der this.

WIFE.--Please arrange me so that he cannot possibly know the
difference between us.

SERVANT.--He will never know. It will do very nicely like this.

WIFE.--Will it?

SERVANT.--Yes.

WIFE.--Well, then! do you go and rest.

SERVANT.--Your commands are laid to heart.

[_He moves away._

WIFE.--Wait a moment, Taraukuwazhiya!

SERVANT.--Yes, ma'am.

WIFE.--It is scarcely necessary to say so, but be sure not to tell him
that it is I.

SERVANT.--Of course not, I should not think of telling him.

WIFE.--It has come to my ears that you have been secretly wishing for
a purse and silk wrapper.[174] I will give you one of each which I
have worked myself.

SERVANT.--I am extremely grateful for your kindness.

WIFE.--Now be off and rest.

SERVANT.--Yes, ma'am.

_Enter husband, singing as he walks along the road._

Why should the lonely sleeper heed
The midnight bell, the bird of dawn?
But ah! they're sorrowful indeed
When loosen'd was the damask zone.

Her image still, with locks that sleep
Had tangled, haunts me, and for aye;
Like willow-sprays where winds do sweep,
All tangled too, my feelings lie.

As the world goes, it rarely happens even with the most ardent secret
love; but in my case I never see her but what I care for her more and
more:--

'Twas in the spring-time that we first did meet,
Nor e'er can I forget my flow'ret sweet.

Ah well! ah well! I keep talking like one in a dream, and meantime
Taraukuwazhiya is sure to be impatiently awaiting me. I must get home.
How will he have been keeping my place for me? I feel a bit uneasy.
[_He arrives at his house._] Halloo! halloo! Taraukuwazhiya! I'm back!
I'm back! [_He enters the room._] I'm just back. Poor fellow! the time
must have seemed long to you. There now! [_Seating himself._] Well, I
should like to tell you to take off the "abstraction blanket"; but you
would probably feel ashamed at being exposed.[175] Anyhow I will
relate to you what Hana said last night if you care to listen. Do you?
[_The figure nods acquiescence._] So you would like to? Well, then,
I'll tell you all about it: I made all the haste I could, but yet it
was nearly dark before I arrived; and I was just going to ask
admittance, my thoughts full of how anxiously Hana must be waiting for
me in her loneliness, saying, perhaps, with the Chinese poet[176]:--

He promised but he comes not, and I lie on my p