With all her virtuous indignation, the good old woman was of
a placable nature, and easily appeased. Besides, the music seemed to
have a beneficial effect upon her young mistresses. A rosy bloom had
already come to their cheeks, and their eyes began to sparkle. She
made no further objection, therefore, to the amorous ditty of the
cavaliers.
When it was finished, the princesses remained silent for a time;
at length Zorayda took up a lute, and with a sweet, though faint and
trembling voice, warbled a little Arabian air, the burden of which
was, "The rose is concealed among her leaves, but she listens with
delight to the song of the nightingale."
From this time forward the cavaliers worked almost daily in the
ravine. The considerate Hussein Baba became more and more indulgent,
and daily more prone to sleep at his post. For some time a vague
intercourse was kept up by popular songs and romances, which, in
some measure, responded to each other, and breathed the feelings of
the parties. By degrees the princesses showed themselves at the
balcony, when they could do so without being perceived by the
guards. They conversed with the cavaliers also, by means of flowers,
with the symbolical language of which they were mutually acquainted.
The difficulties of their intercourse added to its charms, and
strengthened the passion they had so singularly conceived; for love
delights to struggle with difficulties, and thrives the most hardily
on the scantiest soil.
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