"
Halil shook his head gravely.
"So young, and yet to desire death! And do you still want to die, eh?"
"Your own eyes can tell you that I do not."
Halil had taken a great fancy to the girl. He had never before known
what it was to love any human being; but now as he sat there face to
face with the girl, whose dark eyelashes cast shadows upon her pale
cheeks, and regarded her melancholy, irresponsive features, he fancied
he saw a peri before him, and felt a new man awakening within him
beneath this strange charm.
Halil could never remember the time when his heart had actually throbbed
for joy, but now that he was sitting down by the side of this beautiful
maid it really began to beat furiously. Ah! how truly sang the poet when
he said: "Two worlds there are, one beneath the sun and the other in the
heart of a maid."
For a long time he gazed rapturously on the beauteous slave, admiring in
turn her fair countenance, her voluptuous bosom, and her houri-like
figure. How lovely, how divinely lovely it all was! And then he
bethought him that all this loveliness was his own; that he was the
master, the possessor of this girl, at whose command she would fall upon
his bosom, envelop him with the pavilion, dark as night, of her flowing
tresses, and embrace him with arms of soft velvet. Ah! and those lips
were not only red but sweet; and that breast was not only snow-white
but throbbing and ardent--and at the thought his brain began to swim for
joy and rapture.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43