Ukleet nodded at him, and repeated the distich:
Men of worth and men of wits
Shoot with two arrows, and make two hits.
So he arranged with Boolp the same appointment as with the Vizier, and
returned to Queen Bhanavar.
Now, in the dark of night Aswarak stood within the gate of the
palace-garden of Mashalleed that was ajar, and a hand from a veiled
figure reached to him, and he caught it, in the fulness of his delusion,
crying, 'Thou, my Queen?' But the hand signified silence, and drew him
past the tank of the garden and through a court of the palace into a
passage lit with lamps, and on into a close-curtained chamber, and beyond
a heavy curtain into another, a circular passage descending between black
hangings, and at the bottom a square vault draped with black, and in it
precious woods burning, oils in censers, and the odour of ambergris and
myrrh and musk floating in clouds, and the sight of the Vizier was for a
time obscured by the thickness of the incenses floating. As he became
familiar with the place, he saw marked therein a board spread at one end
with viands and wines, and the nosegay in a water-vase, and cups of gold
and a service of gold,--every preparation for feasting mightily. So the
soul of Aswarak leapt, and he cried, 'Now unveil thyself, O moon of our
meeting, my mistress!'
The voice of Bhanavar answered him, 'Not till we have feasted and
drunken, and it seemeth little in our eyes. Surely the chamber is secure:
could I have chosen one better for our meeting, O Aswarak?'
Upon that he entreated her to sit with him to the feast, but she cried,
'Nay! delay till the other is come.'