“And she doesn't want to see you after this moment, either,” one of her companions quipped.
Bitterly, another complained, “There's nothing uglier than when soldiers attack girls!”
But he paid them no heed. Then he said to the one from whose face he could not turn his eyes away, “The more I see you, the more my soul is filled with you.”
“Liar… you're shameless.”
“Far be it from me that I should lie — but I bear your cruel speech with love, out of respect for the lovely mouth that utters it.”
“No — you're just a liar who has been rejected, looking for a crooked way in!”
“I said, far be it from me that I should lie — and here's proof.”
As he spoke, he reached his hand into his breast and pulled out the picture of her face, then told her, “Would I be able to paint this picture without filling my eyes with your splendor?”
The girl glanced at the picture — and was unable to suppress a sigh of disbelief, anger, and fear. Her companions were also indignant. One of them attacked him without warning, wanting to snatch it away from him, but he put up his arm with lightning speed, grinning triumphantly. “Do you see how you occupy my imagination and my soul?” he said.
“This is vileness and depravity,” she said, seething with fury.
“Why?” he challenged her. “That you so captivated me that I created your image?”
“Give me the picture,” she commanded, with a sharpness not without an element of entreaty.
“I shall not part with it, so long as I live,” he replied.
“I see you are one of the soldiers from the military academy,” she remarked. “Beware, then — your ill manners could expose you to the harshest of punishments.”
Calmly he answered, “To gaze upon you, I would expose myself to the sternest chastisement.”
“How amazing that you have brought this affliction upon yourself!”
“Yes — one that is most deserving of compassion.”
“What did you want to accomplish with this picture?” she demanded.
“With this picture, I wanted to cure myself of what your eyes have done to me — and now I want you to cure me of what you have done to me with this picture,” he answered.
“I never dreamed that I'd ever meet a man of your insolence.”
“And did I ever dream that I would surrender my mind and my heart in a fleeting instant?”
Then another girl shouted at him, “Did you run after us in order to spoil our happiness?”
Another said to him in the same tone, “You foolish, impudent young man! If you don't leave very quickly, I'll scream for help from the people nearby!”
He looked confidently into the empty space surrounding them and said quietly, “I'm not used to asking for anything, so this is painful for me.”
The beautiful peasant girl shouted, “Do you want to force me to listen to you?”
“No, but I do long that your heart would soften so it would want to hear me out.”
“And if you found my heart like a rock that would not soften?”
“Could that delicate breast really enfold a stone?”
“Only when it's faced by the most foolish of fools.”
“And in the face of a lover's suffering?”
She stamped the earth — with her foot and said violently, “Then it becomes even crueler.”
“The heart of the crudest girl is like a block of ice: if a warm breath touches it, then it melts and pours as pure water,” he retorted.
“This talk that you think so refined,” she replied, sarcastically, “shows that you're a phony soldier, the body of a girl hiding in military clothes. Perhaps you stole this uniform, just as you stole my image before.”
Djedef's face flushed. “May the Lord indulge you,” he said. “I truly am a soldier — and I shall win your heart, as I win in every field of battle.”
“What field of battle are you talking about?” she retorted in derision. “The nation has not known war since before the art of soldiery condescended to your acquaintance. You're just a soldier whose victories are awarded in the fields of peace and safety.”
Increasingly embarrassed, Djedef said, “Do you not know, my beauty, that the life of a pupil in the military academy is like that of a soldier in the field? But, since you've no knowledge of such things, my heart forgives your taunting me so.”
Enraged, she burst out, “Truly I deserve rebuke — for being so patient with your impertinence!”
She was about to walk away, but he blocked her path, smiling. “I wonder how I can gain your affection?” he said. “I am very unlucky. Have you ever taken a trip on the Nile in a skiff?”
Frightened of his trapping their mistress, the girls gathered around to protect her. “Let us go now, because the sunset is upon us,” one of them told him.
Yet he would not let them leave. Frustrated, one of them, searching for a moment of inattention, saw her chance and leapt upon him like a lioness, clinging to his leg and biting him on the thigh. Then they all jumped upon him, holding onto his other leg and restraining him by force. He began to resist them calmly without really defending himself, but was unable to move and saw — and the sight nearly drove him mad — the lovely peasant girl running toward the end of the field like a fleeing gazelle. He called out to her begging for her help, but lost his balance and fell upon the grass, while the others still clung to him, not letting go until they — were sure that their mistress had disappeared. He stood up, agitated and angry, and ran in the direction that she had gone — yet saw nothing but emptiness. He returned, despondent, but hoping to find her by following her companions. Yet they outsmarted him, refusing to budge from their places.
“Stay or go now as you wish,” one of them said mockingly.
“Perhaps, soldier boy, this is your first defeat,” said another, maliciously.
“The battle is not finished yet,” he answered in utter pique. “I'll follow you even if you go to Thebes.”
But the one — who first bit him said, “We will spend our night here.”
17
The next month that he spent in the academy — was the longest and crudest of all. At first he was in great pain over his sullied honor and pride, asking himself wrathfully, “How could I have suffered such a setback? What do I lack in youth, good looks, strength, or wealth?” He would gaze a long time into the mirror and mutter, “What's wrong with me?” What, indeed, had driven the gorgeous creature away from him? What had brought down insult after insult upon him? Why had she fled from him as though he were a leper? But then his intense desire to pursue her and capture her would return, and he would wonder, if he persisted in wooing her day after day, would he be able to curb her defiance and win her heart? What girl can be cruel forever? But this came to him while he was a prisoner for a month behind those huge walls that could withstand any siege.
Despite all this, he remained under her spell, her portrait never leaving his vest; he gave it all his attention whenever he found himself alone. “Do you see who this enchanting tyrant is?” he thought to himself. “A little peasant girl? Incredible… and what peasant girl has such luminous, magical eyes? And where was the modesty of the peasant in her arrogance and her stubbornness? And where was the peasant's simplicity in her biting sarcasm and her resounding scorn?” If he had surprised a true peasant girl that way, perhaps she would have run away — or surrendered contentedly — but that is hardly what happened here! Could he ever forget her sitting there among her companions like a princess with her servants and ladies-in-waiting? And could he ever forget how they defended her from him, as though unto death? And would he ever forget how they stayed with him — after her flight — not running away, afraid that he would follow them to her? Instead, they resigned themselves to the cold and dark. Would they have done all those things for a peasant girl like themselves? Perhaps she was from the rural aristocracy — if only she was. Then Nafa could not taunt him again that he was likely to fall in a broken-down hut. If only he had succeeded with her, so that he could tell Nafa about it. What a pity!
Be all that as it may, the month that he imagined would never end, finally did. He left the academy as one would leave a fearful prison, and went to the house with a pent-up yearning for something other than his family. He met them with a joy not equal to theirs, and sat among them with an absent heart. Nor did he notice the stiffness
