CHAPTER VI
WHAT DO THE STARS SAY?
The sun which relieved the bay of Therapia from the thraldom of nightdid the same service for the Golden Horn; only, with a more potentialvoice, it seemed to say to the cities which were the pride of thelatter, Awake! Arise! And presently they were astir indoor and out.
Of all the souls who, obedient to the early summons, poured into thestreet, and by the south window of the study of the Prince of India,some going this direction, some that, yet each intent upon a particularpurpose, not one gave a thought to the Prince, or so much as wonderedif he were awake. And the indifference of the many was well for him; itgave him immunity to pursue his specialty. But as we, the writer andthe reader, are not of the many, and have an interest in the man fromknowing more about him than they, what would have been intrusion inthem may be excused in us.
Exactly at midnight the Prince, aroused by Syama, had gone to the roof,where there was a table, with a lamp upon it which he could shade atpleasure, an hour-glass, and writing materials. An easy chair was alsoset for him.
The view of the city offered for his inspection was circumscribed bythe night. The famous places conspicuous in daytime might as well havebeen folded up and put away in a closet; he could not see so much as aglimmer of light from any of them. Pleased thereby, and arguing thateven the wicked are good when asleep, he swept the heavens with aglance so long and searching there could be no doubt of the purposewhich had brought him forth.
Next, according to the habit of astrologers, he proceeded to divide thefirmament into Angles and Houses, and taking seat by the table,arranged the lamp to suit him, started the hour-glass running, and drewa diagram familiar to every adept in divinatory science--a diagram ofthe heavens with the Houses numbered from one to twelve inclusive.
In the Houses he then set the mystic symbols of the visible planets asthey were at the moment in position, mindful not merely of theparallels, but of the degrees as well. Verifying the correctness of thediagram by a second survey of the mighty overarch more careful eventhan the first, he settled himself in the chair, saying complacently:
"Now, O Saturn, thou, the coldest and highest! Thy Houses areready--come, and at least behold them. I wait the configurations."
Thereupon, perfectly at ease, he watched the stellar hosts while, totheir own music, they marched past the Thrones of the Most High Planetsunchallenged except by him.
Occasionally he sat up to reverse the hour-glass, though morefrequently he made new diagrams, showing the changes in position of theseveral influential bodies relatively to each other and to the beneficor malific signs upon which so much of result depended; nor did hiseyes once weary or his zeal flag.
Finally when the sun, yet under the horizon behind the heights ofScutari, began to flood the sky with a brilliance exceeding that of thebravest of the stars, he collected the drawings, extinguished the lamp,and descended to his study, but not to rest.
Immediately that the daylight was sufficient, he addressed himself tomathematical calculations which appeared exhaustive of every rule andbranch of the disciplinary science. Hours flew by, and still he worked.He received Syama's call to breakfast; returning from the meal, alwaysthe simplest of the day with him, he resumed the problem. Either he wasprodigiously intent on a scheme in mind, or he was occupying himselfdiligently in order to forget himself.
About noon he was interrupted.
"My father."
Recognizing the voice, he pushed the proofs of labor from him almost tothe other side of the table, turned in his seat, and replied, his facesuffused with pleasure:
"Thou enemy to labor! Did not some one tell thee of what I have onhand, and how I am working to finish it in time to take the water withthee this afternoon? Answer, O my Gul-Bahar, more beautiful growing asthe days multiply!"
The Lael of the son of Jahdai, the Gul-Bahar of the mysterious Prince,was much grown, and otherwise greatly changed since we saw her last.Each intervening year had in passing left her a benediction. She wasnow about sixteen, slight, and Jewish in eyes, hair, and complexion.The blood enriched her olive cheeks; the lips took a double freshnessfrom health; the smile resting habitually on the oval face had a taleit was always telling of a nature confiding, happy, satisfied with itsconditions, hopeful of the future, and unaware from any sad experiencethat life ever admitted of changes. Her beauty bore the marks ofintelligence; her manner was not enough self-contained to be calledcourtly; yet it was easy, and carried its own certificate of culture;it yielded too much to natural affection to deserve the term dignified.One listening to her, and noticing the variableness of her mood, whichin almost the same instant could pass from gay to serious without everreaching an extreme, would pronounce her too timid for achievementoutside the purely domestic; at the same time he would think sheappeared lovable to the last degree, and might be capable of loving inequal measure.
She was dressed in Byzantine fashion. In crossing the street from herfather's house, she had thrown a veil over her head, but it was nowlying carelessly about her neck. The wooden sandals with blocks underthem, like those yet worn by women in Levantine countries to raise themout of the dust and mud when abroad, had been shaken lightly from herfeet at the top of the stairs. Perfectly at home, she advanced to thetable, and put one of her bare arms around the old man's neck,regardless of the white locks it crushed close down, and replied:
"Thou flatterer! Do I not know beauty is altogether in the eye of thebeholder, and that all persons do not see alike? Tell me why, knowingthe work was to be done, you did not send for me to help you? Was itfor nothing you made me acquainted with figures until--I have yourauthority for the saying--I might have stood for professor ofmathematics in the best of the Alexandrian schools? Do not shake yourhead at me--or"--
With the new idea all alight in her face, she ran around the table, andcaught up one of the diagrams.
