He answered, ‘Fairest she who’s likest to her lord.’

Said they, ‘What fairer thing matched with them might prevail?’

The Sage austerely smiled, and said, ‘Yon monkey’s tail.’

    ’Tis left for after-time his wisdom to declare: 
     That’s loveliest we best love, and to ourselves compare. 
     Yet lovelier than all hands shape or fancies build,
     The meanest thing of earth God with his fire hath filled.

Now, when Shibli Bagarag ceased, Noorna bin Noorka cried, ’Enough, O wondrous turner of verse, thou that art honest!’ And she laughed loudly, rustling like a bag of shavings, and rolling in her laughter.

Then said she, ’O my betrothed, is not the thing thou wouldst say no other than—­

         “Each to his mind doth the fairest enfold,
          For broken long since was Beauty’s mould”;

and, “Thou that art old, withered, I cannot flatter thee, as I can in no way pay compliments to the monkey’s tail of high design; nevertheless the Sage would do thee honour”?  So read I thy illustration, O keen of wit! and thou art forgiven its boldness, my betrothed,—­Wullahy! utterly so.’

Now, the youth was abashed at her discernment, and the kindliness of her manner won him to say: 

     There’s many a flower of sweetness, there’s many a gem of earth
     Would thrill with bliss our being, could we perceive its worth. 
     O beauteous is creation, in fashion and device! 
     If I have fail’d to think thee fair, ’tis blindness is my vice.

And she answered him: 

          I’ve proved thy wit and power of verse,
          That is at will diffuse and terse: 
          Lest thou commence to lie—­be dumb! 
          I am content:  the time will come!

Then she said to the Vizier Feshnavat, ’O my father, there is all in this youth, the nephew of the barber, that’s desirable for the undertaking; and his feet will be on a level with the task we propose for him, he the height of man above it.  ’Tis clear that vanity will trip him, but honesty is a strong upholder; and he is one that hath the spirit of enterprise and the mask of dissimulation:  gratitude I observe in him; and it is as I thought when I came upon him on the sand-hill outside the city, that his star is clearly in a web with our star, he destined for the Shaving of Shagpat.’

So the Vizier replied, ’He hath had thwackings, yet is he not deterred from making further attempt on Shagpat.  I think well of him, and I augur hopefully.  Wullahy! the Cadi shall be sent for; I can sleep in his secresy; and he shall perform the ceremonies of betrothal, even now and where we sit, and it shall be for him to write the terms of contract:  so shall we bind the youth firmly to us, and he will be one of us as we are, devoted to the undertaking by three bonds—­the bond of vengeance, the bond of ambition, and that of love.’