the border of the
precipice. Night advanced, and the pure gold of the setting sun had
yielded to a sanguine red, the glow of which, like the reflection of a
burning furnace, flushed Nouronihar's animated countenance. Gulchenrouz,
alarmed at the agitation of his cousin, said to her with a supplicating
accent:

"Let us be gone; the sky looks portentous, the tamarisks tremble more
than common, and the raw wind chills my very heart; come! let us be gone;
'tis a melancholy night!"

Then, taking hold of her hand, he drew it towards the path he besought
her to go. Nouronihar unconsciously followed the attraction, for a
thousand strange imaginations occupied her spirit; she passed the large
round of honeysuckles, her favourite resort, without ever vouchsafing it
a glance, yet Gulchenrouz could not help snatching off a few shoots in
his way, though he ran as if a wild beast were behind.

The young females seeing him approach in such haste, and according to
custom expecting a dance, instantly assembled in a circle, and took each
other by the hand; but Gulchenrouz, coming up out of breath, fell down at
once on the grass. This accident struck with consternation the whole of
this frolicsome party; whilst Nouronihar, half distracted, and overcome,
both by the violence of her exercise and the tumult of her thoughts, sunk
feebly down at his side, cherished his cold hands in her bosom, and
chafed his temples with a fragrant unguent. At length he came to
himself, and, wrapping up his head in the robe of his cousin, entreated
that she would not return to the harem; he was afraid of being snapped at
by Shaban, his tutor, a wrinkled old eunuch of a surly disposition; for
having interrupted the stated walk of Nouronihar, he dreaded lest the
churl should take it amiss. The whole of this sprightly group, sitting
round upon a mossy knoll, began to entertain themselves with various
pastimes, whilst their superintendents the eunuchs were gravely
conversing at a distance. The nurse of the Emir's daughter, observing
her pupil sit ruminating with her eyes on the ground, endeavoured to
amuse her with diverting tales, to which Gulchenrouz, who had already
forgotten his inquietudes, listened with a breathless attention; he
laughed, he clapped his hands, and passed a hundred little tricks on the
whole of the company, without omitting the eunuchs, whom he provoked to
run after him, in spite of their age and decrepitude.

During these occurren