"Ah, it is as I thought, father! The work I love best, and can do best!Whose is the nativity? Not mine, I know; for I was born in the gladtime when Venus ruled the year. Anael, her angel, held his wings overme against this very wry-faced, snow-chilled Saturn, whom I am so gladto see in the Seventh House, which is the House of Woe. Whose thenativity, I say?"
"Nay, child--pretty child, and wilful--you have a trick of getting mysecrets from me. I sometimes think I am in thy hands no more thantawdry lace just washed and being wrung preparatory to hanging in theair from thy lattice. It is well for you to know there are some thingsout of your reach--for the time at least."
"That is saying you will tell me."
"Yes--some day."
"Then I will be patient."
Seeing him become thoughtful, and look abstractedly out of the window,she laid the diagram down, went back, and again put her arm around hisneck.
"I did not come to interrupt you, father, but to learn two things, andrun away."
"You begin like a rhetorician. What subdivisions lie under those twothings? Speak!"
"Thank you," she replied, quickly. "First, Syama told me you were atsome particular task, and I wanted to know if I could help you."
"Dear heart!" he said, tenderly.
"Next--and this is all--I did not want you to forget we are to go upthe Bosphorus this afternoon--up to Therapia, and possibly to the sea."
"You wish to go?" he asked.
"I dreamt of it all night."
"Then we will; and to prove I did not forget, the boatmen have theirorders already. We go to the landing directly after noon."
"Not too soon," she answered, laughing. "I have to dress, and makemyself gorgeous as an empress. The day is soft and kind, and there willbe many people on the water, where I am already known quite as well ashere in the city as the daughter of the Prince of India."
He replied with an air of pride:
"Thou art good enough for an emperor."
"Then I may go and get ready."
She withdrew her arm, kissed him, and started to the door, butreturned, with a troubled look.
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p; "One thing more, father."
He was recovering his work, but stopped, and gave her ear.
"What is it?"
"You have said, good father, that as my studies were too confining, itwould be well if I took the air every day in my sedan. So, sometimeswith Syama, sometimes with Nilo, I had the men carry me along the wallin front of the Bucoleon. The view over the sea toward Mt. Ida is therevery beautiful; and if I look to the landward side, right at my feetare the terraced gardens of the palace. Nowhere do the winds seemsweeter to me. For their more perfect enjoyment I have at momentsalighted from the chair, and walked; always avoiding acquaintances newand old. The people appear to understand my preference, and respect it.Of late, however, one person--hardly a man--has followed me, andstopped near by when I stopped; he has even persisted in attempts tospeak to me. To avoid him, I went to the Hippodrome yesterday, andtaking seat in front of the small obelisks in that quarter, wasdelighted with the exhibition of the horsemen. Just when theentertainment was at its height, and most interesting, the person ofwhom I am speaking came and sat on the same bench with me. I arose atonce. It is very annoying, father. What shall I do?"
The Prince did not answer immediately, and when he did, it was to ask,suggestively:
"You say he is young?"
"Yes."
"His dress?"
"He seems to be fond of high colors."
"You asked no question concerning him?"
"No. Whom could I ask?"
Again the Prince reflected. Outwardly he was unconcerned; yet his bloodwas more than warm--the blood of pride which, as every one knows, iseasily started, and can go hissing hot. He did not wish her to think ofthe affair too much; therefore his air of indifference; nevertheless itawoke a new train of thought in him.
If one were to insult this second Lael of his love, what could he do?The idea of appeal to a magistrate was irritating. Were he to assumepunishment of the insolence, from whom could he hope justice orsympathy--he, a stranger living a mysterious life?
He ran hastily over the resorts at first sight open to him. Nilo was aninstrument always ready. A word would arouse the forces in that loyalbut savage nature, and they were forces subject to cunning which neverslept, never wearied, and was never in a hurry--a passionless cunning,like that of the Fedavies of the Old Man of the Mountain.
It may be thought the Prince was magnifying a fancied trouble; but thecertainty that sorrow _must_ overtake him for every indulgence ofaffection was a haunting shadow always attending the most triflingcircumstance to set his imagination conjuring calamities. That at suchtimes his first impulse was toward revenge is explicable; the old law,an eye for an eye, was part of his religion; and coupling it withpersonal pride which a thought could turn into consuming heat, hownatural if, while the anticipation was doing its work, his study shouldbe to make the revenge memorable!
Feeling he was not entirely helpless in the affair, he thought best tobe patient awhile, and learn who was the offender; a conclusionfollowed by a resolution to send Uel with the girl next time she wentto take the air.
"The young men of the city are uncontrolled by respect or veneration,"he said, quietly. "The follies they commit are sometimes ludicrous.Better things are not to be looked for in a generation given to dressas a chief ambition. And then it may be, O my Gul-Bahar"--he kissed heras he uttered the endearment--"it may be he of whom you complain doesnot know who you are. A word may cure him of his bad manners. Do notappear to notice him. Have eyes for everything in the world but him;that is the virtuous woman's defence against vulgarity and insult underevery circumstance. Go now, and make ready for the boat. Put on yourgayest; forget not the last necklace I gave you--and the bracelets--andthe girdle with the rubies. The water from the flying oars shall notoutflash my little girl. There now--Of course we will go to the landingin our chairs."
When she disappeared down the stairs, he went back to his work.