But she stamped her foot, crying, ’No! no!  I will hear it!  There’s a mystery.’

So he said, ’Well, then, it is this only; small matter enough.  I have a business with the captain of the vessel that brought us hither, and I must see him ere he setteth sail; no other than that, thou jealous, watchful star!  Pierce me with thine eyes; it is no other than that.’

She levelled her lids at him till her lustrous black eyelashes were as arrows, and mimicked him softly, ‘No other than that?’

And he replied, ‘Even so.’

Then she clung to him like a hungry creature, repeating, ‘Even so,’ and let him go.  Alone, she summoned a slave, a black, and bade him fetch to her without delay Ukleet the porter, and the porter was presently ushered in to her, protesting service and devotion.  So, she questioned him of Almeryl, and the Prince’s business abroad, what he knew of it.  Ukleet commenced reciting verses on the ills of jealousy, but Bhanavar checked him with an eye that Ukleet had seen never before in woman or in man, and he gaped at her helplessly, as one that has swallowed a bone.  She laughed, crying, ‘Learn, O thou fellow, to answer my like by the letter.’

Now, what she heard from Ukleet when he had recovered his wits, was that the Prince had a business with none save the lenders of money.  So she spake to Ukleet in a kindly tone, ‘Thou art mine, to serve me?’

He was as one fascinated, and delivered himself, ’Yea, O my mistress! with tongue-service, toe-service, back-service, brain-service, whatso pleaseth thy sweet presence.’

Said she, ‘Hie over to the broker opposite, and bring him hither to me.’

Ukleet departed, saying, ‘To hear is to obey.’

She sat gazing on the Jewel and its counterchanging splendours in her hand, and the thought of Almeryl and his necessity was her only thought.  Not ten minutes of the hour had passed before the women waiting on her announced Ukleet and the broker Boolp.  Bhanavar gave little heed to the old fellow’s grimaces, and the compliments he addressed her, but handed him the Jewel and desired his valuation of its worth.  The face of Boolp was a keen edge when he regarded Bhanavar, but the sight of the Jewel sharpened it tenfold, and he tossed his arms, exclaiming, ’A jewel, this!’

So Bhanavar cried to him, ‘Fix a price for it, O thou broker!’

And Boolp, the old miser, debated, and began prating,

’O lady! the soul of thy slave is abashed by a double beam, this the jewel of jewels, thou truly of thy sex; and saving thee there’s no jewel of worth like this one, and together ye be—­wullahy! never felt I aught like this since my espousal of Soolka that ’s gone, and ’twas nothing like it then!  Now, O my Princess, confess it freely—­this is but a pretext, this valuation of the Jewel, and Ukleet our go-between; and leave the rewarding of him to me.  Wullahy!  I can be generous, and my days of favour with fair ladies be not yet over.  Blessed be Allah for this day!  And thinkest thou those eyes fell on me with discriminating observation ere my sense of perception was struck by thee?  Not so, for I had noted thee, O moon of hearts, from my window yonder.’