tresses, and stood over them.  The youth saw her smile at them, and assume tender and taunting manners before them, and imperious manners, killing glances, till in each of the eyes there was a sparkle.  Then she flung back her head as one that feedeth on a mighty triumph, exclaiming, ’Yet am I Rabesqurat! wide is my sovereignty.’  Sideways then she regarded Shibli Bagarag, and it seemed she was urging Abarak to do a deed beyond his powers, he frowning and pointing to the right wrist of the youth.  So she clenched her hands an instant with that feeling which knocketh a nail in the coffin of a desire not dead, and controlled herself, and went to the youth, breaking into beams of beauty; and an enchanting sumptuousness breathed round her, so that in spite of himself he suffered her to take him by the hand and lead him from that orchard through the shivered door and into the palace and the hall of the jasper pillars.  Strange thrills went up his arm from the touch of that Queen, and they were as little snakes twisting and darting up, biting poison-bites of irritating blissfulness.

Now, the hall was spread for a feast, and it was hung with lamps of silver, strewn with great golden goblets, and viands, coloured meats, and ordered fruits on shining platters.  Then said she to Shibli Bagarag, ’O youth! there shall be no deceit, no guile between us.  Thou art but my guest, I no bride to thee, so take the place of the guest beside me.’

He took his seat beside her, Abarak standing by, and she helped the youth to this dish and that dish, from the serving of slaves, caressing him with flattering looks to starve aversion and nourish tender fellowship.  And he was like one that slideth down a hill and can arrest his descent with a foot, yet faileth that freewill.  When he had eaten and drunk with her, the Queen said, ’O youth, no other than my guest! art thou not a prince in the country thou comest from?’

In a moment the pride of the barber forsook him, and he equivocated, saying, ’O Queen! there is among the stars somewhere, as was divined by the readers of planets, a crown hanging for me, and I search a point of earth to intercept its fall.’

She marked him beguiled by vanity, and put sweetmeats to his mouth, exclaiming, ‘Thy manners be those of a prince!’ Then she sang to him of the loneliness of her life, and of one with whom she wished to share her state,—­such as he.  And at her signal came troops of damsels that stood in rings and luted sweetly on the same theme—­the Queen’s loneliness, her love.  And he said to the Queen, ‘Is this so?’

She answered, ‘Too truly so!’