ay; surely they
were human eyes! and the Queen flung aside her 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. An