggestively:
"You say he is young?"
"Yes."
"His dress?"
"He seems to be fond of high colors."
"You asked no question concerning him?"
"No. Whom could I ask?"
Again the Prince reflected. Outwardly he was unconcerned; yet his blood was more than warm--the blood of pride which, as every one knows, is easily started, and can go hissing42 hot. He did not wish her to think of the affair too much; therefore his air of indifference; nevertheless it awoke a new train of thought in him.
If one were to insult this second Lael of his love, what could he do? The idea of appeal to a magistrate43 was irritating. Were he to assume punishment of the insolence44, from whom could he hope justice or sympathy--he, a stranger living a mysterious life?
He ran hastily over the resorts at first sight open to him. Nilo was an instrument always ready. A word would arouse the forces in that loyal but savage45 nature, and they were forces subject to cunning which never slept, never wearied, and was never in a hurry--a passionless cunning, like that of the Fedavies of the Old Man of the Mountain.
It may be thought the Prince was magnifying a fancied trouble; but the certainty that sorrow must overtake him for every indulgence of affection was a haunting shadow always attending the most trifling46 circumstance to set his imagination conjuring47 calamities48. That at such times his first impulse was toward revenge is explicable; the old law, an eye for an eye, was part of his religion; and coupling it with personal pride which a thought could turn into consuming heat, how natural if, while the anticipation49 was doing its work, his study should be to make the revenge memorable50!
Feeling he was not entirely51 helpless in the affair, he thought best to be patient awhile, and learn who was the offender52; a conclusion followed by a resolution to send Uel with the girl next time she went to take the air.
"The young men of the city are uncontrolled by respect or veneration," he said, quietly. "The follies53 they commit are sometimes ludicrous. Better things are not to be looked for in a generation given to dress as a chief ambition. And then it may be, O my Gul-Bahar"--he kissed her as he uttered the endearment--"it may be he of whom you complain does not know who you are. A word may cure him of his bad manners. Do not appear to notice him. Have eyes for everything in the world but him; that is the virtuous54 woman's defence against vulgarity and insult under every circumstance. Go now, and make ready for the boat. Put on your gayest; forget not the last necklace I gave you--and the bracelets--and the girdle with the rubies55. The water from the flying oars56 shall not outflash my little girl. There now--Of course we will go to the landing in our chairs."
When she disappeared down the stairs, he went back to his work.
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1
thraldom
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| n.奴隶的身份，奴役，束缚 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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immunity
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| n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权 | |
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specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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divinatory
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| adj.占卦的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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Saturn
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| n.农神，土星 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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configurations
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| n.[化学]结构( configuration的名词复数 )；构造；（计算机的）配置；构形（原子在分子中的相对空间位置） | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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prodigiously
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| adv.异常地，惊人地，巨大地 | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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28
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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benediction
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| n.祝福；恩赐 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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32
confiding
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| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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obelisks
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| n.方尖石塔，短剑号，疑问记号( obelisk的名词复数 ) | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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48
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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49
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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50
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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53
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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54
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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55
rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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56
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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