" Quoth I, "Repeat it to me." So she repeated it. Then
I went to the garden and entered the pavilion, where I found the
lady awaiting me. When she saw me, she rose and kissed me and
made me sit in her lap; and we ate and drank and did our desire
as on the previous night. In the morning, I repeated to her my
cousin's verse:
Tell me, O lovers, for God's sake I do entreat of you, When love
is sore upon a maid, alack! what shall she do?
When she heard this, her eyes filled with tears and she answered
with the following verse:
Against her passion she must strive and hide her case from view
And humble and submissive be, whatever may ensue.
This I committed to memory and returned home, rejoiced at having
done my cousin's errand. When I entered the house, I found Azizeh
lying on the bed and my mother at her head, weeping over her
condition. When the latter saw me, she said to me, "Out on thee
for a cousin! How couldst thou leave the daughter of thine uncle
in ill case and not ask what ailed her?" Azizeh, seeing me,
raised her head and sat up and said, "O Aziz, didst thou repeat
the verse to her?" "Yes," replied I; "and she wept and recited,
in answer, another verse, which I remember." "Tell it me," said
Azizeh. I did so; and she wept and repeated the following verses:
How shall she temper her desire, It doth her fire undo, And still
with each recurring day her heart is cleft in two.
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