Part 17 (1/2)

_King Nasrulla (slowly, after a pause)._ It is the way of the world, Nourmahal. What the world is, it is, and that is forever and ever, unless it should be the will of G.o.d to make a new world.

_Nourmahal._ A new world! (_She pauses dreamily._) Yes, that is what I want, a new world. That is what men are making somewhere, I know it.

That is what is in my heart, and the same thing must be in the hearts of other men and women. A new world! What would it be to wake up every morning with a fresh wonder, not knowing what the day would bring?

What would it be every morning to take the saddle and follow a new road ahead of the sun?

_King Nasrulla._ If I could go with you----

_Nourmahal._ You have horses.

_King Nasrulla._ It is not so decreed. My place is here.

_Nourmahal._ Your place is here, and it is your place to have three or four queens as your ministers decide for you. One queen is to keep peace with the King of the South, another is to keep peace with the King of the West, and the third is to keep peace with the King of the East. The fourth queen you may choose for yourself from your own people--if you choose before some other king offers a daughter. You may make slaves of your queens so that your neighbor kings may make a slave of you.

_King Nasrulla._ Yes, if I would be king--and you would be queen.

_Nourmahal._ Queen!--in a world where the flowers that bloom to-day died centuries ago! Queen--in a world where queens may look out of grated windows and never walk the streets! Queen--in a world where My Lord the King may not come to my door too often lest the daughter of the King of the South put poison in the nectar that her slaves offer him to-morrow!

_King Nasrulla._ The world is the world, and its enduring is forever and ever. We are but shadows that change and break on the surface of running water. We may stand for a moment in the sun, but we cannot stop the rain that fills the stream. We cannot fix our images for a moment on the drops that are rus.h.i.+ng out to the sea.

_Nourmahal (looking away from him dreamily)._ ”Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things Entire, Would we not shatter it to bits--and then Remould it nearer to the Heart's desire?”

He looks at her steadily, but she does not turn her head, and, while they are so silent a woman comes from the left with a water jar, fills it from the well, puts it on her head, and pa.s.ses off again. The sun is now warming the tops of the mountains to a soft pink.

_King Nasrulla._ We must find the water where it flows--or go thirsty.

_Nourmahal (more pa.s.sionately)._ But somewhere the women do not carry water. The poet only thought of doing what somewhere men have done.

Here a thousand years are but as yesterday and ten thousand as a watch in the night. I am not I, but an echo of the mad desires of dead men whose dust has been blown across the desert for countless centuries.

Why should I not think of my own desires before my dust, too, flies forgotten before the pa.s.sing caravans?

_King Nasrulla._ But you are to be my queen. Nothing more can anyone give you in Saranazett.

_Nourmahal._ And to-morrow or next week your amba.s.sador to the King of the East comes back with letters and pledges of friends.h.i.+p. Perhaps he brings with him the King's daughter.

_King Nasrulla._ But she is only the official seal of a bond, only a hostage. She is not the rose that I pin over my heart. She is not the nightingale that I love to hear singing in my garden. She is not the face behind the lattice that draws my eager feet. She is not the fountain that will make me drink and drink again.

_Nourmahal._ But I shall not ride with you into the distance and leave the kings' daughters behind?

_King Nasrulla._ The King of the East----

_Nourmahal._ I know. The King of the East has a great army. I must stay in my garden, or I shall have to spend my life talking about the things he likes or dislikes, his angers and his fondnesses, with the women of his harem.

She puts her foot out for his hand, ready to be taken down from the horse.

_King Nasrulla._ Nourmahal!

_Nourmahal._ Yes, I must keep my veil before my face and stay within my garden.

He helps her down, and she turns the horse's head back to the right in the direction from which they came.