in me to see the
remainder. Everything that I saw in her announced beauty. Her hands were
small, and dyed with _khena_;[39] her feet were equally small; and her
whole air and form bespoke loveliness and grace. I gazed upon her until
I could no longer contain my passion; I made a slight noise, which
immediately caused her to look up, and before she could cover herself
with her veil, I had had time to see the most enchanting features
that the imagination can conceive, and to receive a look from eyes so
bewitching, that I immediately felt my heart in a blaze. With apparent
displeasure she covered herself; but still I could perceive that she
had managed her veil with so much art, that there was room for a certain
dark and sparkling eye to look at me, and to enjoy my agitation. As I
continued to gaze upon her, she at length said, though still going on
with her work, 'Why do you look at me? It is criminal.'

'For the sake of the sainted Hosein,' I exclaimed, 'do not turn from me;
it is no crime to love: your eyes have made roast meat of my heart: by
the mother that bore you, let me look upon your face again.'

In a more subdued voice she answered me, 'Why do you ask me? You know it
is a crime for a woman to let her face be seen; and you are neither my
father, my brother, nor my husband; I do not even know who you are. Have
you no shame, to talk thus to a maid?'

At this moment she let her veil fall, as if by chance, and I had time
to look again upon her face, which was even more beautiful than I had
imagined. Her eyes were large and peculiarly black, and fringed by
long lashes, which, aided by the collyrium with which they were tinged,
formed a sort of ambuscade, from which she levelled her shafts. Her
eyebrows were finely arched, and nature had brought them together just
over her nose, in so strong a line, that there was no need of art to
join them together. Her nose was aquiline, her mouth small, and full of
sweet expression; and in the centre of her chin was a dimple which she
kept carefully marked with a blue puncture. Nothing could equal the
beauty of her hair; it was black as jet, and fell in long tresses down
her back. In short, I was wrapped in amazement at her beauty. The sight
of her explained to me many things which I had read in our poets, of
cypress forms, tender fawns, and sugar-eating parrots. It seemed to me
that I could gaze at her for ever, and not be tired; but still I felt
a great desire to leap over the