We watched the precious seed night and day with anxious solicitude.  I had other seeds ready prepared and planted, in case this should fail.

One night in my slumber I was disturbed by my attendant telling me that the gardener had an important communication to make.  I bade him enter.  He came to make known to me that my labours had been so far successful, that, in the vase of earth in which the seed had been planted, a little white bud was bursting from the ground.  He brought the vase in his arms, and I will not deny that I shed tears of joy.

About three years from that time, to my delight, fruit made its appearance.  I watched with greedy eagerness the day when it would ripen.

I cannot tell you with what anxiety I tended its growth.  I fancy at this moment I feel the heart-beatings that always accompanied me as I approached the spot where the plant was placed.

The gardener, desiring to save me some of the pain of deferred hope, told me that the time of ripening would be later than I had anticipated.

A little in advance, however, of the time I had foretold, the gardener entered my study, with a face radiant with joy, and placed before me one of the prettiest little baskets I had ever seen, though the beauty of our basket-work is, as I have said, remarkable.  I thought it must be a present from his wife, for she was very skilful and often presented me with baskets of her own work.  Loving my people as I did and looking on them all as my children, I saw the nervous state of the man, and to reassure him, I said, “This is kind of your fair Lineena.”  At the same time I admiringly examined the basket, but its weight indicating that there was something inside, I raised the lid, and beholding its contents I uttered a cry, such a cry of joy as might escape a parent on finding a long-lost child.

The basket contained a specimen of the precious fruit quite ripe.  I turned it on every side with anxious interest, and, having congratulated my faithful gardener, who had so zealously carried out my wishes, I descended to the culinary department, for I would not trust the precious treasure to others, and I immediately proceeded to cook the vegetable of my creation.

I directed a small bird to be prepared with which to eat the new condiment, that I might thus test its properties; when it had been served, I directed the gardener to sit at my table.  The success was beyond my best hopes.  By the process of cooking, the fruit-vegetable had been dissolved to the consistency of a jelly, and formed the most relishing sauce ever tasted,—­aromatic, stimulating, and appetising.

To a richness like cream was added the pungency and aromatic flavour of spices, with the relish of salt and the piquancy of fresh lemon-juice—­ in a word, the combination presented the finest flavour for a condiment that could possibly be desired, surpassing all the spices and sauces hitherto known in my world.  Indeed, it was so exquisitely appetising that an epicure might easily be tempted to eat the vegetable without the addition of the meat.