My dear lady--my dear friend--you have asked me to tell you a story, and
I am going to try, because there is not anything I would not try if you
asked it of me. I do not yet know what it will be about, but it is
impossible that I should disappoint you; and if the proverb says, "Needs
must when the devil drives," I can mend the proverb into a show of
grace, and say, The most barren earth must needs bear flowers when an
angel sows the seed.
When you asked for the story I could only find a dry tale of my own
doings, which I detailed to you somewhat at length, as we cantered down
into the Valley of the Sweet Waters. The south wind was warm this
afternoon, though it brought rain with it and wetted us a little as we
rode; it was soft and dreamy, and made everything look sleepy, and
misty, and a little uncertain in outline. Baghdad sniffed it in his deep
red nostrils, for it was the wind of his home; but Haroun al Raschid
shook the raindrops restlessly from his gray mane, as though he hated to
be damp, and was thinking longingly of the hot sand and the desert sun.
But he had no right to complain, for water must needs come in the
oases,--and truly I know of no fairer and sweeter resting-place in
life's journey than the Valley of the Sweet Waters above the Golden
Horn.
That same south wind--when I think, it is a point or two easterly, and
it seems to smell of Persia--well, that same soft wind is blowing at my
windows now in the dark night, and is murmuring, sometimes almost
complaining, then dying away in a fitful, tearful sigh, sorry even to
weeping for its restless fate, sorry perhaps for me and sighing for me.
God knows, there is enough to sigh for in this working-day world, is
there not? I have heard you sigh, too, very sadly, as though something
hurt you, although you are so bright and young and fair. The wind sighs
hopelessly, in great sobs of weariness and despair, for he is filled
with the ghosts of the past; but your breath has a music in it that is
more like the song of the sunrise that used to break out from the heart
of the beautiful marble at dawn.
Poor wind! He is trying to speak to me through the pines,--perhaps he is
bringing a message. It is long since any one brought me a message I
cared to hear. I will open the door to the terrace and let him in, and
see what he has to say.