“But,” said he, defending himself, “any of the previous suitors might have said the same.”
“Undoubtedly,” replied Khaled, unabashed. “But they did not say it. Your majesty will certainly now consider the matter.”
“In the meanwhile,” the Sultan answered, very graciously, “you are my guest, and you have come in time to take part in the third day of the feast, to which you are welcome in the name of Allah, the merciful.”
Thereupon the Sultan rose and Khaled was conducted to the apartments set apart for the guests. But the Sultan returned to the harem in a very thoughtful mood, and before long he found Zehowah who had returned to her seat in the balcony.
“This is a very strange suitor,” he said, shaking his head and looking into his daughter’s face.
“He is at least bold and outspoken,” she answered. “He makes no secret of his poverty nor of his wishes. Whatever he be, he is in earnest and speaks truth. I would like well to know the only secret which he wishes to keep—who he really is.”
“It may be,” said the Sultan thoughtfully, “that if I threaten to cut off his head he will tell us. But on the other hand, he is a guest.”
“He is not of those who are easily terrified, I think. Tell me, my father, do you wish me to marry him?”
“How could you marry a man who has no family and no inheritance? Would such a marriage befit the daughter of kings?”
“Why not?” asked Zehowah with much calmness.
The Sultan stared at her in astonishment.
“Has this stranger enchanted your imagination?” he inquired by way of answer.
“No,” replied Zehowah scornfully. “I have seen the noblest, the most beautiful and the richest of the Earth, ready to take me to wife, and I have not loved. Shall I love an outcast?”
“Then how can you ask my wishes?”
“Because there are good reasons why I should marry this man.”
“Good reasons? In the name of Allah let me hear them, if there are any.”
“You are old, my father,” said Zehowah, “and it has not pleased heaven to send you a son, nor to leave you any living relation to sit upon the throne when your years are accomplished. You must needs think of your successor.”
“The better reason for choosing some powerful prince, whose territory shall increase the kingdom he inherits from me, and whose alliance shall strengthen the empire I leave behind me.”
“Istaghfir Allah! The worse reason. For such a prince would be attached to his own country, and would take me thither with him and would neglect the kingdom of Nejed, regarding it as a land of strangers whom he may oppress with taxes to increase his own splendour. And this is not unreasonable, since no king can wisely govern two kingdoms separated from each other by more than three days’ journey. No man can have other than the one of two reasons for asking me in marriage. Either he has heard of me and desires to possess me, or he wishes to increase his dominions by the inheritance which will be mine.”
“Doubtless, this is the truth,” said the Sultan. “But so much the more does this stranger in all probability covet my kingdom, since he has nothing of his own.”
“This is what I mean. For, having no other possessions to distract his attention, he will remain always here, and will govern your kingdom for its own advantage in order that it may profit himself.”
“This is a subtle argument, my daughter, and one requiring consideration.”
“The more so because the man seems otherwise well fitted to be my husband, since he is a true believer, and young, and fearless and outspoken.”
“But if this is all,” objected the Sultan, “there are in Nejed several young men, sons of my chief courtiers, who possess the same qualifications. Choose one of them.”
“On the contrary, to choose one of them would arouse the jealousy of all the rest, with their families and slaves and freedmen, whereby the kingdom would easily be exposed to civil war. But if I take a stranger it is more probable that all will be for him, since you are beloved, and there is no reason why one party should oppose him and another support him, since none of them know anything of him.”
“But he will not be beloved by the people unless he is liberal, and he has nothing wherewith to be generous.”
“And where are the treasures of Riad?” laughed Zehowah. “Is it not easy for you to go secretly to his chamber and to give him as much gold as he needs?”
“That is also true. I see that you have set your heart upon him.”
“Not my heart, my father, but my head. For I have infinitely more head than heart, and I see that the welfare of the kingdom will be better secured with such a ruler, than it would have been under a foreign prince whose right hand would be perpetually thrust out to take in Nejed that which his left hand would throw to courtiers in his own country. Do I speak wisdom or folly?”
“It is neither all folly nor all wisdom.”
“I have seen this man, I have heard him speak,” said Zehowah. “He is as well as another since I must marry sooner or later. Moreover I have another argument.”
“What is that?”
“Either he is a man strong enough to rule me, or he is not,” Zehowah answered with a laugh. “If he can govern me, he can govern the kingdom of Nejed. But if not I will govern it for him, and rule him also.”
The Sultan looked up to heaven and slightly raised his hands from his knees.
“Allah is merciful and forgiving!” he exclaimed. “Is this the spirit befitting a wife?”
“Is it charity to cause happiness?”
“Undoubtedly it is charity.”
“And which is greater, the
